Foie Gras Crème Brûlée (the Dinner-Party Showstopper)
There is a particular silence that falls over a dinner table when the spoons crack through caramel and find foie gras underneath instead of vanilla custard. We recommend engineering it at least once. This is dessert’s greatest party trick applied to the most luxurious savoury ingredient in the shop: a thin, glassy sugar lid over a warm-spiced, impossibly silky foie gras custard. If you need an excuse, Bastille Day is the fourteenth of July. If you don’t, any cold Perth evening will do.
It sounds like restaurant sorcery. It’s actually a blender and a water bath. Two 65 g Comtesse du Barry duck foie gras blocs are the exact right amount — or use most of the 210 g bloc and keep the rest for toasts, a sacrifice we’re sure you’ll manage.
What you need
- 130 g Comtesse du Barry duck foie gras bloc, roughly diced
- 300 ml thickened cream
- 4 egg yolks
- A pinch of fine salt and white pepper
- 6 tsp caster sugar, for the tops
- Toasted brioche or pain d’épices, to serve
Method
- Warm the cream to steaming — not boiling — then blend with the foie gras until completely smooth.
- Whisk the yolks in a bowl and pour the warm cream mixture over gradually, whisking as you go. Season with the salt and white pepper, then strain for perfect silk.
- Divide between six small ramekins in a deep baking dish. Pour boiling water halfway up their sides and bake at 140 °C for 30–35 minutes, until just set with a confident wobble in the centre.
- Chill for at least 2 hours. This part is done well before guests arrive, which is the whole point.
- Just before serving, scatter an even teaspoon of caster sugar over each and caramelise with a blowtorch — or under a screaming-hot grill — until deep amber. Give it a minute to set glassy.
- Serve with toasted brioche soldiers and watch the room go quiet.
The caramel is not decoration: that bittersweet crack against the rich, savoury cream is the entire argument of the dish. Keep the sugar layer thin and the brûlée moment last-minute. For what to pour alongside and every other way to show the bloc off, our guide on how to serve foie gras is the natural next read — and the wider Comtesse du Barry range can furnish the rest of the menu.
