Difficulty 2/5
Crème brûlée has always been my go-to restaurant dessert whenever I can’t make up my mind. It has this beautiful crust of caramel on top and underneath it’s so nice and creamy. Today I bring you a chai latte flavoured one to show you how you can infuse flavours and aromas into the milk and cream previous to the cooking process. You can use this recipe to make coffee crème brûlée, or maybe add some allspice, star anise, green tea, orange zest, etc. The only thing I would say to be careful is to add any extra liquids, as varying the fat content can result in splitting or not setting as well.
Chai Latte Crème Brûlée
Ingredients
- 20 g ginger root or 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp black tea leaves or 2 black tea bag
- 1 tsp cardamom pods or 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 thick cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 vanilla pod or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 500 ml cream
- 500 ml milk
- 90 g sugar + more for the top
- 8 egg yolks
Instructions
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Peel and cut the ginger, crush the cardamom pods slightly, and add them to a pot along with the tea and cinnamon. Open the vanilla pod in half, scrape off the seeds using the back of a small knife and add to the pot as well, along with the pod.
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Put the milk and sugar in the pot and let simmer ever so slightly for 5min.
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Whisk the yolks together to break them appart. Pour about 1/4 of the milk onto the yolks through a sieve and whisk fast as the milk is cooking the yolks. Then add the rest of the milk with confidence.
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Pour the mix into your moulds. The typical are shallow and about 10cm in diameter, but ramekins also work. I like to fill them up almost all the way to the top and then fill them up more in the door of the oven so I don't spill anything. They should go on a tray with boiling water, which I also add once inside the oven to not splash my crème brûlées. Bare in mind that with the ramekin, the water must go up 1/3 of the way.
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They go into the oven at 120C for 30min or until you see that they are wobbly but not liquid anymore.
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Let cool in the fridge at least 2 hours for shallow moulds and at least 4 hours for ramekins.
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Sprinkle sugar on them and tilt the moulds tapping them slightly to distribute a thin layer on them (watch the YouTube video for a clearer reference). The excess sugar goes to the next mould so we don't waste any.
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I used a blowtorch to caramelize the top, going slowly but steady, moving from one area of sugar to the next as it bubbles up. You can also use a really hot broiler, putting the moulds as close as you can to it, and paying close attention because it happens fast. It's very important that they are really cold if you're going to do this.
There you have it 🙂 Obviously you can also use this recipe for a vanilla crème brûlée and it works just as nicely. Bon appetit!
