Creme Brûlée Recipe

Creme Brûlée, a true classic, is one of those very simple yet outstandingly good deserts, so it should be part of any good chefs repertoire. This is one of the first desserts that I ever learned how to prepare and it is still one of the most requested. So here is the basic recipe, which is also the base for creme anglaise, praline cake, and eggnog, among other uses.

Please feel free to play with the recipe and be creative. For example, you can add some of espresso and chocolate and have Mocha Creme Brûlées. You could add strawberry simple syrup and instead of the sugar crust, you could top it with a shortbread cookie for Strawberry Shortcake Creme Brûlées. You could flavor the custard with mango and top with macadamia brittle and have a Caribbean creme brûlée on a hot summer day. You could add a little cinnamon and nutmeg at christmas time to make Eggnog Creme Brûlées. You get the idea, the sky is the limit. Have fun creating and post what you made in a comment on this recipes, to inspire others.

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Makes 4-8 servings, depending on cup size size.

Skill Level: Beginner

Prep time about 20 minutes.

Cook Time about 40-50 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 6 egg yolks
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract (DO NOT USE IMITATION) or ½ vanilla bean.

Tools Needed:

• Large Stock Pot
• 1 medium bowl
• Whisk
• Creme brûlée dishes or coffee cups or any container that can go in the oven.
• Water pan
• Spoon or 1-2 ounce ladle
• 4-6 ounce ladle
• Medium plastic container
• 4-8 oven safe earthenware containers

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Separate eggs by cracking the egg shell into two haves and move the egg yolk between the two half shells. This method seems a bit difficult at first, but with practice, you'll soon see this is the most efficient method for egg separation.

Note: You can discard the egg whites or use them for another recipe. They'll last 3-4 days in the fridge. You can use them to make mayonnaise, egg white omelets, meringue, etc...

Add sugar and vanilla to the yolks.

Note: If you use a vanilla bean, cut the husk in ½ lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds (The seeds are minuscule, so they will resemble a black paste then scraped out). Toss the seeds in with the heavy cream as you bring it to a boil. Take the husks and put them in a container with some sugar (Also place the unused ½ of the vanilla bean in with the sugar). In a few weeks time, you will have 'vanilla sugar'. One whole bean husk will flavor about 3 cups if sugar.

Note: Whole, unused vanilla beans can be stored in your vanilla sugar for a few weeks prior to use. The beans will impart some of their essential oils into the sugar, imbuing it with more nature vanilla flavor. DO NOT store whole beans in the sugar long-term, as they will dry out and become unusable. If you bought whole vanilla beans, for long-term storage, place the unused beans in your refrigerator. 

Whisk eggs and sugar until creamy (near ribbon stage).

Bring the cream to a hard boil.

Note: Cream expands quite a bit when it comes to a boil, so using a large stock pot avoids boil over and messes.

Pour a little cream into the eggs while whisking. This tempers the eggs so they do not scramble when you add them to the cream.

After the eggs have been tempered, you can pour them into the cream, whisking the whole time.

Place in to a container to cool.

Use a spoon or a small 1-2 ounce ladle to skim off any remaining foam on the top of the custard.

Now, this is a real creme brûlée ramekin and you should use them if you have them, but if you don't have any, don't worry. Just about any oven safe earthenware container will work.

I used coffee cups. Now, we need to cook the creme brûlées in a water bath, called a bain-marie, so I chose a medium rondo pan. 

Use a ladle to portion out the creme brûlée, so they are all the same size and will therefore cook evenly. Moreover, you don't want air bubbles in the custard, so pouring out of a ladle gives you more control over the speed of the pour. The slower you pour, the less chance for air bubbles.

You want to fill the pan with water, until the level of the water is roughly equal to the level of the custard in their containers. 

Note: If the traditional ramekins are used, you'll want to set them on the water pans in the oven, with the rack pulled out. Fill the ramekins with the custard and carefully slide the rack back into the oven. Then fill the pan with water, in place. With these type of ramekins, if you have to move them after the water has been added, you run the risk of having water slosh into the custard, ruining it. Additionally, when the brûlées are done, turn the oven off, open the door and let the them cool in place. Once cool, you can carefully lift them out the water by hand.

Since the ladle and containers I chose made five creme brûlées, I put the fifth one in a small sauce pot. Because we used coffee cups and a rondo/sauce pot, we can easily fill everything ahead of time and pop them in the oven. Much easier that using the real ramekins. 

Creme Brûlées fresh out the oven.

You want to begin checking on them at about 30-35 minutes into the cooking process. Grab the edge of the pan and gently shake, as to not slosh the water, but enough to make the custard jiggle. When the brûlées have a firm jiggle, they are done. This is usually about 40-45 minutes total cook time.

Note: Do not over cook. If you shake the pan and the brûlées are completely stiff, they are ruined. If the brûlées have browned on top, they are ruined. In either case, the eggs in the custard will have scrambled. But, if you think you'd like creme brûlée flavored scrambled eggs, then by all means eat the ruined ones :)

Note: Wait until they have cooled to room temperature before wrapping individually.

Now comes the hard part: you must refrigerate them for 5-7 hours, or over night, before they are ready for the sugar crust.

Note: You must let them cool down to room temperature before placing them in the refrigerator. They will keep for about 4-6 days.

