Crème brûlée

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 400 ml cream
• 200 ml milk
• 90 g sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 vanilla pod(s)
• Brown cane sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes; Total time approx. 13 hours 10 minutes

Scrape out the vanilla pod and mix the seeds thoroughly with a little sugar in a mortar and pestle. Mix the cream, milk, vanilla sugar, and the remaining sugar together until the sugar dissolves. Add the egg yolks and mix briefly with a hand blender. Let the mixture stand for a few hours (or overnight). Mix the egg cream again well so that the vanilla is evenly distributed, but be careful not to let the liquid foam. Pour the egg cream into the molds and place them in the oven’s drip tray. Place the oven in a preheated oven (circulating air at 150 degrees Celsius), pour boiling water into the drip tray so that the molds are about half submerged. If the cream starts to bubble, reduce the temperature slightly if necessary. After about 40-45 minutes, the cream should be firm – it will then no longer be runny in the middle. Allow the cream to cool, then sprinkle a thin layer of brown sugar over it just before serving and caramelize it under a very hot grill. Caramelizing is even better with a Bunsen burner. These burners are available in designer versions for a lot of money from various cooking stores; a blowtorch from Camping-Gas works just as well (and is considerably cheaper). For once, the secret to a good crème brûlée does not lie in following the recipe or the preparation process exactly. The quality is not affected by using more or less milk, 4 or 6 egg yolks, or a little more or less sugar. A good crème brûlée can only be achieved in the right molds. The molds should be no more than 2.5–3 cm high and no larger than 12 cm in diameter, and ideally made of heat-resistant porcelain. With larger or deeper containers, the cream won’t set evenly, will be too thick on the outside and still too runny on the inside, will take forever to set, or will require too high a temperature, causing it to curdle. Porcelain crème brûlée molds can be found in French supermarkets, among other places, in the household goods section; they cost between €2 and €3.