Cooking for Beginners recipes, structured

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
6
Units

Method

Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.

2 cups Heat until steaming, then infuse 15 minutes off the heat 20m Pour the hot cream slowly onto the yolks, whisking 5m Slowly, or you get sweet scrambled egg. Strain into ramekins and skim off any foam 5m Straining catches any egg that scrambled. Foam bakes into a rough skin. 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. Chill at least 4 hours 4h 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 Whisk until pale 3m
1/3 cup
a pinch
to come halfway up the ramekins
6 tsp
Read left to right: ingredients merge into steps, and the rightmost cell is the last thing you do. Steps account for 5h 11m of hands-on and cooking time.

  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.

Try butter, 30 minutes, braise, or an ingredient you need to use up.