The Best Crème Brûlée and Millionaire’s Shortbread: Our Favorite Desserts | America’s Test Kitchen

Today, Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison whip up two of ATK’s favorite desserts: crème brûlée and millionaire’s shortbread. Jack Bishop, Adam Ried, and Becky Hays join to taste the desserts and as a bonus, Bridget put together a speciality cocktail, the ATK 25, our take on a French 75 with a colorful twist.

Millionaire’s Shortbread Recipe: https://cooks.io/3X5989s
Classic Crème Brûlée Recipe: https://cooks.io/4ohN0F2
The ATK 25: https://cooks.io/435V4QE

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– Get ready for the grand finale because we’re gonna finish
on a high note with, I’m not gonna say our oldest colleagues. ’cause you guys–
– What? – Original please. – Our original colleagues
from way back when we started the TV show. These guys have been on camera with us since the very beginning. – The OGs?
– It’s the OGs. Adam, Jack, – And Becky. We’re gonna cook dessert for you. – All right.
– We’ve got some great desserts coming up too. Julia is making a creme brulee. This recipe’s really withstood
the test of time. Yeah. Now I’m gonna make a
millionaire’s shortbread, which is one of my favorite things to
bake around the holidays, and I give ’em as gifts. All right, so very easy to do. I’m gonna start off with the crust. So I’ve got some all purpose flour. This is 12 and a half ounces,
or two and a half cups. I’ve got a half cup of granulated sugar and a little bit of salt. This is three quarter
teaspoon of table salt. I always like to use table
salt when I’m baking. Just whisk this together. I’ve got two sticks of butter here. So 16 tablespoons of unsalted butter, and I’m gonna combine this. Alright, that looks good enough. So now this is going to go into a nine by 13 inch baking pan. Gonna crumble this mixture
in there, lined it with foil. Now the foil sling, as you guys know. Gotta love the foil sling, right? – Game changer.
– Yeah, it was a game changer. It’s great because it makes
everything basically a spring form pan, right? It’s removable bottom. It’s fantastic. – Yep. Even like brownies.
I always use the foil sling. ’cause is why not, – Right? Yeah. So I’m just gonna dock
this that every inch or so, and that’s just to keep it
from puffing up too much. All right. This is gonna
go into a 350 degree oven. I wanna leave it in there until it starts to get a little bit Tawny brown. That’s only gonna take
about 25, maybe 30 minutes. – Alright, so while she’s baking that, I’m gonna get the creme brulee started. It is the best creme brulee recipe. The reason is the ratio of yolks to cream is really incredible. And also use a real vanilla bean, which I think is really important here. I think you can tell the difference. – Yeah. Oh, you have to use the bean here. I’ve probably made this recipe 50 times. – Oh wow.
– And like you can’t make it with the vanilla extract. No, I mean, first of all, you
do eat with your eyes, right? – It’s painful, but yes, (all laughing) – Makes the dish that much
more special when you see the vanilla seeds, you know,
gathered at the bottom of the ramekin when you go
to dig into it. So yeah. – So that was two cups of
cream, two thirds of a cup of sugar, lengthwise down the bean. You wanna split it in half and open it up so you can really get to all those seeds. And I’m gonna pop the
bean right in here too. We’ll strain any bits out later. So sugar, cream, vanilla,
and a pinch of salt. So I’m gonna whisk this together, bring it to a boil over medium heat. That’s just to warm it up to help get the flavors
out of the vanilla. Then we’re gonna set
it aside. Let it steep for about 15 minutes. The cream has steeped and
now it’s time for the yolks. An incredible amount of
yolks, a whole 12 yolks. So that’s the yolks. I’m gonna add about half of this hot cream temper temper. Oh yeah, that smells delicious. Now I’m gonna add a little bit more cream. Two more cups of heavy
cream. I’m gonna strain it. Just get out the seed paws. Any bits of egg yolk we
don’t want. All right. So I divided this mixture
between these ramekins. It’s in a pan. I lined
the bottom of the pan with a dish towel, which
is a trick I learned here. Prevents the ramekins from sliding around in the oven. Into the oven it goes. 300
degrees with a water bath. – So I have a kettle full of water here.
– Alright? And I’m gonna pull this out for you. You’re giving the task to me?
– Oh yeah. And I’ve learned my lesson.
I don’t do this. – All right. The full thing?
– Well, you know, about halfway up thereabouts. Alright. So about
half an hour thereabouts. I’m gonna give you that
because I think the crust is ready.
– Oh! – That smells good. I’m getting like the aromas,
the wafting. This way. – It smells terrible. You won’t like it. I have to eat it all. It does smell good. It smells like shortbread. How about that? You can see it’s Tawny
brown if you press on it, it’s a little bit firm. While that is cooling,
we’re gonna make our toffee. We’re gonna start with
sweetened condensed milk. This is a 14 ounce can. All right? Now we want some brown sugar. This is a cup or seven
ounces of brown sugar. You can use dark or light. We’ve got a half cup of corn syrup. This is just really to
prevent any crystallization. It’s also a little less sweet than sugar. So I’m gonna add that in there. A lot of people don’t
think that. Got a half a cup of heavy cream. All right. And eight
tablespoons of butter, half a teaspoon of table salt. So I’m gonna turn this to medium. So we’re gonna let this go. I’m gonna keep an eye on it
and stir it pretty frequently. It’s gonna go between 16 to 20 minutes. But what I’m looking for with
my instant read thermometer, can’t live without this thing. Can’t bake without this thing for sure. I’m looking for a temperature
between 236 and 239. So we’re not looking
for a hard toffee here. This is a nice soft pourable
