Crème brûlée: silky vanilla custard under a sheet of cracking caramel
Cream infused with vanilla, stirred into yolks without whipping and baked in a water bath at a low temperature until it sets into a custard that wobbles as one piece. Chilled overnight, then dusted with sugar and torched to a glassy shell just before serving. The whole recipe is one thing to watch: yolk sets at 65 °C, and above 82 °C it curdles into grains.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Infusing and custard 25 min
- Baking in the water bath 40 min
- Chilling 270 min
- Caramel 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneInfuse the cream with vanilla
Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Heat the cream with the seeds, the empty pod and a pinch of salt over medium heat to 80 °C: steam rises at the edges but the surface is not yet trembling. Take off the heat, cover and leave 15 minutes.
Ingredients: 500 ml whipping cream (30%) · 5 pcs egg yolks · 80 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 1 pinch salt
TipA quarter of an hour in hot, rich cream draws far more aroma out of the pod than simply adding the seeds to the mixture. Don't throw the empty pod away: rinsed, dried and buried in a jar of sugar it makes vanilla sugar.
Seeds and empty pod, 80 °C, a quarter hour coveredStir the yolks with sugar, don't whip
Stir the yolks with the sugar using a whisk only until combined, 20–30 seconds, until the sugar stops feeling gritty. The mixture should be smooth and flat, with no foam.
TipEvery air bubble beaten in now rises in the oven and sets as a pitted, matte surface on which no even caramel is possible. Crème brûlée is stirred, never whipped.
Smooth and flat, no foamTemper the yolks with the hot cream
Remove the pod. Pour the hot cream into the yolks in a thin stream, stirring slowly with the whisk along the bottom of the bowl. Poured in all at once it would scramble them; added gradually it raises their temperature gently.
A thin stream, slow stirringStrain and fill the ramekins
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug: it catches the chalazae and any set specks. Skim the foam off the surface with a spoon. Divide between 6 ramekins of 120 ml, to a depth of 2 cm.
TipThe ramekins must be shallow and wide: a 2 cm depth of custard sets evenly in 40 minutes. In a tall dish the edges curdle before the centre sets at all.
Bake in a water bath
Heat the oven to 150 °C. Stand the ramekins in a roasting tin on a folded tea towel, slide it into the oven and only then pour in boiling water to halfway up the ramekins. Bake 35–40 minutes. The custard is done when the edges are set and, nudged, the centre wobbles as one piece rather than sloshing.
TipThe water must not boil, hence the towel underneath and only 150 °C. The bath holds the custard around 80 °C: yolk proteins begin to bind at 65 °C, and above 82–85 °C they contract so hard that they squeeze out water and the custard turns grainy. Without the bath the edges cross that line before the centre sets at all.
Boiling water halfway, 150 °C, 40 minutesCool and chill
Lift the ramekins out of the water straight away (in hot water they keep cooking) and cool on a rack 30 minutes. Cover with film and refrigerate 4 hours, ideally overnight. The custards keep 3 days in the fridge.
Cold, matte, wobbling as oneTorch the caramel just before serving
Blot the surface dry with paper towel. Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar per ramekin, tilt and turn so the layer is even and thin, and tip off the excess. Torch it, moving the flame in circles from the edge inwards, until the sugar turns amber. Serve within 20 minutes.
Ingredients: 6 tsp caster sugar
TipWithout a torch: stand the ramekins in a tin of iced water (it protects the custard) and slide them under a hot grill 5 cm from the element for 2–3 minutes, never looking away. After an hour the caramel absorbs moisture from the custard and stops cracking, which is why it is fired at the table.
A thin sugar layer, the flame in circles, amber
Before you start
How to know it is baked
A thermometer in the centre reads 78–80 °C. Without one: shake the tin. A finished custard ripples like jelly in one movement; an underbaked one sloshes separately in the middle; an overbaked one doesn't move at all and will be grainy.
Flavour variations
Into the infusing cream: orange zest and 2 cloves, a teaspoon of instant coffee, 50 g dark chocolate, or a tablespoon of dried lavender (strain it out before the cream meets the yolks). The vanilla stays in every version.
The custard curdled or is runny
Grainy and weeping: too high a temperature or too long in the oven, past 85 °C. Liquid after chilling: underbaked, put it back for 10 minutes in the bath. Foam and pits on top: the yolks were whipped instead of stirred.
