Organic Heavy Cream

Organic...Heavy.   The two words seem at odds.  It's a study in contrasts with organic evoking lightness, positivity and wholesome goodness and heavy seeming almost ominous; as if to say "buyer beware."

Heavy cream can elevate a sauce to unparalleled heights of luscious goodness,  imbue a scone with flaky perfection and oh what marvelous things it does to chocolate.  And yet it is one of those substances that causes a flurry of fear and judging by its presence alone.  You put that in my food?  You expect me to eat that?  Friends react to heavy cream as if they spotted arsenic in the kitchen, accusing me of conspiring against their health.

Perhaps that's why organic heavy cream is so hard to find.  The health conscious have a paranoid fear of cream and the name organic heavy cream sounds like an oxymoron...

This weekend I purchased all the ingredients to make Organic Creme Brûlée.  It began with a pod of fragrant Madagascar Vanilla from Savory Spice Shop.  Located in Downtown Westfield, NJ, Savory Spice Shop offers an aromatic array of spices from around the world.  It's one of my favorite stores.

While organic vanilla beans, eggs and sugar were all easy to come by, alas organic heavy cream proved elusive.  I was forced to content myself with semi-organic creme brûlée.  It just doesn't have the same ring to it...the taste however, was marvelous despite the dairy's humble origins.

Creme Brûlée

Ingredients

1 quart heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1 cup sugar

6 egg yolks

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Add the cream, vanilla bean and pulp to a medium saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. 

Remove pan from the stove, cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes. 

Whisk together 1/2 cup sugar and the egg yolks until well blended.  Add cream gradually, stirring continually. 

Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8-ounce) ramekins. Place the ramekins in a large roasting pan.

Fill the pan with water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the custard sets, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. 

Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Remove the creme brulee from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top. 

Top each custard dish with a thin even layer of sugar.  Preheat your broiler about 5 minutes. 

Line the pan with ice to stabilize the custard's temperature.  

Broil the sugar until brown, about 5 minutes.  Serve immediately.