The Culinary Works

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As a former restaurant pastry chef I have made hundreds, maybe even thousands of crème brules’ over the years. Despite that, I still love them and find that my guests always appreciate them. Also, they can be a great way to surprise people with your culinary wizardry.

Lets start with the basics. I don’t find making the crème complicated, but you can’t cut corners and expect it to come out nicely. You need to follow some simple rules. Here is my recipe, which I like because it’s not super duper sweet, leaving you the ability to ad lib a bit, more on that later.

	12- 5 oz Portions
Egg Yolks	12
Sugar	6 oz
Heavy Cream	3 pts
Vanilla	1.5 tsp or 1 bean
Salt	3/4 tsp

You start by mixing the yolks and the sugar. You do NOT want to incorporate a bunch of air in the mixture so with a whisk, if you can be gentle, or using a rubber spatula, mix the ingredients.

In a pot on the stove, heat the cream, vanilla and salt. Be careful, cream will boil over and then start fire if you leave it unattended. Once it boils you are ready to temper the egg mixture.

Slowly pour a steady stream of the cream mixture into the egg mixture, constantly mixing, trying not to beat in a bunch of air until you have about half of the cream mixture in the yolk mixture. If you go to fast or don’t mix as you pour, you will end up with bits of scrambled egg. But don’t worry, if you just slowly pour and stir it will be fine.

Once you have half the cream mixture in the yolk mixture, you can just reverse and pour all of the yolk mixture back into the rest of the cream mixture and stir. This is your crème.

Lastly, you will pour the crème through a fine wire strainer just to get out any little bits and ensure your crème is perfectly smooth. I usually do this final strain into a container with a spout. This just makes it easier to pour into the ramekins.

Speaking of ramekins, there are two schools of thought on these and some chef’s are seriously passionate one way or another. Traditional French method says they should be shallower dishes to maintain the ratio of brule sugar to crème. Others like them in the deeper dishes. If you are going to add any goodies into the bottom of the dish you will need the deeper ones, so for now, I am recommending those. You can pick them up for a pretty reasonable price at commercial restaurant supply stores.

Here is where you can get creative. You can actually add a bit of fruit compote or sauce into the bottom of the ramekin before you pour in the custard. You can also lightly flavor the custard to match the fruit. One of my biggest sellers was raspberry crème brule. I flavored the crème with a few tablespoons of raspberry liquor and added a little raspberry puree into the dish, then carefully filled it with crème. You can do this with any fruit or flavor. You do have to be sure your fruit is cooked down. If you add fresh/raw fruit the moisture from the fruit itself will separate your custard, which isn’t very appealing. If you have fresh peaches just cook them down in some brandy, add a bit of brandy to the crème and you are set. You get the idea.

So you added a bit of puree to the bottom, filled the dishes carefully and not so full they spill. You then place them in a water bath, meaning the dish the ramekins go in has some water in it. About ½ way up the ramekins is plenty. You do not want to splash any water in the ramekins, so be careful about that, this is why I add the ramekins after the water. Remember, any water that gets inside the dish will separate the crème.

You bake them uncovered at 350 degrees and check them after 20 minutes. You can tell they are done by gently jiggling them. When the entire surface of the crème moves as one, it’s done. You will be able to see the outside edges are more done than the center, which makes you feel like you need to leave it longer, but if you do, it will be overcooked and you will end up with cracks. If you take it out just as it’s setting, it will be perfect every time. Let it cool in the water and refrigerate them only serving after they have become completely cold.

Ok, now the crunchy beautiful topping. You do not want to do this ahead of time. Wait until you are ready to wow your guests. I believe that the sugar should be sprinkled on so that you have one single layer of sugar crystals evenly across the top of the crème. This allows you to brown them evenly without any raw or burnt pieces. If you don’t have a torch, you can set them under the broiler but do not take your eyes off of them. The downside to doing it in the oven is that you end up warming up the custard…this is why I like the torch. With the torch, you create the crust so quickly the custard stays nice and cold. The small hand torches are relatively inexpensive and easy to find, so if you can, treat yourself.

Garnish them according to what you put in the crème but it is best to put any fresh fruit on the serving plate next to the ramekin. You don’t want to soften that lovely crust you made.

One of the best things about Crème Brule is that you can make it the day before your guests arrive. Covered they will keep nicely in the fridge for a day or two. The other best thing is that after you have made them a couple of times, you will find that it really is easy to prepare and always wow’s the crowd. Lastly, they are really yummy for breakfast, not that I have ever done that.

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