Sparkle from creme brulee that is. I decided to play with my Christmas gift, a blow torch (thanks Sarah!). There was a bit of trial and error with the bruleeing so there was smoke but also spark and crackle like my own mini fireworks. After that, I patiently waited the whole minute before cracking through into silky creamy pudding. A great first recipe for the New Year.
What I like about the recipe is it involves just four ingredients:
Heavy cream
Egg yolks
Vanilla bean
Granulated Sugar (Vanilla Sugar would be even better. More on that later)
I was pretty surprised to see how pale and fluffy the egg yolks got. I’m used to whipping egg whites. It can take some time to get to this stage but important for making the creme brulee creamy and light.
The heavy cream after it has been strained. The vanilla flavor infused into it smells amazing and you can see the little flecks from the vanilla bean.
I haven’t worked with vanilla bean before so I was excited to try it out. I washed and dried the vanilla bean and placed it in a jar of sugar. The vanilla will get absorbed and create vanilla sugar. If I had some ahead of time I would have used it for this recipe in place of granulated so that there is a stronger vanilla taste.
After adding the cream to the egg yolk mixture, the combined mixture becomes nice and thick. I poured mine into four 5.5 oz ramekins (from Crate and Barrel) and had a bit of batter leftover, enough for another serving.
I used superfine sugar for the topping which creates a sheet thin, delicate top.
Glistening, golden, and ready to be eaten.
I wanted to try out the torch a bit more so I also did a twist on the creme brulee with Bruleed Mini Cheesecakes.
Since the cheesecakes are a lot smaller it was harder to control where we were bruleeing. The first few got a little burnt and smokey. This was with the superfine sugar so I switched to granulated.
Perfect 
I figured the larger sugar crystals would take longer to caramelize thus preventing them from burning as quickly.
One bite. Not sure why I even bothered since I literally could put two in my mouth they were so tiny. Hmm New Year’s Resolution…portion control.
Creme Brulee
from Paula Deen, foodtv.com
recipe notes:
- I first have to say, it was strange doing a Paula Deen recipe that didn’t have a single bit of butter. It is a great recipe though.
- I had a bit of trouble figuring out when the creme brulees were done. I was looking for a gelatin-like jiggle but I kept thinking it was too liquidy. I baked it for an extra 10 minutes after 40 minutes of baking. On top of that they browned. There wasn’t much of a change in the jiggle either, but after refrigerating and bruleeing, I went to taste and it was a nice thick pudding consistency.
- Even after all that, I would recommend the deeper ramekins. I put the leftover batter in a couple of shallow 1″ high ramekins and while those baked much faster and had the gelatin-like jiggle I was looking for, they melt too quickly after bruleeing. It was a bit too liquidy for me.
Bruleed Mini Cheesecakes
from williams-sonoma.com
recipe notes:
- this recipe is fantastic. fluffy and light and makes exactly 12 mini cheesecakes in the Williams-Sonoma cheesecake pan. I know, I know I’m guilty of having a recipe-specific pan. It’s like having a Madeleine pan.
- I added a pinch of cinnamon to the crust and it added a nice holiday touch.
- granulated sugar for the bruleeing to prevent burning
