cooking challenge week three: creme brulee

This is such a great dessert. Whenever we are at a restaurant that has it on the menu, I order it. There's something about the rich and silky custard and the crackly sweet toffee on top that makes it irresistable. Unlike last week's creme caramel, this doesn't seem to be a recipe that lends itself well to slimming down so I made it in all its creamy egg yolk glory.

You will need:

6 free range organic egg yolks
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
600mL double cream
1/2 cup caster sugar (plus 8 tbs extra for dusting.

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 130'c.

Put the cream and vanilla extract in a saucepan and bring to the boil, over high heat. Once at scalding point, remove and set aside.

Use electric mixers to blend the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Do this for several minutes until well combined and pale in colour.

Slowly pour the cream over the egg mixture and whisk thoroughly until combined. Ladle off the top level of frothy bubbles, then ladle the mixture into the four ramekins. Thump each ramekin heavily onto the bench top to get rid of any excess froth. Place into a deep set baking dish (I used a large cake tin). Pour boiling water into the baking tray, halfway up the sides of the ramekin. Loosely cover with alfoil and bake for 65 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Caramels should have a slight wobble but be reasonably firmly set.

Cover and refridgerate for 3 hours or as long as possible.

Cover with approximately 2 tablespoons of caster sugar per ramekin, right to the edges. Place under a super hot grill when ready to serve, until crisped and golden on top. Alternatiely, use a domestic blow torch (with great care!) to crisp toffee.