The Best Crème Brûlée
Prep
15m
Cook
40m
Total
55m
Bigly says
Pay attention. We're doing crème brûlée. The greatest crème brûlée in the history of crème brûlée — and there's been a LOT of crème brûlée, the French have been doing this for centuries, the Spanish claim they invented it first with crema catalana, the English say it's theirs from Trinity College, EVERYBODY wants credit for crème brûlée, it's a beautiful situation, very competitive — and none of them, NONE of them, beat this one. It's not even close. It's a slaughter.
Now people are SCARED of crème brûlée. People think it's hard. People see the little torch on the counter at a fancy restaurant and they say, 'Oh, I could never make that at home, that's chef food, that's restaurant food.' WRONG. So wrong. Crème brûlée is FIVE ingredients. Five. Cream, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, salt. That's it. Most chefs are afraid to tell you this — they're protecting the restaurant industry, they're protecting Big Dessert, it's a CONSPIRACY of difficulty and we are blowing the lid off it today, right now, in this recipe.
The secret — and this is going to sound crazy but stay with me — the secret is patience. You cook the custards low and slow in a water bath. You let them set up overnight. You torch the sugar right before you serve. That cracking sound when somebody taps the top with a spoon? That's the sound of WINNING. That's the sound of beating every other dessert on the table. Big strong men, tough men, men who never cry — they tap the spoon, they hear the crack, the eyes go wet. I've seen it personally, in person, with my own eyes. Believe me.
Ingredients
- 2 cupsheavy cream(real heavy cream, not half and half, never half and half)
- 1, split lengthwisevanilla bean(or 1 tbsp pure vanilla bean paste)
- 5large egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/3 cup (for custard)granulated sugar
- 1/8 tspkosher salt
- 6 tbspgranulated sugar (for the brûlée crust)(about 1 tbsp per ramekin)
Steps
- 1
Heat oven to 325°F. Place six 4-oz ramekins in a deep roasting pan or baking dish.
- 2
Combine the cream and vanilla bean (seeds scraped in, pod added) in a small saucepan. Warm over medium-low heat until steaming and small bubbles form at the edges — do not boil. Remove from heat, cover, and steep 15 minutes.
- 3
Whisk the egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt in a medium bowl until smooth and slightly lightened, about 1 minute. Do not whip in air — you don't want bubbles.
- 4
Remove the vanilla pod from the cream. Slowly drizzle the warm cream into the yolks while whisking constantly to temper.
- 5
Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a measuring cup with a spout. Skim any foam from the surface.
- 6
Divide the custard evenly among the ramekins. Place the roasting pan on the oven rack, then carefully pour hot tap water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
- 7
Bake 35-45 minutes, until the custards are set around the edges but still jiggle slightly in the center when nudged. Begin checking at 35 minutes.
- 8
Remove the ramekins from the water bath and cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 1 hour. Cover each with plastic wrap (not touching the surface) and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- 9
Just before serving, blot any moisture from the tops of the custards with a paper towel. Sprinkle each with about 1 tbsp granulated sugar in an even layer, tilting to coat.
- 10
Caramelize the sugar with a kitchen torch, holding the flame an inch above the surface and moving constantly until the sugar melts, bubbles, and turns deep amber. (If you don't have a torch, broil 2-3 minutes under a very hot broiler, watching constantly.)
- 11
Let the sugar crust set 1-2 minutes before serving. Crack the top with the back of a spoon.
One more thing
That's crème brûlée. Real crème brûlée. The kind they charge you fourteen dollars for at a restaurant with mood lighting and a wine list. You made it at home for about three dollars a serving and it's BETTER than the restaurant. The crack of the spoon, the cold silky custard underneath, the bitter caramelized sugar — it's a symphony, it's a beautiful thing, a regular Tuesday at my house. Save me a piece.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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