Pistachio Crème Brûlée

The hardest thing about Crème Brûlée is probably writing the words itself: Everything else is, um, a piece of cake. You can make this dessert without the pistachio, of course, but I like adding them because gives it gives a distinct flavor. I usually buy pistachio nuts and then powder them using my NutriBullet — it’s super easy and entirely worth it.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 °F.

Combine the double cream (also called heavy cream), vanilla bean and its paste-like seeds, 1/2 cup sugar and powdered pistachio into a saucepan and set it over medium-high heat. Just when it starts to look like it is simmering (you do not want to boil it), turn the heat down to low and let it sit for about 10 minutes. You can remove the vanilla pods at this point.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with about 1/2 cup of sugar till it blends well. Then use a deep spoon or a ladle to add the cream little by little, stirring as you mix it with the egg yolks. Once you’ve mixed about four to five ladles of cream, you can pour the whole cream into the bowl and mix it all together.

Use a fine sieve over a glass bowl or a jug, and pour the mixture to strain it — this will keep out the egg remains and coarse pistachio granules. Stir the mixture in the jug with a spoon.

Pour the liquid into about half a dozen ramekins (about 8-ounce size) or two small shallow porcelain baking dish. Carefully place the ramekins on to a wide roasting pan and then pour hot water into the pan so the ramekins are immersed about half way up. Bake approximately 30-35 minutes, until the creme brûlée feels set — you can shake the pan a bit and notice that the creme brûlée with jiggle slightly but not disintegrate.

Take the ramekins out of the roasting pan (careful! they will be hot) and then put them in the refrigerator. I usually leave it there overnight.

A video posted by Anup Kaphle (@anupkaphle) on May 29, 2016 at 12:17am PDT

Remove the creme brûlée from the fridge and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes. I use a tea strainer to sprinkle about 1/2 cup of sugar evenly on top of the ramekins. Turn the blow torch on, gently melt the sugar until you notice a crispy layer forming on top. Let it sit for about five minutes before serving.