10 crème brûlées that make us fall in love

How to make your crème brûlée every time?

Let's start at the beginning: what do you call crème brûlée? It is a cooked cream, prepared from full-fat liquid cream, egg yolks, vanilla for the classic version, and sugar. The subtlety of this cream is mainly due to its cooking. It must be cooked enough to no longer be liquid, but if the cooking is too thorough the result will be too firm. What we don't want! In addition, the size of the ramekins – especially the height – also affects cooking. Just like the temperature. In short, you must therefore adapt your preparation to your equipment but also your oven. If you don't succeed the first time, don't worry, the result will still be good. As for the crunchy caramel on top, it’s essential! To succeed, nothing beats a good blowtorch.

Ingredients

Traditionally, we use cream, or a cream/milk mixture for the liquid part. On this side, we advise you to choose full cream or whole milk for maximum deliciousness. Indeed, cream is the main ingredient of the preparation, and it is its fat which gives all the deliciousness to the dessert. If you want something lighter, it's better to choose another recipe, otherwise you'll be disappointed.

But cream alone, even when cooked, does not produce a crème brûlée, so egg yolks must be added, which will “grab” the cream as it cooks and give the final texture to the whole thing.

To flavor it, don't forget the vanilla – in the classic version – and sugar to transform the whole thing into a dessert (you can also make savory crème brûlées) but also to caramelize the top.

That's the basics, but many variations exist. Coconut cream, matcha tea, chocolate, coffee, black sesame, pistachio, praline, rum, orange blossom, you can play with a lot of flavors when you prepare a crème brûlée. It's up to you to see what you like.

The preparation

Ultra-simple, just heat the liquid part (cream or cream + milk) before adding it to the egg yolk-sugar mixture. If you include a flavor like vanilla, simply infuse its opened pods in the heating liquid. Certain preparations such as pistachio or praline paste will mix better with hot liquid than directly into a paste, especially if it is a little firm.

When the mixture is ready, you can pour it into flat ramekins. Obviously, the best is to use special crème brûlée ramekins, not very high and wide. Why is this preferable? Already because cooking will be faster – even if you just need to adapt – but above all because the caramelization surface will be larger. And, we're not going to tell you, what we love about crème brûlée is above all the extreme deliciousness of this crunchy caramel, and the contrast between it and the creaminess of the cream.

The cooking

Ah, cooking crème brûlée. It's very simple, each cook has their own recipe and their own way of cooking crème brûlée. Long cooking at low temperature, or faster at high temperature, almost anything is possible. If it's your first and you don't really gauge the power of your oven, it's better to focus on longer, more gradual cooking. So, during cooking, you can check the texture to avoid overcooking.

But how do you know when to stop cooking? Just stir the ramekins briefly, if the cream jiggles slightly in the center but not at the edges, it's good. If it doesn't shake at all, it's overcooked.

Caramel

Once the creams are cooked and have cooled sufficiently in the fridge, they are covered evenly with white sugar, before delicately caramelizing everything with a blowtorch. Be careful not to heat the cream too much to maintain its freshness.

If the standard cream is light in color, some preparations are darker, with chocolate for example, and it is sometimes more difficult to know when to stop caramelization. The right test? The spoon. If the surface of the cream is hard when you tap it with the back of a spoon then the sugar has caramelized well and you can make it all crunch without shame!

For inspiration, here are 10 delicacies to prepare without delay.

Also read: “How to make your caramel a success every time? »