The Art of Creme Brulee: A Guide to Mastering this Classic Dessert

To begin with, the key to a successful creme brulee lies in the mixture of cream and egg yolks. The combination of these two ingredients creates a rich and creamy base that is essential for this dessert. As the chef notes, "this beautiful well combined mixture of cream and egg yolks and that's what's going to set into your creme brulee". This emphasis on the importance of the mixture is a crucial step in the process of making creme brulee.

Incorporating Air: A Little Too Much, But Not Too Much

The chef also mentions that they "did end up a little bit frothy" due to incorporating too much air into the mixture. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can add a light and airy texture to the final product. The key is finding the right balance, where the mixture is not too aerated but still has some structure to hold it together.

Baking in a Water Bath

To ensure even cooking and prevent the creme brulee from cracking or curdling, the chef uses a water bath. This technique involves placing the ramekins in a larger pan filled with hot water, creating a steamy environment that cooks the mixture slowly and gently. The chef notes that "putting your pan in the oven first put it on the rack because it's far easier to pour the hot water into the pan than it is to move a pan full of hot water". This attention to detail is crucial for achieving success with creme brulee.

Testing for Doneness

To determine if the creme brulee is cooked to perfection, the chef checks for a "little bit of jiggle still in the middle but it should be all the way set you don't want it to be sloshy at all". This is an important step, as overcooking can result in a dry and unpleasant texture. The chef notes that they will rework their recipe to achieve the perfect doneness.

Baking and Cooling

Once the creme brulee is cooked, it's removed from the water bath and allowed to cool slightly before being transferred to ramekins. The chef notes that "we're gonna divide this into ramekins so the amount we made basically fit exactly three ramekins". This portioning will allow for individual servings of creme brulee.

Chilling and Sugar Coating

After baking, the creme brulee is chilled in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours to set. The chef notes that this is an important step, as it allows the flavors to meld together and the texture to firm up. Once chilled, the creme brulee is coated with a layer of sugar, which adds a crunchy texture and flavor to the final product.

Caramelizing with a Torch

The final step in making creme brulee involves caramelizing the sugar on top using a culinary torch. The chef notes that "you do want to give it a little coating of sugar so we're just going to give a pretty uniform covering of sugar on the top". This attention to detail is crucial, as the right amount of sugar can make or break the dish.