After the creme brûlées have chilled, sprinkle about a teaspoon and a half of brown sugar over the top.

Note: for this diameter, one packet of Sugar in the Raw, or even white sugar, will do nicely. For larger diameter, traditional ramekins, use 2 packets. 






Use a spoon to smooth out and evenly spread the sugar.

Now you need a torch, a basic propane torch from the hardware store will do. I am using a butane torch made for creme brûlées.









Use the torch to melt the sugar. Move the torch around in small circles, never staying in one spot for very long. The sugar should be completely liquified, but hot burned.

Once the sugar is caramelized, serve immediately.

Here is a Creme Brûlée I made in the correct ramekin, garnished with some raspberries and mint.

Enjoy

Simple and Tasty Potato Salad

A Potato Salad is a staple side dish for any picnic or summer lunch here in the South. It has been done 1001 ways to Sunday, with each recipe having more ingredients than the last. Well, I for one am a fan of simplicity and enhancing the existing flavors, rather than the addition of new flavors. Well, this is one of my favorite potato salads and it is also one of the most simple recipes that you'll find.

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Serves 6

Skill Level: Beginner

Ingredients

• 4-6 Idaho potatoes (depending on size)
• 4 eggs
• ½-¾ cup mayo (See mayo recipe album)
• ¼ cup yellow onion, small dice
• ¼ cup pickle relish (not pictured)
• Yellow mustard
• 1 dash of Tabasco (not Pictured)
• Smoked Paprika (for color and garnish)
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Garlic salt

Tools Needed

• Chef's knife
• Birds beak paring knife or a standard paring knife
• Medium stock pot
• Small sauce pot

Large dice potatoes (1"x1").

Salt the potatoes and cover with water. Bring to a boil.

Cover potatoes with water and turn to high heat.

Boil potatoes until the smaller pieces fall apart, but the larger pieces are still fairly firm.

Drain potatoes.

Note: Do not run cold water over the potatoes

In a small sauce pot, place eggs that you have allowed to reach room temperature. Just cover the bottom of the pan with white vinegar and about a teaspoon of salt. 

completely cover the eggs in water, as in, no part of the egg is exposed to air, but only just covered as you don't want to dilute the vintager and salt solution to much.

Bring to a boil. When boiling, cook for 12 minutes.

Note: the salt add flavor to the egg white and the vinegar preservers the color of the yolk.

After 12 minutes, pour the hot water out and run cold water overt the eggs. In only a few moments, they';ll be cool enough to handle.

Tap each end of the egg on the counter, then gently roll the egg back-and-fourth until the shell is well broken.

Peel and rinse the eggs.

As you can see, the vinegar kept the yolks nice and yellow. Medium dice eggs (½"x½").

Use a bird's beak paring knife, cut around the root onion. Leave the other side untouched, as it will hold the onion together when you dice it.

If you cut your onions like this you have a lot less waste than if you straight cut the ends off.

Cut the onion in ½, then peel. Cutting towards the root end we cut out, make slices about ⅛-¼ inch apart.

Do not cut all the back, as it will hold the onion together when you turn it to cut the other way.

Note: Notice the finger positioning. My finger tips are curled away from the edge of the knife and my thumb is tucked behind my fingers. This is the optimal hand positioning to prevent cuts

Slice the onion in the other direction in ⅛-¼ wide slices.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, lightly folding. If you cooked the potatoes correctly 30% should cream and the remaining potatoes will remain chunky. 

Taste and adjust the flavor with salt, and garlic salt, pepper.

Add more mayo and or mustard if you want creamier.

.

Allow to cool to room temperature on the counter prior to refrigeration.

Note: If you refrigerate hot foods that are thick, when the edges cool off, they basically insulate the warmer interior, keeping it warm for a much longer time. The warmth is a perfect breeding ground for harmful bacteria which can spoil the food or make you ill when eaten.

After cool, cover and store in the fridge and as always, it''s better the next day.






Enjoy

The Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Eggs are one of the easiest things to cook, but they are also one of the easiest things to get wrong, so I figured I'd do a little recipe to show the do's and don'ts and some techniques to get them perfect every time.

Tip: You can use a knife and cut the egg carton down, as you use the eggs, to save room in your fridge.

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Serves 2

Skill Level: Beginner

Prep time to make filling 7-10 minutes.

 Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 tlb butter

Tools needed:

• Medium Bowl
• Whisk
• Egg Pan

Do's and Don't's of Eggs

DON'T add water or cream to the eggs. 

Only use medium-low heat on the pan.

Let pan fully heat up before adding the eggs.

If you can, let the eggs come to room temp.

Whip as much air into the eggs as possible. The more air in the eggs, the better.

In an egg pan (you can use teflon coated pans, but if you let the pan heat up properly, non-stick is unnecessary.) heat 1 tlbs of butter.

Note: When the butter audibly stops sizzling, but has not yet started to turn brown, it is ready for the eggs.

Use a spatula to move the eggs around.

The lumps in scrambled eggs are called curds. If you want large curds, agitate the eggs less, for smaller curds, agitate more.

Pull eggs off the heat before they're done. They'll finish up from the residual heat in the pan. This prevents the eggs from being dry.

Give the eggs a final stir in the pan and serve.

Top with cheese or anything else you like.

Enjoy.