Crème Brûlée
Made with just a few ingredients, crème brûlée is one of the quintessential custard desserts. This recipe adds a hint of espresso and is surprisingly easy to make.
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean (or 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
- 2 tsp espresso powder (optional)
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar, or processed granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Bring water to a simmer on the stove, enough to halfway-fill a roasting pan later. A tea kettle works great for this.
- In a saucepan, combine the heavy cream, half the non-processed sugar (1/4 cup), the espresso powder, and the salt. Split a vanilla bean down the middle lengthwise and scrape seeds out with the tip of a knife. Add both the seeds and the pod to the pan. Heat over medium heat and simmer, stirring until sugar and espresso powder are dissolved, then remove from heat. If using extract instead of a vanilla pod, add it just before removing from heat. Cover and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
- While the vanilla cream is steeping, whisk egg yolks and the remaining 1/4 cup unprocessed sugar in a large bowl. Beat until the yolks are a thick, pale yellow, and form fat ribbons when dropped from the whisk into the bowl.
- Discard vanilla bean pod. Add a couple of tablespoons of the warm espresso vanilla cream mixture to the egg mixture and blend to temper the eggs. Add a few more tablespoons of warm cream and blend again. Once eggs are tempered, transfer the tempered egg mixture to the pan with the warm vanilla espresso cream and stir until well-combined.
- Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve into 6 ramekins* ensuring each ramekin has an equal amount, and leaving about 1/4" at the top for the glaze. Place filled ramekins in a roasting pan and gently pour the boiled water into the pan surrounding the ramekins, creating a hot water bath.* Add enough hot water so that it comes about half way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake just until the outsides of the crème brûlée are set but the centers are still wobbly, about 40-50 minutes.*
- Remove from oven and let cool for about an hour before covering loosely and chilling in the refrigerator overnight.*
- To serve, sprinkle tops with the superfine or processed granulated sugar. You want a fairly thin even layer. Using a torch, work on a section at a time and from the outside in to caramelize the tops.* Let sit for a minute or two to harden and serve.*
Notes
*This will, of course, depend on your ramekins. I have 4 oz. ramekins and I don't like to fill them to the the brim. Many purists say crème brûlée is better in the wide, shallow kind of ramekin but need is must when the devil drives - I say use what you've got.
*I find it easier to put the roasting pan with the ramekins on the pulled-out oven shelf first, then pour in the hot water.
*It's so dang easy to overcook these that I usually take mine out five minutes before I think they're done and it works out great. The last batch came out at 39 minutes and they were damn near perfect.
*While you don't have to chill overnight, a minimum of four hours is really needed for the custard to set.
*To caramelize the sugar in the oven under the broiler, fill your roasting pan with ice water instead of hot water, so the ramekins are in a cold bath. Add the sugar to the tops of the custards and place under the broiler until golden brown.
*These are excellent with fresh fruit - blueberries and raspberries being my favorite to complement that creamy vanilla-coffee flavor.