2006/07/03
Alright, my first real chance to be snobby on EatFoo! It's time for a fancy dessert, and when I do fancy, I do fancy right.
I first had creme brulee at a Ruth's Chris during high school and instantly fell in love. I had the good fortune to date a wealthy girl with generous parents. I ate a ton of great food that I could not otherwise have afforded (at least not until I have that law firm job). And I've never gone back. Since then, I've had a lot better taste in food, and have developed my culinary techniques in a large part to be able to eat the way I was occasionally able to, but without paying for it. But I'm not so poor--I managed to purchase a kitchen torch at an outlet mall ($20). I'd had my eyes on them for a while, having made several decent attempts at making creme brulee and pining for a handheld propane caramelizing device. This was the first time I had a chance to try it out.
Creme brulee is such a simple dessert, but is so delicious, and seems to occupy a sort of mystical place within American culture. Unlike for the French, this is no everyday dessert for us. We view the sugar crust with wary interest, wondering what sort of culture would create something so delicate and restrained. "But... where's the chocolate?" we ask. We're all the more bewildered by the dessert's size. Which American among us is willing to sacrifice his elephantine hunk of chocolate wall layer cake with ganache in favor of this tiny yellow dish? So many Americans have yet to try creme brulee, but awareness of it trickles into our culture from French movies and our more cultured or well-off friends, and so its reputation grows without actually ever inundating us to the point that we cease seeing it as something special. Which makes it all the more easy to impress with it.
Having since eaten at perhaps five or six other Ruth's Chris locations, I can say that the Ruth's Chris in Tampa was a shining star of Ruth's sky. They made delicate spun sugar toppings for their creme brulee, while other locations were content to serve theirs without (not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm positive that my jaw dropped the first time I saw one of those sugar toppings (and I'm positive that it looked at least 3.7 bajillion times better than mine does). For all the years since, I wondered (constantly--that's all I've done for the last eight years) about this spun sugar, not knowing what it was called or how to google for it, but finally I figured it out. I finally happened upon it unexpectedly while reading some wholly unrelated recipe. And so it trickled into my consciousness accidentally and gracefully, just as creme brulee is finally doing into the American consciousness.
Creme Brulee
Makes 4 cremes brulees. Prep time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 1 hour. Waiting time: 3 hours. Can be made up to 4 days ahead, except sugar topping.The ingredients:
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 6 large egg yolks
- Vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1/2 cup granulated table sugar
- pinch of salt
- 4 tsp turbinado or Demerara sugar (can substitute table sugar)
The algorithm:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat 1 cup cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla bean pod and seeds, and heat until just starting to boil, stirring occasionally. If you're using extract instead of the vanilla bean, don't add that yet. Take the pan off heat and let the vanilla bean steep for 15 minutes (or just wait a few minutes for it to cool slightly if you're using extract). Add second cup of cream to cool it down.
Boil some water on the stove. Beat egg yolks with vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Whisk the cream mixture into egg yolks slowly, whisking constantly. Then strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
Place a kitchen towel in the bottom of a baking dish, set four individual ramekins on the towel, and pour or ladle the custard into the ramekins. Place the baking dish on middle rack of oven and pour boiling water into the baking dish, without splashing any into the ramekins. Water should come up half to two-thirds of the way up the ramekins. Bake just until centers of the custards are no longer sloshy (170 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit). This will take 25 to 35 minutes (shallow, fluted dishes like those shown here will be on the shorter side of that, while standard round ramekins will be on the longer side).
Transfer ramekins to wire rack and cool for a couple hours. Then cover and refrigerate for at least four hours, up to four days.
When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator and uncover. Wipe off any condensation with a paper towel. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of turbinado sugar on top, rotating and tilting the ramekin to get even coverage. Then torch it with a blowtorch, keeping the torch moving.