Conclusion

Creme brulee is a classic dessert that requires patience and attention to detail. By following these steps and tips, anyone can master this beloved treat at home. Whether you're using a water bath or a culinary torch, the key to success lies in finding the right balance of flavors and textures. With practice and persistence, you'll be whipping up creme brulee like a pro in no time!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enand welcome back to love your food this week we have a classic dessert recipe for you really super easy as much as it's uh served in fancy places but uh you'll be surprised how amazingly easy it is to make your own creme brulee at home uh we're actually gonna be doing sort of a smaller version of this so if you have uh if you don't want to make a huge batch of it here's what you want to do with your ingredients so we're going to start with some eggs we're going to be using some vanilla now you can use extract or you can use vanilla beans we're going to use a small chunk of vanilla bean some plain white granulated sugar and some heavy cream or whipping cream so this is going to be a rather small batch uh instead of making a huge amount we're just making three servings of this so we've cut the recipe down quite a lot and the amounts are going to be in the description below so the first thing we're going to do is uh scald the cream now we're just going to heat it up we're putting in a double boiler here in a very small pan because again we're using a very small amount with that uh little just a little section of vanilla bean you can already see some of the vanilla pips coming out of the bean which is great that's amazing it's going to spread that vanilla flavor all the way through that cream and you want to stir it occasionally you don't need to be right on top of it especially if you're using your double boiler because it'll keep your cream from burning although it can still stick so you do want to come back to it every once in a while and give it a stir and that also encourages more of the little vanilla pips to come out of that that section of vanilla bean we've got in there so while that's getting hot we're going to prepare our egg yolks so we're going to separate our eggs and remember when you're dealing with yolks if you get a little bit of the white in with the yolk that's fine although you do want to try and get rid of the the little schlezy in there if you get a little bit of white and yolks it's fine if it's the other way around if you're doing egg white you can't get any yolk in there any fat will cause it to deflate so we're going to take our egg yolks most of the granulated sugar and just a tiny little sprinkle of salt and we're just going to whip these until they're pale we don't want to incorporate too much air into this because your end result you don't want it to be frothy you want it to be very very smooth now we ended up actually incorporating a little bit too much air into during the tempering process which will come in just a moment so this is about as far as you want to go just to the ribbon is fine it doesn't need to be super super over whipped or anything so that's just about right so now's the tricky part this is the part that some people do have a hard time with and that's tempering the yolks the trick is you want to make sure you are drizzling the hot cream in as slowly as possible you want to get just all of those yolks up to temperature very very slowly with that hot cream mixture if you go too fast you will end up with just scrambled eggs but if you go nice and slow like this and you really keep it moving and mix it you will end up with this beautiful well combined mixture of cream and egg yolks and that's what's going to set into your creme brulee and you can also see some of those little vanilla pips in there that is amazing so this is where i said uh we did incorporate a little too much air it did end up a little bit frothy but that's fine uh when we finish everything off once it's all baked and has set in the fridge uh it's so it'll be fine we're gonna cover that with a little bit of sugar at the end and give it a little torch so that we can get that uh that beautiful uh crispy sugar top so we're gonna divide this into ramekins so the amount we made basically fit exactly three ramekins so this is uh three servings of of creme brulee now there are a couple of other ramekins in there that was actually a separate project that we tried that didn't succeed but we were baking them at the same time so we are going to be baking these in a water bath a memory and you do want to put your pan in the oven first put it on the rack because it's far easier to pour the hot water into the pan than it is to move a pan full of hot water so we boiled some water because you don't want uh to lose a lot of time letting the water come up to temperature around your the thing you're trying to cook so we put in boiling water so that it's already and be at temperature that's going to go in the oven and the way you test to see if your creme brulee is done you want to have a little bit of jiggle still in the middle but it should be it should be all the way set you don't want it to be sloshy at all so you can see here it's still a little bit loose in the middle uh it's it's it's got that jiggle but it's not quite set enough so we're gonna put that back in and then we're going to try again so here it's coming out again and you can see just barely moves in the middle that is perfect those other ones uh obviously not done yet but uh you probably won't be we're gonna rework that recipe it'll come back in a future date and that's uh that's it they're baked already so we're gonna take those out they are ready to go and we're just gonna put them on a rack and let them cool for a little while once they're a little closer to room temperature we're going to wrap those in plastic wrap and we want these to go in the fridge for at least a few hours so uh three or four hours is fine overnight is great you do want to wrap them up so they don't pick up any other sort of flavors from inside your fridge or anything so we're going to just pop those into the fridge all wrapped up give them a good solid wrapping and then when you take it out they do go down just a little bit so we're just going to pull some of that that extra custard off the side because we don't want that to burn when we use our torch so we do have a creme brulee torch we're going to be using but first you want to give it a little coating of sugar so we're just going to give a pretty uniform covering of sugar on the top there you can see those nice vanilla pips in there and you do want to kind of make sure you get into the corners as well all the way to the edge and then we're going to hit it with our our culinary torch so this is just a small little you can buy these for this purpose they're sold as culinary torches or creme brulee torches and they are just for doing this sort of thing so don't make the mistake of holding it in your hand while you're doing this because you are very likely to burn yourselves the the the edge of the glass does get quite hot under that torch and then once it's uh once that sugar has set on the top it's ready to go and you can do that beautiful crack on top you can also do the sugar under the broiler if you have a good hot broiler in your oven you can put the sugar on and put under the broiler and that will also work it's a little trickier to do it that way and the torch is a lot easier but that's it that's the whole thing super easy to do absolutely delicious uh classic dessert we hope that you'll try this it's uh it's way