Sous Vide Crème Brûlée, take 1

Why is it that foods that have angular accents above their names seem to be sophisticated desserts, but a food with an umlaute seem to always be necessary soul food? (Spätzle, soft, thick noodles; Käsespätzle, Dish of Spätzle and fried onions gratinated with cheese; Flädlesuppe, broth with thin strips of pancakes; Frühstück, German breakfast)

Anyway, I attempted my first Sous Vide Creme Brulee (it was also my first Creme Brulee ever).  I followed Douglas Baldwin's YouTube recipe below, but ended up with mixed results.

The receipt I used was:

- 1 quart (AKA 1 cup) of Heavy Whipping Creme

- 12 (AKA 1 dozen) egg yolks

- 4oz of white granulate sugar

Egg yolks and sugar in the blender.

- 1 table spoon (AKA the big one) of vanilla extract

I placed all the ingredients in a blender and then placed the mixture into 3 FoodSaver bags.  Using the clamshell-style FoodSaver did prove challenging and I lost some of the mixture because the seal wasn't strong enough on one of the bags.  I also arbitrarily used three bags; I probably should have just used 1 or 2.

I then placed the bags in an 12 quart water bath, regulated by my homemade sous vide temperature controller and set to 181 F.  This brought to light several weaknesses in my design, which I will talk about in a latter post.  I believe a major issue I had was inconsistent heating of the custard mixture.  I also believe my temperature needed to be calibrated since two of the three bags curdled.

Issue #1 - Cook time and difficulty using the water bath

I had a problem with the bags floating around and not staying submerged so I left them in the bath for closer to 45min than the 30min Douglass recommended.  I also did that since after placing the bags in the water, the temperature dropped almost immediately to 164 F, so I thought it should need some time to come back up.  This was probably too long in the water bath.

Vacuum-sealed bag of creme goodness.

Issue #2 - Curdled custard

When I removed the bags and noticed the curdling, I initially planned to toss them, but quickly found a blog posting from Indirect Heat on how to rescue it.  A quick run through the blender made the now cooked custard a beautiful, creamy consistency and I poured it into the ramekins.  I had 4 small ramekins and 2 large and filled each to the brim and placed in the refrigerator.

Issue #3 - Custard not setting

The fridge was set at 37 F, but after 4 hours, the custard was still not set.  It was not very viscous, but would slowly spill over the edge of the ramekin if tinted.  I tried to remedy this by placing them in the ice cube tray for 15min, which did solidify them up.  The large ramekins should not have been used or at least not completely filled.  Firstly, it's just too much creme brulee to enjoy without entering a diabetic coma and second, even overnight in a now 35 F fridge, it still has not set.

Making the Brulee AKA using a blowtorch in your house

Playing with fire was a part of the recipe I was most excited about.  I used a small butane torch and initially tried brown sugar.  Don't do that.  The white, granulated sugar burned much more nicely.

Finished product.  White granulated sugar was used for the topping.

Brown sugar version.

Results

Personally, I think the creme brulees are bit runny.  Of the three other people who've tried them so far, no one has complained and like the consistency.  Some feedback was that even the small ramekins held too much.