| We were out for dinner enjoying the creme brulee at a local restaurant. My friend and I, as we savored the creme brulee, started discussing, "how hard can it be to make" and "wouldn't it be fun to make it for Christmas dinner"! Thus began my month long pursuit of perfecting creme brulee! I found a straight forward recipe on the web, but after the first time had to make some adjustments. Soon mum's rejoinder "I followed the recipe except for . . . ." was heard when I described my process to friends. By the end of December, I had bought a cooking torch to make the nice crisp crust; bought more little bowls; also admitted why I had so many little ones already (Costco sells creme brulee); experimented with lemon and chocolate variations and became very popular with friends when there were left overs to take home. |
Vanilla Crème Brulee
2 cups (1 pint/ 473ml) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
5 eggs yolks
½ cup white sugar
2 cups (1 pint/ 473ml) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
5 eggs yolks
½ cup white sugar
- Heat oven to 275F
- Combine cream, vanilla bean (cut in ½, scraped of seeds), salt into microwave safe bowl [use 8 cup Pampered Chef]
- Heat in microwave for 1 min @Power 7, stir in between for a total of 3 rounds.
- Let cool, then remove bean from cream. If using vanilla extract add it now.
- In a bowl whip egg yolks and sugar until light.
- Stir about a soup ladle of egg mixture, mix into cream mixture.
- Pour egg-cream mixture into cream mixture, stir thoroughly
- Using soup ladle, pour into ramekins (8 – ½ cup Costco bowls // 7 – 6 oz pyrex bowls).
- Place in metal cake pan, pour hot water around ramekins.
- Bake for 20 minutes, rotate pan, bake for another 20 minutes or unit centers are barely set.
- Once glass has cooled enough, remove ramekins from pan, place on cookie sheet refrigerate.
- To do sugar topping – sprinkle with sugar, using culinary torch until brown.