Crème Brûlée
A dessert of wide renown, with a silky smooth, creamy vanilla base and a signature caramelised sugary top that cracks in the most satisfying way under the light barrage of your spoon. The crème brûlée is the perfect contrast of textures. With just a few simple ingredients, this classic dessert has become a symbol of refined French cuisine, often earning its place among the world’s best desserts. But is it really French?
Le cuisinier royal et bourgeois by François Massialot
History check
When it comes to a dessert of this calibre, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that multiple nations would want to lay claim to it, and that is exactly what happened. Our contenders this time are France and Catalonia, with England also throwing its hat into the ring. Personally, I think its claim to the dessert is somewhat doubtful.
To start with, France has the earliest printed recipe. It first appeared under the name “crème brûlée” in the 1691 edition of Le Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois by François Massialot, a French chef who served in the royal and aristocratic courts of France. His version included both the custard base and the caramelised top, making it very similar to what we know today.
Language: Old Catalan
But Catalonia was making custard-like desserts several centuries earlier. Their version, called crema catalana, was documented as early as the 14th century in recipe collections such as the Llibre de Sent Soví (1324). This version is typically flavoured with citrus zest or cinnamon, and it initially did not have the burnt sugar topping. It is suggested that the caramelised top that is enjoyed today was a later evolution.
Now, why does England think it has a leg to stand on here? Well, you see, in a later edition of François Massialot’s cookbook, there is a similar recipe to crème brûlée called crème à l’angloise. This naming choice was most likely made because this version had an English twist to it. When the book was translated into English, it was called “English Cream”, which added to the confusion surrounding the dessert’s origin. It was later introduced at Trinity College, Cambridge, as “Trinity Cream” or “Cambridge burnt cream”, with the crest branded on the sugar. But this all seems to have happened after the French publication of the recipe, so I don’t understand how England is recognised as having a claim, but I am not a registered food historian, so my opinion is moot.
So, in conclusion, while custard was quite widespread in medieval Europe, Catalonia had a custard dessert similar to the crème brûlée base in the 14th century. However, the caramelised sugar crust likely appeared much later in the 17th century, with France having the best documentation of the burnt sugar topping. The dessert mostly disappeared from cookbooks during the 19th and much of the 20th century, but around the 1980s it made a comeback, gaining international renown under the French name “crème brûlée”.
Explanations
- Prep work: Get your ingredients together and make sure you have everything. Turn your oven on to 160 °C, with a baking rack or tray placed on the middle shelf. Find 6 to 8 ramekin dishes. I used eight 100 ml ramekins. Give yourself a pep talk before you start baking.
- Bring the heat: Pour the cream into a saucepan (preferably one with a lip) and gently bring it to just below boiling point over a low heat. Once little bubbles start forming on the side, it’s ready to come off the heat. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
- A yolky business: While the cream is cooling, get your yolks, sugar and vanilla extract ready. The egg whites can be saved for another baking project, such as meringues, macarons or something similar. Anyway, add the three ingredients to a bowl and whisk until they are fully combined.
- The big merge: Pour the cream into the egg mixture while beating continuously. This is why it is preferable to use a pan with a lip to help with the pouring. If you didn’t have one, you can transfer the cream into a pitcher or something similar to make pouring easier. Or you can just be careful not to make a mess while steadily pouring the cream into the eggs. If it is a bit too difficult, you can do it in increments, but pouring the mixture in a thin stream while whisking constantly helps temper the eggs gradually, preventing them from cooking too quickly and ensuring a smooth custard, which is ideal, but you can just do what you can, how you can.
- Transferring: Now that the mixture has been made, put the kettle on to get boiling water. Place the empty ramekins in a roasting tin or something similar. Using whatever means at your disposal, transfer the mixture evenly between your ramekins. You can use a pitcher, the saucepan with a lip, a spoon, whatever you have on hand. You can’t use a fork, a sieve, or your foot. Please don’t use your foot, or any body part for that matter. Pour the boiled water into the roasting tin until it reaches halfway up the ramekins.
- Bake time: Carefully move the roasting tin, half full of water and ramekins, to the oven’s middle shelf. Bake for 30–40 minutes. They are ready to come out when one of them is set on the outside but still has a slight wobble in the centre when you give it a bit of a jiggle.
- Cool time: When they have an appropriate amount of wobble, take them out and leave them to cool to room temperature.
- More cool time: When you remember their existence after leaving them to cool, cover them up and let them chill in the fridge overnight. If you can’t wait that long, I insist that they have at least three hours of fridge time.
- Sprinkle time: Get your ramekins out of the fridge and find your cane sugar. Sprinkle an even amount of sugar on however many desserts you would like to eat today, roughly 5 mm thick, but you can test and see how much you like on top.
If you have a blowtorch of a culinary nature, not an “I’m somewhat sus” nature, you can use it to melt and caramelise the sugar.
If you do not have a blowtorch, preheat your oven grill to high and place your custards under the grill, on a high shelf, until the sugar melts and then caramelises to a golden brown. This can take a few minutes but no more than five; keep an eye on it until you’ve reached the desired caramelisation. - Serve and enjoy
Recipe
Template
Course: DessertCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Easy6-8
servings15
minutes40
minutes3-24
hoursWARNING: THESE NEED OVERNIGHT CHILL TIME. MAKE THEM THE DAY BEFORE YOU WANT THEM.
Ingredients
4 Large egg yolk
50g sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
600ml cream
Cane sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 160°C and grease 6-8 ramekin dishes (around 100ml capacity).
- Heat cream over medium heat until just below boiling point. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
- Whisk yolks, sugar and vanilla extract together.
- Beat the cream into the egg mixture in a steady stream.
- Pour mixture into the ramekins and stand the ramekins in a roasting tin half-filled with boiling water.
- Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the outside is set but it’s still wobbly in the centre.
- Remove from oven and leave to cool.
- Cover then leave in the fridge overnight (at least 3 hours until fully chilled). These can be made 2 days ahead.
- Sprinkle with cane sugar to a 5 mm thickness. Use a cook’s blowtorch to caramelise the sugar on top. Or you can use the oven grill set to high for a couple of minutes to caramelise the top.
- Bon appétit (you can eat it now or later)
