Perfect Creme Brulee
Slow, gentle heat is the key to perfect custard, so for the best creme brulee,
use chilled cream, a protective water bath, and a low oven temperature.
c<:::::.>' BY GENE FREELAND · ·
y objective was si mple-find the perfect recipe for cla sic creme brQ!ee. My
standards were h1gh-I wa·nted a custard that was light, firm, smooth, creamy, sweet,
fragrant, and sl igh tly eggy, with a brown sugar
crust that was both delicate and crisp. And, of
course, making the process easy and quick was
also a consideration.
\
As I attempted to reach this elusive goal, trying some thirty-six variations al ong the way, I
found that the process was one of exclusion, not
inclusion. The fewest ingredients, fewest steps,
a nd si mplest cooki ng techniques delivered the
best results.
M
The Custard
Probabl y the biggest challenge to making creme
brillee is getting the texture of the custard right. In
consulting dozens of recipes, I found a surprising
number of options for the custard ingredients, in-
I
eluding variations on the eggs (either yolks only
or whole eggs), the sugar (white, brown, or none
at all), the flavorings (vanilla, rum, kirsch, various
liqueurs, instant espresso, cinnamon, and grated
nutmeg), and most importantly, the cream (heavy,
whipping, or half-and-half). Further variations
could be found in the cooking techniques, such as
the temperature of the cream (from boiling to
chilled) and whether to cook the custard on the
stove or in the oven.
I experimented with every possible variation,
but found that the most crucial were the type of
cream, the cooking time and temperature, and
where thecustard was- cooked. (The results of my
experiments with other ingredients are listed in
"Searching for Perfect Creme Bn1lee," page 7.)
I started with a simple, traditional creme bn1lee
recipe that calls for two cups of heavy cream to be
boiled for one minute, beaten into four egg yolks,
returned to the fire over low flame (in a double
n my search for the perfect creme brillee, I tried dozens of possible varia tions with the basic ingredients of cream, eggs, and sugar. The following list highlights some of my failures along the
road to successfu l creme brillee.
EXPERIMENT
CONCLUSION
Heavy cream used in custard
Too rich for its own good
Half-and-half used in custard
Weak flavor and watery texture
Whole eggs used in custard
Too dense and firm
Flavorings such as vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg,
and instant espresso
Extracts and spices detract from the sweet
cream and egg flavors
Caramelized white sugar used in custard
Flavor is burned and texture is grai ny
Brown sugar used in custard
Texture is grainy, flavor too sweet
Salt added to the custard
Odd and out of place
Cornstarch added to custard cooked in
double boiler
May help prevent curdling, but leaves
behind a grainy texture a nd makes
custard very dense
Yo-inch brown sugar topping
Forms thick ba rrier that is too difficult to
penetrate
Powdered sugar used to dust buttered rameki ns
Even small amounts make the custard too
sweet
6 • COOK'S I LLUSTRATED • MARCH/APRIL 1995
boiler if desired), then stirred until nearl y boiling.
The mixture is then poured in to a greased baking
dish, chilled, covered with a thin layer of brown
sugar, ca ramelized under the broiler, ch illed
again, and served.
I began by making separate versions of this
recipe using all three types of cream, and cooking
them in the oven, on top of the stove in a pan, and
on top of the stove in a double boiler.
The custard made with heavy cream, which
contains between 36 and 40 percent f at, was way
too rich; half-and-half, with between 10'/2 and 18
percent fat, made a watery custard. Whipping
cream (sometimes called light whipping cream),
w hich is between 30 and 36 percent fat, gave the
custard the smooth, sweet, balanced flavor and
texture I wanted.
After this first set of tests, I al so dismissed
cooking the custard on the stovetop in a saucepa n,
since the results were so poor. The double boiler ,
was not much better, but I decided to try some \
variations before giving up on trus more forgiving
method.
I also decided to call Shirley Corriher, cooking
teacher an d resident food science advisor for
Cook's Illustrated, to discuss the results of my
tests. Corriher started with some basic custard science. She explained that when egg yolks are
heated, the bonds that hold together the proteins
in the yolks begin to break. The proteins then unwind with their bonds sticking out, run into other
unwound proteins, and bind together to form a
three-dimensional mesh. This is what causes a
custard to thicken. When a custard reaches 180
degrees, the proteins bond together so extensively
that they form clumps and the eggs cu rdle-in effect, they become scrambled eggs.
