Classic Crème Brûlée
Class Guide
Estimated Run Time: 45 mins
Short Version
I love French cooking and I love desserts. This easy crème brulee recipe can be done with few ingredients. I'll walk you through how to clean a whole vanilla bean, temper a custard, cooking in a water bath and how to properly torch your new favorite dessert. Any red blooded cook loves to play with fire!
Equipment List:
Apron
Kitchen Towels
Measuring Spoons
Measuring Cups
Rubber Spatula
Whisk
Fine Mesh Strainer
Plastic Wrap
(6) 4 oz. Ceramic Ramekins
Mixing Bowls
Kitchen Torch
Small Pot with Lid
Baking Pan
Recipes
Classic Crème Brûlée
Ingredients
Instructions
- "Combine the heavy cream, 1/4 cup of sugar and salt in a small sauce pot and bring to a simmer. Stirring gently.
- Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds.
- Once the cream mixture is simmering remove it from the heat and add the vanilla bean seeds and the pod itself. Stir to combine, cover the pot with a lid and allow it to steep for 15 minutes.
- Whisk together the egg yolks and another 1/4 cup of sugar. Mix thoroughly.
- Temper the egg mixture by slowly adding a little of the cream at a time while whisking. Do this incrementally until all the cream is combined with the egg. Be sure to remove the vanilla seed pod at this step. *See notes if your custard is lumpy.*
- Fill (6) 4 oz. ceramic ramekins with the prepared custard. Place the ramekins in a roasting pan or baking dish. Add hot water to the pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- Bake in the water bath at 325°F for 15-20mins. Until the custards are set but have a slight wiggle when moved.
- Take the ramekins out of the water bath and pat dry with a towel. When the ramekins have cooled to where they can be handled comfortably wrap them in plastic wrap and chill them in the refrigerator until fully cooled. These custards will hold for up to a week in the refrigerator.
- To "Brûlée" the creme sprinkle a thin even layer of white granulated sugar over the top of each custard. Using a torch, either butane or propane, melt the sugar until it is molten and golden brown. Be sure not to hold the torch too close to the sugar or it will burn. Repeat this process with each ramekin and serve.
Notes
*If your custard is lumpy with cooked pieces of egg in it after tempering then the cream was too hot and/or it was added too fast to the eggs. Remember the idea is to slowly increase the temperature of the egg yolks without cooking them.
A quick fix for this is to pass the lumpy custard through a fine mesh sieve. Be sure not to press the lumps through the sieve. Discard the lumps that come out in the straining and use the strained custard for baking.
This isn't a perfect fix. If too much egg has been cooked through improper tempering then there's nothing to do but start over, sorry.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
484Fat
40Sat. Fat
24Carbs
28Fiber
0Net carbs
28Sugar
28Protein
5Sodium
41Cholesterol
274
