Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée
Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée, a rich and creamy dessert made with fresh vanilla beans, is easy to make and can be customized with your favorite toppings.
Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée, a rich and creamy dessert made with fresh vanilla beans, is easy to make and can be customized with your favorite toppings.
- Carbohydrate 13.8966716935868 g
- Cholesterol 145.647500051933 mg
- Fat 13.3004500140257 g
- Fiber 0.3705 g
- Protein 2.0263750007771 g
- Saturated Fat 7.66493800873079 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (56g)
- Sodium 15.4420000144047 mg
- Sugar 13.5261716935868 g
- Trans Fat 0.667569000723271 g
- Calories 179 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 300° F and have a pot of hot water ready. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine cream and ¼ cup sugar (I also add the vanilla pod); cook, stirring, until steam rises, 4-5 minutes. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla extract (or scraped vanilla seeds from pod) until blended.
- Gradually pour hot cream into yolks, stirring constantly.
- Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve set over a bowl, divide among espresso cups/ramekins.
- Line a 3" deep baking pan with a clean kitchen towel (I skipped this and it worked just as well), place espresso cups/ramekins in pan, and add hot water to fill pan halfway up the side of the ramekins. Cover loosely with foil. Bake until set, 30-35 minutes, until the centers of the custards shake gently when the pan is shifted (you don't want them to be watery). I noticed that my espresso cups needed more time (5 -10 minutes) since they were taller than the ramekins.
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the ramekins to cool slightly. Remove the ramekins from the pan, cool to room temperature, then chill thoroughly 3 hours or overnight.
- Just before serving, sprinkle the custards with 2 tsp. sugar and caramelize the topping with a kitchen torch, or place the ramekins under a broiler, 2-3 inches from the heat source for 3-4 minutes. Watch carefully. Sprinkle some berries with granulated sugar and place on top just before serving.
Standard measurements on a page cannot convey how the heat must only reach the point of rising steam when infusing the cream, avoiding a boil that would scorch the dairy fats. Tempering requires a slow, continuous stream of warm cream whisked into the yolks to prevent premature curdling. Sinking the custard vessels into a water bath moderates the oven's ambient heat, preventing the eggs from tightening into a scrambled texture instead of a silky gel. Custards are properly baked at 300 degrees Fahrenheit when the center yields a gentle, gelatinous jiggle rather than a watery slosh. Using whole vanilla pods imparts complex aromatic compounds and visible caviar-like specks that synthetic extracts simply cannot replicate, though the scraped pod can be rinsed, dried, and buried in granulated sugar to make vanilla sugar later. Contrast is essential for a rich dessert like this, making acidic, tart elements necessary to cut through the heavy dairy fat. Pairing the custards with fresh raspberries dusted lightly with granulated sugar provides a sharp fruitiness that balances the sugary crust. Alternatively, sharp citrus segments or shortbread cookies offering a dry, crumbly snap work well to offset the dense, velvety mouthfeel of the chilled custard. Torch the sugar topping immediately before service to maintain the brittle glass shell, as ambient moisture in the refrigerator will dissolve the caramelized layer within twenty minutes.
