Thai Tea Creme Brulee
Makes 1 9-inch pie
Thai Tea Crème Brûlée Recipe
I'm still churning through pounds and pounds of Thai tea from my trip to Thailand visiting family over the summer. So when my mom asked me to contribute a pie to our holiday spread, I saw the perfect opportunity to use some of it—plus, let's be honest, Thai tea is always a crowd-pleaser.
But the idea for this Thai tea crème brûlée actually came from my brother. Well, more specifically, his blowtorch. He's always looking for things to light on fire (as little brothers are), and I figured this dessert would be the perfect excuse for some holiday bonding. So, I called up my grandpa—who used to work at a French restaurant when he first came to the states in the 70s!—and he walked me through a standard crème brûlée recipe. I doubled it, to fit in a pie crust, and steeped Thai tea into the heavy cream and viola—magic!
You can really use any standard pie crust for this recipe. I used Jessie Sheehan's magic melted butter pie crust for this recipe, and didn't crimp the edges because I knew we'd be going in with the blow torch. If you want to do a beautiful little crust, I'd recommend covering it when you're torching it or putting it in the broiler because it will burn.
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch butter pie crust (recipe or store-bought of your choosing)
- 2 tablespoons loose-leaf thai tea (such as chatramue brand)
- 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
- tablespoon vanilla paste
- 1 cup fine granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup fine granulated sugar divided
- 6 egg yolks, room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a saucepan, add heavy cream, vanilla extract, and the add loose-leaf Thai tea into a steeper and heat on medium-to-high heat until the mixture comes to light bubble (not quite a boil). Remove from heat to low and let steep for at least five minutes.
- While that steeps, whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until combined.
- Remove tea from the saucepan and slowly incorporate the warm heavy cream mixture into the yolk-sugar mixture; mixing constantly, tempering the eggs. If you add it all in at once, you’ll cook the yolks and will end up with a curdled, gross filling.
- Whisk, whisk, whisk until the two are thoroughly combined.
- Pour custard mixture into the pie crust using a strainer. Place in oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until just set (not browned). It’ll be a little jiggly—that’s good! Be sure it isn't sloshy, though (I'm serious. LISTEN TO ME! Not all ovens are made the same, it's not a crime to bake it longer if it needs to be).
- Let pie cool completely and then refrigerate for at least four hours, or until ready to serve (up to 48 hours covered).
- Mix the 1/4 sugar, 1/2 ground nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom in a small bowl, set aside.
- Right before serving, evenly pour the sugar mixture over the cooled pie and go in with a blow torch to create a hard caramel shell over the pie (if you don’t have a blow torch broil in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, watching closely until the sugar begins to crackle).
