Creme Brulee

Crème Brulee is one of my favorite dessert and whenever it’s on the menu, chances are I will order it if there’s room in my tummy!! =) Crème Brulee is a rich custard dessert  with a hard caramelized top served cold in individual ramekins. The most common flavor for the custard is vanilla, but you will see chocolate ones, caramel ones and even fruit base ones. I personally prefer the original vanilla the best!

I’ve always wanted to make the dessert at home but I wasn’t sure how easy or complicated to make it and achieve the smooth custard texture. Feeling rather ambitious to whip up a gourmet dessert for my Halloween dinner party guests, I Googled for a Creme Brulee recipe and Alton Brown’s (Food Network) Creme Brulee came up as the first few on my search. After reading some of the reviews and checking out the recipe, I decided to try it. It seemed easy enough! =)

The Creme Brulee was delicious! The custard turned out perfect despite my worries that it will not set properly or will be grainy. The custard was very creamy, very rich and thankfully  very smooth! I was a happy chef!!! I’m glad that Alton Brown’s Creme Brulee turned out very well. The original recipe posted by Food Network can be found HERE. Please be warned that this is a rich dessert, so safe plenty of room for it! =P

CREME BRULEE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 4 Cups (1 Qt) Heavy Cream
• 1 Vanilla Bean, Split & Scraped
• 1 Cup Vanilla Sugar, Divided
• 6 Large Egg Yolks
• 8 Cups (2 Qts) Hot Water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Place the cream, vanilla bean and its pulp into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Discard the vanilla bean or remove and reserve for another use.

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar and the egg yolks until well blended and it just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually. Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8-ounce) ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake just until the crème brulee is set, but still trembling in the center, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Remove the crème brulee from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top. Divide the remaining 1/2 cup vanilla sugar equally among the 6 dishes and spread evenly on top. Using a torch, melt the sugar and form a crispy top. Allow the crème brulee to sit for at least 5 minutes before serving.

June’s comments: I used plain granulated sugar instead of Vanilla Sugar and I suspect that was why the creme brulee wasn’t as vanilla-ey as I liked it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still yummy nevertheless. Maybe next time, I’ll use 1-1/2 Vanilla Beans when I use plain granulated sugar.

I baked the crème brulee for about 50-55 minutes as my crème was still “jiggly “ after 40-45 minutes. The crème set better after refrigeration. I torched the crème brulee immediately after I took it out from the fridge. I used the broiler function in my oven to torch my crème brulee and it worked out well. I placed the oven rack and the crème brulee closest to the broiler and set it there for a couple minutes rotating the ramekins to ensure an even caramelization.