Believe it or not, I’ve only fallen in love with creme brulee two years back. Before that, I’ve always thought that the taste would be like cream caramel – a dessert that I’ve tried and found too egg-y and never liked. So what made me change my mind? The taste. Simple as that. This is a classic case of not wanting to try in the first place. *eyes rolling*
It all started when a friend invited me over to his place for dinner. He cooked the meal – from scratch. I helped a bit but he was the “head chef” that night. We had fun making dinner together. A few weeks later, I decided to return the gesture. I knew that he generally doesn’t like sweet stuff with the exception of ice-cream and creme brulee. Because I was so touched by the effort he made the other day, I decided to make a favourite of his. I don’t have an ice-creme maker, so creme brulee it had to be. I turned to my trusted google and searched for “how to make creme brulee”. It brought me to this espresso creme brulee recipe from Nigella’s website which mentioned that the recipe was sourced from one of Gordon Ramsey’s cookbook. Since at that time, I still thought that creme brulee taste egg-y, I thought that the hint of espresso will mask that egg-y taste. The perfect solution for me.
I followed the recipe almost to the T. My only tweak was to add some vanilla seed to it.
An obviously, since I made it, I had to try it. Well, you know what happened next. Since then, I’ve made the normal creme brulee (without the espresso) and I was pleasantly surprise that it doesn’t taste egg-y and totally love those ones too. My preference though, is still the espresso version.
INGREDIENTS:
- 6 egg yolks
- 350 ml double creme
- 125 ml full fat milk
- 50 ml double shot espresso coffee
- 75 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste/ vanilla seed from 1 pod
- 2 tbsp demerara sugar
INSTRUCTIONS:
Pre-heat the oven to 140°C.
Place 6 oven proof ramekins in a baking tray and put them aside.
Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan. Add the vanilla bean paste (vanilla seed and pod, if using) and heat slowly to scalding point. Stir in the espresso coffee.
While waiting for the cream and milk to heat up, in a heatproof bowl, beat the egg yolks and caster sugar until pale and creamy.
Pour about a third of the heated liquid to the beaten egg mixture. Whisk well. Pour the egg and creme/milk mixture back into the saucepan containing the remainder of the heated cream/milk.
Strain the liquid into a jug.
Pour the mixture into the ramekins, dividing equally. Pour in boiling water into the baking tray up to the level of the creme brulee mixture.
Bake for about 45 minutes until custard has very lightly set. It should come away from the side slightly and the centre should still be slightly wobbly.
Remove from the baking tray and let it cool. Mixture will thicken on cooling. Wrap each ramekin with cling foil and chill them in the fridge until ready to serve.
Before serving, sprinkle about a teaspoon of demerara sugar evenly on top of the creme brulee. Using a blow-torch, caramelise the sugar.
Serve straight away. Yums.xxx
