Creme Brulee Recipe

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5 from 1 vote

Prep Time40

Cook Time1 6

Total Time8

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: creme brulee

Servings:

Calories: 495kcal

Author: Melissa Griffiths

Ingredients

4 cups heavy cream chilled
⅔ cup granulated sugar
Pinch salt
1 vanilla bean halved lengthwise
10 large egg yolks
¼ cup turbinado sugar

Instructions

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees. Cover the bottom of a roasting pan with a dish towel.
Arrange eight 6-ounce ramekins in the pan, making sure they don't touch.
Combine 2 cups of the cream, the granulated sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the pan with the pod. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Off the heat, cover and let steep for 15 minutes.
Stir in the remaining 2 cups cream.
Place the yolks in a large bowl and slowly whisk in 1 cup of the cream mixture until smooth. Whisk in the remaining cream mixture until thoroughly combined. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or pitcher. Pour the custard evenly into the ramekins.
Bring a kettle of water to a boil
Place the pan in the oven and carefully pour enough boiling water into the pan to reach two-thirds of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the centers of the custards are just barely set and are no longer sloshy, 30 to 35 minutes (25 to 30 minutes for shallow fluted dishes) and up to an hour for deeper dishes, just make sure the middles don't slosh when you gently move the pan).
Transfer the ramekins to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours.
Just before serving, uncover the ramekins and gently blot the tops dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle each ramekin with 1-2 teaspoons turbinado sugar, then shake the ramekin to spread the sugar in an even layer. Pour out any excess sugar and wipe away from the inside rim of the ramekin. Ignite a torch and caramelize the sugar. Refrigerate the ramekins, uncovered, to rechill the custards, 30 to 45 minutes (but no longer). Serve.
e sure to burn the sugar topping on the creme brulee just before serving. If done too far in advance (more than a half hour or so), the caramelized sugar topping will soften and eventually turn to liquid caramel. For a real show, do it in front of your guests and don't worry about chilling a second time.
After sprinkling the sugar over the surface of the custard, tilt and tap the ramekin to distribute the sugar in a thin, even layer
To caramelize the sugar, sweep the flame from the perimeter of the custard toward the middle, keeping the flame about 2 inches above the ramekin. The sugar is properly caramelized when bubbling and deep golden brown.

Notes

Not surprisingly, a vanilla bean imparts the deepest amount of flavor to custard, but 2 teaspoons of extract, whisked into the yolks in step 3, can be used instead. I skip the steaming step if I'm not using a vanilla bean.
For the caramelized sugar crust, we recommend turbinado sugar (sometimes sold as Sugar in the Raw), which is available at most grocery stores and gourmet food shops. Regular granulated sugar will work in a pinch, but use only 1 teaspoon per custard.
If using shallow ramekins, which normally hold 4 to 5 ounces, you may find that you have enough custard base for an extra one or two custards.

Nutrition