‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond’s Crème Brûlée Is Her ‘Favorite Dessert on Earth’
Ree Drummond has a lot of favorite recipes but calls crème brûlée her “favorite dessert on earth.” It’s beautiful, elegant, and delicious — and it’s also super simple to make.
Ree Drummond shares her ‘favorite dessert on Earth’ is crème brûlée
Drummond wrote about her crème brûlée recipe in a 2010 blog post on The Pioneer Woman website. “It’s a special day because I’m sharing with you my favorite dessert on earth. Mmm… crème brûlée,” she wrote. “It’s even fun to say, even if it is a pain in the neck to type. I’ve loved it for a very, very, very long time.”
She continued, “As intimidating as all those letter symbols are and as fancy as the dessert itself seems … it really is one of the most simple things you can make. The only catch is that you really do need one special tool — a small butane kitchen torch.”
The Food Network host added, “And don’t be intimidated if you’ve never made crème brûlée! As is the case with most everything that takes place on this website, if I can do it … anyone can do it.”
‘The Pioneer Woman’ star gives her crème brûlée recipe ‘a cowboy twist’
Drummond demonstrated how to make the easy dessert on an episode of The Pioneer Woman. “It’s everything that’s wonderful about crème brûlée with a little bit of a cowboy twist,” she explained.
Drummond added cream and vanilla bean seeds to a saucepan and heated the mixture almost to a boil then turned off the heat.
In a bowl, Drummond beat together egg yolks and superfine sugar until it was light yellow.
She strained the cream then tempered the eggs by adding some of the hot cream mixture to the bowl while whisking. “So the point is just to bring the egg yolks up to temperature a little bit at a time,” Drummond explained. She added the remaining cream.
“Now the little twist I’m putting on crème brûlée is nothing major — it’s just lemon zest,” The Pioneer Woman star said. “It’s as simple as that.” Drummond whisked in the lemon zest and ladled the mixture into ramekins. “You don’t want them to be too deep,” she explained. “That’s kind of the secret of a good crème brûlée dish.”
She baked the dessert in a 325 degree Fahrenheit oven for 22 minutes, then let the crème brûlée cool completely before chilling in the refrigerator.
Drummond made a delicious berry topping for the dessert with blueberries, blackberries, lemon zest, sugar, honey, and vanilla. “You can just serve regular fresh berries over crème brûlée or you can just serve it by itself,” she said.
Drummond recommends a special tool that makes all the difference
After the crème brûlée dessert was set and chilled, Drummond sprinkled superfine sugar over the top of each one.
The Pioneer Woman star recommended a special kitchen tool for this step. — a small torch. “There’s really no way to do a crème brûlée properly without a kitchen torch,” she said. “I hate to have things where I have to have a special piece of equipment but I have tried to brulee sugar under a broiler and it never really works out.”
She continued, “The secret is to keep the torch moving constantly. You don’t want to hold it in one spot for too long. Just keep moving it around and slowly, you’ll see those little superfine sugar crystals start to dissolve.”
The full recipe is available on the Food Network website.
