Classic creme brulee
I rarely make cr猫me br没l茅e. For one thing, it鈥檚 hard to make for just one person unless you鈥檙e going to take just a fraction of all of the ingredients to make one serving. Do you know how hard it is to gauge half an egg yolk? And I would only want to make one serving if it was just for me because no one person should eat double servings of cr猫me brulee. Not if she wants to fit into her clothes the next day.
But I was having friends over for dinner and one of the requested desserts was cr猫me br没l茅e. Since I hadn鈥檛 made it in so long, I thought I鈥檇 better do a trial run of a recipe the week before the dinner to make sure I could do it right. 聽How embarrassing would it have been if I screwed up dessert?
Most聽cr猫me br没l茅e recipes are pretty simple. Heat the cream, steep with the vanilla bean pod, whisk the egg yolks with sugar, temper in the hot cream, pour mixture into ramekins, bake in a water bath. Seriously, it鈥檚 that easy.What is not easy, however, is gauging when it鈥檚 done. If you overcook cr猫me br没l茅e, it鈥檒l be scrambled eggs. If you undercook it, instead of smooth custard, it鈥檒l be liquidy and drippy that will be no fun to eat. To tell if it鈥檚 done, you鈥檙e supposed to shake it and see if the middle is still jiggly but not too jiggly.
But remember that water bath? It鈥檚 not like you can shake the whole pan without risking some of your water spilling into your cr猫me br没l茅e. And unless you have fingers of steel, you can鈥檛 dip in your bare hand to jiggle the ramekin itself. Using a potholder potentially hides the custard you鈥檙e trying to tell if done.
Some recipes advocate putting a knife through it and if it comes out with custard (instead of liquidy cream), it鈥檚 done. I have never conducted the knife test successfully. For one thing, I don鈥檛 like making the knife slit into my custard; it ruins the smooth surface of the top to make a cavity in it. For another, it鈥檚 still hard for me to tell if it鈥檚 done or not based on the custard smear on the knife. So I do the jiggly test very carefully, making sure the water doesn鈥檛 spill over into the ramekins.
Even then, I鈥檓 not always sure whether it鈥檚 still too jiggly or not jiggly enough. Remember, the custard will also 鈥渟et鈥� once it cools. So you won鈥檛 know how done (or not) the cr猫me brulee is until after you鈥檝e taken it out and chilled it thoroughly.
This one turned out okay, once I stopped second guessing myself. It still had a bit of a jiggle in the middle when I took it out but once I had chilled it overnight and then bruleed the top, it turned out pretty well.
If you do happen to undercook your cr猫me br没l茅e, after you br没l茅e the sugar on top, put it back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm it back up.
The taste was smooth vanilla creaminess. The only thing I wish had worked better is all the vanilla bean seeds from the vanilla bean pod I used sank to the bottom. Other than that, I thought this was a pretty good cr猫me br没l茅e.
Cr猫me br没l茅e
From
4 cups heavy cream
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
1 pinch salt
8 large egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
hot water for water bath
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Pour cream into medium saucepan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean and add to saucepan along with vanilla bean pod. Heat mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasional, until it reaches a light boil. Remove from heat and let rest 15 minutes.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup granulated sugar and salt with egg yolks until mixture becomes slightly pale. Remove vanilla bean pod from cream.聽
3. While whisking, pour cream mixture into egg yolk mixture. Stir in vanilla extract.
4. Place ramekins in baking pans. Divide cream mixture among ramekins, filling each nearly full. Pour hot water into pan and fill water level to about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 30-45 minutes, depending on size of ramekins until set but centers still jiggle slightly. Cool at room temperature for 30 minutes then transfer to refrigerator to chill 3 hours.
5. Remove from refrigerator and let rest 20 minutes, then sprinkle tops evenly with remaining sugar. Holding a hand-held kitchen torch, about 4 inches from sugar, evenly brown sugar. Remove flame just before desired shade is reached. Return to refrigerator and chill 20 minutes. Serve cold.
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