mix, mix… stir, stir

Sophisticated, elegant, delicious, impressive and intimidating; maybe it is the creamy decadent center or the elegance of a beautifully brûeléed top that cracks into pieces when tapped with a spoon that fuels the intimidation factor of this dessert. The truth is it is an easy dessert to make and if you love crème brûlée you owe it to yourself to invest in the tools to be able to make it at home.

photo by David Peterman

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie assignment had us all playing with fire. Marni of Mevrouw Cupcake selected Crème Brûlée, which translates to “burned cream” as our recipe this week from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours. One thing I had forgotten about crème brûlée is it can be made a day or two in advance and held in the refrigerator and then right before serving caramelize the top. How perfect is that for entertaining?

The specialized tools needed are small ramekins for portioning, and the shallower and wider they are the more delectable caramelized topping each serving delivers. That is really all that is needed, but a blow torch is great to have for caramelizing the tops, a broiler works, but a torch is much more fun and adds a great “wow” factor if you are entertaining! As much as I love fancy kitchen shops and all the specialized tools designed for cooks, this tool is best purchased at a hardware store. The hardware store torch is so much more powerful than the small kitchen torches and that means it will be fast. The longer you have a flame hovering over these custards the more likely it is the centers will melt while trying to get an even caramelization over the top. Additionally, if you want to brûlée anything larger like the top of a pumpkin pie, or a marshmallow icing on a cake, the little torch just won’t get the job done. When you aren’t torching things in the kitchen you also have a fully functional torch for doing whatever it is people do with torches. Mine has come in handy when I have needed to heat and bend metal for example. Go for the big guns, you won’t be sorry.

Dorie’s recipe was very straight forward, but the baking instructions confounded me. Baking at 200 degrees F took a very long time. I think my tiny little custards baked for 80-90 minutes and after an hour I bumped up the temperature to 225 degrees. To be fair I will admit to baking my custards in a water bath out of habit, and didn’t register that she skipped the water bath at this lower temperature. Most of the other crème brûlée recipes in my book collection suggest baking at 325-350 degrees F in a water bath and the custards should set in about 20-25 minutes.  I decided to use a fresh vanilla bean rather than extract for flavor and because it took so long for the custard to set all the vanilla bean seeds settled to the bottom of the ramekins which was rather unfortunate. In the future I will stick with a hotter oven and a water bath.

Initially I used brown sugar on top, but found it burned before all of it fully caramelized. For the next round I used granulated sugar which resulted in a much nicer caramelization. I coated the tops of the custards enough so the sugar created a fully white surface, but not so thick that I couldn’t still see the hint of yellow custard below. Touch the flame to the sugar and keep it moving over the entire surface so as the sugar begins to melt and bubble it doesn’t burn. Once the surface is a beautiful caramel color, it’s done. One word of caution, countertops don’t generally take well to direct flames.

Water bath or bain-marie

This cooking method is used to protect delicate foods like custards, sauces, mousses, and cheesecakes, from curdling or over baking. A gentle heat is the best way to achieve a tender end result and the water acts to temper the oven or stove top heat. The item to be cooked is placed in a larger shallow pan that is filled with hot water. The water in the pan can’t exceed 212 degrees F (once it hits 212 it boils away) so the temperature of the water directly in contact with the food is lower than the actual oven temperature, creating a more gentle cooking process. Interestingly the type of pan used for the water bath effects the temperature of the water according to Harold McGee in his book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.  The mass of the pan makes the difference; a thicker cast iron pan accumulates more heat than a thin metal pan for example. He states that water in a cast iron pan in a moderately hot oven will reach 195 degrees F, a glass pan will reach 185 degrees F, and a stainless pan only 180 degrees F. He then points out that to get custard to fully set it must reach at least 185 degrees F. One last point he shares is placing a towel in the bottom of the water bath prevents the water from circulating under the dish. The trapped water can reach a boil resulting in the dish getting bumped around. His suggestion is to use a wire rack rather than a towel.

 I prefer very small ramekins for serving crème brûlée because it is such a rich indulgence of heavy cream and egg yolks. Along with the delicate custard I like to serve crispy cookies to round out the presentation. As delicious as crème brûlée is, four of five bites is not quite enough to satisfy my dessert expectation. The molasses spice cookies I served alongside the crème brûlées were a nice match.

If crème brûlée is your favorite thing to order at restaurants, dig through your recipe collection and pull out all the crème brûlée variations you inevitably have at your fingertips, or visit Mevrouw Cupcake for Dorie’s recipe and give it a try. It’s easy and you will no doubt have fun with the torch.