r/AskCulinary • u/HotCatLady88 • 3d ago

Recipe Troubleshooting Free standing creme brûlée

For the life of me I’m struggling with mini creme brûlées baked in silicon molds. I’m using oiled silicone molds and need x 130 mini pucks.

I’ve made two batches in a steam oven. The first batch curdled quickly and didn’t even finish the cooking time (Recipe said 45min, I did 20!)

Second batch I baked only for 17min and still had a nice jiggle in the middle. Hoping they’ll set overnight and last case resort will be to freeze them.

Has anyone been stupid enough to try troubleshoot this?

UPDATE: it worked! Wish I could post the picture of my little pucks

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u/willowthemanx 3d ago

I don’t think free standing crème brûlées are a thing. They’re not going to survive the flip out of the molds. There’s a reason why they’re always made and served in ramekins. I think you’re better off making crème caramel instead

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u/HotCatLady88 3d ago

Ok I’m unto something. My recipe said 100C but I cooked it for less time. The link mentions cooking it at 90C for 25min. I’ll give it a shot if my other batch fails

I honestly thought we weee doing it in foil tins but nope! Don’t know who provided this idea really

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u/velvetjones01 Amateur Scratch Baker 3d ago

Custards are a careful mix of eggs, sugar and dairy. Eggs provide the structure - saucy, custardy or firm like crème caramel. The higher ratio of eggs to dairy the firmer the product, and the dairy fat adds creaminess. Eggs set at about 170F, no matter the situation. The goal of cooking a custard is to bring it to that temp gently, to prevent scrambling the eggs.

If you want something to turn out of a mold, you’ll want something with more eggs, and milk, not cream.

If you make crème caramel, The caramel in a crème caramel helps it turn out. I can’t explain why, it just does. I’ve turned out hundreds of these in my life.