I’m bringing you one of my favourite dessert recipes ever….Crème Brûlée Dessert. Comprising of a sugary crisp top that is so satisfying to crack with the back of a spoon and then a velvety vanilla custard beneath. This recipe is definitely one that you’ll be coming back to make again and again!
Inspiration By Crème Brûlée Dessert
Now I’d be lying if I said Zeke from High School Musical 1 wasn’t the inspiration behind my desire to make a Crème Brûlée. Ever since I watched him express his passion for the French classic, I just knew that I had to try to make it myself. In the words of Zeke: “Someday I hope to make the perfect Crème Brûlée” well friends I think that day is finally here for you all (providing you follow my recipe)
Crème Brûlée Ingredients
This recipe only requires 5 ingredients
- Double cream
- Milk
- Egg yolks
- Sugar
- Vanilla
The remaining egg whites you can use to either make meringue or for a super healthy egg white omelette. For the vanilla if you can try and get your hands on a vanilla pod then I promise your Crème Brûlée will be just like one straight out of a French cafe. The specks of vanilla make this dessert not only look so luxurious but the rich vanilla flavour that 1 pod imparts is just unmatched by the like of vanilla extract.
What to bake your Crème Brûlée in?
Ideally you need a shallow ramekin and unfortunately most available in supermarkets are far too deep. The result with using one of these is that you end up having too thick a custard layer to go with your caramelised sugar top. However I have the perfect container for you all to use, which you probably, if you’re based in the UK already have at home….GU pods. I know you’ve all been cheeky and at least once bought these luxurious desserts, some of you have probably also kept the glass containers that they come in because you’re hoarders like me. As it turn out, they are the perfect size to make Crème Brûlée in. If you don’t already have them, pick up a 2 pack which costs about £3, eat the content and then wash the glass ramekins and you’re all set. It’s also a huge saving because ramekins aren’t cheap, and for three quid you’re not only getting two ramekins but two fab desserts as well.
Baking the Crème Brûlées
The Crème Brûlées need to be baked in a ‘bain-marie’ aka a water bath. You can use any large oven-proof dish/tray that has similar height sides to your ramekins. Fill it up with booing water and then place in the oven, its really that simple. To avoid water spilling into your Crème Brûlées I recommend:
- Placing your ramekins in your oven-proof dish
- Filling them up with your creme brûlée mixture
- Placing the oven-proof dish in the oven
- Then filling up the tray with boiling water
This avoids you having to carry the tray full of boiling hot water and ramekins into the oven, and therefore prevents the water sloshing around and potentially ruining your Crème Brûlées.
Caramelising the sugar
In order to achieve the iconic crisp top that you can find on a creme brûlée, you need two things: white granulated sugar and a blowtorch. Please don’t try and use the oven or hot spoon, you just won’t get the same result. My blowtorch was from amazon and set me back £8! If you’re going through all the effort of making these from scratch, just buy a blowtorch online and do the job properly!
Simply sprinkle on 1 teaspoon of white granulated sugar over the top of your baked Crème Brûlée and then got at it with the blow torch until beautifully golden, don’t worry about it not caramelising evenly, that’s sort of unavoidable!
Video Tutorial
Crème Brûlée
Ingredients
- 600 ml double cream
- 125 ml whole milk
- 1 vanilla pod
- 5-7 egg yolks 5 egg yolks if all your egg yolks are medium sized, majority of mine were small!
- 95 g sugar
- 1 tsp sugar per crème brûlée for the caramelised sugar topping
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 160°
- Begin by adding 5 egg yolks to a large bowl and then whisk them together. Set aside.
- Next, pour your cream and milk into a saucepan. Slice your vanilla pod down the middle and scale the content from the vanilla pod using a spoon or knife, add this along with the sliced vanilla pod into your cream mixture. Heat on low until it begins to simmer and then turn off the heat and allow the vanilla to infuse for a further 5 minutes.
- To the whisked egg yolks, add the sugar and gently pour in the cream mixture a bit at a time. Stirring with a spatula throughout. Once completely combined, strain the Crème Brûlée mixture into a measuring jug (or anything with a spout that you can easily pour with!)
- Add your ramekins into your oven proof dish and fill each ramekin with the same amount of Crème Brûlée mixture. I used a certain point on each of mine as a guide for when to stop pouring.
- Transfer the whole dish to the oven and then pour boiling water from the kettle around the ramekins until ⅔'s of the way up of each one.
- Bake for 45 minutes! When perfectly baked the centre should wobble!
- Remove and allow to cool for 3-4 hours.
- Once cooled add one 1 teaspoon of sugar to the top of each ramekin and give each one a shake t evenly distribute the sugar. Using your blow torch caramelise the top and stop when each becomes golden brown.
- Then enjoy!
Time to tuck in!
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