Creme brulee is one of those desserts that most people only have in restaurants because they don’t know that it’s actually a very simple dessert to make at home. A basic creme brulee is a baked vanilla custard that is topped with a layer of caramelized sugar. The sugar snaps when you crack into it with a spoon, revealing the smooth custard below. The caramelized sugar can get a slightly burnt in places, adding a slightly bitter flavor that is actually a lovely contrast to the sweet, creamy dessert.
Another reason that many people don’t make creme brulee at home is that they feel it requires special equipment. Most creme brulees are served in small, flat dishes or unusually shallow ramekins where you get a high crust-to-filling ratio. You don’t need any special dishes: regular 4 or 6 ounce ramekins (or other similar sized, oven-safe baking cups) still make a very good creme brulee and have the advantage of giving you a thicker and more indulgent custard layer. The sugar is typically cooked with a kitchen torch, and you can caramelize yours under the broiler if you don’t have one. That said, a kitchen torch is one piece of equipment I would definitely recommend getting because (a) if is fun to use and (b) you’ll be more likely to make creme brulee when you already have one.
This creme brulee is starts by making an egg-rich custard on the stove. Since creme brulee should be an indulgent dessert, I use some heavy cream when making mine. You can infuse the cream with a vanilla bean in advance, or simply add vanilla flavor with vanilla extract – both options work well. As much as I like vanilla beans, using vanilla extract seems to let the naturally eggy flavor of the custard come through a bit more. Once the custard has been prepared, it is poured into ramekins and baked in a water bath. The water bath keeps the custard at a low, consistent temperature and prevents bubbles from forming and helps keep the top of the custard smooth. If the top of your custard browns a little bit during baking, don’t worry, as it will be covered with sugar when you brulee it.
The custards should be thoroughly chilled before adding sugar for the topping. I like to use super fine sugar, but regular sugar will also work (finer sugar is generally better for this than coarser sugar because it melts faster), and I put a generous layer on so I will have a nice, thick crust. I caramelize it using my kitchen torch, then allow the caramel to set for about a minute before serving. You end up with a crisp caramel that is still warm and a cool custard below. The creme brulees can be bruleed in advance and stored in the refrigerator, but it is best not to leave them in the fridge for more than 1-2 hours to ensure that the caramel will remain perfectly crisp when ready to serve.
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There are two important components to a creme brulee: the custard and the caramelized sugar crust. You could argue that the crust is even more important than the custard, as that is what sets it apart from other custard desserts. There are a couple of ways to make the crust. The most common in home kitchens is to use a small kitchen torch, which will enable you to caramelize the sugar without heating the custard too much. Sticking the ramekins under the broiler will do the same thing, but does put you at risk of putting too much heat onto the already cooled custards if you don’t watch them closely.
One other tool you can use is Steven Raichlen’s Crème Brûlée Salamander. This is a cast iron plate (with a handle) that you heat on the grill, grab with a pair of tongs and press onto the sugared surface of your creme brulee. It looks almost like you’re branding it, as a burst of smoke rises up from the dessert, but in less than 5 seconds you’re left with a perfectly caramelized creme brulee.
Now, I don’t typically think of creme brulee as a barbecue dessert, but it actually goes quite well with a backyard cookout. The custards can be prepared well in advance and can be garnished with all kinds of fresh fruit. With one of these little gadgets, you can even prep them right outside in front of your guests and not have to spend any more time in the kitchen while you’re entertaining.
Creme brulee’s signature is that crisp, caramelized crust that sits atop the delicate custard. You make it by sprinkling on a layer of sugar, then caramelizing it with the flame of a kitchen torch. If you’ve made creme brulee, before you may have run into a common problem with this straightforward-sounding step. Sugar that is in too thin of a layer won’t caramelize into a crisp crust. Sugar that is too coarse will not caramelize easily, leaving you with uncooked sugar at the top of your brulee or with a slightly melting custard beneath a topping that needed too long under the torch.
The best sugar for topping off a creme brulee is superfine sugar. Its tiny crystals caramelize quickly and easily. You can find it at most grocery stores, but if you can’t, regular sugar is your next best bet because it is also relatively fine in texture. Brown sugar is too moist and clumpy and raw sugars tend to be far too coarse. If you have a large-grained sugar that you would like to use, give it a whizz in the food processor to break down some of those crystals and make it more like regular or superfine sugar, then use it to top off your brulee.
I use regular 6-oz ramekins when I make creme brulee. I like to have a high custard-to-crust ratio and I have two full sets of ramekins at home that I use for a variety of things besides creme brulee, like souffles. If you go to a kitchen supply store, however, you’ll see that they sell large, shallow ramekins that are often called creme brulee dishes. Which one is better – the more generic ramekin or the more specific creme brulee dish?
The shallow dishes are a great choice if you like to make a lot of creme brulees. They’re even better if you like to have a lot of caramel crust on your creme brulees and a higher crust-to-custard ratio. The baking time will be bit shorter with a shallower dish (it will vary widely with the size of the dish so check them early to see if they’re nearly set, then at 5 minute intervals thereafter), and you’ll need to be very careful when pouring the water for the water bath into the baking dish, but otherwise the method is exactly the same. Still, I’ll stick with my deeper , all-purpose ramekins and would recommend them as a great option to just about anyone.
Creme brulee is a classic and elegant way to end a meal. The best thing about it – besides cracking that crisp caramel crust to get to the delicate custard within – is the fact that it is actually easy to make at home!
Creme brulee starts off with a mixture of cream, milk, sugar and egg yolks. The cream gives the custard a lot of richness, while the yolks make it very tender and give it a good mouth-feel. I like to use a mixture of cream and milk for my creme brulees because I think it makes them a little bit lighter and silkier than a recipe that uses cream alone. Whole milk is a good choice for this recipe, but low fat milk will work out just fine. The custard is mixed up and strained into ramekins, which are placed in a water bath before being put in the oven to finish cooking. Baking in a water bath allows the custard to cook very slowly, ensuring a smooth finished product.
Since I wanted a lot of vanilla flavor, I took the time to infuse a vanilla bean into the heavy cream before adding it to the yolk mixture. This step only takes a little bit of time to do, but you are rewarded with a big vanilla flavor in the finished custard and you’ll get to see specks of vanilla bean inside of the custard when you dig in with a spoon. This recipe makes a small batch of creme brulee (just 4 servings), so I only used half of a large vanilla bean.
I use regular 6-oz ramekins for creme brulee. I like to have a high custard-to-crust ratio, so I use the regular 6-oz ramekins I have on hand in the kitchen, rather than the large, shallow ramekins that are often used for creme brulee in restaurants. Creme brulee can be baked a day or two in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Add sugar to the tops of the custard and brulee them – burn the sugar into a crisp carame – right before you want to serve them. Use a small kitchen torch to do this, and it is definitely worth picking up a small one at a kitchen supply store to have if you plan to make your own creme brulees.
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