It’s kind of fun to say, right? It rhymes!
I’d like to think that the food I cook at home is reasonably healthy. I mostly use olive oil, lean-ish cuts of meat, and healthy portions of vegetables, but I won’t shy away from small amounts of butter or a dash of half and half here and there.
The exception to this otherwise balanced approach is Rourke’s birthday. He gets to make requests for his birthday dinner, and he goes hog wild. Pasta and crumbled sausage in cream sauce is a perennial favorite. Or veal with a mustard tarragon cream sauce. Truffled mac and cheese. Sensing a pattern?
This year, among other things that required copious amounts of cream, he requested crème brûlée for dessert. Rather than make plain ol’ vanilla crème brûlée, however, I decided to mix it up and make an earl grey crème brûlée. While I think vanilla is still my favorite, the earl grey version was a nice change of pace. Kind of like a custardy earl grey tea with milk.
The Cook’s Illustrated method is my go-to, although there are a few things to point out:
- I prefer using wide, shallow dishes rather than the normal ramekin in order to maximize the crust:custard ratio.
- I put the ramekin on the bottom part of a broiler pan when I torch the custard. At some point while you’re caramelizing the sugar, you’ll want to tilt the ramekin and it’s easier (and safer!) to do it by manipulating the broiler pan.
- For caramelizing the sugar, you should absolutely go to your neighborhood hardware store and buy a can of propane and a starter instead of buying one of those delicate little torches they sell at cookware stores. Not only is it cheaper, it works better. It’s a no-brainer. Just make sure you don’t burn down your place.
Earl Grey Crème Brûlée
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
- serves 4 -
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup + 8 to 12 tsp granulated white sugar
6 tsp loose leaf earl grey tea
small pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Combine 1 cup of cream, 1/3 cup of sugar, salt, and tea leaves in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and let steep for 15 minutes.
3. Place a tea towel or Silpat in the bottom of a large baking dish or roasting pan and arrange 4 ramekins on the towel. Make sure that the ramekins do not touch each other and are at least 1/2″ from the sides of the pan. Bring a kettle of water to boil.
4. After the tea has steeped, stir in the remaining cup of cream to cool the mixture slightly. In a separate bowl, whisk the vanilla extract and yolks until broken and combined. Whisk about 1/4 cup of the cream mixture into the yolks until combined and repeat, continuing to add 1/4 cup of cream until all of the mixture is combined.
5. Strain everything through a fine-mesh strainer and discard the tea leaves in the strainer. Divide the now-strained mixture among the ramekins.
6. Carefully place the baking dish with the ramekins in the oven rack. Pour the boiling water from the kettle into the baking dish, making sure not to splash any water into the ramekins, until the water reaches two thirds of the way up the sides of the ramekins.
7. Bake for approx 20-25 minutes, until the centers of the custards are just barely set, or if you have a thermometer, when the centers reach 170-175 degrees F. If you’re using the traditional ramekin, it may take 5-10 minutes longer because they’re deeper. Transfer the ramekins to a wire rack, and cool to room temperature.
8. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours or up to 4 days.
9. When ready, uncover the ramekins and sprinkle 2-3 tsps of sugar evenly across the top of each custard. The more sugar you add, the thicker the crust. Torch the sugar using slow, sweeping motions until caramelized. Refrigerate the ramekins, uncovered, to rechill, for 30 minutes, but not much longer or your crust won’t stay crackly. Enjoy!
Related Posts
No related posts were found, so here's a consolation prize: Duck Confit Salad.
