creme brulee literally means burnt cream. The burnt part refers to the glazed, caramelised sugar top it has. But try and get a nice golden finish to it rather than dark and burnt
brulees are one of the easiest and delicious desserts there are, especially when laced with fresh blackberries, and a great stand by dessert when needed in a hurry. As the preparation is minimal, and its produced with common ingredients that most people will have
the trick with brulees is three fold
use fresh eggs, preferably free range that have a golden yolk
use a low temperature oven, which means there is no need for a messy water bath and prevents it over cooking
use icing sugar for the caramelised top, NOT castor sugar. The icing sugar produces a nice, delicate crunch and doesn't overpower the creme
do not waste the vanilla pod, remove, rinse and dry and use it again or place it into an airtight container of castor sugar for delicious, aromatic vanilla sugar. When the sugar takes on the wonderful aromatic flavour, (approx 2 weeks) the bean can be left in and eventually finely chopped and added to vanilla ice cream :-)
egg yolks - large
5
pc
cream - double
500
ml
sugar - castor
75
gm
vanilla pod
1/2
pc
blackberries
sq
sugar - icing
sq
pre-heat oven to 120°C
split the vanilla pod down the centre and scrape out the seeds
add the pod and the seeds to the cream along with the sugar and warm very slightly (do not boil)
remove from the heat and allow to sit and infuse for at least one hour (pre-prepared over night is best)
whisk in the egg yolks together and add the infused cream, whisk gently until thoroughly combined (if the mixture obtains a slight froth, scoop it off or a great tip is to blast the surface with a blowtorch to remove the foam)
place the ramekin moulds onto a tray
place one or two berries into each ramekin dish and carefully pour in the mixture
place in the oven and bake for approx 40 minutes until lightly set
remove and chill for at least 6 hours
to serve - sprinkle liberally with icing sugar and lightly blowtorch to caramelise or place under a hot grill
chef notes
if required or preferred, after the initial glazing, liberally dust with icing sugar a second time and caramile again
