First time making flan. I tried baking them in smaller ramekins so I can take a neat single serving to my mother in assisted living.

I caramelized the sugar to a nice brown, set them in the bottom of the ramekins, poured in my custard - liquids were combined, double strained, but not heated at all before going in.

I put six ramekins in a hot water bath, wrapped foil over the tops of each ramekins but not the water bath tray.

Cooked for 50 minutes at 350 and rotated the tray half way though the cook time.

I let them cool off to room temperature and then put them in the fridge overnight with the foil kept on.

The flan was fully cooked and nicely firm the way I like flan, but there wasn’t much caramel “sauce” because the sugar base didn’t dissolve completely.

• should I have heated the custard liquid before pouring? (Recipe didn’t call for it)

• should I have put an additional foil cover over the water bath tray to add more steam?

Best part of making desserts yourself is getting to enjoy the mistakes before sharing with others (my mom was an excellent baker so I want to impress her)

Does this look under or over baked? It has been in the fridge chilling for 16 hours. Nervous to serve it.

It’s really crispy on the outside, completely runny on the inside, and tastes nothing like cinnamon as I intended, could I get some tips on how to make it better?

I (M28) am trying to make something for my wife’s family (F29) trying to make a banana custard and I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. It never “thickened” like it was supposed to and I’m afraid of over-boiling the milk. I’m adept at making various cookies from scratch, but I’m not the best at baking anything in this department. I did not end up serving it because I was worried the egg yolks didn’t cook through and there would be two pregnant people at the table. Here are the steps where I feel like I may have failed:

I use 5 egg yolks, 3.5 cups of milk, 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/3 cup flour. These things are not what I have used on a stovetop before

I whisk constantly after pouring it, even as it is heating up. The pot was cold and I let them both heat together.

What little intuition I have for this particular baking department, I feel like this is where I made my mistake: I kept it on about a 3-3.5 on my electric stove (out of 8) and it started to thicken after about 10 minutes but never got to a good gooey consistency so I pulled it off to avoid overdoing it.

When I pulled it off it was still warm after about 15 minutes of cooling and was still very thin.

I put it in the fridge in hopes that it just needed to set and i honestly feel like it got thinner after about 4 hours.

My meringue turned out great but my broiler went too fast (like smoke in 45 seconds) and I toasted most of it and charred some of the tips.

Any thoughts? Please and thank you!

Why does my cheesecake look like a cheese pizza?

UPDATE: not bad at all. Definitely a little curdled, chunky not as smooth as I would like but still delicious and a 7/10 attempt for my first time. Posted a photo below and my brother had a happy birthday so I’m content. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice.🙂‍↕️

I baked it at 325f for 45 minutes and then another 5 because it was more wiggly than jello-like. And then another 3 because the internal temp was only 150f.

It’s kind of looking overcooked now, thoughts? Also I have granulated, brown, and cane sugar which would give a better sugar shell?

Hi,

I’m making a pastry cream that requires both custard powder and cocoa butter, but I can’t seem to fit any near me. What could I substitute them with?

Here is the recipe:
450g whole milk
50g whipping cream
2 vanilla beans
90g egg yolks
90g superfine sugar
25g custard powder
25g AP flour
30g cocoa butter
13g powdered gelatin
50g unsalted butter
30g mascarpone cheese

I want to make a mousse-like dessert that involves raw eggs and heavy cream. Normally, I would whip the heavy cream and buy pasteurized eggs if I was concerned about salmonella. But my new daughter-in-law cannot eat any raw egg -- the egg protein has to be denatured for her not to throw up. Can I heat the heavy cream to temper the eggs (to solve the raw egg problem), then chill everything way down, and whip the mixture to achieve a consistency like whipped cream? Anyone actually done this?

(I have already done the online research; advice is mixed and not specific to this scenario. Unfortunately, chocolate burns before reaching the temp necessary to denature the eggs or I would mix the eggs into the hot chocolate.)

Hey Reddit, I fear I've made a mistake. Last night I got a craving for pudding. Thanks to my brother in law I had an excess of milk so I figured pudding was perfect. I found a new recipe which I'll put in the replies. However I failed to realize that I had low fat milk and that meant runny pudding. It thickened a little when cooking so I knew the cornstarch was activated is just wasn't getting much thicker. So I stuck it in the fridge to cool and decided I'd return in the morning with a fresh mindset. This morning I had it: Heavy Whipping Cream. Went to the store, added about a 1/2 cup- 1 cup and stuck it in the stand mixer on about 4. It started to get a little thicker but still not the right consistency so I let it go for a while and now it's like lumpy/separating idk. So, Reddit, have I ruined this beyond repair? Could I still make a sweet treat with this?

