Coffee crème brûlée

spoon of coffee creme brulee sitting on top of rest in dish with coffee beans to side.

This lovely coffee-infused creamy dessert is rich and decadent feeling with it's crisp sugar crust and smooth base. So tasty, and easier than you might think.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

chilling time (minimum)4

Total Time50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings:

Calories: 566kcal

Author: Caroline

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Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream double cream
¼ teaspoon vanilla paste or use ½ vanilla pod
1 teaspoon espresso powder
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoon sugar (fine/regular will work)

For caramel layer

2 tablespoon sugar (fine/regular will work, or slightly more if using wide dishes)

Instructions

Either boil an electric kettle of set a pot of water to boil ready for later. Preheat the oven to 300F/150C. Have two ramekins (or more if scaling the recipe) ready and a baking dish or similar that they can sit in to hold water around the ramekins. (The ramekins I used are around 3 ½ inches (9cm) in diameter and 2 inches (5cm) deep.)
Gently warm the cream with the vanilla paste/pod and the espresso powder over a medium-low heat in a small saucepan to infuse it. If you are using a vanilla pod, split it open and scrape the seeds into the cream and also add the pod. The mixture should become gently warm but not boiling (small bubbles around the edge are fine, but stop if that happens). Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. If you used vanilla paste, you don't need to let it infuse really, so you can also warm a little less, but with a pod it's worth infusing for a good 5 minutes or more. Then remove the pod from the cream and discard.
Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in small bowl until it becomes paler and glossy.
Temper the egg mixture by adding a little of the warm milk to the egg mixture, whisking as you go to ensure you don't get scrambled egg lumps. Add a little more, mixing as you do so, until all the cream is added. Mix to ensure all is well combined.
Divide the custard between the ramekins and place them in the baking dish. Open the oven, place the dish on the shelf then add the boiling water in the dish, taking care not to get any in the ramekins. You want to add enough water to be roughly halfway up the side of the ramekins. Close the oven and bake for approximately 35 - 40 minutes until the custards are set but still have a slight bit of wobble/movement when you gently move them.
Remove the dish from the oven and let cool a couple minutes then carefully remove the ramekins form the water with tongs or similar. Let them cool to room temperature then cover each dish (eg with cling wrap/film) and refrigerate at least 4 hour, or even better overnight. They can be kept in the fridge 2 days at this stage without any issue.
When ready to serve, unwrap and sprinkle sugar in a thin layer over the top. Use a blowtorch or place until an overhead broiler/grill to caramelize the sugar - make sure you pay close attention as it can quickly burn. If the custard underneath gets too hot (particularly if you put under broiler/grill), you might want to chill in the fridge again for another 20 minutes or so to help it firm up again before serving, so keep that in mind in when you prepare the sugar top.

Notes

Note if you have any lumps in the the mixture, you can strain it through a fine sieve as you pour into the ramekins/dishes.

Nutrition

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