Creme Brulee
If you enjoy desserts like caramel custard, then I suggest for today a more refined recipe, I'd say its more elegant 'sister' - Creme Brulee. It's very stylish yet easy to cook, with only a few details that might scare you a little, but not too much.
Creme Brulee is a fine custard, with a crunchy crust on top made of sugar burned over a burner or a grill. The contrast between the refreshing/soft cream and the crackly layer ensures the element of surprise and the originality of this dessert.
I've been stuck for many years because of this crusty exterior, actually because of the kitchen or flambe burner, an accessory used to flambe different things in the kitchen. It's not so easy to find in a shop, but you can find it online at different prices. Mine is basic and cheap, but it does its job. Or, you could try caramelizing the sugar over a strong grill - the oven grill or the microwave. It has to be a quick process, so that the cream doesn't get to heat, only the sugar.
I'm thinking of another simpler way - spread over some coarse brown sugar right before you eat it. It will still be crunchy and won't melt if you serve it right away. This wouldn't require burning the sugar when you really want to try Creme Brulee, but you don't have the necessary tools.
Pour double cream and vanilla extract into a pot.
Heat well until hot, but not necessarily boiling hot.
Then stir and let chill for about 30 minutes and for the vanilla flavour to spread into the cream.
Separate the egg yolks from whites and tip into a bowl together with 50g brown sugar, whisk well.
You can use the whites for another recipe or to cook an omelette, crepes, noodles etc.
Pour the warm cream into the beaten egg yolks with sugar.
Stir the mixture carefully, but not too hard - to prevent air bubbles from forming inside the cream.
I recommend transfering the mixture to a jug or a big measuring glass - it will be easier to pour into ramekins.
Pour cream into small oven dishes, sat in advance in a big oven pan - here I used the classic ramkins for Creme Brulee, but you can use any other dishes - made of ceramics (ramkins) or glass.
By the way, I bought these Creme Brulee ramkins from Lidl's a few years ago, during one of their thematic weeks.
From these amounts you will have 5-6 ramekins of cream, just cover the bottom of the dish with 1cm thick layer, not more than that.
In the big oven pan pour hot water (from the electric kettle or water boiler) to come about half up the sides of the ramekins.
Carefully place the pan in the preheated oven to 160 degrees C for 1 hour.
If the cream shakes a bit when touching the dish, it's ready to be removed from the oven.
Cool down completely at room temperature.
After that, cover the ramekins with plastic and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Right before serving, spread 1 tsp brown sugar over each rameskin.
Melt it quickly with a flambe burner or under the hot oven grill. Worst case scenario, serve it like this, with rough brown sugar on top.
It has to be served and savoured right away, so that sugar doesn't have time to melt and you can feel the crunchiness contrasting to the fine and savoury custard.
Enjoy!
