Recipe: Creme Brûlée Pie (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of crème brûlée? ›

This is a key step to making perfect crème brûlée – baking your custards in a water bath. A water bath is a pan of water that the ramekins are placed in to bake. A water bath provides some insulation from direct heat which allows the custards to cook gently, evenly, and prevents cracking.

For the caramelized sugar crust, we recommend turbinado or Demerara sugar. Regular granulated sugar will work, too, but use only 1 scant teaspoon on each ramekin or 1 teaspoon on each shallow fluted dish.

DOWAN 6-Ounce Square Ramekins

But we particularly liked using these for making crème brûlée, as the wider dimension and shorter height allowed for an amazing caramelized sugar to custard ratio. We also liked how versatile these ramekins are. We took them straight from the freezer to the oven and they held out well.

While you can substitute milk for your crème brûlée the resultant custard will be thinner and lighter in consistency.

Preheat the oven to 100℃ (210℉) and use a thermometer to verify the oven temperature – this is the key to a good creme brûlée. Add the whole fat milk (1 C/250 ml) and heavy whipping cream (1 C/250 ml) into a medium saucepan on low heat.

Made well, crème brûlée is a magnificent dessert of silky, vanilla-scented custard—usually made with eggs, milk, and/or cream—beneath a shatteringly crisp topping of caramelized sugar. Made poorly, the dessert is often overcooked, too eggy, or served at the wrong temperature, whether too hot or too cold.

Bake just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the custard to create a thin layer of sugar. Broil the crème brûlée. Set the oven to broil and the temperature to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the ramekins on the top shelf and let them broil until they become lightly golden or for about one minute.

Pour into a shallow, rectangular pyrex dish (13 1/2 x8 1/2 inch) and place it in a pan containing a few inches of hot water. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 1 hour or until set (insert a silver knife to test).

The sugar topping should be torched just before serving. Heavy cream is the usual ingredient for creme brûlée, but full fat half-and-half is a touch lighter (half milk, half cream) and will also yield a silky creme brulee.

How long does homemade crème brûlée last? ›

They should be cool enough after about two hours in the refrigerator, but you can keep them in the fridge for up to three days, which makes them an excellent make-ahead dessert that'll surely impress your friends.

When the sugar is added to the egg yolks mix it lightly with a wooden spoon to prevent too many bubbles forming. If the yolks become foamy at this stage they will form a foam crust on the top of the finished product, which can interfere with the caramel brûlée bit.

This dessert is made with a creamy custard base and a caramel topping. The caramel forms a hard coating over the custard base, giving it an aesthetic facelift, and an extra crunch. Typically, you would crack the caramel with a spoon to dig into a soft creamy dessert with a slightly dark flavor of burnt sugar.

This is most likely due to underbaking. Creme Brulee is perfectly baked when it is set and firm around the edges but still has a wobble / jiggle in the middle when shaken. Additionally, it is important to chill thoroughly, ideally overnight, before diving in.

The deep dark secret to this crème brûlée is the layer of homemade chocolate sauce at the bottom, waiting to be swirled into the top layer of rich vanilla custard. Chocolate sauce is one of those things that once you make it yourself, you think, that's it?