The 'KUKU' Caramel - The Heavenly Dessert !!

Kuku Chachu a man whom, life gave lemons and he made a tequila !!
The ever courageous, full of life and zeal, Kuku chachu was a friend to everyone he knew, with the best Infectious Smile I've ever smiled at.
He loved 'all things good' in life and had a distinct style and suave about himself !!

Though he was forbidden sweets but one thing he could never resist was a Perfect Cream Caramel. And I figured this out incidentally at a family lunch, when I was serving the dessert which happened to be the Cream Caramel. Since then I've always associated the simplicity of Cream Caramel with the sweetheart we knew as Kuku Chachu.

This one I baked yesterday is dedicated to his memory and perhaps all the future ones too will be....
Miss you chachu !!

Cream Caramel

Serves 4


Ingredients


For the Cream Custard
500 ml Milk
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Whole eggs
3 Egg yolks
2 tsps. Vanilla Essence

For the Caramel
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tbsp water (just enough to wet the sugar)

Utensils:
Heavy bottom pan to make the caramel
A shallow wide oven proof dish for Bain-Marie
Mould / dish for the cream caramel
A saucepan to boil milk
A strainer
A large mixinig bowl
A whisk

Directions

1. Set the oven to preheat at 200 degree Centigrade.
2. Put the sugar to caramelize in a heavy bottom pan with 2 tbsp of water. Make sure there is no more water than 2 tbsp. Let the sugar melt on high flame. Do keep an eye on it, as sugar can burn quickly.
3. Take the milk in the saucepan and let it heat through. Keep an eye on it. 
4. By now the sugar should have melted and should be becoming golden in colour. Swivel the pan to mix the melted sugar and keep swiveling. You will see the melted sugar changing its colour to a deep golden. Turn off the heat. The caramel is ready.
5. Take the dish in which you want to set the cream caramel and pour in the caramel. Rotate the dish so that the caremel spreads and coats the dish evenly. You need to do this quickly because you will see that the caramel sets very quickly.
6. In a large mixing bowls take the whole eggs and the egg yolks, add sugar and whisk. Whisk till the mixture lightens in colour and the sugar and well blended.
7. Put some water to boil for the bain-marie.(water bath)
8. In the mean time once the milk comes to a boil, add the vanilla essence and stir. 
9. Add only 1-2 tbsp of this hot milk to the egg-sugar mixture and mix well.  By doing this we raise the temperature of the eggs. This is called Tempering. This is very important. DO NOT ADD  ALL THE MILK AT A TIME. (The hot milk can cook the eggs almost instantly and make it lumpy) Repeat this again. Add another 1-2 tbsp of milk to the eggs and whisk.
10. Now you can pour all the remaining milk through a sieve in the egg-sugar mixture. Whisk well and transfer into your caramel lined baking dish.
11. Place the cream caramel dish in another shallow dish and pour hot water halfway into the shallow dish.
12. Place this in the oven at 200 degree Centigrade and bake for about 40 minutes.
13. When you remove from the oven and if you see it wobble a bit, don't worry. It has cooked perfectly. 
14. Remove from the bain marie, let it cool down to room temperature and preferably chill in the fridge over night for best results. If you are in a hurry then a minimum of 4 hours of chilling time should be there.
15. For demoulding, run the knife around the mould to loosen the cream caramel from the mould, place the serving platter/ dish on the mould and invert carefully.
16. The cream caramel should come out clean.
17. Serve as it is or with whipped cream.

Happy Baking !!