Creme Brulee

Your cut-out-and-keep guide to the fundamentals of cooking

To make the perfect creme brulee, your custard must be creamy, smooth and sweet. The top layer of demerara sugar must be thin and evenly caramelised. That creates the contrast between the sweet and smooth custard with the slightly bitter sugar crisp.

There are two things to watch when making a brulee. Make sure the cream is warm and not boiling hot when you add it to the eggs, or it will start to cook the eggs quickly and you might end up with slightly scrambled eggs instead of custard.

Second, give the ramekins a shake before removing them from the oven. What you want to see is a slight wobble. The brulee will continue cooking once it is out of the oven, so you don’t want it to fully set before it comes out of the oven. Then it will end up overcooked.

A domestic blowtorch is the best way to caramelise the sugar on top of the brulee, as it’s the quickest and easiest, but a lot of households may not have one to hand. It’s fine to place the brulee, sprinkled with sugar, under a hot grill and watch it caramelise. Just be careful when removing the ramekins from under the grill, as they will be very hot.