Recipe

Crème Brûlée

6 ramekins · prep 20 min + 4 h chill · cook 45 min bake

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• dessert
• french

Authored by the maintainer; classical bain-marie custard, blowtorched sugar.

Ingredients

the custard

• 500 ml heavy cream (35% fat)
• 1 plump vanilla bean, split and scraped — Madagascar vanilla farm
• 6 large egg yolks
• 75 g caster sugar (for the custard)
• Pinch of fine sea salt — Trapani salt pans

the top

• 6 tbsp demerara or turbinado sugar (for the brûlée)

Method

1. Heat oven to 150°C / 300°F. Place ramekins in a deep roasting tray.
2. Heat the cream with the vanilla seeds, the pod, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan to just below simmering. Cover, off-heat, infuse 15 minutes. · 15 min
3. Whisk yolks with sugar in a bowl until pale and ribboned, 60 seconds.
4. Strain the warm cream through a sieve into the yolks, whisking constantly — the strain catches the pod and any cooked yolk specks. Skim any foam from the surface.
5. Divide between the ramekins. Pour boiling water into the tray to come halfway up the sides — this is the bain-marie that protects the custard from direct oven heat.
6. Bake 40–45 minutes. The custards are done when they're set around the edges but still wobble slightly in the centre when you tap the tray. · 45 min
7. Lift the ramekins out of the water bath. Cool on the counter 30 minutes, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. · 240 min
8. Just before serving: sprinkle 1 tbsp demerara on each custard. Use a blowtorch to caramelise the sugar — sweep the flame back and forth, 3–4 cm above the surface, until the sugar bubbles and turns deep amber. Rest 60 seconds for the sugar to harden. · 1 min
9. Crack the surface with the back of a spoon. Eat through the broken sugar into the cool custard underneath.

Notes

Blowtorch is the right tool. The grill/broiler is a second-tier
substitute — the radiant heat heats the custard underneath the sugar
before the sugar fully caramelises, leaving you with a hot custard
(wrong). A small kitchen blowtorch costs less than a decent restaurant
brûlée and lasts forever.

Brûlée only at the last minute. Pre-bruléed custards in the fridge
go limp within an hour as the sugar absorbs moisture from the custard
underneath. Sugar on, torch, serve, all in a window of about 90 seconds.