Creme Brulee Trio
The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain - one of my all time favorite movie
One of Amélie Poulain‘s† favorite moments is cracking créme brulée with a teaspoon – I agree whole heartedly.
A tiny pot of creme custard sealed with a shiny layer of golden brown toffee, and the little “crack” sound when you hit it with the back of the teaspoon, that little short moment always bring out our playful inner child and put a smile on our face. How do you not love Creme Brulee?
"crack!" Oh, heavenly.
I found myself left with many egg yolks from the macarons I made, there is nothing better or in fact, easier to do with the egg yolks is to make creme brulee. I was quite surprise to find out how easy it is to make Creme Brulee. If you have egg yolks, thick cream, sugar, vanilla extract, then you are in for a treat.
Creme Brulee Trio - Original Vanilla, Coffee, Brandy Liquor
Imagine one egg yolk can make one little Creme Brulee in the 1Oz or 2Oz ramekin, but I used the 4Oz (9cm diameter x 6cm deep) ramekins, and I have 5 egg yolks which are enough to make 3 Creme Brulee. Like I said earlier, creme brulee is so easy to make, the basic recipe will make a simple but gorgeous vanilla creme brulee. But if you are feeling being creative, try adding different flavour to the creme brulee and you would be surprise what you may come up with. (I have seen a lavender flavoured creme brulee, I definitely will give that a try one day!) And have fun with it! Hence, I decided to create the Creme Brulee trio with – The original Vanilla, Coffee Creme Brulee, and Brandy Creme Brulee.
I found the nemesis of making a good creme brulee is time consuming. You will need a lot of patience and let the custard cooked in the oven for at least hour on very low heat. If not, the egg will curdle too quickly and you will end up with an omelette or a quiche. I usually set the oven to 95°C and bake for 50mins, then check whether the centre is still wobbly. If still watery I will bake it a little longer for another 20 mins interval and check again. The creme brulee should be silky smooth like a thick creamy custard, and not bouncy jelly like, that just wrong.
There are a number of ways to make the thin layer of toffee on top, and the most common way is by burning castor sugar on top using a gas torch burner. Another way is to submerge the custard cold in a tray of ice and put inside the oven on high heat and let it burn the sugar on top. Since I don’t have a gas torch burner, and the idea of sticking them into oven without ruining the custard sounds way too risky, luckily I found a cheat and works like a treat! It suggested by caramelising the sugar separately then pour on top of the chilled custard. Genius~! I know, I know… it doesn’t have those burnt roasty speckles on top and you don’t get to play with fire, but who needs them when you have a nice sheet of shiny crystal toffee taste just as good! It is so evenly thin and flat like a thin layer of ice on the frozen lake. I can’t help but would like to crack a big hole and let the spoon drown into a pool of custard!
The original creme brulee has a nice strong vanilla flavour and the custard is silky smooth. The coffee creme brulee has a bittery taste to it and I can see the caffeine’s addict will love this one. Imagine a coffee creme brulee for breakfast? Mmm… And the Brandy creme brulee is simply irresistible! It taste just like the vanilla creme brulee, but it slowly mellows down to a strong aroma of brandy. I think we have a winner here! Now, I can’t wait to try and make some with Kahlua for that hint of coconut, and Bailey’s for the buttery scotch goodness! ~drool~
Don’t throw those egg yolks away, try this recipe now!
Ingredients
(make 3 creme brulee on 4Oz ramekins)
1. 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
2. ½ cup full cream milk
3. 5 large egg yolks
4. 1 / 3 cup sugar
5. 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Other flavours
1. 2 tbsp of strong expresso coffee
2. 2 tbsp of Brandy
Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 95ºC and line up 3 ramekins on a baking tray.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract until combined but not airy.
3. Bring the cream and milk just to a boil.
4. Still whisking, pour in about one quarter of the hot milk – this will temper or warm, the yolks so they won’t curdle.
5. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the cream and milk.
