Cranberry Crème Brûlée
By Vaughn Vreeland · 4 hours 30 minutes · 6 to 8 servings
A recipe by Vaughn Vreeland from NYT Cooking: its ingredients and steps as published. The introduction, tips, photos and reader notes are on the original.
Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 10 minutes
- 🍳 Cook time: 4 hours 20 minutes
- ⏱️ Total time: 4 hours 30 minutes
- 🍽️ Servings: 6 to 8
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 6 large egg yolks
- 10 ounces fresh or frozen cranberries (about 2½ cups)
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 small orange (about ¼ cup juice)
- 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar, divided, plus ¼ cup/50 grams for the topping
- 8 to 10 cups boiling water, for baking
Special equipment:
- 10- or 12-inch gratin dish or other wide, round ceramic baking dish (see Step 1)
- Kitchen torch
Directions
- Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Nest a shallow 10- or 12-inch gratin dish or other wide, round ceramic baking dish (such as a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate) in your largest roasting pan.
- In a medium pot, whisk together the cream, milk, vanilla extract (or a split vanilla bean and its scraped seeds) and salt. Set the pot on the stove with the heat off. Put the egg yolks in a medium bowl and set it next to the stove on a wet paper towel (this will stabilize the bowl when whisking in Step 5).
- In a separate medium pot over medium-high heat, combine the cranberries, orange zest and juice and ½ cup sugar and bring to a boil, stirring often. Once boiling, lower the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally and pressing the cranberries against the side of the pot, until the cranberries have burst and become jammy, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and set aside.
- Warm the cream mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until bubbles begin to form around the edges and visible steam rises from the surface. Transfer the cranberry mixture to the pot with the cream, whisk until evenly combined and adjust the heat to low.
- Whisk the yolks in the bowl with ½ cup sugar until fluffy and a shade lighter, about a minute. Whisking constantly, slowly ladle about 2 cups of the cranberry cream mixture into the egg mixture until combined. Gradually whisk the egg mixture back into the pot with the cranberry cream mixture and remove from the heat.
- Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the baking dish, pressing to extract all of the liquid from the cranberries. Be sure to scrape in the mixture clinging to the bottom of the sieve as well. Discard any solids in the sieve. Transfer the nested baking dishes to the oven and carefully pour enough boiling water into the larger roasting pan so that it comes halfway up the sides of the crème brûlée dish.
- Bake until the sides are set and the center is slightly jiggly when gently shaken, almost like Jell-O, 40 to 60 minutes, depending on the surface area of your dish (the center should register 180 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Carefully remove the nested baking dishes from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour. Carefully remove the smaller dish from the water, then cover the dish with plastic, taking care not to let it touch the surface of the crème brûlée. Transfer to the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day, before serving.
- When you’re about ready to serve, sprinkle ¼ cup sugar evenly over the top (it’s OK if there’s some moisture on the surface) and use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar. Let the caramel cool to harden, about 5 minutes, then refrigerate the crème brûlée, uncovered, for 10 minutes to ensure it’s chilled before serving.
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