Crème Brûlée

Serves	4
Inspiration	French Culinary Institute

Ingredients

2 Cups whipping cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 vanilla bean (fruit of an orchid that goes through a fermentation process. Most of them come from the region of Madagascar)
demerera or fine crystal sugar (to carmelize)

Directions


The vanilla bean should be soft. What you do is hold down the end of the vanilla bean and slice it in half along the length. Then use a knife to scrape the grains which is the vanilla flavour from the bean. You add these grains as well as half the bean to a clean pot. They will add a delicious vanilla flavour. You can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla, but the vanilla bean is superior in flavour.

Now add the 2 cups of cream. You now scald the cream (so it is just warm to touch.. not boiling), at a low temperature.

At the same time that the cream is warming up, blanch the egg yolks and the sugar, by whisking them together so they are well mixed. Now temper the cream with the yolks, by adding about an eighth of a cup of the warmed cream to the yolks. This will allow the mixture not to cook when the warmed cream is added. Now pour all the warmed cream/vanilla mixture into the tempered egg mixture.

Now stir it and it can be added to the ramekin or small flatish glass dishes that you may wish to use. You will need to remove the vanilla bean at this point at time. The mixing may have added some air bubbles to the mixture which you can remove using a culinary torch (found at most cookery shops). You turn it on and it removes the air bubbles immediately. The surface needs to be clear.

You now cook the custard in a water bath, so the little ramekins of crème brûlée will not overcook easily. Put a wet cloth in the bottom of a ridged pan. I often use a Pyrex dish that is large enough to hold all 4 dishes.

The ramekins should be filled almost to the top. Place three of them into the Pyrex dish and add boiling water up to about half way up the side of the ramekin. Do not add the last ramekin until the water has been added, so that you cannot accidently pour water into one of the custard dishes. Boiling water allows you to cook the crème brûlée fast. Now add the last ramekin to the pan and cook in a 325 degree F oven for 30 to 35 minutes.

To check them, shake a ramekin a little and they should wobble like jelly.

Remove the ramekins to a clean pan, being careful not to spill any water into them and put them in the fridge for about 4 hours until completely chilled.

Then take them out and sprinkle them with the sugar. Shake them a bit so the excess sugar will come off. Clean the sides so that there is no sugar on the edges. Turn on the blow torch and staying about 2 or 3 inches away; leave it set for awhile. It has already started to brown.

Wait about 10 seconds, so it has started to cool and then apply it again. You want to have one or two brown spots.