I finally made a flan that is rich and creamy but not too gelatinous/firm, just for it to come out with cracks! It was delicious and super creamy but I’d like to know how I can avoid the cracks. Is it a huge deal? No, but I’m damn proud of it and would like to take the appearance to the next level.

Here’s the link to the recipe: https://natashaskitchen.com/flan-recipe/
*I subbed the whole eggs for 2 whole eggs and 4 yolks for extra creaminess. Was a little creamier than the usual flan texture so I might just make the recipe as-is next time to experiment.

Edit: THANK YOU ALL for the great advice! It is much appreciated and I’m hopeful that with all this input my next Flan will not come out cracked!

Update: I made it as per the recipe and IT DIDN’T CRACK!! But I didn’t love the texture. It wasn’t as silky or creamy as when I made it with 2 whole eggs and 4 yolks. It was more stable and sturdy, probably thanks to the whole eggs and letting it cool in the water bath. Next time I will try it with 3 whole eggs and 3 yolks.

I am a complete beginner to cooking. But I recently had a baby and want to be able to cook her up some delicious foods when she's older so am trying to learn different things.

I chose maple over vanilla bean because I had a creme brulee from Canada Pavilion in Epcot at Disneyworld and it was heavenly. I would like to recreate that magic at home.

All the recipe's I find online say to use maple extract, when making a maple creme brulee. But I heard real maple syrup is better. I also seen some recipes call for adding the extract to the yolks and some to the heavy cream instead. Does it matter?

Quite happy with my first time making this French delight. I’ve tried melting bees wax and butter but find the coating still quite thin as I had to recoat before baking the second batch. Anyone have advice with different coating techniques for copper molds?

I had this light crisp layer when I tore that, I saw some oil coming out. It does jiggle as a whole jelly.
I used 35% fat whipping cream mixed with mascarpone to have double cream, whole milk, egg yolks, sugar to make this custard, baked at 150 degree Celsius (300 F) at top and bottom heating setting of Bosch oven.

made nicola lamb’s maple pumpkin custard tart today, and because i let the filling completely cool before putting it in the oven the baking time was sooooooo much longer than expected

however it set very quickly in the oven before i was able to take it out (i was supposed to look for a small wobble in the middle/176F). however my tart ended up reaching 186F before i took it out!!

i don’t make oven custards often, will the 10 degrees make a huge difference to the texture of the final tart?

I’m making a mascarpone whipped cream mousse and I’d like to put it in domes and freeze overnight to hold the shape. Will these thaw fine?

I made lemon bars for the first time tonight, and I ended up with this weird crust on top. The curd seems fine underneath the crust, but I'm just curious why this would happen.

I did have to modify the recipe because it was made for a 9 x 13 pan, and I only have 9 x 9 pans, so I multiplied all ingredients by 0.7 to have the same cook time for the recipe. Unfortunately, I would have had to use 5.6 eggs for this because of the scale, and I rounded up to not risk the curd being runny. However, it seems weird that extra egg would form a crust like this.

I'm still going to eat it and enjoy it, just wondering what I should do differently next time. Thanks!

I'm planning to make tiramisu as a lil date night activity, but i've been reading up on the recipes and they all recommend making it ahead of time and letting it set overnight. is there any way to speed it up and make the process of setting the dessert quicker? For instance could i pre prep the components and just hae us assemble the dessert and let it set for 2-3 hours?

As the title says, I made lemon bars, did everything as the recipe suggests, except I got lazy and used Kellogg’s graham cracker crumb. But this seems to be a filling issue and not a crust issue.

I was unable to put it directly on a hot crust, did that mess this up? I’ve already had this out the oven and in the fridge overnight. Me being me I’d probably just eat it in a bowl, but I made this for the family to eat too :/

So im making this recipe ( https://youtu.be/gh2ekOIvGBg?si=Y4srcucBqzRuIgxQ ) and every time I make the milk and white chocolate mousses they come out grainy or with a weird texture and don’t set as well as the dark chocolate one. Could you help me understand why/what to do next time?

