Creme brulee is a classic and elegant way to end a meal. The best thing about it – besides cracking that crisp caramel crust to get to the delicate custard within – is the fact that it is actually easy to make at home!
Creme brulee starts off with a mixture of cream, milk, sugar and egg yolks. The cream gives the custard a lot of richness, while the yolks make it very tender and give it a good mouth-feel. I like to use a mixture of cream and milk for my creme brulees because I think it makes them a little bit lighter and silkier than a recipe that uses cream alone. Whole milk is a good choice for this recipe, but low fat milk will work out just fine. The custard is mixed up and strained into ramekins, which are placed in a water bath before being put in the oven to finish cooking. Baking in a water bath allows the custard to cook very slowly, ensuring a smooth finished product.
Since I wanted a lot of vanilla flavor, I took the time to infuse a vanilla bean into the heavy cream before adding it to the yolk mixture. You can use vanilla extract in this recipe instead of infusing the cream with a vanilla bean to streamline the whole recipe. You’ll still get a good vanilla flavor, you just won’t get the look of specks of vanilla bean inside of the custard when you dig in with a spoon.
I use regular 6-oz ramekins for creme brulee. I like to have a high custard-to-crust ratio, so I use the regular 6-oz ramekins I have on hand in the kitchen, rather than the large, shallow ramekins that are often used for creme brulee in restaurants. Creme brulee can be baked a day or two in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Add sugar to the tops of the custard and brulee them – burn the sugar into a crisp carame – right before you want to serve them. Use a small kitchen torch to do this, and it is definitely worth picking up a small one at a kitchen supply store to have if you plan to make your own creme brulees.
