What is Master Custard and How to Make Proper Creme Brulee

 

Eggs, sugar, and cream are boiled together to create the classic dish known as custard, which is silky smooth and delicious. It is uncommon to think of a custard's sweet and mildly eggy flavour without also thinking of its velvety texture. So much so that the adjective "custardy" is used to describe various silky, creamy textures, such as the paw-paw fruit, a native of America sometimes referred to as a custard apple.

At its simplest, a custard is sweet cream thickened with egg, generally the yolk but sometimes with the whole egg. To prepare stirred custards, like the renowned creme Anglaise, or to serve as the base for frozen custard, the richest of all ice creams, custard can be made on the stovetop. The pot de creme, or its unadorned cousin, the creme brulee, is produced when the custard is roasted in the oven, making it the supreme dessert.

The key ingredient in custard, the egg yolk is the engine that drives thick sauces, spoonable puddings, and sliceable tarts out of sweet cream. Like small balls of knotted yarn, tiny bundles of proteins can be found inside each egg yolk. When heated, the proteins in the egg yolk start to unravel and change their nature, a process known as "denature," after which they start to overlap and create cross-links wherever they come into contact. When enough proteins cross-link, the flow of water that the milk and cream introduce into our custard is stopped.

 

This interruption is called coagulation, meaning to change from a liquid into a semi-solid or solid state. Visually, you’d call it thickening. When the custard is stirred as it cooks, these cross links are partially broken as they are created, resulting in a custard that retains fluid properties. Simply put? A stirred custard flows when poured.

 

The denatured proteins cross link until they create a gel that loses its fluidity and solidifies if we still-bake a custard in a dish (pâtissiers refer to this process as "still-baking"). Before serving, these still-baked custards should be refrigerated to allow the custard's butterfat to set and produce a silky custard that can be spooned into our mouths. As-is serving of the sweet, freshly baked custard is referred to as a pot de crème, and topping it with sugar and caramelising it with a torch is referred to as a creme brulee. Similar desserts like crema Catalan are prepared in Spain; in this dish, the sugar is caramelised by a heated iron disc.

 

Should you place the caramel in the baking dish before the custard is baked, the dessert is served inverted, released from it’s baking vessel, and called creme caramel, or in Spanish speaking parts of the world, flan.

 

Chefs also adore savoury custards for their velvety texture, especially for breakfast, where eggs rule supreme. Flavored with herbs, or rich lobster, and typically inclusive of cheese, savoury baked custards are as delightful as their sweet cousins. Quiche is the term given to savoury custards that are frequently concealed inside pastry shells. Japanese cooks have traditionally steamed their savoury custards to produce chawanmushi, an even more delicate custard.

 

When making a custard, great attention must be taken because the texture entirely depends on how long we simmer the egg proteins. The custard is thin and runny if the eggs aren't cooked through enough for the proteins to cross-link and stop the water's flow. Should they be overcooked, the proteins in the eggs begin to coagulate tightly, forming small curds. These curds are wonderful for scrambled eggs, but are unwelcome in a custard.

 

A baked custard that is housed in a ramekin or casuela, a type of heat-resistant baking dish, must be baked in a water bath. The baking dish is insulated by the surrounding water, which enables a gradual, even bake for the custard inside. The baking dish would transfer too much heat from the oven to the custard without the water bath, causing it to curdle along the borders. Low heat and continuous stirring with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula are necessary for a stirred custard. This keeps the custard from curdling on the hot bottom and edges of the pot and guarantees that the heat provided to the bottom of the pot is dispersed evenly throughout the custard as it cooks.

 

You may use a thermometer to check the temperature of a stirred custard since the proteins in egg yolks start to coagulate around 155°F and solidify at 165°F. Modern recipes frequently direct you to heat your custards to 165 degrees, which ensures you never heat it above that point. Stirred custards are typically "naped" when cooked. The custard's flow on the back of a spoon is described by this phrase. To check for nape, dip a large spoon into the custard, then split it into two hemispheres by swiping your finger across the back of the spoon along the same vertical line as the handle.

 

To allow gravity to pull the custard downward, hold the spoon horizontally (as you would normally with the spoon head right side up). You can plainly see the viscosity of the thickening custard using this time-honored technique. When gravity pulls it down, a proper nape barely moves, resembling the way latex paint flows. It is thick and smooth. The custard is immediately emptied from the pan into a bowl that is submerged in an ice bath and regularly stirred to prevent the proteins from further coagulating once this thickness is reached.

 

Even though baking custards don't require as much hands-on cooking, you still need to keep an eye on the custard's texture as it gets closer to completion. When a baked custard shakes gently and wiggles like Jell-O, it is ready. As you shake your custards, keep an eye on the bullseye to see whether it sways since the centre will be the last section of the custard to coagulate. Bake the custards for 10 more minutes if the outside jiggles but the interior appears soupy.

 

At times, the monitoring and cooking process seems to drag on forever. The entire setup needs to regain the heat lost once the oven door is opened and the foil cover from the water bath is removed before the custards start to cook. Over-checking can cause your custards to stop baking all together. Often, if many baked custards are cooking together, some will be done before others, and must be removed from the batch as the remainder finish cooking.

 

The ramekins or custard dishes that hold your custard should be placed in a baking dish (preferably one with two-inch walls, like a casserole dish), and then hot water should be added until the water level is halfway up the sides of the ramekins. It will take longer for your oven to warm the water bath if you use cold water; hot water is a preferable option. After the water has been added, wrap the entire pan in foil and make three-inch vents in it to let steam out. As shifting the water-filled pan can be a bit problematic and requires balance to keep any spills from happening, I like to do this as near to the oven as possible.

 

The essential test of a skilled pastry chef is the ability to determine the precise moment that the egg yolks are cooked to their ideal state after numerous attempts. After a few hours in the fridge, the jiggle will harden into the familiar custard texture. Fortunately, custards are so delectable that you won't hear any complaints while you try and try again until you find the exact moment of custardy perfection.

How to make proper creme brulee

The creme brulee, the crown jewel of desserts, belongs to the family of baked custards and has a crackly caramelised crust of sugar torched by a torch's flame. The custard is known as pot de creme when it is left unadorned. Before baking the custard, you should add a tablespoon of freshly caramelised sugar to the baking dish so that it can be inverted and served as flan or crème caramel.

These custards must be baked in a water bath since they are made in individual ramekins, which are heat-resistant baking plates. The ramekin is insulated by the surrounding water, enabling a slow, even bake for the custard inside. Without the water bath, the heat from the oven will cause the baking dish to become excessively hot, which will cause the custard to curdle around the edges.