Because of this dynamic, t he speed with which
you heat the custard mixtures is very important.
"If the eggs are heated quickly, they won't
thicken until well into the 170-degree range,
sometimes just before 180 degrees, leaving little
time for thickening before curdling," Corriher
warned me. "If the eggs are heated slowly,
though, thickening can start at 150 degrees and
continue slowly as the custard heats past 160 and
170 degrees." S low, gentle heat, then, is the
bestand probably the only-way to
succeed with custards. Given that explanation, it
was ob- vious that cooking the custard directly
over heat was the worst possible way, as it heated
the cus- tard most quickly.
Custard science also explains why, in my next
set of tests, I discovered that using up to a tablespoon of granulated suga r per egg yolk improved
the baked custards to set like
omel ets. Cooking the custards in a bain marie keeps
their temperature f rom rising
hen eggs are heated too quickly or with too hot a flame,
above 212 degrees; this low
the proteins in the eggs, denatured by the heat, bond together too extensively and form clumps (top), curdling the mixtem perature guarantees tha t
ture. Proper heating technique and the presence of large sugar
the custard approaches its set
point slowly a nd therefore
molecules, which inhibit bonding to some degree, cause the
thickens gradually. At thi s
denatured proteins to
l ower temperature, the cusbond together properly
tards cooked i n t h e wa ter
(bottom) in a three-dibath were also silkier than
mensional mesh that
those baked in a 350-degree
oven. As a f i nal refinement, I
l owered t he oven temperat u re to 275 degrees and increased the cooking time to
forty-five minutes. Even better.
H ad I exhausted all the
cu stard options? Not yet! I
decided to f i ddle with th e
tem peratu re of the cream.
Un til now, I'd always boiled
the cream for a min ute or so
a nd then mi xed it in to the
yolk-sugar mixture. Now, I
tried my recipe with scalded
cream, room tem perat u re cream, and ch illed
the texture of the custard, while cornstarch made
cream straight from the fri dge. I was pleasantly
i t ex tremely dense, grain y, and sticky.
surprised to find that the ch illed cream sample
Corri her ex plained that sugar molecules are
was richer, smoother, and more velvety than its
very large- she calls them "Mack trucks"scalded or room temperature counterparts.
and therefore come bet ween un wound egg
When I mentioned this to Corriher, she was a
proteins d urin g cooking, in effect blocking, at
bit surprised. To my thinking, adding boiling or
least tem- porarily, their attempts to bond. As my
scalded cream to the yolks would raise their temtests con- firmed, adding sugar improves the
peratu re too quickly. Corriher said this was cortexture of the custard. Cornstarch works in a si
rect but that dairy products are usually scalded to
milar fashion, but u nfortunately it also gives the
custard an un- pleasant graininess.
cause some of their proteins to u n wind and help
promote thickening. After some thought, she said
Cor riher also men ti o ned that stirri n g con stantl y, which is necessary to keep the heat evenly
this was essential when ma king ice cream, which
distri bu ted in a double boiler, where the heat all
has a high proportion of m ilk. Unlike milk, howcomes from the bottom, makes thicken i ng more
ever, high-fat cream does not have all that much
difficult. As you stir, you actually break apart the protein, so the benefits of scalding or boiling the
egg protei n s as they attempt to bond to each other.
cream would be minor. Also, adding hot cream
Whi le th i s is fine for a custard li ke creme anglaise
certainl y raises the tem perature of the eggs very
that should be thin enough to pou r, creme brfilee
quickly. Si nce the secret to perfect creme brfilee
has to be dense. At this poi nt, it seemed time to
is very slow heat, using chi ll ed cream fit in with
move on to the oven .
the rest of my results .
