Crème Brûlée for Two is a recipe I use more often now that we're a two person household. It's not exactly a last minute dessert because it requires 50 minutes in the oven and then a few hours in the refrigerator. However, the little custards are easy to prepare and have a short ingredient list. And you can always quick cool in a water bath if short on time. But overall this is a good make-ahead dessert because you can bake, chill, then torch the top right before eating.
Ingredients
The ingredients you need for Crème Brûlée for Two include heavy cream, 5-6 teaspoons of sugar, 2 egg yolks and some good vanilla or vanilla paste. Ideally for the topping you can use Demerara or turbinado sugar. More often than not, I end up using brown sugar. It melts and creates a crunchy and very flavorful shell.
Ramekins and Substitutions
For ramekins, I've used everything from little custard cups to recycled glass Yoplait containers (pictured below). Now I'm using ramekins from "Cermer" which I found at a thrift store. They are 1 ½ inches deep, 3 inches wide and barely hold 4 oz. Just use whatever ramekins you like and know that changing the size might affect the baking time.
Digital Thermometer
If you have a digital thermometer, you won't have to guess when the custards are ready. For Crème Brûlée. I usually pull it between 176 degrees F and 180 F.
Pastry Torch
I started making Crème Brûlée after buying my first pastry torch, so I've never tried any of the hacks for making it without one. Some people just put their custards under the broiler. That seems like a viable option, but if you plan on making Crème Brûlée it's probably worth buying a torch. If anything, it can double as a candle lighter!
Serving Warm or Cold
Crème Brûlée is served chilled. You bake it, let it cool at room temperature, then chill it to the point where it is cool but not ice cold. Once it's chilled, you burn the sugar topping with a torch. Ideally, you'll do all of this ahead of time, but if you are like me and start your dessert late in the afternoon, you may have to quick cool the Crème Brûlée in a little water bath. If I'm in a hurry, I'll let the custards cool for about 10 minutes while I round up ice and a loaf pan, then I'll put them side by side and add cold water (be careful not to let it go over) all the way up the sides. This cools them down in about an hour. I usually do this for a bit, then finish off in the refrigerator.
Classic Crème Brûlée
And finally, this recipe is adapted from Cook's Illustrated, so if you want to make a full batch you can get it from them or do a quick search for "Classic Crème Brûlée". The original version uses a vanilla bean, but my advice is to skip the bean and invest in some vanilla bean paste. It's almost as good as a bean (better than some beans) and will last a lot longer.
Recipe
Crème Brulee for Two
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons heavy cream
- 5 teaspoons of sugar (You can use a little more if you like)
- 2 large egg yolks
- ⅓ to ½ teaspoon of vanilla bean paste or good quality vanilla
- ⅓ teaspoon turbinado or Demerara sugar (brown sugar okay too)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 F. Make sure the rack is in the lower third of the oven.
- Line an 8-inch square metal baking pan with a small dish rag. This is to prevent the ramekins from sliding. If you don't have a rag, you can skip this step and just be extra careful.
- Fill a teapot or a spouted saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Keep it hot on the stove until ready to use.
- In a 2-cup microwave-safe measuring cup, combine half of the cream with the sugar. Heat for about 20-40 seconds or just until the cream is very hot, then stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the remaining cold cream to the cream/sugar mixture.
- In a small bowl, whisk the two egg yolks with the vanilla, then gradually whisk in the cream/sugar mixture.
- Set two 4 or 5-ounce ramekins in the 8-inch square pan and position them so they're not touching.
- Pour enough very hot water into pan to reach about two-thirds up sides of ramekins. Carefully set in the preheated oven and bake until centers of custards are just barely set and register 175 F to 180F. This takes 50 minutes in my new oven, but check at 30-35 because some ovens take less time because the oven runs hot.
- Transfer ramekins to wire rack and let cool to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and chill until very cold (about 2 hours) or just slightly cold. You supposedly get a better caramelized shell with cool rather that super cold custard, but I haven't noticed a huge difference.
- Remove plastic and sprinkle tops with the turbinado sugar.
- Ignite torch and caramelize sugar. Return to the refrigerator for about ½ an hour to re-chill (I skip that) then serve. Makes 2 servings.
Julie @ HostessAtHeart says
I love love love Creme Brulee, and CI is my cooking bible! I will definitely make these.
Anna says
Hi TxPepper!
I didn't have any issues with beadlets because I only re-chilled the cups for about 30 minutes after torching. If you like a warm top, go ahead and just torch it and serve it. As for grams, this didn't seem like a recipe where that was necessary since most of it is liquid. You'll be fine just eyeballing the 1/3 teaspoon measurements. If I can remember I will weigh the egg yolks just for fun. The sugar and be figured out just by multiply the weight of a teaspoon of sugar by by, so you know that it's about 20 grams.
TxPepper says
Anna,
While you are making round 2, and if you have time, would you weigh the items and post the weights in grams.
I'm all about measuring by weight these days and find grams so much easier and accurate to deal with.
Question: Doesn't refrigerating after torching cause the sugar to sweat, form little beadlets on top, or even melt to some degree. I was always taught to chill, torch, serve.
You are fabulous as always!
Anna says
Sue, I can't wait to hear what you think! And thanks for validating me on the cream. I thought all cream was the same until I found myself at Whole Foods where the only brand of cream was organic. It tasted so much better. Anyhow, let me know what you think of the Crème Brulee. I'm going to make it again tomorrow.
Sue says
I bought a torch with the idea that I would make this very recipe for my husband who loves Creme Brûlée. I don't really care for it and therefore haven't ever gotten around to it. With this scaled down version I don't really have an excuse do I?
For what it's worth, I agree with you on the cream.