But then came the ‘great belly pork breakthrough’ of 2012, a year of sporting excellence and the year the penny dropped, thus revealing the flaws in my logic: Be confident, trust your instinct and play your own game damn it…now get a brûlée on the menu woman and stop your nonsense.
Although brûlées are open to the idea of adaptation, I am of the opinion that any flavour variations and embellishments must at least pair suitably with custard, and also caramel. Coffee ticks both of these boxes of course and also helps moderate the sweetness.
Many recipes suggest finishing the brûlées under the grill to caramelise the sugar. However I prefer them to be finished off with a blow torch; not only is it quicker, it’s easier to direct the heat more accurately to areas where it’s needed and it also prevents the underlying custard from getting hot again and therefore taking longer to re-chill.
Ingredients
(Fills 6 x 120ml ramekins)
550ml double cream
75g caster sugar + extra for the brûlée topping, roughly 6 tablespoons or 90g
6 x egg yolks
1 x tablespoon Tia Maria
50ml espresso strength coffee
½ x scraped out vanilla pod* (optional)
Pre-heat the oven to 140 ⁰C and put the kettle on to boil. Place the ramekins in a deep roasting tin.
Heat the cream in a pan over a low heat until just below boiling point (add the vanilla pod if using).
Meanwhile separate the eggs, add the yolks to a bowl and pop the whites in the freezer for another time.
Add the sugar to the yolks and whisk, by hand, until pale and starting to thicken. Pour over the cream in a gentle trickle to begin with, stirring continuously until all the cream is incorporated.
Add the coffee and liqueur and then pour the custard through a sieve into a jug, removing any eggy bits along with the vanilla debris; this will also make it easier to fill the ramekins neatly.
Now fill the ramekins neatly, and fill the roasting tin to half-way with the recently boiled water. Slide the roasting tin into the oven and bake for 20 – 25 mins.
They should still have a noticeable wobble to their centres but be set around the edges, they will continue to firm as they cool and set. If in any doubt, continue cooking for a further one or two minutes and check again before removing from the oven. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
The brûlées should be fridge cold before you caramelise the tops; sprinkle a tablespoon of caster sugar evenly across the surface of each ramekin and melt it gently with the flame of the blow torch before turning it up a notch to caramelise.
You can pop them back in the fridge to cool again briefly, and I prefer a brûlée that is fridge cold, but you can’t do this stage in advance as the caramel will weep/liquefy if it’s refrigerated for too long, so 20 mins or so is about right.
*If you happen to have a few used/scraped-out vanilla pods hanging around, then sling one in with the cream, however I wouldn’t bother opening one especially for this, you only need the pod for a little background flavouring, it’s not essential.