To Brulee or Not to Brulee

I finally did it. I got my crème brulee torch. It’s so cool. And you’ll be happy to hear that no injuries or fires have been reported. (Although, I did have to take it away from B. What is it with men and fire?)

The torch cost me $20 (shout out to Bed Bath & Beyond), and it came with a set of four ramekins (butane not included). So on Sunday, I pulled out my trusty America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and found the recipe for vanilla bean crème brulee, and got things started.

The custard was not hard to make at all. I will tell you that it’s a vat of fat (or in more culinary terms, egg yolks and heavy cream), seasoned with vanilla and sugar. I steeped the vanilla bean pod (with the seeds removed and added to the mixture) in some of the heavy cream and sugar until it was brought to a simmer. Then I let it sit for a while before adding the rest of the cream, and then gradually whisked the mixture into the egg yolks. Once that was done, it was time to strain it to remove any remnants of the vanilla bean pod.

Voila! The custard is ready for the oven. I set up the ramekins in the roasting pan, only to realize the recipe called for 4 oz ramekins and clearly these were not. So I had to dig through my cabinets for some filler ramekins before I was back in business.

Okay, ramekins of various shapes and sizes are now filled and arranged in the roasting pan. Time to add the hot water bath. The recipe recommends placing the pan in the oven and then adding the boiling water. I thought that was silly until I splashed boiling hot water on me. Damnit, Beth. But at least it wasn’t the torch that caused the burn which I know is what you all predicted would happen. Ye of little faith.

Okay, custard in ramekins? Check. Ramekins in roasting pan? Check. Hot water bath filled to approximately halfway up the ramekins of various shapes and sizes? Hmmm… semi-check. Good enough.

They baked for about 35 minutes and then needed to be removed from the roasting pan and hot water bath, and moved to a separate pan (I used a brownie pan), covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for at least two hours.

Now, it’s time to torch. The recipe called for turbinado sugar, or sugar in the raw. Which is effin’ expensive as far as sugar goes, let me tell you. But I was committed to doing this right so I spent the $4.49 on a two pound box of sugar.

Here’s what I can tell you. When I did this at dinner the other night (oh by the way, I made roasted Cornish game hens with lemon sage butter served with sautéed baby spinach and a garden salad, thank you very much), it was easy peasy. No problems. But…

When I re-enacted this tonight to take a couple of pictures to post with the blog, the flame went crazy! I have no idea what happened, but I’m a little afraid to put the torch back in the cabinet because it seems to have some pent up energy or something. See for yourself:

But, crazy flames and the threat of burning my house down (which didn’t actually happen, so it doesn’t count), it came out really good! It actually tasted like crème brulee. In all honesty, it was more of a pain to make with the hot water bath, than it was hard to make. And this was my first custard. So I think this will only lead to bigger and better things for this foodie down the road.

If only I could get rid of that burning smell in my kitchen…