Crème caramel: caramel at the bottom and a water bath, always
Crème caramel reverses the order we are used to: caramel goes into the mould before the custard, and once the dessert is turned out it runs down the sides as a sauce. There is one difficulty and it concerns the eggs: the custard must set very gently, or instead of a smooth cream you get a pitted bake full of holes. Hence a water bath at low temperature — the water cannot exceed 100 °C and shields the eggs from overheating.
Your own work in that: 40 min.
- Caramel 15 min
- Custard 25 min
- Baking 50 min
- Chilling 270 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneCook the caramel without stirring
Cover the sugar with the water and lemon juice and cook over medium heat without stirring with a spoon — only swirling the pan. After 6–8 minutes the syrup turns amber. Take it off at once: amber to burnt is about thirty seconds.
Ingredients: 150 g sugar · 3 tbsp water · ½ tsp lemon juice
TipA spoon causes sugar to crystallise on the sides and the caramel turns grainy. The lemon juice is extra insurance — acid breaks sucrose into sugars that do not crystallise.
No stirring, only swirling the panDivide the caramel between ramekins
Pour the hot caramel into the base of six ramekins and swirl each one immediately so it coats the bottom evenly. Caramel sets within seconds, so work fast and one ramekin at a time.
Swirl at once: caramel sets within secondsInfuse the milk with vanilla
Bring the milk and cream to the boil with a split vanilla pod and leave 15 minutes, covered. Remove the pod and scrape the seeds into the milk. Infusing in hot milk draws out far more aroma than adding vanilla to a cold mixture. Meanwhile heat the oven to 150 °C.
Ingredients: 500 ml whole milk · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 3 pcs eggs · 2 pcs egg yolks · 90 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 1 pinch salt
Beat the eggs without foaming
Beat the eggs and yolks with the sugar and salt with a fork, not a mixer, only until combined. Don't aerate it — bubbles become holes in the finished dessert. Pour in the warm milk in a thin stream, stirring, and strain through a sieve.
Ingredients: 500 ml whole milk · 100 ml whipping cream (30%) · 3 pcs eggs · 2 pcs egg yolks · 90 g sugar · 1 pcs vanilla pod · 1 pinch salt
TipThe sieve is obligatory here: it catches the chalazae and any set threads. Skim off any foam that has formed on the surface too.
A fork, not a mixer; then a sieveBake in a water bath
Divide the custard between the ramekins. Stand them in a roasting tray and pour in hot water to halfway up their sides. Cover the tray loosely with foil and bake 50 minutes at 150 °C. It is done when the edges are set and the middle 2 cm still wobbles.
TipWithout a water bath the custard heats faster at the walls than in the middle, the eggs overheat and weep. The result is a dessert as porous as a sponge with a puddle of whey underneath.
Water halfway up the ramekinsChill four hours and turn out
Cool, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. In that time the caramel dissolves into a liquid sauce. Before serving, run a knife round the edge, cover with a plate and invert in one decisive movement.
Four hours and the caramel becomes a sauce
Before you start
It cannot be hurried
The dessert must spend at least four hours in the fridge — not to set (it did that in the oven) but so the hard caramel underneath can dissolve in moisture from the custard. Without that it stays on the base like glass.
Crème caramel versus crème brûlée
Two different desserts. Caramel has caramel underneath and is served inverted; brûlée has sugar scorched on top with a torch and is served in its dish. Brûlée custard is also far richer — usually made with cream and yolks only.
Burnt caramel
Throw it away and start again. Burnt caramel is bitter and nothing masks it — and with 150 g of sugar the loss is trivial compared with a ruined dessert for six.
How long it keeps
Three days in the fridge, covered, in the ramekins. Turn them out only just before serving — inverted early they slump into a puddle of caramel and lose their shape.
