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Kitchen Essentials

This corn-flavored crème brûlée features an undertone of miso (corn + miso is one of my favorite flavor combinations if you haven't noticed by now!). It's much easier than it looks as long as you plan ahead for the 2 hour chill, and is a great make ahead recipe, too. You'll need a torch  to achieve a nice crisp sugar crust. I've heard of people using their broiler to do this but I've never tried it and you'll need to make sure your ramekins can tolerate the broiler.

If you only have white miso on hand, bump the miso quantity by 1/4-1/2 tsp because white is milder and less salty than yellow.

Miso Corn Crème Brûlée

Cut the kernels off the corn cob and use the back of a knife to scrape any remaining "juice" out of the cob. Put the cob, kernels, and juice into a small pot.

Add the milk, cream, and sugar and heat on medium heat until just bubbling around the edges. Reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove the cob. Add the miso paste and blend the mixture with an immersion blender (or transfer to a standard blender and give it a quick blitz) — the goal isn't to create a perfectly smooth puree, you just want to break up the corn kernels a bit to release their juice.

Add egg yolks to a heat proof dish and give them a quick whisk. Slowly stream in the hot corn mixture while constantly whisking to ensure that you don't cook the egg yolks. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, preferably with a spout. Use a spoon to move the solids around and get all the liquid through but be careful to not press or squeeze the solids too forcefully, as it will give your creme a grainy texture.

Set up your steam bath: place a small rimmed pan or baking sheet on top of a standard rimmed baking sheet. Place a paper towel at the bottom of the small pan to help prevent the ramekins from sliding, ensuring no parts of the baking sheet stick up out of the tray (you want all of the paper to be submerged in water once you add it). Arrange your empty ramekins on the paper towel lined baking sheet.

To achieve a truly silky creme, portion the corn mixture evenly into the ramekins, straining once more (again without pressing on or squeezing the solids too much). This extra straining step is optional but recommended.

Very carefully and slowly move the nested trays + filled ramekins to your preheated oven. Gently pull the rack and tray out for easier access, and using extreme caution, fill the inner small tray with boiling water, until it reaches about halfway up the outsides of the ramekins—be careful to not splash any water into your custard. Gently slide the trays and rack back into the oven, being careful to not slosh the water.

Bake until the custard is set around the edges but wiggly in the center (you can test this by opening the oven and carefully giving the tray a small tap or shake). This should take around 10-15 minutes. My ramekins are on the shallow side, so if yours are deeper it may take a little bit longer. If it's too loose, bake in additional 3 minute increments until you achieve this texture. Be careful to not over-bake!

Carefully remove the tray without spilling the water. Let cool for a few minutes and then carefully transfer the ramekins to a heatproof surface to cool a bit (a sturdy metal spatula can help with transferring the ramekins). Once cooled to warm, move to the refrigerator and refrigerate without covering for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight.

When you're ready to serve, sprinkle a thin layer of granulated sugar evenly over the top of each ramekin. Torch the tops by evenly moving the flame across each surface, being careful to not burn the sugar too much.