easier than you think so if you like this recipe please do like and subscribe and if you have any recipes you'd like to see chef kale try on the channel please let us know in the comments below and remember to love your foodand welcome back to love your food this week we have a classic dessert recipe for you really super easy as much as it's uh served in fancy places but uh you'll be surprised how amazingly easy it is to make your own creme brulee at home uh we're actually gonna be doing sort of a smaller version of this so if you have uh if you don't want to make a huge batch of it here's what you want to do with your ingredients so we're going to start with some eggs we're going to be using some vanilla now you can use extract or you can use vanilla beans we're going to use a small chunk of vanilla bean some plain white granulated sugar and some heavy cream or whipping cream so this is going to be a rather small batch uh instead of making a huge amount we're just making three servings of this so we've cut the recipe down quite a lot and the amounts are going to be in the description below so the first thing we're going to do is uh scald the cream now we're just going to heat it up we're putting in a double boiler here in a very small pan because again we're using a very small amount with that uh little just a little section of vanilla bean you can already see some of the vanilla pips coming out of the bean which is great that's amazing it's going to spread that vanilla flavor all the way through that cream and you want to stir it occasionally you don't need to be right on top of it especially if you're using your double boiler because it'll keep your cream from burning although it can still stick so you do want to come back to it every once in a while and give it a stir and that also encourages more of the little vanilla pips to come out of that that section of vanilla bean we've got in there so while that's getting hot we're going to prepare our egg yolks so we're going to separate our eggs and remember when you're dealing with yolks if you get a little bit of the white in with the yolk that's fine although you do want to try and get rid of the the little schlezy in there if you get a little bit of white and yolks it's fine if it's the other way around if you're doing egg white you can't get any yolk in there any fat will cause it to deflate so we're going to take our egg yolks most of the granulated sugar and just a tiny little sprinkle of salt and we're just going to whip these until they're pale we don't want to incorporate too much air into this because your end result you don't want it to be frothy you want it to be very very smooth now we ended up actually incorporating a little bit too much air into during the tempering process which will come in just a moment so this is about as far as you want to go just to the ribbon is fine it doesn't need to be super super over whipped or anything so that's just about right so now's the tricky part this is the part that some people do have a hard time with and that's tempering the yolks the trick is you want to make sure you are drizzling the hot cream in as slowly as possible you want to get just all of those yolks up to temperature very very slowly with that hot cream mixture if you go too fast you will end up with just scrambled eggs but if you go nice and slow like this and you really keep it moving and mix it you will end up with this beautiful well combined mixture of cream and egg yolks and that's what's going to set into your creme brulee and you can also see some of those little vanilla pips in there that is amazing so this is where i said uh we did incorporate a little too much air it did end up a little bit frothy but that's fine uh when we finish everything off once it's all baked and has set in the fridge uh it's so it'll be fine we're gonna cover that with a little bit of sugar at the end and give it a little torch so that we can get that uh that beautiful uh crispy sugar top so we're gonna divide this into ramekins so the amount we made basically fit exactly three ramekins so this is uh three servings of of creme brulee now there are a couple of other ramekins in there that was actually a separate project that we tried that didn't succeed but we were baking them at the same time so we are going to be baking these in a water bath a memory and you do want to put your pan in the oven first put it on the rack because it's far easier to pour the hot water into the pan than it is to move a pan full of hot water so we boiled some water because you don't want uh to lose a lot of time letting the water come up to temperature around your the thing you're trying to cook so we put in boiling water so that it's already and be at temperature that's going to go in the oven and the way you test to see if your creme brulee is done you want to have a little bit of jiggle still in the middle but it should be it should be all the way set you don't want it to be sloshy at all so you can see here it's still a little bit loose in the middle uh it's it's it's got that jiggle but it's not quite set enough so we're gonna put that back in and then we're going to try again so here it's coming out again and you can see just barely moves in the middle that is perfect those other ones uh obviously not done yet but uh you probably won't be we're gonna rework that recipe it'll come back in a future date and that's uh that's it they're baked already so we're gonna take those out they are ready to go and we're just gonna put them on a rack and let them cool for a little while once they're a little closer to room temperature we're going to wrap those in plastic wrap and we want these to go in the fridge for at least a few hours so uh three or four hours is fine overnight is great you do want to wrap them up so they don't pick up any other sort of flavors from inside your fridge or anything so we're going to just pop those into the fridge all wrapped up give them a good solid wrapping and then when you take it out they do go down just a little bit so we're just going to pull some of that that extra custard off the side because we don't want that to burn when we use our torch so we do have a creme brulee torch we're going to be using but first you want to give it a little coating of sugar so we're just going to give a pretty uniform covering of sugar on the top there you can see those nice vanilla pips in there and you do want to kind of make sure you get into the corners as well all the way to the edge and then we're going to hit it with our our culinary torch so this is just a small little you can buy these for this purpose they're sold as culinary torches or creme brulee torches and they are just for doing this sort of thing so don't make the mistake of holding it in your hand while you're doing this because you are very likely to burn yourselves the the the edge of the glass does get quite hot under that torch and then once it's uh once that sugar has set on the top it's ready to go and you can do that beautiful crack on top you can also do the sugar under the broiler if you have a good hot broiler in your oven you can put the sugar on and put under the broiler and that will also work it's a little trickier to do it that way and the torch is a lot easier but that's it that's the whole thing super easy to do absolutely delicious uh classic dessert we hope that you'll try this it's uh it's way easier than you think so if you like this recipe please do like and subscribe and if you have any recipes you'd like to see chef kale try on the channel please let us know in the comments below and remember to love your food\n"