toffee. It might stall. This is what I have found. There’s always a stalling point. Anytime that you’re making caramel or toffee, it just stops
raising in temperature until the water’s boiled
off and then it just shoots – Right up. Oh, it’s absorbing all the energy. – Yes. It can only stand at
212 until the water’s gone. – Huh. That makes sense. – Yeah. Again, it’s only
gonna take 16, 20 minutes. – Nice. – Alright, so we are near the end of this process here of
making this beautiful toffee. I’m looking for 236 to 239.
– Right. Softball stage. Exactly. All right. We are almost there. Ooh, you can see the
color just changed. Yep. It just got a shade darker.
– I see it. Alright, thanks J. This is gonna go right over our crust. (all exclaiming) – That is beautiful. – It is so hot. I’m gonna use a little
old baby offset spatula to kinda level it out. We’re gonna leave this for about
an hour and a half minimum. So let that cool completely. All right, let’s go
check those creme brulee. – Oh, they look set. Ah, made it! The old school way to tell if these are done
is you just shake one and it should look like that. It should just sort of
shimmy like, like Bridget. (all laughing) So again, you’re looking for
a temperature between 170 and 175, 174 on the nose. You do wanna get these
out of the hot water. And I have a quick tip I’m using, and Adam, this I learned from you. – I remember when I was
doing the quick tip. Yes, I, a reader sent that and
it’s like, that’s brilliant. – Yeah. So on tongs, you
just put rubber bands. It gives you a little extra
grip when you’re working with a ramekin that could be a
little wet or a little slippery and it just gives you
a little more purchase. These have to cool, obviously at room temperature, about two hours. Then we’re gonna cover them,
put them in the fridge. You want ’em really cold
before you brulee the top — at least four hours. But you could easily do this a day or two in advance if
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AmericasTestKitchen.com/youtube today. – Time for the veneer of chocolate before I pour it over
the caramel toffee here. I’d love for you all to touch the toffee, – Please. – Me too?
– It looks like it would be super soft. – It’s, it’s harder than you think. – It’s just a little bit soft
there. It’s a little bit denty Like if you wanna, you can press it, but don’t press it too hard, Becky. No, no, no.
– You’re not getting one! Just pouring that over. Mm. All right. I’m just gonna continue
smoothing this out. I know. This is gonna go into the fridge. Only wanna let it be in there
for about 10 minutes, just so that the chocolate is set
up a little bit. Okay. – I love how turbinado sugar
melts a little more even. That’s about half a teaspoon. Is this the cutest little torch? – Oh, the little baby torch. – I know.
– Let me get my stogies. – Exactly. This is what you would use if
you have a cigar. I like using – The bigger mama jama. I actually have a bigger one at home. – Jack, I’m scared. So we’re gonna use this one. Some of these you can hold upside down. Some of them you can’t. Like
starting on the outside. That – That is gorgeous. That is a lovely sight. – All right.
– See you get dessert and a show. Everyone has a different
doneness level. This is mine. This is perfect. So we’re
just gonna finish these, then we’re gonna pop
’em back in the fridge. Let them really chill so that
the top stays crisp. But the – Custard is nice and cold. Gorgeous. Finally, time to cut the shortbread.
– It is gorgeous. Yeah, it was just in there for 10 minutes. Looks like a mirror.
– Oh, it does, huh? Hi. And this is where the foil
sling really comes in handy. There we go. If you wouldn’t
mind moving that pan. – You bet.
– Ba boom. Just like that. All right. So I’m gonna cut this crosswise in half and I’m using a serrated
knife, just getting through the chocolate. You don’t wanna press
too hard. I’m gonna start – Dispersing these. Okay.
– Miss Becky. – Oh, thank you. Look at this.
– Wow. – Thank you.
– Yeah, thank you, – Julia. – Yes, my pleasure. Alright, two for us.
– There we go. Now I did work on something
a little special for this. It’s kind of a surprise. No, I thought we should have a cocktail to celebrate ATK 25. And when I was thinking about
this, I was thinking about one of my favorites, and Julia
and I like to drink this. The French 75. This is
still London dried gin. And we’ve got some
pomegranate juice in there. Homemade grenadine. Yeah.
Lemon juice of course. And champagne. And you can get
all of that on the website. So recipes right on there.
Gotta talk about the Champagne – That was a little loud. – Love that sound!
– Have to say. So it’s about two ounces of champagne. – Oh, that is gonna be so pretty. – And it’s ATK red! – It’s ATK!
– Aw! All right. I was just gonna put a little
perfect lemon twist on there. – Bridget, this is gorgeous. – There you go. – Thank you, Bridget. – Alright, before we
tuck into the cocktail, how about we try our desserts? – Before we tuck into the– okay. (all laughing) What are we going for first? How about the brulee?
– Yeah. Little crack. – We gotta do the little, the little – Crack. Ooh, gorgeous. Look at
that custard in there. – Mm. It really is the best creme brulee.
– Oh my gosh! – And the top is perfectly crisp. Oh, the texture of the
custard is just velvety. – Yeah. And the seeds on
the bottom. Mm. – I was just gonna say, this is velvet that you can eat. It is good. – Break me off a piece of
that millionaire shortbread. I can see just that fudgy toffee in there. – It’s not runny at all. – This is incredible. Wow. – Oh, this to me is just perfect. With a cup of coffee after
dinner. That’s perfect. Or with an ATK 25. – To you all. – Our favorite test- – To you all. If you’re ready to take your
cooking to the next level, head over to AmericasTestKitchen.com and get a free trial of our
ATK Essential Membership. While you’re there, you can sign up for our free email newsletters
and download our app. So what are you waiting for?