Crème brûlée

Ingredients

• Double cream500 ml
• Egg yolks5
• Sugar for the custard80 g
• Vanilla pod1
• Sugar for the top4 tsp

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Split the vanilla, scrape the seeds into the cream and heat it to just below boiling. Take it off and let it infuse for fifteen minutes.

   20 min

2. 2

   Work the yolks and sugar together without whipping air in — foam is not wanted here. Pour the warm cream in a thin stream, stirring all the while.

   5 min

3. 3

   Strain through a sieve and skim any foam off the surface. Divide between ramekins and stand them in a deep tray.

   5 min

4. 4

   Pour boiling water into the tray to halfway up the ramekins and bake at 150 °C for forty minutes. The centre should wobble.

   45 min

5. 5

   Cool completely and refrigerate for at least four hours. Only then dust with sugar and burn it with a blowtorch.

   240 min

About the dish

Crème brûlée is two separate skills. First: not overheating the custard, or the yolks curdle and the texture turns grainy. Second: burning the sugar fast enough not to warm the custard underneath.

The water bath exists for the first. Water keeps the temperature under a hundred degrees, so the custard heats evenly rather than from the edges in.

Doneness is judged by movement, not by the clock: tap the dish and the centre should wobble like jelly. If it is firm, it is already too late.

Worth knowing

• — Scatter the top sugar in a thin even layer and tip the dish to shake off the excess. A thick layer never melts through and stays as grit.
• — A grill will crack the top too, but it warms the custard on the way. Sit the ramekins in ice if you use one.
• — Do the sugar right before serving: within half an hour it takes up moisture and stops shattering.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

490 kcal

Protein

6 g

Fat

42 g

Carbs

24 g

Useful for this recipe

• Oven Temperature Converter

More from France

• Ratatouille — A Provençal vegetable stew where each vegetable is cooked separately before they meet — otherwise it turns to mush.
• French onion soup — Soup from onions, stock and cheese-topped bread. All of the flavour comes from caramelisation, which takes forty minutes rather than twenty.
• Coq au vin — Chicken braised in red wine with bacon, mushrooms and small onions. Marinating the day before does half the work.