Hi everyone, would like to ask for recommendations on how to prolong the ‘crunch’ of a creme brulee topping.
We plan to launch a Creme Brulee Cake (chilled storage) but we are facing challenges on how to maintain crunch of the sugar topping for at least 4 days. Able to preserve some of the crunchy topping for up to 2 days only. I tried using isomalt sugar but result is the same with regular refined sugar.
If its a hard candy type of topping it will gradually soften due to moisture migration from the cake to the topping…If you can show us the formulation of your topping ,sbd its preparation, well see if there is anything we can do with it.
I am familiar with some recipes of cream brulee cake .They are not long shelf life items …The presence of high moisture material adjacent to the topping will certainly not promote the retention of its crispness… Such candy will soften in such conditions.Unless you coat your topping with food grade shellac before using it ,it might prolong its texture integrity.
Hi roytech, thanks for your reply. The topping is just a torched sugar, it’s sitting on top of a thick egg-custard (made of eggyolks, flour, and milk).
Some sort of barrier technology used in ice cream choc compounds PGPR coating may assist to prevent moisture attacking sugar crust, maybe try and incorporate with an oil as mentioned by other contributors. Gum Arabic in icing, prevent cracking. Maybe these cross product segment applications can assist
Any possibility of applying a (transparent) thin film between the two.
I had tried using biofilms to prevent moisture leakage in the case of pizza (& toppings) - materials like alginate, cellulose etc.
Probably a similar approach can be applied here - coating using some biopolymers.
But could be laborious!!