6. Give it a stir and make sure all the sugar are melted.
7. Then strain it into the ramekins. Tap the ramekins on the counter to let all the bubbles out, and scoop out the froth on top with a spoon if necessary.
8. Put it in the oven and bake for 50 to 60mins.
9. Tap the side of the ramekins and see whether the centre are set. If it wobbles too much, then it needs to cook a little longer. If it is firm, then you have overcooked them. If it wobbles a little, they are ready as they will still continue cooking while cooling down on the rack.
10. Once they reach room temperature, cover each custard with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours! The longer the better.
The Cheat – Caramelised sugar topping
1. Add 1 cup of castor sugar and 2 tbsp of water in a saucepan on medium heat.
2. Once all the sugar melted, turn it on high heat and let the sugar caramelised.
3. Once you notice the sugar is turning yellow, remove from the stove quickly as it will continue to caramelise in the extreme hot saucepan, so take extra precautions here.
4. Pour a small amount of the caramel on top of the chilled custard.
5. Quickly tilt and swirl the ramekin and let the sugar coats the top of the custard evenly.
Enjoy!
† we love the movie, Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain so much, we named our dog, Amélie.
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
I agree…there is something so sensual and divine about creme brulee. Love these flavours Billy!
Peter G’s last blog post..Summer Galette
Wow. You’ve given me the biggest craving for creme brulee now. I love that satisyfing cracking noise too – a little bit of destruction and a whole lotta lovin’! Yours look so good and that’s a handy toffee tip too.
Helen’s last blog post..Rhodes Phoenix, Rhodes
Ooh brillianntt! I love brulees yumm ^^! You make is sound an look so easy but I know if I try it would be epic fail
and superb photos btw!
Haha Amelie is so wondrously weird but thats part of the appeal
FFichiban’s last blog post..Cafe Mix – The Rocks, Sydney
I love the part about creme brulee in Amelie Poulain – it’s true that the sound of the top of the dessert crackling is magical! Yours looks delicious!
How beautiful! Creme Brulee has got to be one of my utmost favorite desserts and I’ve yet to venture to make it at home–the only reason being the lack of a butane torch. But this method you’ve read and shared is fantastic. I will definitely try this for my next get together.
And the cracking of the creme brulee is by far the best part!
Maria’s last blog post..Tsoureki Bread Pudding
Your crème brulée looks absolutely delicious…
And the pictures are great (as always!!)!!.
Wonderful!
Leonor de Sousa Bastos’s last blog post..A sweeter year
YES! That first crack of the burnt sugar … the contrast of textures in your mouth … love love love everything about creme brulee. The best one I ever had was in this french-indian restaurant in NYC – it was a ginger creme brulee. Mmm mmm good! But all of yours look pretty darn amazing too. I think that coffee one has my name all over it
I love creme brulee!
Haven’t heard of the separate caramelisation trick before, so I’ll definitely give that a crack…!
flapflap’s last blog post..zia pina, the rocks
ohhh man look at all those gorgeous toffee shards! amelie is also my fav! i love the soundtrack yann tiersen is a genius
chocolatesuze’s last blog post..melting [4]
Billy, what a beautiful blog you have, I am loving reading it and the photos are so beautiful. I am not crazy about creme brulle actually, but I adore Amelie Poulain!
Your pictures are amazing and that crème brulée looks fabulous! I can’t wait to try it!
French Cooking for Dummies’s last blog post..Welcome to my kitchen!
The Crystal-cracking top so aweeeesome!
Denise’s last blog post..Nien Gao (Sticky Cake)
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! I’ve tried at least 10 times (no exaggeration) to make that perfect creme brulee until I discovered your post. I’ve since tried your recipe 3 times and each time it’s been perfection!! You’ve made me soooooooo happy!! THANK YOU
http://jennylovestoeat.blogspot.com
Also for toffee layer, I just sprinkle white sugar and raw
or brown sugar on top and grill them for a couple of minutes. Your
recipe works brilliantly! Love it heeeaps.
Oh look at the perfect crack on top. All ur recipes and photos look awesome Billy. U rocked in Masterchef3.