Coffee Crème Brûlée and Chocolate Tart

I finally got me a kitchen blow torch, and I’m really looking forward to light up my birthday candles with it next year.

In the meantime, I thought I will test out my newly purchased blow torch by making a chocolate tart with an easy no-baked coffee crème brûlée filling.

I was cynical about the no-baked crème brûlée at first. But the custard sets wonderfully after a few hours in the fridge and is perfectly smooth and creamy. The rich creamy coffee crème brûlée goes so well with the equally decadent chocolate tart.

I highly recommend freezing the custard completely before caramelising the sugar with the blow touch. This way you will guarantee to get a chilled custard with a nice caramelised sugar layer. Otherwise the custard might become a warm soupy mess by the time you had your fun with the blow touch. (Or maybe it’s just me.)

Coffee Crème Brûlée and Chocolate Tart
(Chocolate tart adapted from Donna Hay magazine Jun-July 2012
Coffee Crème Brûlée adapted from et voila!)
Makes 2 numbers of 12cm tarts

Chocolate Pastry
25 grams dutch cocoa, sifted
185 grams plain flour, sifted
125 grams chilled butter, chopped
80 grams icing sugar, sifted
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon iced water

No-Bake Coffee Crème Brûlée
250 ml thickened cream (double cream)
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
3 egg yolks
50 grams caster sugar

The day before, make the chocolate pastry:
Place the cocoa, flour, butter and icing sugar in a food processor and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and water and process until the dough comes together. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hour.

Roll pastry out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to 3mm-thick. Roughly cut rounds from the pastry to line 12cm tart tins. Place dough into tart tin and gently press it into the tin without stretching it. Trim the edges. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.


Preheat oven to 160 degree celcius fan force. Line pastry cases with aluminium foil and fill with uncooked rice all the way to the top. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and rice. Lightly brush the pastry cases with egg white to seal. Bake for a further 10 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through. Allow to cool in tin.

To make no-bake coffee crème brûlée:
In a saucepan with the cream and instant coffee, gently bring the mixture to the boil over medium heat.

Meanwhile, in an electric mixer, whisk the egg yolks and caster sugar together until the mixture is fluffy and pale, forming thick ribbons when drizzled from the whisk.

Pour the hot cream over the egg and sugar mixture and whisk until combine. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cool over medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Do not boil. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. The custard is cooked when the cream thickly coats the spoon.


Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and allow it to cool to room temperature, mixing often to speed the process.

To assemble:
Remove the pastry cases from the tins. (This is optional- I brushed the pastry cases with some melted chocolate and wait for the chocolate to set before filling the cases with the crème brûlée. This is just a precautional step that I took to ensure that the pastry cases does not absorb too much moisture and become soggy.) Top with crème brûlée and freeze until custard is completely frozen. Sprinkle with granulated sugar (either white or brown is fine). Using a kitchen blow torch, brulee the tarts until caramelised.