Crème Brûlée

Crème brûlée is incredibly easy to prepare and makes an elegant dessert.  It’s the perfect dessert on warm days and tastes great served with fresh berries, such as strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  The custard takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and is baked in a hot water bath.  It can be made up to a few days ahead and the sugar topping should be torched just before serving.   

Vanilla Bean Infused Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 egg yolks
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• A pinch of salt
• ½ vanilla bean, split and scraped; or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Castor sugar, or superfine sugar, for topping

Preparation:

Heat up the heavy cream, vanilla bean seeds and pod, and salt in a saucepan just until it begins to boil.  Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in another bowl.  If you choose to use vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean, add the vanilla extract to the egg yolks and sugar.  Add the cream slowly, while whisking at the same time.  Strain the cream mixture with a fine mesh sieve and discard the vanilla bean pod.  

Divide the mixture between 4 ramekins.  Bake the custards in a hot water bath at 300°F for about 35 minutes.  The custards should be pretty much set, but will still jiggle in the center.  Remove the custards from the hot water bath and let cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate the custards.  

Just before serving, sprinkle castor sugar over the custard, forming a thin layer.  I like to add a couple tablespoons to the first custard and rotate the ramekin so that the sugar forms a thin layer and then shake any excess sugar on to the next custard.  The trickiest part about making crème brûlée is torching the sugar.  You do not want to place the flame from the butane torch too close to the sugar, otherwise it will burn, but you also do not want spend too much time torching the sugar (i.e. keeping the flame far away from the custard), since it will melt into a slightly sticky caramel instead.  

Serve the crème brûlée with fresh berries and sprinkle powdered sugar over the berries, if desired.