Crème Brulée au Thé Earl Grey

Few desserts are so universally loved as the crème brulée. And it makes sense: a rich custard cream covered by a thin sheet of crisp-caramelized sugar. What sounds bad about that? And the best part about this dessert is how easily the flavor can be altered to make new and/ or seasonal flavors, such as this Earl Grey Crème Brulée.

Earl Grey Crème Brulée:

360g Heavy cream

5g Earl Grey Tea

1t Vanilla extract

4 Egg yolks

70g Sugar

1 pinch of Salt

Fine turbinado or white sugar for the brulée

Preheat the oven to 155C or about 315F

Heat the cream with the loose tea and vanilla until it is just scalded. As the cream is heating, place the egg yolks in a bowl and whisk them with the sugar and salt until they become lighter in color, about two minutes. Pour some of the hot cream through a strainer over the yolk mixture and immediately whisk the cream in as to not curdle the yolks. Add the rest of the cream and whisk to combine. Press the tea in the strainer to make a more powerful Earl Grey flavor if desired. Pour the mixture into ramekins and place them into a high-sided sheet pan. Carefully put the pan in the oven. Add hot water to come up half the way up the sides of the ramekins and bake until the custard sets, roughly 30 minutes, depending on the oven and shape of the ramekins.

Carefully remove everything from the oven and remove the ramekins from the bain marie. Allow to cool before placing them in the fridge.

Once they are completely cool. Dust the top of each ramekin with unrefined turbinado or white sugar, and torch the sugar to make a hard caramel surface. Eat immediately.