Crème Brûlée
A baked custard in a water bath, chilled hard, then blowtorched at the last minute. The contrast only lasts minutes.
- Prep
- 20m
- Cook
- 35m
- Waiting
- 5h
- Total
- 5h 55m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Moderate
Scale
Units
Method
| 2 cups | 1 Heat until steaming, then infuse 15 minutes off the heat 20m | 3 Pour the hot cream slowly onto the yolks, whisking 5m Slowly, or you get sweet scrambled egg. | 4 Strain into ramekins and skim off any foam 5m Straining catches any egg that scrambled. Foam bakes into a rough skin. | 5 Bake at 150°C / 300°F in a water bath until barely set 35m The centre should wobble as one piece. Firm at the centre means overbaked. | 6 Chill at least 4 hours 4h | 7 Sprinkle with sugar and torch just before serving 3m Within 20 minutes of serving. The sugar softens as it draws moisture from the custard. | |
| 1 | |||||||
| 6 | 2 Whisk until pale 3m | ||||||
| 1/3 cup | |||||||
| a pinch | |||||||
| to come halfway up the ramekins | |||||||
| 6 tsp | |||||||
- 1
Heat until steaming, then infuse 15 minutes off the heat
20m- double cream 2 cups
- vanilla pod 1
- 2
Whisk until pale
3m- egg yolks 6
- caster sugar 1/3 cup
- fine salt a pinch
- 3
Pour the hot cream slowly onto the yolks, whisking
5m- from 1 Heat until steaming, then infuse 15 minutes off the heat
- from 2 Whisk until pale
Slowly, or you get sweet scrambled egg.
- 4
Strain into ramekins and skim off any foam
5m- from 3 Pour the hot cream slowly onto the yolks, whisking
Straining catches any egg that scrambled. Foam bakes into a rough skin.
- 5
Bake at 150°C / 300°F in a water bath until barely set
35m- from 4 Strain into ramekins and skim off any foam
- boiling water to come halfway up the ramekins
The centre should wobble as one piece. Firm at the centre means overbaked.
- 6
Chill at least 4 hours
4h- from 5 Bake at 150°C / 300°F in a water bath until barely set
- 7
Sprinkle with sugar and torch just before serving
3m- from 6 Chill at least 4 hours
- caster sugar 6 tsp
Within 20 minutes of serving. The sugar softens as it draws moisture from the custard.
Why the water bath
Custard sets between about 79 °C and 85 °C, and curdles not far above. A tin of water surrounding the ramekins cannot exceed 100 °C and heats them slowly and evenly, which keeps the edges from setting long before the middles. Bake them directly on a shelf and the outside is rubbery by the time the centre holds.
Notes
- Tempering means adding the hot cream to the yolks gradually, not the other way round.
- Cold custard, thin sugar, hot flame. All three are needed for a shell that cracks rather than melts in.
- The custards keep three days covered. Torch on demand.