Nice and still easy Creme Brulee

It's been almost one year since I last attempted Crème Brûlée. Now I'm back with an improved version, even though I still use the same recipe. This is because I now have 2 not-so-secret weapons: real vanilla beans and blow torch. And each time I do it, I am reminded again of the simple steps in making this favourite French dessert.

We had bought vanilla pods with the remaining of our Tongan dollars at the airport when we were holidaying in the country. Despite my love for all things vanilla, I'm clueless as to how the real thing looks like and thankfully, youtube comes to my rescue to show me how to even open it!

As for the blow torch, we were actually shopping for electric toothbrush at Moore Wilson. Being rather put off by the hefty price tag of fancy electric toothbrushes, our attention were instead attracted by the colourful blow torch on display right next to the oral hygiene devices. Well, I guess anyone with a sweet tooth needs to work harder on keeping their pearly whites clean.

Anyway, to keep the long story short, we were happy to sacrifice our dental health in the name of holy good creme brulee.

Below is the recipe from Camille's French classic cookbook, slightly amended from my last post.

Crème Brûlée
makes 6 cups

1 whole egg
4 egg yolks
80g castor sugar
half vanilla pod or a few drops of vanilla essence
400ml liquid cream
brown sugar

If you're using vanilla beans, slit the pod lengthwise into two and scour the beans out from half the pod with the back of your knife. Check youtube if you're unsure. Add half the pod and the vanilla beans to the 400ml cream and heat over medium-low fire to infuse the vanilla flavour until the cream is just about to boil.

In case you're short of say 100ml cream (which we are always short of, as cream do not seem to come in 400ml packaging), top it up with milk. (Maybe that's my secret to making a lighter version of creme brulee...hmmm)

Set aside for 15 minutes. Preheat oven at 130 degree Celcius.

After that, pour over a sieve to remove the vanilla pod. Don't throw the vanilla pod away, dry it and keep it in a jar of sugar to make vanilla sugar.

Whisk the egg, egg yolks, castor sugar (if you're using vanilla essence, add it during this stage) together (just a manual balloon hand whisk will do), then add the cream in slowly until well blended.

Pour mixture over a sieve (to remove bubbles) into individual ramekins (coffee cups may work well). This quantity makes 6 cups.

Cook in preheated oven of 130C. The cups have to be placed in a tray of water to moderate actual heat going through and prevent the eggs from become omelettes.

Cooking time is about 40-45 minutes, but be sure the cream has gelled in the cups. What we do is shake our oven a little bit (or tilt the cups), and you'll also see the custard surface a little puffed up, indicating that the inside is cooked.

You also wouldn't want to overcook the custard. We cooked our perfect crème brûlée in 45 minutes in our fan-baked oven, but every oven is different, so some careful observation is necessary here. If still unsure, you may consider sacrificing one cup by piercing through the surface to check if it's cooked inside.

Put in fridge for 1 hour before serving. To serve, sprinkle generously brown sugar on top and grill in a very hot oven (say 200-250C for 5 minutes, watch carefully to avoid burning the top) for the surface to caramelise before serving, or better still, get a blow torch.

Camille has another suggestion which we have tried with half the batch of creme brulee with good results: leave the creme brulee to cool in the oven door open, and cool overnight. Then repeat the last step above.

Also, if you like to experiment with different flavours, just replace the vanilla beans with say lemon zest, coffee liqueur, almond essence....