Crème Brûlée
This makes about 890ml or 30oz total and can be made in one large dish or 4-8 smaller dishes. If you have the option for a deeper or a more shallow dish(es), I would go for the more shallow one(s) but be careful to not over-bake them (start checking at 20 minutes). If you want to scale the recipe down to make just 2 ramekins, you can divide all ingredients by a third EXCEPT for the egg yolks which should just be divided in half (eg 1c cream, 5-6T sugar, 3 egg yolks).
- 710 milliliters heavy or whipping cream (3 cups)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1 vanilla pod, scraped (or 1t vanilla, almond or other extract)
- 2-3 slices fresh ginger
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
- 1 small cinnamon stick
- 1-2 whole cloves
- 5 black peppercorns
- 3-4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
- 1 teaspoon loose black tea, or 1 tea bag (optional)
- 1/4-1/2 cup sugar (white, super fine/caster or turbinado/sugar in the raw)
- Steeping
Heat the cream and the chai ingredients over low to medium heat. You want to cream to be hot but you do not want it to boil. A few bubbles around the side and a bit of a wrinkle in the middle of the cream is hot enough - turn it off and let the spices and optional tea steep for about 15-30 minutes. Strain out the spices and the tea and carry on with the "all versions" instructions.
The amount of spices I call for here makes for a gently spiced creme brûlée, you could certainly increase the spices if you'd like your dessert to have more oomph. Get out your baking dish or dishes if you want individual portions (see note at the top) and put it/them into a baking pan with sides - a lasagna type pan is good for this. You need to be able to fill the pan with water to approximately halfway up the sides of your dishes.
Preheat the oven to 165C/325F.
While heating the cream (or spice-infused cream) over low to medium heat, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, pinch of salt and the scrapings from the vanilla pod or 1t of extract (if not making the chai version) together in a bowl until well-mixed.
Put some water on to boil.
When the cream is hot - but not simmering - take it off the heat. You may find it easier to transfer your cream into a cup measure that has a handle and a spout. Very slowly - a little drizzle at a time - whisk the hot cream into your egg yolk mixture. Keep whisking constantly as you start to add more and more of the hot cream into the egg yolks. This slowly brings the temperature of the egg yolks closer to the temperature of the cream without scrambling the egg yolks in the process. Initially, err on the side of slower than you want to go (but watch the video if you've never done this) but once the yolk mixture is warm, you can pour faster.
Once all the cream is incorporated, strain a second time to make sure there are no solid egg clumps.
Pour or ladle the custard into your dish/es. Leave a little bit of room at the top to create the crunchy topping.
Carefully pour boiling water about half way up the outsides of your dish/dishes that contain the custard. Equally carefully, move the whole pan onto a rack in the middle of your preheated oven. Bake for 20-35 minutes depending on the size of your dishes (smaller ones cook faster). When the custard is cooked it will look set but it will jiggle. If you touch the custard very lightly, your finger should not pierce the surface. Take the dish/es out of the water bath and chill, uncovered, for a minimum of 4 hours*. If it's going to be longer than 4 hours, cover them.
*You can make these up to 2 days in advance but when you take them out you may need to absorb some surface moisture with a paper towel before sprinkling on the sugar.This step should be done right before serving - if you do it in advance, the sugar loses its crunch.
Sprinkle enough sugar over the surface of the custard/s to coat it well. Using a blow torch or the broiler element in your oven, heat the sugar until it melts completely and is brown without burning it. Wait about 5 minutes for the sugar to cool down enough to form a crust and then serve.
