Espresso Creme Brulée With Coffee Tuiles

Creme brulée is a perfect dessert to end a dinner with. What is more, you can make the custard even a day ahead, so it is also a great choice if guests are coming over.

Tuiles are ultra-thin, crispy wafer cookies that are really easy to make and they give a crunchy twist to any creamy dessert, ice cream for instance. Or, you may have one or two to go with your coffee. They can be shaped when they are hot, then they crack easily, so if you are planning to mold them, make a small batch at a time.

Creme brulée:

• 500 g double cream
• 7 egg yolks
• 50 g espresso powder
• 50 g sugar
• drop of vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

for the topping: extra confectioner's sugar (approximately 2 teaspoons/ramekin)

Tuiles:

• 20 g butter
• 30 g espresso
• 40 g sugar
• 20 g flour

Tools:

• bowls
• ramekins
• kitchen torch
• whisk
• saucepan
• fine mesh strainer

Let's start with the creme brulée!

In a saucepan, combine the heavy cream and the ground coffee, bring it to simmer. Remove from the heat, cover with a lid and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Pour through a fine mesh strainer to get rid of the solids.

While the cream and coffee mixture is set aside, combine egg yolks with sugar and vanilla in a bowl until the color of the mixture gets somewhat pale. This version contains relatively small quantity of sugar because with the caramel on top I wanted to avoid it being too sweet.

Pour the warm cream on the eggs, stirring continuously until well blended. Pour the mixture into the ramekins.

I used steam oven to cook the custard, this is the reason why I covered the ramekins tightly with aluminium foil and steamed for 23 minutes at 100 Celsius.

Alternately, you may use a normal oven. In this case, put the ramekins filled with custard in a high-sided pan, and fill it with hot water (the water should reach half way up the ramekins Bake in the preheated oven (170 Celsius) for about 30 - 40 minutes depending on the depth of the ramekin used.

Any method you chose, a good indicators on when the dessert is ready is that if you gently shake the ramekins their middle should be almost set.

Refrigerate until completely chilled (at least 2 hours, but can be done the day before).

Sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons of sugar, spread it evenly on the surface.

Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar, rotating the ramekin slowly with the other hand. Take care, the ramekins get hot!

Crack the caramel open and enjoy!

Let's get on with the tuiles.

You may serve it as a little extra crunchiness with the creme brulée, but they are also very good simply with coffee. And they are so easy to make!

Tips:

• silicone mat is a better choice than parchment paper, tuiles tend to come off easier after baking,
• this is not a make – ahead treat as it absorbs humidity from the air and loses it’s main feature: crispiness unfortunately quite fast.

Melt butter at low setting in the microwave.

Add the espresso and the sugar, mix.

Add the sieved flour, mix until homogeneously combined.

You'll get a quite runny batter.

Set the oven temperature to 170 Celsius.

Place a silicone mat on a baking tray.

Spread the batter with the back of the spoon in a very thin layer. Beware not to place them too close as they may spread more while cooking.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Bubbles will form while baking, don’t worry, that’s normal.

Then, straight out of the oven, lift off from the silicone mat (I used a knife) and gently press them on a rolling pin. They set real hard, they start to be fragile within a minute I would say, therefore I bake a maximum of 6 discs at a time (it took me 4 rounds to bake the quantity in the recipe).

Wait till they harden.

Serve with your coffee or any mousse, cream, ice cream, whatever.