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This was far and away my most popular recipe of 2023 (before I switched over to this blog) and for good reason. This recipe takes one of the best flavors of summer, fresh sweet corn, and pairs it with the rich umami flavor of miso. The resulting dessert is creamy, salty-sweet, and somehow both decadent and light at the same time.
Tackling Crème Brûlée
At its core, crème brûlée is a delicate oven-baked custard. In my opinion it does take some experience to really understand the visual cues of a well-made custard, which is not dissimilar from learning to make something like bread. Once you learn those visual cues, however, the process itself isn’t that difficult.
With foods like crème brûlée there’s a little bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: people tend to be scared of these desserts because they hear they’re hard to pull off, but the only way to really get good at making it is to try, and possibly fail, a few times before you understand what you’re really looking for.
Crème brûlée is also a little bit annoying in that you do need a few pieces of kitchen equipment to truly make it sing:
- a kitchen torch, of course, to achieve the crispy burnt sugar crust (this will run you anywhere from $20-50 for a smaller torch that will be totally sufficient for créme brûlée. I have one like this.)
- an immersion blender or standard blender can help smooth things out, especially if you’re including “non-standard” additions like this recipe (this can cost anywhere from $30-100, but my main recommendation is to get a set that comes with a whisk attachment like this one because this is my tool of choice when making structural whipped cream)
- baking dishes, most often individual-sized ramekins, but oven-proof glass dishes can work. You can also opt to make a larger crème brûlée to share if you only have larger dishes, though bake times, etc. will change (again circling back to the idea that you’ll need to bake a few crème brûlées before you understand how to adjust cook times). These can run you about $15-30 dollars if you get something like this that comes with convenient storage lids, or you can be like me and get yours at Daiso for even less 🙂
Is it annoying to buy new kitchen equipment? Absolutely.
Is it worth it? Look — I try to limit the amount of kitchen tools I buy because my kitchen is already overflowing. But that said, crème brûlée is really a magical treat to master. It’s the perfect dinner party dessert because it requires chilling time (and therefore can not only be made ahead, but is actually encouraged to be made ahead) and it’s a show stopper. It’s incredibly rare that I come across someone who doesn’t like crème brûlée.
TL;DR: yes, I do think in this case it’s worth it.
Anyway, try this recipe out and let me know what you think!
Miso Corn Crème Brûlée
Equipment
- 4 small oven-safe ramekins or dishes or 1 large one, for sharing
- 1 kitchen torch
- 1 immersion blender
Ingredients
- 225 g heavy cream
- 225 g whole milk
- 1 cob of sweet corn
- 40 g granulated sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 ½ tsp yellow miso paste
- additional granulated sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Cut the kernels off the corn cob and use the back of a knife to scrape any remaining "juice" out of the cob. Put the cob, kernels, and juice into a small pot.1 cob of sweet corn
- Add the milk, cream, and sugar and heat on medium heat until just bubbling around the edges. Reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.225 g heavy cream, 225 g whole milk, 40 g granulated sugar
- Remove the cob. Add the miso paste and blend the mixture with an immersion blender (or transfer to a standard blender and give it a quick blitz) — the goal isn't to create a perfectly smooth puree, you just want to break up the corn kernels a bit to release their juice.1 ½ tsp yellow miso paste
- Add egg yolks to a heat proof dish and give them a quick whisk. Slowly stream in the hot corn mixture while constantly whisking to ensure that you don't cook the egg yolks. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, preferably with a spout. Use a spoon to move the solids around and get all the liquid through but be careful to not press or squeeze the solids too forcefully, as it will give your creme a grainy texture.3 egg yolks
- Set up your steam bath (bain marie): place a small rimmed pan or baking sheet on top of a standard rimmed baking sheet. Place a paper towel at the bottom of the small pan to help prevent the ramekins from sliding, ensuring no parts of the baking sheet stick up out of the tray (you want all of the paper to be submerged in water once you add it). Arrange your empty ramekins on the paper towel lined baking sheet.
- To achieve a truly silky creme, portion the corn mixture evenly into the ramekins, straining once more (again without pressing on or squeezing the solids too much). This extra straining step is optional but recommended.
- Very carefully and slowly move the nested trays + filled ramekins to your preheated oven. Gently pull the rack and tray out for easier access, and using extreme caution, fill the inner small tray with boiling water, until it reaches about halfway up the outsides of the ramekins—be careful to not splash any water into your custard. Gently slide the trays and rack back into the oven, being careful to not slosh the water.
- Bake until the custard is set around the edges but wiggly in the center (you can test this by opening the oven and carefully giving the tray a small tap or shake). This should take around 10-15 minutes. My ramekins are on the shallow side, so if yours are deeper it may take a little bit longer. If it's too loose, bake in additional 3 minute increments until you achieve this texture. Be careful to not over-bake!
- Carefully remove the tray without spilling the water. Let cool for a few minutes and then carefully transfer the ramekins to a heatproof surface to cool a bit (a sturdy metal spatula can help with transferring the ramekins). Once cooled to warm, move to the refrigerator and refrigerate without covering for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight.
- When you're ready to serve, sprinkle a thin layer of granulated sugar evenly over the top of each ramekin. Torch the tops by evenly moving the flame across each surface, being careful to not burn the sugar too much.