a kansas city life

Brown Sugar & Brandy Creme Brulee

I read a number of recipes online and in a book or two and came up with this. It’s much easier than I thought. The only tedious bit is futzing with the water bath.

• 16oz cream (preferably Shatto or similar)
• 5 large egg yolks (freeze the whites for that recipe you saw in Nigella’s Christmas book but will probably never get around to making)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, divided
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp brandy
• turbinado sugar (or plain old white sugar) for brulee’ing

Put some water onto boil in a kettle and set the oven to 250.

Heat the cream, 6 Tbrown sugar and pinch of salt until just simmering. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks, remaining 2 T brown sugar, vanilla & brandy until combined and loosened up. Add a tablespoonful of the cream mixture at a time to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly, until 8 T of cream are added. Then slowly drizzle in the rest of the cream, whisking away.

Divide the cream stuff among 6 ramekins and set them in a 9x13 pan. Add boiling water to the pan until its about halfway up the side of the ramekins. Be careful not to splash anything into the ramekins. Remove one and place it back after adding some water, if you need more room to pour. 

Dash the whole thing into the oven for an hour to one hour, fifteen minutes. You want the centers to be slightly jiggly. Remove, and set the ramekins on a cooling rack until room temperature. Cover each ramekin with with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or up to 2 days. Or…

Start this whole thing much later in the day than you intended, in which case cool the ramekins on a rack as directed. When ready to refrigerate, cover with saran wrap. In the 9x13 pan recently vacated add a quantity of small cubes or crushed ice and a few juice glasses of water. Set ramekins in ice bath and refrigerate for 3 hours, and you’re good to proceed. 

Forty-five minutes or so before ready to serve, remove ramekins from ice bath and remove saran wrap from ramekins. Blot the tops gently with a paper towel if any moisture is present. Add a teaspoonful of turbinado sugar to each and tilt to spread evenly. Blast away with a kitchen torch (at this point, you could probably broil them very close to the element and on high, but the torch is so much fun so do that if at all possible) until the sugar is dark brown and bubbly. Return ramekins to fridge for thirty to forty-five minutes so sugar sets crisp. Much longer and the sugar will begin to get soggy. Only brulee the number you plan to eat right away, leaving any remaining ramekins covered in saran wrap for later use. 

And that’s that.