TITLE: The perfect Crème Brûlée
AUTHORS: René  Bernard

[DESCRIPTION]
Crème Brûlée has a short ingredient list and does not require specific skills to make, but to get it right, several steps need to be carefully executed to receive the creme, not a pudding that, that is still grainy or liquid. With a caramel crust that offers a perfectly smooth surface you can break with your spoon like ice when you tap on it. Most Crème Brûlées offer one or the other but to get everything right, requires attention to details in the making.
Expected results and quality criteria:
1. Crème Brûlée is served refrigerator-cold and 3-5 min after the blow-torching the sugar. Only then you have a smooth and stable caramel surface that you can crack with your spoon. Ideally, the caramel is still pleasantly warm.
2. The creme needs to be uniform and intense yellow, no gristle-like residues in it to disturb the perfect mouth feeling. While the surface is solid, the creamy consistency remains.
3. Taste: The perfect interplay between caramel and vanilla flavors (if small parts of the crust are slightly burnt -compare image - you add just a few bitter notes that make it more interesting. The added salt intensifies the vanilla flavor.
4. The crust needs to be uniform and requires a soon to be broken up in small pieces.

[STEPS]
SECTION: Preparation of creme
1. Take a midsize stainless steel pot and add500 mL of heavy whipping cream and add 100 g sugar.
   
SECTION: Preparation of creme
2. Take one Bourbon Vanilla bean and with a small and pointy knife cut itopen lengthwise. 
  
Remove the sticky vanilla mark with the knife and at it to the cream-sugar-mix. When all mark is removed, add the bean to the mix as well.
  
SECTION: Preparation of creme
3. Heat the mix on a stove and stir frequently until the mix briefly boils then let it cool down until the pot is handwarm.
SECTION: Preparing the eggs
4. Take 7 midsize eggs (size M). If you have smaller organic eggs use 9. Open the eggs by cracking the egg shell, carefully separate the egg yolk from the egg white and add the egg yolks into a midsize bowl. 
SECTION: Preparing the eggs
5. Add the whipping cream-sugar mix on the egg yolks and mix it all and not too hard with a whisk. Add just a small  volume of the cream-sugar mix, stirr and gradually add more. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the mix (optional).
  
SECTION: filter the yolk-cream mix and prepare the dishes
6. Use a fine-mesh sieve to filter egg white residue, the hail chord and parts of the vanilla bean. These would all negatively affect the sensation in mouth. If you have no appropriate sieve use a cotton cloth as a filter. Have another midsize bowl below the sieve for collecting.
   
SECTION: filter the yolk-cream mix and prepare the dishes
7. Pass the filtered mix into the serving bowls made of ceramic or glas. They must have shallow depth and contain a max volume of 100 ml. Fill them up to 3/4 of the volume. You should end up with 8-10 dishes.
  

SECTION: Heating and cooling
8. Preheat your oven to 91 °C ideally. But setting it to 100°C on the dial should work as well. Lower temperatures will unnecessarily lengthen the process, boiling will ruin your product. Place all bowl on tray and insert them carefully in the middle row. After 40 min gently tap on the tray to test whether the mix is still liquid. 


 
Example of the Crème still being liquid.


Test every 5 min. Remove bowls from the oven when the surface is not liquid anymore. 

 
Example of the Crème with solid surface. Time to remove from the oven.

SECTION: Heating and cooling
9. Important: Let the bowls cool down to Room temperature  and then put them uncovered into the fridge 4-8 °C. Don't leave them in there for longer than 24 hours. If you plan NOT to serve the Crème right away, cover the bowl after they have been in the fridge for 1 hour with aluminum foil.  
  
 

SECTION: Preparing the crust
10. Take a pan and add 50 g of white sugar and heat it until caramelized. Pour liquid sugar onto a self-made tray of aluminum foil and let it cool down to room temperature.

      
SECTION: Preparing the crust
11. Break up the caramelized sugar with a large spoon and transfer the smashed pieces to a blender and blend for 30 s . This is the final sugar that will make up the crust.
 
    
SECTION: Preparing the crust
12. Sprinkle the caramelized sugar on the entire dry surface of the Crème (see Note in step 9). Sugar thickness should be between 1-2 mm. Don't leave any area free of sugar. Then use a small butane-operated blow torch to melt the caramelized sugar. Depending on your taste preference it is okay to slight make a few spinkles dark-brownish. Do this step fast and cover every area to obtain a smooth surface layer. Serve after 3-5 min wait.