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Crème Brûlée

Source of Recipe

From "Tom Fitzmorris's New Orleans Food" by Tom Fitzmorris


Recipe Introduction

Crème brûlée appeared in New Orleans in the early 1980s (Arnaud's served the first one), and over the years, it supplanted the once universal caramel custard. It's now on almost every non-Asian menu in the city. The difference between crème brûlée and crème caramel is that the former is made with cream and has the sugar crusted on top; the latter is made with milk and has sugar caramelized into a syrup at the bottom of the baking cup. Crème brûlée must be baked very carefully and slowly, or it will not reach its proper semiflowing state. You can't do it in standard custard cups; much better are shallow (an inch or so deep) glass or ceramic ramekins or gratin dishes. It is also essential to insulate the bottoms of the dishes from the pan they're sitting on. Those air-insulated baking pans work well. If you don't have one, you can get the same effect by setting a wet dish towel in the bottom of the pan."

List of Ingredients

◦  ½ cup light brown sugar
◦  4 cups heavy whipping cream
◦  9 egg yolks
◦  ⅔ cup sugar
◦  4½ tsp vanilla extract


Recipe

Preheat the oven to 325° F.

The first step is not essential but does give an extra measure of elegance. Spread the brown sugar out, breaking all the lumps, on a big plate. Put it into the microwave for 10 minutes at 10 percent power, then let it cool for 30 minutes. This will remove the excess moisture from the brown sugar and keep it from turning to syrup when you blast it later.

Combine ¼ cup of the cream and the egg yolks in a metal bowl and whisk to blend well. Stir in the sugar until nearly dissolved and set aside.

Put the remaining cream into a small saucepan and heat it over medium heat until wisps of steam start appearing. (Don't boil even a little.) Stir in the vanilla. Slowly add the warm cream to the bowl with the egg-cream mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Strain the custard through a fine sieve into a large measuring cup. Pour the custard into the 8 baking dishes. Place the dishes in an air-insulated baking pan or on a wet towel set inside the pan.

Pour in enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the baking dishes. Bake for 30 minutes. Depending on the type of dishes you're using, the custards may have to continue baking for as long as 15 minutes more. The custard should not flow when you tip the baking cup, but it should not be solid, either. Remove the dishes from the pan and set out to cool for 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or as long as a day.

When ready to serve, preheat the broiler. (Or the broil feature of your toaster oven, which works better for this than you might imagine.) Sprinkle enough brown sugar on top of each custard to completely cover, and run them under the broiler until the sugar melts and caramelizes, about 30 seconds. You might want to turn the dishes so that this happens uniformly.


Serves 8