Creme Brûlée
You would never guess that a recipe as luxurious as this creme brûlée could be so simple. My no waterbath method is something that I used to do in the restaurants I worked in to get the silky smooth texture that everyone loves about creme brûlée.
Ingredients
- 1200 g heavy cream
- 1 fresh madagascar vanilla bean, sub 8g/2tsp vanilla extract
- 160 g granulated sugar
- 2 g kosher salt
- 10 large eggs, whites and yolks separated
- sugar in the raw, about 30-40g or 3Tbsp per ramekin if using the 14oz ramekins
Instructions
- Slice vanilla bean down 1 side then use a knife to scrape as much of the bean paste from inside the bean as possible.
- Add heavy cream to a small sauce pot along with vanilla bean paste and the scraped vanilla bean. Stir and heat over medium until temperature reaches 150F/65C then remove from heat and allow liquid and vanilla to steep for 10 minutes.
- Whisk together salt, sugar, and egg yolks. Add in about half of the seeped vanilla cream through a fine mesh strainer, whisking immediately to temper. Stir in second half of cream. Strain combined cream/egg sugar mixture through a fine mesh strainer, making sure to get all of the vanilla paste bits that may be stuck to the bowl.
- Pour custard mix into ramekins:
- * about 12 oz into each of 4 14oz ramekins OR
- * 6oz into each if using 8 7oz ramekins
- Using a butane torch, lightly and quickly heat the top of the custard to pop any bubbles that formed from pouring the cream.
- Wrap the top of each ramekin tightly with plastic wrap then pierce the top a couple of times with a sharp knife or cake tester. I place all ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet to make for easier loading into the oven.
- Load into a preheated 215°F/100-105°C oven to bake for 2 hours or until just set. They should be just a little jiggly, but not liquidy. Internal temp should read around 170°F/77°C+.
- Allow to cool at room temp for about 15 minutes before refrigerating to fully cool for at least 2 hours (preferably 8+).
- When ready to serve, top each custard with a layer of sugar in the raw then use a butane torch to melt and brown the sugar on top. This takes about 3 minutes with my torch, but browning times will vary depending on the power of your torch. A more powerful torch is better to not soften the custard beneath the sugar.
- If you don't have a butane torch you can melt the sugar under your oven boiler set to high, keep an eye on this as sugar can burn quickly.
- ALTERNATE BAKE TIMES: If using 8 of the smaller 7 oz ramekins, cook at 215°F/100-105°C for 1 hour 20 minutes If using a 9"x13" baking dish, cook at 215°F/100-105°C for 2 hours.
Notes
Equipment:
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