Ingredient

Crème brûlée

Crème brûlée is two separate problems that meet at the last minute: a custard baked so gently it barely sets, and a sheet of caramel made so fast it does not warm the custard underneath. Get both right and the spoon goes through glass into cream.

The custard

It is yolks, cream, sugar and vanilla, and it is set in the oven rather than on the hob. The oven is gentler and more even, which is the only way to get a custard that holds its shape without any starch in it at all.

The set you are after is a barely-set one. Take them out when the edges are firm and the centre still wobbles as a whole — like a set jelly, not like liquid sloshing under a skin. Carry-over heat finishes them, and a custard baked until the middle is firm in the oven will be grainy when cold.

Use cream rather than milk, and yolks rather than whole eggs. Fat and yolk both make the set softer and more forgiving; white makes it firm and rubbery.

Baking it

1. Warm the cream with the vanilla and let it infuse off the heat for at least twenty minutes. This is where the flavour comes from.
2. Whisk yolks and sugar, pour the warm cream over whisking, then strain. Straining catches the chalazae and any set egg.
3. Skim the foam off the surface. Foam bakes into a pitted skin and spoils the caramel.
4. Set the ramekins in a deep tin and pour hot water around them to come halfway up. The water bath is what keeps the oven heat gentle and even.
5. Bake low — around 140°C — until set at the edges with a uniform wobble in the middle.
6. Lift them out of the water immediately, cool, then chill for at least four hours. They must be properly cold before the sugar goes on.

The caramel lid

• Blot the surface dry with kitchen paper. Any moisture dissolves the sugar into syrup rather than letting it melt.
• Sprinkle a thin, even layer of caster sugar and tip the ramekin to spread it. Thin is the point — a thick layer gives a chewy slab rather than glass.
• A blowtorch is genuinely the right tool. Keep it moving in small circles, staying just ahead of the sugar as it colours.
• Under a grill, get it as hot as it goes, put the ramekins in a tray of ice to protect the custard, and watch continuously.
• Serve within about twenty minutes. Caramel is hygroscopic and will pull moisture from the custard and soften.

What goes wrong

• Grainy or curdled texture — baked too hot or too long. The water bath was too shallow, or the oven runs hot.
• Never set — underbaked, or too little yolk. Return them to the oven; a custard can be given more time.
• Weeping liquid — overbaked, and the protein has squeezed out water. Not repairable.
• Bubbles across the top — foam that was not skimmed, or the mixture was whisked too vigorously.
• Warm, melted custard under the caramel — the torch lingered. Move faster, or chill the custards harder first.

Common questions