Crème brûlée literally means roasted cream. It is a classic dessert that has its origins in French or Spanish cuisine. The dish consists of cream, eggs and sugar.
The first good crème brûlée we ate was at Flo in Eindhoven. We regularly spent the night in Eindhoven for work and occasionally we took a crème brûlée for dessert. The crust was so crunchy, the vanilla flavour came into its own so well and the pudding remained cold despite the layer of pudding being thin. A perfect dessert was served here.
For a good crispy layer I use a crème brûlée burner, but a gas burner can also be used. Some recipes indicate that you should use the grill, but the pudding gets too hot.
Ingredients (6 persons)
- 6 eggs
- 500 ml whipped cream
- 100 grams granulated sugar
- vanilla stick
- cane sugar for the top layer
Prepare
Heat the oven to 130 degrees.
Put the whipped cream in a pan and cut open the vanilla stick and remove the vanilla marrow from both halves. Add the vanilla marrow in the whipped cream Also put the vanilla pod in the whipped cream. Gently bring the whipped cream with vanilla to boiling point.
Split the eggs and use only the egg yolks. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until fluffy.
Remove the whipped cream from the heat when it is at boiling point. Remove both halves of the vanilla pod from the whipped cream with a fork and slowly pour the warm whipped cream into the beaten egg yolks. Stir this with a whisk or a fork. Do not do this with the mixer / kitchenaid as you will get too much foam.
If all is mixed, pour the mixture into crème brûlée trays or other ovenproof dishes. Do not put too much mixture in the bowls.
When the pudding is spread over all bowls, the bowls are put in a baking dish, then add boiling water to the bowls until about 3/4 part are in the water. Then place the oven dish in the oven. If you find this too scary, you can of course first put the oven dish in the oven and pour the boiled water into the oven dish when everything is in the oven. Watch out for your hands.
The crème brûlée should be in the oven for about 60 minutes.
After 60 minutes, check that the pudding is quite firm, it may still move slightly, but should be largely firm.
Put the pudding bowls in the fridge for at least 4 hours to cool.
Serve
Just before the pudding is served, remove from the fridge. Sprinkle cane sugar over the pudding and spread the cane sugar evenly over the pudding.
Caramelize the sugar with the crème brûlèe burner or with a gas burner until brown/crispy.
If the sugar breaks nicely and the pudding is cold, your crème brûlée has worked well.
Serve a Sauternes as a dessert wine. Sometimes a scoop of ice cream is also served with the crème brûlée, but personally I don’t like it.