I first tried placing u ncooked and uncovered
The Topping
custards in a warm water bath, called a bain
marie, in a col d oven, turned the heat to 250 de- While working on the custard variations, I also
grees, and baked for eighty minutes. This first at- experimented with the caramelized sugar topping.
tempt at oven-cooking was a disaster. The custard The first recipe I had tried called for a brow n
did not set right, cooked unevenly, and was too sugar topping so thick that it formed a barrier difrun ny, and the brow n sugar toppings absorbed ficult to penetrate with a spoon . I soon realized
moisture when they caramelized and turned into
that two teaspoons of brown suga r per creme
i ron plates. More lessons learned.
brGhe gave the best coverage and depth for even,
1next tried covering and cooking the custard in controllable, and consisten t caramelization.
a warm water bath in a preheated, 350-degree oven
I also tested the relative merits of light and dark
for fifteen minutes. When these custards had been
brown sugar for the topping. On my first try, the
cooked, chilled, topped and caramelized, chilled
dark brown sugar topping burned quickly, was
again, and finally served, I knew I was getting
too hard, and didn't taste as good as the toppi ng
close to reaching my goal.
made with light brown sugar. However, the light
As a final test, I compared u ncovered custards
brown sugar topping was not perfect either, so I
cooked in a bain marie with those cooked without
decided to try d rying both light and dark brown
a water bath i n 300-degree oven. Dry heat caused
sugar for fifteen minutes in a 250-degree oven be-
W
ILLUSTRATION BY KAREN BARNES·WOOD RONSAVILLE HARLIN, INC.
fore spri nkling them over the chilled custards.
Pre-dryi ng the brown sugar significantly improved its taste, texture, and appearance w hen
caramelized. Pre-dried dark brown sugar gave the
topping a richer flavor that was superior to the
light brown sugar topping, just the reverse of
when the sugars were not pre-dried.
It seems that drying brown sugar in the oven removes moisture as well as some of the lumps,
which makes it easier to sprinkle and allows it to
coat more evenly. Also, since the caramelization
process involves melting the suga r and then evaporating some of i ts water, having less water i n the
brown sugar before it is run u nder the broiler un doubtedly hel ps get the process going. A dried
sugar topping needs less time under the broiler, so
the dark brown sugar, with its richer flavor, can be
used without the danger of burning or becoming
too hard.
PERFECT CREME BRULEE
Serves 6
I tablespoon u nsalted bu tter, sof tened
6 large egg yolks, ch illed
6 tablespoons white sugar
Jl/2 cups whipping cream, chilled
4 tablespoons dark brow n sugar
I . Adjust oven rack to cen ter posi tion and heat
oven to 275 degrees. Butter six '12-cup rameki ns
or six 2h-cup custard cups and set them in a glass
baking pan.
2. Whisk yolks in a medium bowl unti l slightly
thickened. Add white sugar and whisk u ntil dissolved. Whisk in cream, then pour mixture into
prepared ramekins.
3.Set baking dish on oven rack and pour warm
water in to baking dish to come halfway up the
ramekins. Bake uncovered un til custards are just
barely set, about 45 minutes.
4. Rem ove baking pan from oven , leaving
ramekins in the hot wa ter; cool to room temperature. Cover each ramekin with plastic wrap and
refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hou rs (can be
covered and refrigerated overnight).
5. Whi le custards are cool i ng, spread brown
sugar in a small baking pan; set in tu rned-off (but
still warm) oven unti l sugar d ries, about 20 mi nutes. Transfer sugar to a small zipper-lock freezer
bag; seal bag and crush suga r fi n e with a rolling
pin. Store sugar in an airtight container until ready
to top custards.
6. Adjust oven rack to the next-to-the-highest
position and heat broiler. Remove chi lled
ramekins from ref rigerator, uncover, and evenl y
spread each with 2 teaspoons dried sugar. Set
ramekins in a baking pan. Broil , watch i ng constantly and rota ti ng pa n for even cara melization,
until toppings are brittle, 2 to 3 minutes, depending on heat intensity.
7. Ref rigerate creme brGJees tore-chill custard,
about 30 minutes. Brown sugar toppi ng will start
to deteriorate in abou t I hour. •
Gene Freeland wri tes about food and art collecting from his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
MARCH/A PR IL. 1 995 • COOK'S ILLUSTRATED • 7