Crème brulée – silky chilled custard beneath a warm sugar glaze – is one of the simplest and most delicious desserts to prepare in individual portions, which are perfect for festive holiday dinners. While it has blissfully few ingredient and is not difficult to do, the hot/cold, fire-and-ice quality when it’s served often gets a “how-did-you-do-that?” reaction from guests.

There are many versions of crème brulée out there but here’s the original recipe from Le Cirque restaurant that started the craze after it appeared on the cover of New York magazine in 1986. Guess who wrote the article? Yes, and the most delicious part was spending time with then pastry chef Dieter Schorner to learn all the little tricks.

So here it is. Please also read the important notes below.

Crème Brulée
Makes 6 servings

½ cup dark brown sugar
3 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks
1/3 cup white granulated sugar
1 whole vanilla bean

Dehydrating the brown sugar
Spread brown sugar in a thin layer in a cake pan. Dry it in a warm, dry place for 48 hours (2 days), raking it frequently with fingers to remove lumps. Strain the sugar, discard lumps and store in an airtight container until ready to glaze the cooked custards (sugar keeps more or less indefinitely).

Preparing the custards
Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat to 350 degrees. Line a jelly-roll plan or shallow roasting pan with a thin cotton towel. Put 6 shallow, ungreased, 6 to 8-ounce shallow, heatproof ramekins on the towel in the pan and set aside.

Whisk 1/3 cup of the cream with the egg yolks in a medium, heatproof bowl, then whisk in the white sugar. Heat the remaining cream in a medium saucepan just until warm – do not let it simmer – and slowly whisk it in the sugar mixture. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve. Cut the vanilla bean open lengthwise and scrape the soft insides into the custard mixture. (Reserve the hull for another use – see notes).

Stir custard well to evenly distribute the vanilla flecks then pour or ladle it into ramekins, stirring the custard well each time. Pour ¼-inch hot tap water into the jelly-roll pan or enough to come halfway up the outside of the ramekins.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until custard is just set. Carefully remove custards from hot water bath and set aside to cool. Cover with plastic wrap stretched over custard dishes but not touching the tops of the custards. Refrigerate up to 48 hours but at least 4 hours.

Sugar-glazing the custards
Immediately before serving, blot top of custards gently with paper toweling to remove condensation. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the dried brown sugar in an even layer over each custard.

Put dishes on a dry jelly-roll pan under a hot broiler or salamander as close as possible to the heat source. Or, carefully caramelize the sugar with a cook’s blow torch. Watch dishes carefully, turning as necessary until sugar turns nut brown,  usually 30 seconds. Serve immediately. No garnish is needed.

Notes from Moi

• The single most important factor is finding the right porcelain baking dishes or ramekins [above]. Each should hold ½ cup of custard plus the sugar glaze easily, so the ideal size is 6-ounces. Sides can be straight, or fluted. These are thick enough to insulate the custard and shallow enough to let it bake quickly in an even layer. I do not recommend using deeper dishes.

• The other must-have is dehydrated dark brown sugar. As we all know, dark brown sugar is very moist and sticky. The natural moisture will keep it from caramelizing quickly. So, spreading the sugar out and letting it dry for 48 hours before using it, then crumbling and straining it so there are not unglazed lumps, guarantees a crisp crust.

• Straining the custard doesn’t sound like it’s important but if this step is skipped the crèmes can have small, unpleasant egg-lumps instead of an amazingly smooth texture.

• Custards need to bake in the very gentle heat of a water-bath. I don’t think waterbath “sets” work because most of the ramekins are too deep. I use the dishes shown above set into a a jelly-roll or shallow roasting pan lined with a thin cotton dish cloth (do not use a polyester cloth as it can melt).

• Once baked, the crèmes can be refrigerated for two days unglazed. Handy. Plus, the flat ramekins don’t take up much space (they can be stacked between plates or pieces of cardboard).

• Gently blot the chilled custards with a paper towel to remove all traces of condensation on the surface – that can retard or prevent the sugar from caramelizing.
  

  Photo via Target

• I’ve always glazed crème brulée under the broiler but now I think I’d switch to a more convenient small Red Typhoon blowtorch [right], about $20 at Target, that even comes in Christmas red.

• How do I garnish? I don’t think it’s necessary. The hot crackling caramelized sugar is the garnish. Adding anything will cool it down. Alternately, delicate cookies might be nice on the side.

• Whole vanilla beans are very expensive so after you’ve recovered from sticker shock and scraped out the insides, don’t throw out the pod. Instead, bury it in a sugar canister or drop it into a bottle of brandy or rum you’d be using for baking or drinks such as egg nog. Vanilla sugar or cognac in fancy containers also make great gifts.

• Flavor variation: For orange custard – omit the vanilla. Strip off the zest of 2 medium navel oranges with a vegetable peeler an heat that with the cream. Cover and let the custard stand for 10 minutes before straining. Discard the zest.

Tags: Atticmag, creme brulee recipe, Dieter Schorner, Le Cirque restaurant