Black Currant Tea Crème Brûlée
A few years back, I attended a class at a French pastry school that was, of course, taught by a French chef. If you’ve not worked with French chefs before, you quickly realize that to them, there’s one way to do things—and only one way. Our chef, for example, insisted on doing a cold infusion for tea, letting it steep in the refrigerator overnight. To prove his point, he steeped some tea in warm cream as well so we could later compare the results. The next day, when we had the tasting, there were muted murmurs amongst the students that we much preferred the warm infusion, but no one dared say anything to the chef. We just all nodded in agreement that the cold infusion tasted better. I still infuse tea in warm cream for custards because to me, the proof is in the pudding. Or, in this case, the crème brûlée.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 6 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, the 6 tablespoons (75 g) sugar, and the tea leaves until warm. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for 30 minutes.
Step 2
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Set six 4- to 6-ounce (125- to 180-ml) ramekins or custard cups in a roasting pan or deep baking dish.
Step 3
Reheat the cream until it’s quite warm. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then gradually whisk in the warm cream, whisking constantly as you pour to prevent the eggs from cooking. Pour the mixture through a mesh strainer into a large measuring cup or pitcher.
Step 4
Divide the custard mixture evenly among the ramekins. Fill the roasting pan or baking dish with warm water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the perimeters of the custards are just set and the centers are still slightly jiggly, about 30 minutes.
Step 5
Transfer the custards from the water bath to a wire rack and let cool completely. Refrigerate until chilled.
Step 6
Just before serving, evenly sprinkle each chilled custard with 2 teaspoons (10 g) sugar and caramelize with a kitchen torch: set the torch flame at medium and wave the tip of the flame over the sugar at close range until the sugar begins to melt. Rotate the ramekin for even caramelization, being careful not to burn yourself, until the sugar has darkened and caramelized. (If you like your crème brûlée served at room temperature, let the custards come to room temperature before caramelizing and serving.)
Storage
Step 7
The baked custards will keep for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Sprinkle them with sugar and caramelize the surfaces just before serving.
Variation
Step 8
You can replace 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of the heavy cream with half-and-half to lighten the custard, if you wish. If you don’t have a kitchen torch, caramelize 1/2 cup (100 g) of sugar, following the instructions for making dry caramel in Caramelization Guidelines (page 265). Pour the hot caramel over the top of each custard, swirling it very carefully to get as thin a layer of caramel as possible, then let it harden.
