Ooh, C’est Creme Brulee!

For those of you playing along at home, today is national creme brulee day. What a dessert! Who else, but the french could name something burnt cream and create a sensation with it? To be fair, though, the Spanish (creme catalana) were making a similar dessert under a different name centuries before the French. Even the British had them beat with their Trinity cream. But, the French version is the one that stuck. The earliest written recipes date back to 1691. But, it’s popularity soared when New York restaurateurs began putting it on menus regularly in the 1980’s. Ooh, C’est Creme Brulee!

So, what is creme Brulee? It is a custard topped with scorched sugar. The British version and some other variations make a disk of hardened caramel. But, most versions require putting sugar on top of the custard and heating it under a salamander (the cooking implement, not the amphibian), broiler, or a handheld torch. The torch method is the most common. The custard is silky smooth. And, when the sugar is torched on top, it creates a sweet crust that can be cracked like glass to get at the custard below.

While creme brulee is traditionally made with vanilla, it can come in a multitude of flavors. In a way, it’s like ice cream: a blank canvas to do with as you please. It could even be a savory dish or accompaniment (think wild mushroom or Spinach and feta). But, it is primarily a dessert. And, what a dessert: Ooh, C’est Creme Brulee! So, be creative.

How shall we serve it tonight?

There are a couple methods for making creme brulee. Some heat the mixture over a double boiler in the “hot method. While this has some advantages, I usually go with the cold method of beating the egg yolks and sugar to a ribbon stage, then adding the cream. Either way, you’re going to bake it, so, pre-cooking seems a bit redundant. Although, it does help keep the custard looking cleaner. When you start from cold, you end up with a darker top crust. But, you are going to brulee the sugar on top anyway. So, what’s the difference? Either way, it is a fabulous dessert.

I do actually do some pre-cooking when I make mine, though, depending on the flavor. I steep vanilla beans in cream to extract the flavor. Or, when making a chocolate flavored creme brulee, the chocolate obviously needs to be melted. I have also experimented with things like beets, fennel, and Sweet roasted peppers, which all require cooking. Remember how I said, the custard is like a blank canvas? Experiment. Once you have the basic method down, adding in flavors is a snap.

Here are a few ideas: For autumn, you can add a spiced pumpkin. At Christmas, fold in a fig puree for a version of “figgy pudding”. How about a lime jalapeno for Cinco de mayo? Just be careful when adding citrus. It needs to be in a simple syrup to prevent curdling the cream. And, of course, we had Coole Swan or baileys in ours for St Patrick’s day.

Serve it with whatever you like. I am partial to tuille cookies for a nice crunch. But, use whatever you want. Fruit cookies, cake: it’s your choice. Maybe a nice glass of port. Yum!

Ooh, C’est Creme Brulee! So, here’s your recipe:

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee (with variations)

cheffd

Print Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

cooling 1 hour hr

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  

• 12 large Egg yolks
• 1 Qt Heavy cream
• 3/4 cup Sugar (Plus extra for doing the brulee on top)
• 2 whole Vanilla Beans

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325
• Split the vanilla beans and scrape them into the heavy cream in a heavy pot. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Turn off the heat and let the vanilla flavor steep into the cream. Cool the cream. Remove the beans, but leave the scraped seeds.
• With a whisk or mixer, beat the sugar and egg yolks to the ribbon stage. Then beat on the cream. Mix until smooth and evenly incorporated.
• Pour the custard mix into individual ramekins in a high sided pan. Put enough water in the pan to come halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake for about 40 minutes. They should be just barely set. Wiggle one to see if it is still liquid in the center. Give more time if needed.
• When done, cool the custards. This should take at least an hour. You can refrigerate longer. They can be made up to 2 days in advance of serving.
• Right before service, Evenly sprinkle about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of sugar on top of each. You can stick them under a preheated broiler for a few minutes to melt the sugar or use a torch to evenly brown the tops. The sugar will melt and caramelize. be careful not to burn the caramel. Although, you can go as dark as you want. Serve as soon as possible. The caramel crust is only stiff for a short period. If you refrigerate it, it will get soft.

Notes

This is a basic recipe. You can add flavors and adjust to your liking. But, be careful with what you add. If it is too liquid, you will want to add more egg and sugar to accommodate the extra liquid. Also, be careful when using citrus as that can curdle the cream. If you want to do a lemon brulee, use zest and make a lemon simple syrup to fold in.

If you want to add Berries of any kind; again, I would cook them in a simple syrup, strain out seeds, and use more eggs because the syrup adds liquid which will prevent the custard from reaching the proper consistency.

When adding chocolate, either melt it in its own double boiler and fold it in or temper it in the cream. Because chocolate sets up at room temperature, there is no need to adjust the custard recipe.

 

Keyword Adaptable, classic, Creme Brulee, French, Vanilla Bean