SARAH BRUGGEMAN
Pastry Chef, Pangea Kitchen
Often times, Creme Brulee is seen as a very complicated dessert, but the ingredients are actually very simple. The technique of baking this dessert is what makes it valuable. It’s knowing when to turn the oven off and when to open the oven door to let it slowly cool down, because it’s not something that you can rush.
Creme Brulee is made up of egg yolks, granulated sugar, heavy cream, salt, and a flavoring, extract, or paste. First, you warm up the heavy whipping cream until it simmers and then you temper that into your egg yolks and sugar. Next, you pour the mixture into ramekins and bake it in a water bath. Even after it’s pulled out of the oven, it continues cooking in the water bath, so we take that into consideration when baking. Texture is super important when it comes to creme brulee. If it’s undercooked or overcooked, you will be able to tell. After it’s cooled, we wrap and store it in the fridge overnight. As a finishing touch, we sprinkle granulated sugar on top and torch it to order so it has a nice, caramelized sugar coating. You break through the sugar into this soft, rich cream. It’s a very simple, delicious recipe with a nice pop of flavor.
We have created multiple flavors of Creme Brulee, including vanilla bean, chocolate truffle, chocolate espresso, caramel espresso, London Fog and honey lavender. Out of all the different kinds, vanilla bean is our most popular flavor. That’s what they want to see and we’re happy to make it. Vanilla bean is such a classic flavor, and we use a vanilla bean paste that really makes ours unique.
Creme Brulee is torched to order because if you didn’t torch it, it would soften up in the fridge and become sticky. Torching is also a cool process for our customers to watch. They see us sprinkle sugar on top and turn on a huge torch that makes us look like we are working in a mechanic shop. As we torch it, they can watch the sugar bubble up and start browning right before their eyes. After that, we let it sit for 20 seconds before they can break into it. The thin layer of sugary goodness breaks underneath your spoon and makes a satisfying crunch.
Our Creme Brulee is always in the gelateria, and we can also make special orders for events. Creme Brulee is a simple, classic dessert that is perfect for any occasion!