Creme Brulee

Creme Brulee is a classic French dessert made with just a few simple basic ingredients. Creme Brulee can be found in almost all French dessert menus and it is considered a staple of the French dessert.

My chef once told me, " If you really want to see the skill level of a pastry chef who is making your dessert, just order their creme brulee. It's such an easy dessert to make and everyone can make it. But just like an omelette, it's hard to prefect. "

2 cups heavy cream / 1 cup sugar / 6 egg yolks / Vanilla extract / Tin foil cups or ramekins

- gently bring your cream to a light simmer. Careful not to boil your cream.

- While heating up your cream to a simmer, whisk together egg yolks and sugar together.

- Pour the simmered cream in a steady stream into your yolk+sugar mixture while whisking.

- After whisking, it should look foamy on top but liquidy on the bottom.

-Use a scraper or spoon to remove the foam.

- Pour the creme brulee mixture into tin fold cups or ramekins as preferred and fill about 4/5 of the way. In this picture, you will notice that I used a small tin foil tart mold. This is really not preferred since the bottom of the tin is narrow and the top is very wide. This will give you an uneven baking time, the bottom will be cooked faster than the top. But this is just for my sister, so it's okay!!

- Pre-heat the oven to 300F.

- Place the tin cups into a tray filled 1/4 of the way up with hot water. This is called a "bain-marie" or aka 'water bath'. The moisture from the hot water will prevent the surface of your creme brulee from cracking during baking. I baked the custard for about 35 minutes, but the timing will probably be slightly different in every oven. Some ovens are more powerful than others, and some have really dangerous hot spots.

( "Hot spots" in an oven is basically an area in your oven that is hotter than the rest, due to uneven temperature distribution )

A general rule of thumb for checking the doneness of any baked custards, such as cheesecakes, flan, creme caramel and this is case the creme brulee, is to lightly tap the sides to see how much your dessert jiggles. Only the center of the dessert should giggle slightly while the edges are firm. This is the perfect doneness.

- Remove from tins from the bain-marie, dry off the bottom and let the creme brulee cool in room temperature for about 1 hour and then chill for 4 hours in the fridge.

- After it has been chilled, you will find the texture of your brulee has firmed up even more. Then sprinkle a generous amount of sugar on top of your custard. Try and spread an even amount of sugar on top, and again, be generous with the sugar.

- Use a mini torch and torch your way around the surface of the brulee. Turning and shifting your tin clock wise so the flame will melt all the sugar and caramelize them.

- Eventually this is what you will end up with. A thin and crunchy layer of caramelized sugar on top of your creamy creme brulee.

- You must serve your creme brulee as soon as it's caramelized with sugar, otherwise the sugar will start to absorb the moisture from the air and it will not be crunchy anymore.

- Creme brulee is best served with some fresh berries or fruits to balance the richness and the sweetness of the dessert.