Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée

Sugar... fire... there is nothing better. I recently got a kitchen torch and was planning on making a dessert that needed egg whites (next week's blog post). I hate to waste perfectly good egg yolks so I decided to make crème brûlée. It was surprisingly easy. Did I also mention that crème brûlée by nature is gluten free?  See the original recipe here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/classic-creme-brulee.aspx. 

Some tips were found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKEFiMnITXM

1. Move your oven rack to the middle position and preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. 

1. First separate 4 eggs. We've done it a ton of times on my blog, so hopefully you've gotten enough practice.

3. This recipes says you can use either vanilla extract or real vanilla. See the below picture for an indication of which I used.

Go big or go home. If you thought vanilla extract was expensive, wait until you use real vanilla. Each pod is about $1.33 at Costco. There is a reason people use vanilla seeds. It tastes so much better. To extract the vanilla seeds, simply cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise with a knife. With the dull side of the knife, scrap out the seeds.Use the dull side since it prevents you from tearing the outer part of the pod.

4. It a sauce pan, combine the seeds, vanilla pod, and 1.75 cups of heavy cream. Whisk to combine, but do not over whisk. You want to minimize the amount of air that gets into the mixture. This is custard, not whipped cream.

Bring the vanilla cream up to a simmer. You'll know it is simmering when you see a few gentle bubbles, which will bring the seeds to the surface. Also start boiling a bunch of water (preferably in a tea kettle) which you will you later.

Once the cream is simmering, turn off the heat, cover, and let it cool for 10 minutes.

5. While the cream is cooling, whisk 4 cold egg yolks, 0.25 of a cup of granulated sugar, and a pinch of salt. Whisk just to break apart the yolks and combine them with the sugar, do not over whisk.

6. Check to see if the cream mixture is at or below 165 degrees Fahrenheit, if not, let is sit some more. If it has cooled (do not let it cool too much), whisk for 30 second 0.5 cups of the cream into the egg mixture to temper the eggs. This will gently bring the temperature of the egg yolks up without scrambling them.

7. Pour the rest of the cream in and mix for 15 seconds.

8. Filter the mixture with a sieve into a liquid measuring cup to catch any egg that cooked, the vanilla pods, and any other debris. You do however, want the seeds to end up in the mixture.

9. In a baking or roasting pan that is at least as tall as your ramekins, place 4 5 or 6 ounce ramekins. I've read that the shallower ones are better for crème brûlée since you have a larger surface area for the caramelized sugar. I don't have that type, but it still worked pretty well.

10. Equally divide the mixture amount the 4 ramekins. Open your oven, pull out the middle rack, and gently place pan onto the rack. Pour the boiling water into the corner of the pan to avoid splatter so that water come up to about 0.66 the height of the ramekins. The water helps the crème brûlée cook evenly and prevents cracking. The sugar should be what cracks, not the custard You do the same thing for cheesecake.

11.  Cook for 40 to 55 minutes. At 45 minutes the mixture was still liquid for me, but after 55 minutes, it was jello like and done.

12. Slide the oven rack partly out. With tongs, take out each of the ramekins onto a cooling rack.

Do not try to take them out the whole pan with hot water!!! You can take it out of the oven when the ramekins are out and the water has cooled.

Let the ramekins cool for about 30 minutes to room temperature, then place them in the fridge to let them cool even more. Once they have cooled down to fridge temperature, wrap them in plastic wrap and place them back in the fridge for 3 hours - 2 days. That is right, you can make them ahead of time.

13. Bring the crème brûlée to room temperature for serving. Carefully distribute brown sugar on top of the crème brûlée making sure there are no large chunks. You'll need more than you think to get that nice crunchy top layer.

14. Flame on!

15. Eat right away because the moisture from the custard will make the sugar layer mushy. You'll know you cooked the sugar correctly if you hear a crack when break the top layer.

Stay tuned for next week's post which will use the egg whites from same eggs as the crème brûlée.