I love working with pastry, I mean I LOOOOVE it. There is nothing quite like the feeling of taking some flour, butter and sugar turning into a flaky buttery crispy thing that become the perfect vessel for a chocolatey delight, cream and berries, caramel, mousse or in this case a gorgeous creamy creme brulee. The idea for this tart started with the pastry. I made a vanilla shortcrust pastry that was particularly mind blowing for a pear and chocolate frangipane tart, but i knew the pastry would be transcendant if filled with a custard, but not just any custard the queen of all custards : Creme Brûlée  The results were amazing and I’m so happy to be sharing them with you 🙂 As much as I adore making pastry from scratch – most of the time I dont have that kind of luxury, which is frustrating for someone who adores pastry as much as me. I recently discovered Careme Traditional pastry (which is a handmade pastry company based in the Barossa Valley) the type of pastry they have on offer was enough to prove to me that these are my kind of people that know what they are doing.  The first pastry I tried was their dark chocolate pastry. I wanted to create something wicked and decadent, and there is nothing more wicked and decadent than my salted caramel and chocolate ganache tart  (http://wp.me/p3xk6X-1c) that turned out so well, i had to try substituting my labour of love sweet shortcrust pastry for the vanilla bean shortcrust pastry by Careme. I was so satisfied with the results I comfortably recommend it to everyone!

Ingredients

for the pastry
1 packet Careme Vanilla bean Shortcrust Pastry

for the Creme brûlée
600 ml thickened cream
1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
8 egg yolks
1/3 cup castor sugar
Extra sugar for browning the top

Method
for the pastry
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

2. Spray 4 pastry tins with oil, and line them with the ready rolled out pastry (this recipe is not recommended for 1 large tart)  I did it in a rustic style ’cause I was after that look, but you can trim the edges and make it look more dainty if you prefer

3. Prick the pastry with a  fork all over

4. Cover each pastry tart with baking paper then fill with baking beads, dried beans, or rice, ensure to press the baking paper down so that the beads are weighing down the pastry

5. Place the pastry into the oven for 15 minutes or until the edges start to become golden – then remove from the oven and discard the beans and paper

4. While the cases are in the oven, make the crème brulee

Crème Brulee
1. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar well in a large bowl until thick and frothy – be careful not to overwhip

2. Scald the combined cream and vanilla bean paste while stirring

3. Slowly (very, very slowly) pour the scalded cream into the egg mixture while continuing to whisk. Add the cream in batches, whisking well after each addition so that the temperature of the eggs doesn’t come up too quickly otherwise you will end up with vanilla scrambled eggs 🙂

4. Once all the cream has been added, place the mixture back into the pot (which has ideally been rinsed and dried) and continue to stir over low heat until it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon

5. Remove the pot from the heat and plunge into (a) a sink that is half full of cold water or (b) a prepared large bowl that is filled with ice and water

6. Leave the pot aside until the creme brulee has cooled considerably

Assembly

1. Once the creme brulee has started to cool (ie no steam rises from it when mixing) divide the mixture among the baked pastry cases and cool completely to room temperature

2. Once the creme brulee has cooled and is set, sprinkle the extra sugar on top and brown it with a kitchen grade blow torch ENJOY! Happy cooking from my family to yours xx

Related articles

• Dark Chocolate tart with salted caramel and chocolate ganache (divineanddeliciousliving.com)