Raspberry and hazelnut crème brûlées
Forget about having just one flavour in your crème brûlée, try three! Silky vanilla custard is served over raspberry jam and hazelnut nougatine because you deserve a surprise with each mouthful
Servings: 4
Ingredients
For the nougatine
- 100 g hazelnuts skinned
- 150 g sugar
For the raspberry coulis
- 150 g raspberries I used frozen raspberries
- 80 g sugar
For the crème brûlée
- 300 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp sugar plus 1tsp for the topping
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F. Quickly crush the hazelnuts in a food processor, with a pestle and mortar, or chop them with a knife. Tip them onto a baking tray and toast for 5-10 minutes until golden and fragrant.
- Meanwhile make a dry caramel. Sprinkle the sugar in an even layer in the frying pan and set it over medium-low heat. Don’t stir or touch the sugar. Keep your eye on it as the sugar melts and darkens, and swirl the pan every now and then to encourage sugar around the edge to melt. Prepare a tray lined with baking parchment.
- When all the sugar becomes caramel, remove from the heat. Quickly add the nuts, stir together to combine and tip onto the lined tray to set and cool.
- Make the raspberry coulis by adding the raspberries and sugar in a saucepan and setting over medium heat. Let the sugar dissolve and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until it has reduced by half then remove from the heat.
- Once the nougatine is cold, break it into chunks and add to a food processor. Blitz it until ground to dust then keep going until creamy and spreadable.
- Spread a heaped teaspoonful of nougatine in the bottom of four ramekins. Top with a couple of teaspoons of raspberry coulis and spread it to the edges.
- Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C fan/300°F. Pour the cream into a saucepan and add the vanilla. Put over medium heat and warm it until it is nearly simmering and produces steam. Remove from the heat to cool slightly.
- In a bowl, mix together the yolks and sugar. Slowly pour in the cooled cream, stirring all the time.
- Using a sieve, strain the custard into the ramekins on top of the raspberry and hazelnut layers. Make sure you are next to the oven for this part – don’t carry a precarious tray of hot water across the kitchen! Put the full ramekins in a high sided roasting dish and fill it with boiling water until three-quarters up the sides of the ramekins. Carefully slide the tray into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes, until a skin has formed on the top of the crèmes.
- Remove them from the hot water and leave them to cool at room temperature before putting in the fridge to set overnight.
- An hour before serving, sprinkle a teaspoon of caster sugar over the surface of the crème brûlées. Wipe away any excess sugar on the edge of the ramekin. Using a blowtorch, carefully melt the sugar until melted and golden in patches. Don’t hold it too close as it might burn the sugar. If you don’t have blowtorch, melt the sugar under a hot grill, moving them occasionally to keep the colour even.* (see notes) Serve immediately.
Notes
* crème brûlées are high maintenance – don’t leave sugar on the surface without melting it as it can get wet and crystalise. Once melted don’t put it in the fridge as the caramel will become liquid.