Easy Crème Brulee

Though I have successfully made Crème Brulee the “traditional” way, with double boiler, etc., this way is much easier, almost foolproof, and takes less prep time. The quantities below will make 6 small ramekins.

• 5 egg yolks
• ½ C sugar
• 2 C heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla
• Light brown sugar

Preheat oven to 300 and heat a tea kettle of water to not quite boiling. Prepare a large baking dish like a 9x13 or lasagna pan with the ramekins in it.

Put cream in a small sauce pan and warm gently on low. You do not want the cream hot, just slightly warm to touch, and bring it up to heat slow so the bottom doesn’t brown and you don’t get a skin.

Separate eggs reserving egg whites for something else, and combine egg yolks with sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl large enough to add the cream later. When cream, water, and oven are all up to heat, add cream to egg yolk mixture and mix well, but don’t beat or whip.

Pour mixture into ramekins up to bottom of lip leaving about ¼”. Add hot water to baking pan and add additional hot tap water if necessary to bring water most of the way up the sides of the ramekin making sure there is enough room in pan so that it won’t slosh over either the sides of the pan or the sides of the ramekins when you move it.

Put pan with hot water and filled ramekins into oven (see note below) and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour until they start to set up and are slightly golden on top.  They will continue to cook in the hot water when removed.

Remove carefully from oven when done and let cool, cover ramekins with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Right before serving, sprinkle tops with a 1/16” layer of light brown sugar and put on a baking sheet. Mist with a very fine mist of water and place under broiler in oven. Watch carefully and remove when sugar has that caramelized melted look to it. Let cool and serve. For variations, try adding espresso grounds or cocoa to the tops before the brown sugar.

Notes:

• It can be easier to add water to baking dish when already on oven rack. Removing though still takes a steady hand.
• Misting the sugar with water prevents the tops of the little lumps of sugar from burning.
• Heating the cream significantly reduces the cooking time. If it is too hot when you add it to the egg mixture you will get sweet scrambled eggs.
• Heating the water first significantly reduces the cooking time. Don’t use boiling or really hot water since you risk cracking a dish or turning the outside of the custard to scrambled egg.
• I have found that the cream to sugar to egg ratio in various recipes various sometimes significantly, mostly the amount of sugar. The above ratios I have used and seem to work well but you could probably reduce the sugar some if wanted.

Picture below is a double recipe in oven just before taking them out.