What is crema catalana vs creme brulee?

Crema Catalana is a traditional Spanish (or Catalan) dessert that's very similar to creme brulee. The main differences are that it's made with milk instead of cream and it usually contains more flavors like lemon or orange and cinnamon.

Do you serve creme brulee hot or cold?

Cold! It really tastes so much better when it's cold in my opinion. Even though the top is a little warm from caramelizing the sugar layer just prior to serving, the custard underneath should be cold.

Can you make creme brulee without a blow torch?

Yes, you can use your oven's broiler instead of a blow torch. However, I wouldn't recommend it. It's hard to get an evenly caramelized surface, you have way more control with a torch. Also, it takes 3-5 minutes, which warms the custard too much for my liking.

Can you make creme brulee without a water bath?

Not really, or I wouldn’t recommend it because it won’t cook evenly. Another method that really works well is sous vide, which is essentially a water bath, and is even more accurate than the water bath in the oven method. (If you’re interested in sous vide cooking, check out A Duck’s Oven !)

Creamy Coffee Creme Brûlée

Smooth & Creamy Coffee Creme Brulee

ramekin with coffee creme brulee broken into to show creamy inside and shards of caramelized sugar on the spoon

Print Recipe

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With only 6 ingredients, you can make this smooth and creamy coffee creme brulee with caramelized sugar topping, the perfect dessert for coffee lovers!

Author: Kelly @ Butter and Thyme
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Chill Time: 4 hours
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours
Yield: 4 servings 1x
Category: dessert
Method: baked custard
Cuisine: French, Spanish

Ingredients

Units Scale

2 cups (1-pint) heavy cream or heavy whipping cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded (reserve the seeds and vanilla bean)
1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso powder (or sub. whole coffee beans*)
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons superfine sugar (or sub. granulated sugar)
1/4 teaspoon salt

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 300 °F.
In a saucepan, combine the heavy cream, vanilla bean, and instant coffee. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Then remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for about 5-10 minutes (This will allow the vanilla to steep and extract flavor and also bring down the temperature a bit.)
In a medium mixing bowl, add the egg yolks, granulated sugar, and salt, and whisk until smooth. Then, slowly add the coffee cream mixture into the eggs, one ladle at a time while whisking constantly. Continue to do this until all of the coffee cream has been added.
Pour the coffee custard mixture equally into 4 ramekins, passing through a small strainer to get out any impurities (i.e. pieces of egg, film on cream, coffee particles). Place the ramekins into a glass baking dish and skim the bubbles off the top of each custard. Then, carefully add hot water to the baking dish, careful not to get any water in the ramekins. The water should come at least halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Carefully place the baking dish in the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes (or to an internal temperature of approximately 176 °F). Remove the ramekins from the water bath, let the custards cool to room temp, then wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Place an even layer of superfine or granulated sugar on top of each chilled custard (about 2 teaspoons each, or enough to fully cover the top in a thin layer). Using a kitchen torch, run the flame over the sugar in sweeping motions until the sugar begins to turn golden brown.* Let sit for about 2 minutes before serving to allow to sugars to cool and create the crackly hard shell on top. Then serve!

Notes

If using whole coffee beans, allow the beans to steep longer (about 30 minutes) to fully extract the coffee flavor.
For tips on how to caramelize the top layer with a blow torch, see the "How to Caramelize Creme Brulee" section above.
You can use the same recipe to make vanilla creme brulee, simply leave out the coffee. The method and other ingredients are all exactly the same.

Find it online: https://butterandthyme.com/coffee-creme-brulee/