Crème Brûlée

The trembling Parisian vanilla custard beneath its cracked caramel crust: served cold with a warm lacquer of burnt sugar

Origin: France

From the journey of Vanilla.

The name means simply 'burnt cream', and the dish is deceptive in its simplicity: four ingredients (cream, egg yolk, sugar, vanilla), a water bath, and a blowtorch. Yet crème brûlée is one of the most technically demanding desserts in classical French cuisine, precisely because there are no other flavours to mask a miscalibrated custard. The vanilla must carry everything. The first printed recipe appeared in the 1691 edition of François Massialot's Le Cuisinier roïal et bourgeois; though both England and Spain have contested priority, with a similar preparation called 'burnt cream' documented at Trinity College Cambridge in the 17th century and crema catalana predating all of them in Catalonia. Whatever its origin, crème brûlée became the signature of French restaurant dessert in the 20th century, particularly after the opening of chef Michel Guérard's restaurant in the 1970s renewed French interest in classical custard desserts. The theatrical moment of cracking the caramel crust at the table; the spoon tapping the lacquered surface; is as much the point as the custard beneath.

Ingredients

custard

  • 600 ml double cream (heavy cream, 35% fat minimum)
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 80 g caster (superfine) sugar

vanilla

  • 2 vanilla pods, split and scraped, seeds and pods both used

seasoning

  • 1 pinch fine sea salt

finish

  • 6 tbsp caster or demerara sugar, for the brûlée crust

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F, fan 130°C). Place 6 shallow ramekins (150ml capacity, about 4cm deep) in a deep roasting tin.
  2. Pour the cream into a saucepan. Add both vanilla pods and their seeds. Heat over medium heat until the cream just begins to steam and small bubbles appear at the edge; do not boil. Remove from heat and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt together in a bowl until pale and slightly thickened; about 1 minute. Do not whisk to a foam.
  4. Remove the vanilla pods from the cream (rinse and reserve). Pour the warm cream in a slow, steady stream into the yolk mixture while whisking gently. Do not pour too fast or the eggs will scramble.
  5. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a jug to remove any threads of cooked egg. Skim off any foam from the surface; foam becomes bubbles on top of the cooked custard.
  6. Pour the custard evenly into the 6 ramekins. Pour boiling water into the roasting tin to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the entire tin loosely with foil.
  7. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the custards are just set: they should have a slight wobble in the very centre when gently shaken, like barely-set jelly. The edges should be firm.
  8. Remove from the water bath and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours (or overnight). They must be thoroughly cold before brûléeing.
  9. To brûlée: sprinkle each ramekin evenly with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Using a blowtorch held 5cm from the surface, move in slow circles until the sugar melts, bubbles, and turns a deep amber-brown. Leave for 1 minute for the crust to harden before serving.

Notes

The custard base can be made up to 3 days ahead and kept refrigerated. Only brûlée at the last moment. For a lighter custard, substitute 200ml of the double cream with whole milk; the texture will be less rich but the vanilla will be cleaner. The two vanilla pods may seem extravagant but are non-negotiable: this is a dish with nowhere to hide, and the vanilla must be present in every spoonful.

The Gastrographer

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