Green Tea Creme Brulee

A healthy substitute to coffee or black tea, green tea is now widely recognised as a healthy drink with numerous qualities, two of them being to reduce heart disease and cholesterol.
With this in mind we can assume that adding this tasty leaf product to any kind of recipe can do no harm.

This is why in this article I would like to present you one of my favourite kinds of creme brulee, flavoured with a good touch of matcha powder or green tea powder to be precise.

Matcha is actually real green tea powder, and this is what we normally use for the confection of ice creams, mousses, sponges and many others kinds of delicacies.

We can find it at some specialised or up-market shops.
It has the very characteristic strong and full flavour and colour of the green tea, and it is certainly the best product on the market whenever we need to add the distinct green tea taste to our recipes.

About creme brulee in general, I just want to remind you the importance of the baking time and temperature, as those two parameters will be a major factor in the success or failure of your creme brulee.

So do not forget to read carefully the method and to stick to it. This said practice is undoubtedly the best way to learn this art, and success rarely comes without it.

So for a start we need to prepare the dishes, any kind of glass or ceramic cups or dishes will do the job.

For this recipe you will need around 15 individual cups or the kind of ramequin sauce ceramic dishes.

Also as we are going to bake the creme brulee in a hot water bath we need a flat bottomed stainless steel shallow dish, as high as or higher than the small ceramic dishes, and where all of them will fit.

Below please find the list of ingredients needed:

Cream: 565g
Milk: 565g
Matcha Powder: 8g
Castor Sugar: 215g
Egg Yolks: 280g

As usual the first thing to do is to turn the oven on, with the temperature dial set to to140C (284F), depending of the kind of oven you are using, temperature may differ.

To start, pour the cream and milk into a thick saucepan and turn the heat on.
With a small whisk or a spoon combine the matcha powder with half of the sugar; keep mixing until both become one without any lump.

Then whisk the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until they both become smooth and lighter in colour.

When the cream mixture start to boil, turn off the heat and fold in the combined sugar/matcha mix and keep mixing with a whisk until dissolved into the hot liquid.

Straight away, pour the hot cream mix over onto the egg yolks mix, while stirring constantly.

Strain the hot green tea mixture and fill the individual dishes up to the top.
The creme brulee is now ready to bake, so place them all in the stainless steel dish 2cm to 3cm apart.

Pour some hot tap water in between the cups up to 2/3 of the cups height.
Carefully insert the dish into the oven and close the door.

If your oven has a ventilation duct, keep it closed all the time.
The baking time is something that will make or fail your cream brulee.

If under baked the creme brulee will not set properly, and if over baked it will curdle, this is why we must take extra care for the baking of this delicious creamy and smooth dessert.

With the oven I use, the normal baking time for this steamed custard is between 45 and 50 minutes, now depending of your kind of oven time and temperature may differ slightly.

Once you see that the custard in the cups is set, very carefully take them out of the oven.

Let them cool down for a few minutes at room temperature and then place them inside a fridge to cool them down completely.

A few minutes before serving spread evenly a little castor sugar on top of each cream brulee, and blow torch them until you get a nice slightly dark caramel forming on top of the cold custard.

Then if you wish you can add a few pieces of fruits as a decoration just before serving.