The autumn to winter season brings so many amazing fruits and veggies, and we're obsessed. The obvious seasonal vegetable is probably the Pumpkin, but this recipe is everything but obvious!
Method
Let's prepare the pumpkins! Start by cutting the pumpkin just above half way, removing the top and exposing the flesh. Remove the seeds and start carving out your bowl form the pumpkin, saving the flesh for use in our custard. In a saucepan, combine the pumpkin, cream, all our spices, salt and sugar, and start to heat on medium. Bring to a boil, then bring back down to a very low simmer, and let all our flavours steep into the cream for 10 mins. Using an immersion blender, bread down the pumpkin to a slightly smooth mixture. Turn off the heat and let sit for another 5 minutes. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain your liquid, leaving only the infused cream. In a bowl with your egg yolks, start to whisk, whilst slowly adding your cream, to temper the eggs. Once tempered, add the rest of the cream and exchange your whisk for a spatula, and mix everything together. Pre-heat your oven to 110°c, and fill a kettle with water and turn it on.
On your rimmed baking tray, place your pumpkin bowls, and fill with your cream (you can strain the cream again before doing this, but is not vital).
Fill the tray with water, to reach halfway up the pumpkins to create a water bath. Place the pumpkin crème brûlées into the oven on the middle rack, for 2hrs, checking at 1hr30.
The result you're looking for is for the custard to still have a little wobble, but does not ripple. Pretty much almost set! Let the crème brûlée cool in the oven with the door open, until they come to room temperature, then place them in the fridge. Remember to not cover them at all in this process. We want the tops to be as dry as possible. With your cooled crème brûlée, lightly dust on your sugar mixture, and with a blowtorch, start to melt your sugar to form a lovely, crunchy shell.
All that's left is to break into those brûlées and enjoy!!
