The best crème brûlée I ever had was at an adorable little french restaurant called Le Central in an area of Denver known as the Golden Triangle. Sadly in 2015 it closed after 34 years. I went there at least once a year (it always felt like a special treat) for about 10 years and every time I went I always saved room for their crème brûlée.
Perfectly creamy. Perfectly crisp sugar crust!
It brings me great satisfaction to break that spoon through that sugar crust and taste that first bite!!
I have never made crème brûlée at home but I have a li’l butane torch I first used on this pie and decided with this being egg month this was the perfect dessert to use this torch! Alton Brown will tell you use a big propane torch, it burns hotter. I feel like my li’l torch had no problem creating a sugar crust!
I slightly altered this recipe from A Sweet Pea Chef! I love her recipes and I love her blog. I had the honor of attending a class Lacey taught at the Tastemaker Conference in Salt Lake City in 2018. She taught us the essentials of making great recipe videos. Check her videos out!
I didn’t have heavy cream so I used half and half and an extra egg yolk instead and these little custards turned out perfectly!
another 1/4 c. sugar for sprinkling the top of the custard
a small kitchen torch
Instructions
In a 9 x 13 glass baking dish, fill 1/3 full with water and then place the 6 empty glass ramekins in the dish and sit in the oven.
Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit.
In a large bowl add the egg yolks and sugar and whisk thoroughly.
Add the vanilla and whisk until combined.
Lastly, add the half and half and whisk until combined.
Open the oven door, pull the rack that has the 9 x 13 baking dish out of the oven until it catches and slowly pour the custard mixture until the six ramekins are about 3/4 of the way full.
Slowly push the rack back in the oven and let the ramekins bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean.
Carefully remove the baking dish out of the oven and remove each ramekin to a cooling rack.
Let cool for about 15 minutes.
Refrigerate the custards for 30 to 60 minutes.
Sprinkle the other 1/4 c. of sugar generously onto the 6 portions of custard and slowly and evenly torch each one until a crisp crust forms.
Strudel and Streusel are two friends living in different cities, sharing a love of baking (and butter) through this blog. With Streusel in Denver, and Strudel in Seattle, we've found our little site to be a great way to stay in touch, share recipes we love, and talk about experiences in our respective cities.
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