What's The Difference Between Crème Brûlée And Custard?

Oftentimes the difference between two recipes is only a few extra steps or ingredients, changing a mundane dish to marvelous. For example, cheese, herbs, and a few extra slices with a sharp knife transform oven-baked potatoes into extra cheesy Hasselback potatoes, while kosher salt and chopped peanuts will make bake sale peanut butter cookies taste like they came wrapped in a pink box from a high-end pâtisserie. The same can be said for custard and a classic crème brûlée, as the only real difference between the two is a crisp, caramel topping.

Though it seems like a long stretch to go from your grandmother's egg custard (replete with a telltale skin) to an elegant crème brûlée served at a fine French restaurant, the two desserts are actually one and the same. All it takes is a little bit of sugar and a lot of heat to reshape a simple vanilla pudding into a dish fit for a queen.

Custards come in different forms, from pouring custards like crème anglaise and pastry cream piped into your chocolate eclair, to frozen custard ice cream and baked custards like crème brûlée. But baked custards, or set custards as they're sometimes called, have been made for centuries. In England, they hit their stride during the late 1600s.

Most often made with three basic ingredients — milk or cream, eggs, and sugar, though cooks often add additional flavorings like vanilla — custard sets and becomes a silky-smooth treat when egg yolks whipped with sugar are tempered with hot milk. As the protein molecules in the egg yolks heat up, their structure is loosened. Instead of quickly binding back together (as the almost-powdery yolk you'd get in a hard boiled egg) the milk and sugar slow the process, instead creating a smooth gel.

Simply translated, crème brûlée means scorched or burnt cream, but as anyone who's enjoyed this classic dessert would know, the reality is quite, deliciously different. France, England, and Spain all argue that they're the first creators of crème brûlée. The earliest printed reference comes from "Le Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois," a cookbook published in 1691 written by François Massialot, a chef at the Palace of Versailles.

Meanwhile, Trinity College in Cambridge, England, claims its early 17th-century creation Trinity burnt cream is the true original, and Spain claims their crema catalana, which dates to the Middle Ages, beats them all out by a wide margin, despite using a slightly different methodology. No matter what food historians might claim, when it comes right down to it, crème brûlée is a simple, set custard topped with sugar that's brûléed or caramelized under a broiler or using a kitchen torch, creating a crisp, caramel crust.