I have made a few types of brûlée over the years. Brûlée Caramel Coffee, Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars, and No Bake Blueberry-Orange Crème Brûlée. Well, I guess only that last one counts as “making” crème brûlée, but the custard is normally baked before adding sugar and brûléeing. While I was searching for Vietnamese recipes to go with my theme of late, I found what might be the best crème brûlée of all, Vietnamese Coffee Crème Brûlée. My favorite coffee and one of my favorite desserts? And a chance to use my kitchen torch? Sign me up!
This Vietnamese coffee crème brûlée tastes just like Vietnamese iced coffee since it’s made with Vietnamese ground coffee and sweetened condensed milk.
The Ingredients
Coffee wasn’t a worry since I had a can of Trung Nguyen coffee on hand from making those Vietnamese Coffee Midnight Brownies. I also had kosher salt and organic granulated sugar in my pantry. I had to shop for whipping cream, milk, condensed milk, and eggs. They were all easily found at my usual grocery store.
I also had to shop for oven-safe five-ounce dishes. Most of what I found came in sets four to six, but this recipe calls for eight dishes. Five-ounce ramekins were very hard to find, and a set of eight was impossible to find. The five-ounce ramekins I did find came in sets of four to six for around $25. Pricey when I needed two sets, and I might never use them again.
I wasn’t about to spend $50+ for dishes I’m not sure I will ever use again. And didn’t want to waste custard for the extra two if I bought a set of six. In the end, I ordered a set of 8 (5-ounce) brûlée dishes that looked like mini tart pans.
These shallow dishes are also called ramekins, but my idea of a ramekin has a smaller diameter and higher sides. What I call a ramekin is more like the dishes shown in the recipe, but porcelain instead of glass. The more you know LOL!
The Process
My first time making real creme brûlée wasn’t as difficult as I imagined it would be. The instructions for this Vietnamese Coffee Crème Brûlée recipe broke everything down in a way that was easy for me to understand. I had minor hiccups, but I was able to troubleshoot them successfully.
Making the Custard
This recipe begins with heating the milk, cream, and coffee grounds in a small saucepan. A few minutes to let it simmer, then the mixture is removed from the stove to let the coffee steep for 15 minutes.
That gave me plenty of time to complete step four. I had the condensed milk, egg yolks, and salt whisked together by the time the coffee mixture had steeped.
Filtering the coffee mixture was where I had my first hiccup. I used my fine mesh strainer just as the instructions said, but I still had a lot of coffee grounds left. Re-straining with a piece of cheesecloth to line the strainer gave me a nearly coffee-ground-free mixture.
I then slowly added the newly stained coffee mixture to the condensed milk mixture while whisking. My balloon whisk made the mixture splash too much, so I switched to a fork to keep everything in the bowl.
Straining and Filling the Dishes
The combined liquid had a bunch of small, yellow pieces of egg yolk floating in it. It didn’t look too appetizing, but one more strain was needed. Instead of straining it all at once per the instructions, I did something a little different.
I poured the liquid into a large measuring cup (four cups) to see how much it made. Then I divided the number of ounces (24) by eight to find that each dish needed three ounces of uncooked custard.
Instead of straining the custard liquid, my next step was to place the brûlée dishes into a roasting pan. It’s the only one I own, and it’s huge! It has more than enough room to cook a 20-pound turkey.
Now it was time to strain and fill the dishes. To do this I placed the fine mesh strainer I used earlier over a medium-sized measuring cup (two cups). I strained the custard liquid until it measured three ounces, and then I added it to a brûlée dish. I repeated the process until I had filled all eight.
Baking
Step seven mentions a baking sheet, and I thought that meant to put the roasting pan on a baking sheet. My roasting pan was much too large to place on a sheet pan, and I quickly realized it was a typo. Change “baking sheet” to “roasting pan”, and it makes more sense. I added water I had heated in my microwave directly to the roasting pan to create a water bath. It took about three cups to reach halfway up the brûlée dishes since they were so shallow.
Finally, I loosely covered the pan with foil. The pan had handles on the short sides that would have gotten in the way of the foil. I had to cover it with two sheets placed crossways, from long side to long side. I almost said sideways, but sideways is relative. My next move was slowly, smoothly, and ever so carefully the covered roasting pan to my oven.
The instructions say to add water and cover with foil while it’s in the oven, but I switched it up to avoid burns. Also, the oven was open for less time, keeping the temperature higher.
Since the dishes I bought were very shallow, I knew they would not need as much cooking time as deeper ramekin dishes. I found a couple of other recipes that showed dishes like mine and used their times, 35 to 45 minutes.
My Vietnamese Coffee Crème Brûlée was done at 35 minutes, and I did one more slow-motion transfer from the oven to the stovetop. They had to cool for three hours, so I had one more transfer to do. Or eight transfers.
Cooling and Torching
I used a wide nylon spatula (a.k.a. turner) to carefully move each dish from the pan to wire cooling racks. No matter how careful I was, I did manage to drip water onto one of the brûlées. Thankfully, the mark it made was minor and mostly disappeared after the water evaporated.
The sun had set by the time the custards had cooled, so I refrigerated my newly made brûlées overnight. I left mine uncovered by mistake. Thankfully, they looked the same after a night in the refrigerator, and it was time to get my brûlée (photos) on.
I added 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar and got to torching. And yes, the kitchen torch is the funnest kitchen tool of all! I wasn’t 100% thrilled with the results, and I experimented on the next few.
One tablespoon (three teaspoons) was too much, and I wasn’t able to get all the sugar to melt. Two teaspoons was just right. Even though the 1 1/2 teaspoon version had a firm shell, the two-teaspoon version looked more substantial.
Timing
This recipe listed 25 minutes to prep, 45 minutes to cook, and a total time of 1 hour 10 minutes. Time to chill was not included, but adding the minimum of 3 hours would bring the total time to 4 hours 10 minutes. I’m pleased to say I came very close to that:
- 25 minutes to prep
- 37 minutes to cook
- 3 hours to chill (I chilled mine overnight, but I’ll use the minimum for rating purposes.)
- 16 minutes to torch all 8 custards
- 4 hours 18 minutes total