Or if you don't have a torch, you're forced to use the broiler. Pre-heat your oven's broiler. Then put the custards with sugar on top no closer than an inch to the heat source, but not farther than about 3 inches. Keep the oven door open slightly and watch. It should take between 30 seconds and 2 minutes to melt the sugar. You don't really want to leave it in much longer than that, even if the top hasn't melted yet.
After melting the sugar crust, chill for about ten minutes, in order to let the crust harden and the custard return to a cool temperature. Garnish with berries and serve. I like to garnish with kiwi as well, since it looks cool, is green, and tastes good with creme brulee. Grapes suck with it. Remember to be really snobby while serving it.
Posted by Barzelay on 2006/07/03 @ 5:22 | Comments (9) | EatFoo 1.0 Posts
Comments
i notice you correctly and snobbily used the proper french plural, crèmes brulées, as i had previously instructed you. however...if you want to be truly snobby, like the french, you should add the accents. because if there's anything about which the french are more snobby than their food, it's their language.
on another note, i still can't get over this beautiful creation of yours. every time i look at it, i feel like it should be in some food magazine, featured as exactly what a crème brulée should look like. c'est magnifique!
Posted by: jeanette at July 3, 2006 10:46 AM
Well, I'm also snobby about efficiency, as well as about using html entities when they may or may not be supported in people's RSS feeds. But suggestion noted.
Posted by: Barzelay at July 4, 2006 12:54 AM
Snob or no snob, I like anybody who likes creme brulee...yummy!
I love your description of the golden brown sugar, "restraint...fragile..."
I've never had it with fresh fruit before. I've had it with fragrant flowers such as lavendar and roses. Their floral scents mixed with the homey scents of sugar, vanilla, cream is heavenly.
Now I've got to try it your way. I'm pretty sure the fresh fruit taste will balance that creamy confection...makes me think of peaches and cream or strawberries and cream.
Posted by: flakey0629 at February 25, 2007 9:57 PM
I also had the pleasure of being treated to a night out by my hubby's boss to the Ruth's Chris in Tampa. I had a 65.00 Kobe steak (oh, my God) among several other dishes that were just absolutely delicious. It was the creme brulee I had for dessert that makes my mouth water and makes me want to pay down my credit cards so I can afford to go back for a meal there. I've been looking for the recipe so I can make it at home for myself and of course the family and that's how I came here. I am going to try the recipe this weekend and see how it goes... thanks for posting this and giving me a reason to buy a torch!
Posted by: Tabby at June 7, 2007 1:26 AM
I am a French man and we are not always snobby. If you have ever been to France it is the Parisians that dislike Americans and the French people in the country side are fine with them. All you need to do when you visit France is say Bonjour and your Bonsoir, We will be so amazed because not alot of French people belive that Americans speak a singal word of French and that we make the French like you a little more.
Posted by: Anstett at July 12, 2007 2:40 PM
Hey! I'm French too! Love your post, and I happen to have the same recipe as you. Your picture is amazing, it definitely should be in a food magazine... Your remarks about creme brulee being a snobby dessert in the States is so funny, and so true at the same time- I never even had real creme brulee before I came to live in the US :) But creme brulee in France is not really considered posh, it's more of a bistro-style dessert, I think. Unless you make it all fancy with truffles and foie gras inside of course!! Anyway, fun article!
Posted by: Aurora at January 26, 2008 1:37 AM
Hey Man, nice running into you. We will try this recipe tomorrow.
Posted by: musability at June 26, 2008 8:57 PM
I made this last night, excellent recipe, I just wish I could get the torching down better to give it that Ruth Chris, smoked after taste... gotta go google that now. But great recipe, the boyfriend loved it, thanks!
Posted by: Shannon at January 20, 2009 9:55 AM
TO JEANETTE
YOU'RE AN IDIOT. Get out of your small english village and open up to other cultures and tradition. If you can't understand french culture or are too afraid to open up to anything different than you, don't call it snobby.
Posted by: Frenchy at May 18, 2009 9:40 AM