Crème Brulee may look hard but they’re surprisingly easy. The warm and crunchy sugar crust hides a soft flan underneath. A wonderful dessert for autumn, a little bit of warmth to take the bite of cold out of your autumn day.

This recipe has lived on the Curiosity blog for a while and I just took it out, dusted it off, rolled up my sleeves, and tested it again. I almost never have doubts in this recipe, only because it was originally my brother’s recipe during his culinary school days. He lovingly threw recipes that he thought I’d like (or I’d beg off him) at me, and I’d try my hand at it.

I originally tried my hand at this because my friend loved Crème Brulee. What’s the point to baking if we don’t share right? Although, I think, I haven’t made this recipe since that one time. I definitely dusted it off because I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to improve it. The answer is minimal, but we filmed and took new pictures and updated bits of it so that it would be easier to understand.

Tempering, ah tempering. Basically, tempering is mixing hot liquid into cold liquid, but not quite. So, because we have egg yolks, we don’t want to make scrambled eggs by accident. So, the method (which my brother so lovingly taught me) is to do it slowly. Move a little of the hot mixture over to the cold while constantly mixing. Once enough of the hot mixture is in the cold, you can freely add the rest of the hot mx to the cold. Don’t forget to constantly stir.

*Note: I suggest gathering all the ingredients before starting so that you don’t have to run around looking for things when you need them.

Let’s begin!

(Do we like the stop motion? Tell me in the comments!)

First off, we separate our eggs. If you’re wondering what to do with the egg whites, I usually freeze them for other projects.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar till the colour lightens and it doesn’t feel grainy. This takes some effort, no lie.

Set the egg mixture aside and grab a small pot to heat milk and heavy cream. Set it over medium low heat and stir constantly. Once you see steam, you can remove it from heat.

Add the salt and vanilla to the milk mixture and stir till incorporated.

Preheat the oven to 325° F.

Strain the milk mixture through a sieve before tempering it into the yolks. Boil hot water for the water bath.

Place the ramekins in the prepared baking dish then strain the entire mixture into the ramekins.

Once this is completed, add your hot water to the baking dish until the water covers about a quarter of the ramekins.

Into the oven it goes for 25 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool completely before putting it in the fridge for at least two hours but no longer than overnight. This is where you find out if you’ve been successful. If it hasn’t set by the time you pull it out of the fridge, it’ll never set.

Spoon white sugar on top of ramekin. Make sure it’s completely coated before we get to the exciting part.

There are two methods to get the lovely crackling sugar top: broiler or torch. Either method requires caution and constant vigilance (pardon the Harry Potter reference).