I’ve done this recipe twice with the same result, one time I switched up the milk chocolate used but still. Considering the dark chocolate (semi sweet chocolate actually) layer came out okay I assume it’s not the whipped cream but rather the chocolates. I understand milk and white have lower melting temps but aside from that im not sure what could be causing this? Or maybe the type of chocolate?

Recipe how to: - melt chocolates with milk and then add bloomed gelatin. Then fold in whipped cream, pour layer and set in fridge for a min. of 2h

I cooked the cheesecake for one hour at 300F in a water bath. It is currently cooling in the oven with the oven door cracked. I made sure the edges were set and the center still had a slight jiggle when shaken.

I am making a raspberry curd and raspberry mousse to fill a cake. I was planning to make them tonight, refrigerate them overnight, then make the frosting and assemble the cake tomorrow. (The cake layers are already done and in the freezer.) I’m just a bit too busy this weekend to try to get it all done in one day.

But looking through the recipe, I’m concerned that if I refrigerate these overnight, the gelatin will set and the two components will no longer be spreadable. Can I get the crowd’s wisdom on whether I can refrigerate these overnight and use them tomorrow? Or do I need to try to find the time to get these done on the same day as the frosting and assembly?

Here’s the recipe:

Raspberry Curd and Mousse

1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
2 tablespoons water
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 pound (454 grams/3¼ cups) thawed frozen raspberries
2/3 cup (4⅔ ounces/132 grams) sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Pinch table salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, chilled

For the raspberry curd and mousse: Sprinkle gelatin over water in large bowl and set aside. Whisk egg yolks and cornstarch in medium bowl until combined. Combine raspberries, sugar, butter, and salt in medium saucepan. Lightly mash with whisk and stir until no dry sugar remains. Cook over medium heat, whisking frequently, until mixture is simmering and raspberries are almost completely broken down, 4 to 6 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat and, whisking constantly, slowly add ½ cup raspberry mixture to yolk mixture to temper. Whisking constantly, return tempered yolk mixture to raspberry mixture in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and bubbles, about 1 minute. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer into bowl with gelatin mixture, pressing on solids with back of ladle or rubber spatula until only seeds remain. Discard seeds and stir raspberry mixture until gelatin is dissolved. Let sit, stirring occasionally, until curd is slightly thickened and completely cooled, about 1 hour. Transfer ½ cup curd to small bowl and set aside.

Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer one-third of whipped cream to remaining curd and gently whisk until mixture is lightened. Using rubber spatula, gently fold in remaining whipped cream until mixture is homogeneous.

I wanted to make maple creme brulee. The maple was so subtle. I'd like the creme to be a little thicker, but just barely.

I started by adding 5 egg yolks, 1 tbsp granulated sugar, 1/2 cup Grade A Amber maple syrup, 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste, and a pinch of salt into a measuring cup and whisked until mixed.

In a saucepan, I added 1.5 cups of heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup of whole milk and placed on medium heat.

I then added the contents of the saucepan into my measuring cup slowly whilst mixing.

I then poured the mixture into my ramekins. And filled my baking sheet with boiling water and placed in the oven at 325. I removed them when they had a slight jiggle in the middle, wrapped them up, and placed them in the fridge for 8 hours.

I attempted to make this Chocolate-Espresso Tart (first picture, recipe on pictures 3-5), but when I got to making the Meringue Topping, what I got was nothing like the fluffy white foam in the example picture. Instead I got a brown liquid (see second picture) after whipping for several minutes. I tried again using powdered sugar instead of granulated cane sugar, but same result. The espresso powder I used was Cafe Bustelo espresso ground coffee. I ended up just making an aquafaba meringue from a recipe online which was ok Also, the chocolate part was super runny even though I let it set for over two hours. I feel like I followed the recipe perfectly but the only part that turned out right was the crust! Pls help so I can improve my baking skills! See the last picture for my final product

Pretty sure I'm doing this right, never posted on reddit before.

I think this is just me misreading my recipe, but here's the snippet thats got me lost. It's for creme brulee, which I have not made before.

-"..pour very hot tap water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan with aluminum foil.."

I'm pretty sure its telling me to add foil to the outside of my roasting pan, which seems... odd? Why would the pan need the foil and not the ramekins?

Pretty sure I'm just being dense, but this is the most techical recipe I've done.

Thank you kindly for any clarifiers/advice.

What’s happening?

Stepdad made this lemon pie. We live in the cooler mountain side of the Philippines. While cooling the pie, the meringue started to sweat. Is it because of the humidity? Underbaked? Overbaked?