Creme Brulee

Yield
5
Cooking Time
3 hours and 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 qt water
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 1 qt heavy cream

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325F.
  2. Pour cream and vanilla bean (or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract) into a saucepan and stir over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove the cream from heat, cover and let it sit for 15 minutes. Fish out the vanilla pod and set aside for another use.
  3. Whisk together 1/2 cup of sugar into the egg yolks; beat until combined and the mixture just starts to lighten in color. Slowly add in the cream into the egg mixture, stirring continuously. Pour into ramekins, or any shallow heat-proof dishes. Place the ramekins into a deep baking pan and pour hot water around the ramekins to come halfway up their sides.
  4. Bake till the creme brulee is set, but still trembles when you nudge the tray. Usually about 40-45 minutes. Being careful of the boiling water in the baking pan, remove from oven and refrigerate ramekins for at least 2 hours, but no more than 3 days.
  5. Divide 1/2 cup of sugar evenly between the ramekins and sift the sugar evenly over the top of each. You may use less sugar, you'll just need enough to evenly cover the custard.
  6. Using a torch, melt the sugar to form a crispy top. Let it cool for about 5 minutes before serving. If you don't have a torch you can use your broiler by heating the oven to broil and placing the rack just underneath. You may want to put the ramekins back in a baking pan with ice water to try and maintain the cool custard bottom and warm top as much as possible.