Easy Crème Brûlée Recipe for 2
Five simple ingredients – cream, vanilla, salt, eggs and sugar –make for an exquisitely rich and elegant dessert. Most crème brûlée recipes are a bit morecomplicated, but this Easy Crème Brûlée Recipe for 2 + Flavor Variationsyou can make in about 10 minutes and it’s really good.
Servings: 3 servings
Ingredients
- 3 extra-large egg yolks
- ¼ cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for each serving
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream or half-and-half
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoons orange liqueur like Grand Marnier
Instructions
Before you start:
- When baking the custard, a water bath is worthwhile. It enables gentler cooking more even results. And, though it is hard to convince first time custard cooks of this, the custards are done when still quite jiggly in the center.I have no doubt that the first time you make the custards you will, like my first time and those of many others, overcook them. But when the sides are set and the center is looking a bit underdone, they are ready.
For the custard
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Bring a kettle of water to a boil.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the egg yolks, and ½ cup of the sugar together on low speed until just combined.If mixing by hand: In a bowl, beat yolks and sugar together until it is a light yellow in color, using a wire whisk.
- Meanwhile, in a small saucepan simmer cream until it's very hot to the touch but not boiling. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the cream to the eggs. Add the vanilla and orange liqueur and pour into 6 to 8-ounce ramekins until almost full.If mixing in cream by hand: Slowly whisk in cream into the egg mixture until smooth.
- Place ramekins in a baking pan, taking care not to splash water into ramekins, pour enough boiling water into pan to reach halfway up sides of ramekins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes (25 to 30 minutes for shallow fluted dishes), until the custards are set when gently shaken and digital instant-read thermometer inserted in centers registers 170 to 175 ℉Begin checking the temperature about 5 minutes before recommended time.Tip: the custards are done when still quite jiggly in the center.
- Remove the custards from the water bath, cool to room temperature. Once cool tightly wrap ramekins and refrigerate for at least 1 hour up to a couple of days.
How to make the creme brulee topping
- Uncover ramekins, if condensation has collected on custards, blot moisture with paper towel. Sprinkle each with about 1 Tablespoon of sugar; tilt and tap each ramekin to distribute sugar evenly, dumping out excess sugar. To caramelize sugar, ignite torch and sweep flame from perimeter of custard toward middle, keeping flame about 2 inches above ramekin, until sugar is bubbling and deep golden brown. For oven broiler method. Place ramekins in a broiler 2 to 3 inches from heat source. Turn on broiler. Cook until sugar melts and browns or even blackens a bit, about 5 minutes.
- Allow to sit at room temperature for a minute until the caramelized sugar hardens and refrigerate, uncovered, to rechill, 30 to 40 minutes. Serve within two hours.
Video
Notes
One thing to note: Be sure to let the custard set for several hours in the refrigerator before brûléeing the top, otherwise you'll end up with soupy custard.
In the absence of a kitchen torch, a simpler (and safer) solution is to use your oven’s broiler. For tips on using this method see How to make Crème brûlée without a torch section above.
For tips on how to avoid burning the topping see the section on Crème Brûlée Topping