We cannot resist the desserts at Nan Thai Fine Dining, especially the classic desserts infused with Thai flavors. It’s a toss-up between choosing the Thai tea creme brulee and the wild lemongrass custard to end a meal. If we had the recipe for one, we would no longer have to choose between the two when we’re having dinner there.
— Evelyn Frank, Atlanta
This dessert is the co-creation of Nan Thai owners and executive chefs Nan and DeeDee Niyomkul. They told us, “Since Thai tea is a popular drink that is very sweet and has a strong tea flavor, we thought it would be perfect as a dessert, especially as creme brulee with the extra element of burnt sugar!” It’s available at both the Midtown and Buckhead locations.
This is a dessert you need to start at least a day ahead of serving. Infuse the milk, bake the custard and then cool overnight. Caramelize the sugar top the next day and serve immediately or within two hours.
The most meticulous part of preparing this dessert is straining the tea-infused milk. Thai tea powder, available online and in stores that carry Asian groceries, has very, very fine particles. Even a fine-mesh sieve and our mesh tea strainer did not completely strain the mixture. The chefs recommend using cheesecloth; we also had luck using a tea sock (a clean, thin, tightly woven sock).
If you don’t have 10 4-ounce ramekins, you can bake the creme brulee in 8-ounce ramekins. (They cook in the same amount of time.) A serving at the restaurant is 4 ounces, garnished with a dollop of whipped cream and a mint sprig.
Our recipe calls for caramelizing the creme brulee top under the broiler but if a propane torch is in your kitchen toolkit, use that.
Nan Thai Fine Dining’s Thai Tea Creme Brulee
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Thai tea powder
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup egg yolks (from 7 to 8 eggs)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Raw sugar, for topping
- In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine milk and water and bring to a boil. Stir in tea powder and reduce heat so mixture is simmering. Simmer 20 minutes, uncovered, then strain mixture through cheesecloth into a large bowl. Rinse saucepan and set aside. Repeat straining step until all tea particles have been removed. Whisk in cream and set aside.
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange 10 4-ounce ramekins in a roasting pan. Bring 6 cups water to a boil.
- In the rinsed saucepan, whisk egg yolks, sugar and vanilla until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to a simmer over low heat, whisking constantly, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and slowly whisk into reserved tea and cream mixture, whisking until well combined.
- Divide mixture between prepared ramekins. Transfer roasting pan to oven and carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan so it comes halfway up the side of the ramekins, being careful not to get water into the ramekins. Bake 1 hour, then remove roasting pan from oven and allow ramekins to cool in the roasting pan. Remove ramekins from pan, cover each and refrigerate overnight.
- Two hours or less before serving, turn on broiler.
- Remove ramekins from refrigerator and evenly cover the surface of each ramekin with a thin layer of raw sugar. Arrange ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and place 2 to 3 inches under broiler heating element. Watching carefully, broil 2 minutes or until sugar has dissolved and begun to caramelize. Serve within 2 hours.
Makes 10.
Per serving: 358 calories (percent of calories from fat, 63), 7 grams protein, 26 grams carbohydrates, 24 grams total sugars, trace fiber, 25 grams total fat (14 grams saturated), 322 milligrams cholesterol, 48 milligrams sodium.
From the menu of ... Nan Thai Fine Dining, 1350 Spring St. NW, Atlanta; 404-870-9933, nanfinedining.com.
Is there a recipe from a metro Atlanta restaurant you’d like to make at home? Tell us and we’ll try to get it. We’ll also test it and adapt it for the home kitchen. Because of volume, we can’t answer all inquiries. Send your request, your address and phone number to fromthemenu@gmail.com and put “From the menu of” and the name of the restaurant in the subject line.
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