Sous Vide Crème Brûlée

Douglas Baldwin --- author of "Sous Vide for the Home Cook" http://www.amazon.com/product/dp/0984493603/ and "A Practical Guide to Sous Vide Cooking" http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html --- demonstrates how he cooks crème brûlée sous vide.

First Douglas blends the custard base together and divides it between Ziploc heavy-duty freezer bags. Then he cooks the custard in a water bath for about 30 minutes at 181-183F, agitating the bags half-way through. He then pours the cooked custard into ramekins and lets the custard setup in the refrigerator for 4-8 hours. Finally, he sprinkles raw sugar on the top of the custard and caramelizes the sugar with a butane blowtorch.

First Douglas vacuum seals a rib-eye steak. Then he puts it in a 130F water bath for 45-60 min. In the meantime, he grills an identical steak to compare sous vide with grilling. Then he removes the steak from the water bath and blowtorches. He also removes and blowtorches a chuck blade steak he cooked for 1-2 days at 130F. He then compares the three steaks.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• sous vide
• crème brûlée
• creme brulee
• blowtorch
• custard
• water bath
• recipe
• cooking
• SousVide Supreme

[MathematicalChef]

@NobbyKNobbs Hi! You can certainly make a great custard using the traditional method. I think it's easier to get the texture I want sous vide and I think there is less mess. Now, I wouldn't go out and get a sous vide water bath just for custards and ice-cream bases, but if you already have one …

[NobbyKNobbs]

question: What advantage is there to cooking creme brule sous vide versus the traditional way? In the the traditional method, isnt the creme brule placed in a water bath prior to placing in the oven anyway? thanks

[MathematicalChef]

@iamafractal You can release the water vapor when you remove the pouch for agitation if you like. Just be careful not to burn yourself. It won't make a significant difference in how much gas will be in the pouch the next time you remove it though, but it may help some since the gas you'd be releasing is a mixture of water vapor and air forced into solution by the blender.

[iamafractal]

so no reason to take out the water vapor? what would happen? would that ruin it?