[Dessert Theory]: Creme Brulee

Rather than constantly spamming the blog with so many dessert photos, and opening hours of various cafes and restaurants, I thought today I could talk about what I think makes a good creme brulee and my preferences, and expectations for them when served...


I'm absolutely NO expert in culinary arts or patisserie, however, eating so much creme brulee from different places have helped me develop my idea on how they should be in texture, consistency, flavour, and aesthetic aspects.

To start, I should briefly talk about what exactly is creme brulee. Being called a whole heap of other names, in a nutshell, the dessert originated in France and is simply a rich custard baked and served in a ramekin, and then finshed with a layer of hard caramel that is made from sugar being caramalised, generally with a blow torch. There are many other variations available to creme brulee that is made with similar ingredients and/or methods.

My ideas of a good creme brulee are:

1. Texture is firm like pudding, not runny like custard (though some may prefer it the other way)
2. Smooth and creamy, melts in your mouth
3. Custard NOT extremely sweet 
4. Hard caramel layer on top is NOT too hard and thick. It should be easily cracked on the first go, and NOT too 'caramalised' to the point where you can start tasting a burnt flavour.

I wonder if these requests would be too much to ask for in a simple dessert? After browsing a few creme brulee recipes, and using my own logic, I learned, and realised some of the possible reasons to why creme brulees made in different restaurants differ in texture, and consistency, some of which are very unfavourable to me.

Firstly, it is the the amount of FAT CONTENT contained in the cream used. Pending which recipe makers follow, creme brulee can be made with, to name a few: double cream, regular cream, and/or milk. Through experimentation, people who don't want to use full cream, can use milk as a substitute for a reduction in the amount of cream, thus the outcome of the brulee is less firmer but instead CREAMIER. 

Once I went to a cafe and tried out their newly remastered creme brulee. As my spoon dug into it, I noticed that HALF was RUNNY and the other HALF was firm. It was NOT pleasant. The only explanation that I could think of for that brulee was:

• The person who was preparing the hard caramel layer on top before serving must have topped way too much sugar on top. If so then it would take much longer for the the sugar to caramalise and would very likely be thick. Because of this, the heat of the fire from the blow torch stays on top of the brulee for a much longer time, causing the top part of the custard to melt. 

Although the traditional flavour for creme brulee is VANILLA, I read that it can be also be flavoured with other fruits. Lemon or orange is more common I think. This brings me to my next thought and realisation. 

Out of all about 4 or 5 of the creme brulees I've tried so far (not all are posted up yet), I think 3 cafes/restaruants have served it to me with a biscotti or shortbread. Personally, I think short bread is way too oily and heavy in butter to go with creme brulee. Biscotti on the other hand is a good complement to the dessert :) 

The best set of creme brulee and biscotti I've had to far was a vanilla bean flavoured creme brulee accompanied with an orange zest biscotti. I think that combination and set is the most ideal. Not everyone may necessarliy like citrus flavoured foods, so having the biscotti to be that flavour to dip into the creme brulee give people that option to choose how they want to have their brulee. 

Also, on a quick note, my personal thought is that, no matter what flavour, biscotti goes well with creme brulee only when it is the CUSTARD texture and NOT when it is the firm type. When creme brulee is made firm, to me, it is best to enjoy it simply as it is on its own!

So those are my thoughts on how I think a good creme brulee should be and my recommendations on how to complement it. Hope this post was a good enough read and helpful!
Please anticipate the next post! 

The 'Sweet Tooth' Fairy xo