Creme Brulee

• servings: 3 large or 6 small

Ingredients

500 g heavy cream (30% fat is best)

100 g whole milk

90 g sugar

100 g mostly eggs yolks (add ½ of an egg white in the mix)

2 tsp vanilla extract (to taste, or 2 vanilla pods infused into the milk)

Sugar for caramel layer (demerara or brown sugar is best, but anything works fine)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 F, or as low as it can go near that.

In a large bowl, combine the milk and sugar and mix until all the sugar is incorporated. Then, add the heavy cream, egg yolks, and vanilla extract and whisky slowly. Try not to incorporate any air into the mixture.

Fill the cooking vessels up ¾ of the way. The custard will expand slightly during cooking and you want to leave room for the caramel layer. Put an oven-safe dish or baking sheet filled with water into the oven on the bottom rack. Add the custards into the oven and cook for 1½ hours, checking every 30 minutes to make sure they aren’t overcooked. They should be set but still wobbly, as they will set more as they cool.

Refrigerate the custards, covered, for a few hours until completely chilled.

There are three ways to go about the caramelization process.

1. Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the top of the creme brulee. Place the creme brulee under a heated broiler, checking on it every minute or so, until the sugar has caramelized. This will create a creme brulee with a warmed up custard.

2. Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the top of the creme brulee, making sure to cover the entire thing. Using a kitchen torch, apply the heat directly to the top of the custard. Rotate the custard as you apply heat until the sugar layer has caramelized and has some blackened spots. This will create a creme brulee with a chilled custard.

3. Add a handful of sugar into a pan along with a drop of honey and a little bit of water. On high heat, continue stirring the mixture constantly until it darkens and begins to form a caramel. Take it off the heat and drizzle the caramel into your creme brulee vessel. Act quickly to spread the caramel around before it hardens, turning the vessels to let the liquid spread. If your caramel hardens in the pan, reheat it quickly until it’s runny again. This will create a creme brulee with a clear caramel layer and chilled custard.

Notes

A classic fresh dessert consisting of a rich vanilla egg custard and a crunchy burned caramel top layer. Due to the simple nature of this dish, the quality of the individual ingredients stands out much more than usual, namely the vanilla. Use the best vanilla you’re willing to purchase for this recipe, though it works completely fine with cheap vanilla extract!