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Chai Latte Creme Brulee

"Rich, creamy, and loaded with spices!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,027 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The recipe

6 desserts
Prep20 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 325°F (163°C). Set six ramekins in a deep baking dish and bring a kettle of water to a boil.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the heavy cream, half-and-half, and the split vanilla bean with its scraped seeds. Heat over medium until steaming but not boiling, then remove from heat, add the chai tea bags, cover, and steep 15 minutes.

  3. Meanwhile, whisk the whole egg, egg yolks, the 1/2 cup white sugar, 2 tablespoons of the 1/4 cup sugar, the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice in a bowl until smooth.

  4. Remove the tea bags and vanilla bean from the cream, squeezing the bags well. Reheat the cream gently until warm, not boiling.

  5. Slowly whisk the warm cream into the egg mixture in a thin stream. Strain through a fine sieve into a pitcher and skim any foam from the surface.

  6. Divide the custard among the ramekins. Pour boiling water into the baking dish until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

  7. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until the edges are set and the centers jiggle slightly. The custard should reach 160°F (71°C) in the center.

  8. Cool the ramekins in the water bath for 15 minutes, then lift them out, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours until fully chilled.

  9. Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining sugar evenly over each custard. Caramelize with a kitchen torch or under a broiler until golden and hard, 1 to 2 minutes.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + cardamomtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,299 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cardamom + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Vanilla + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Vanilla + sugartop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Vanilla and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, vanilla, tea, egg, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom):

  1. Nutmegbetter flavor fit
  2. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Peppermintabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, vanilla, tea, egg, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).