Henry wanted to learn how to make Creme Brulee. I had never made creme brulee before and having only tried a handful of different variations, I didn’t know what specific goals I was aiming for while searching for recipes.

If you’ve never had creme brulee, you’ve definitely gotta try it. It’s part of the whole “custard family” branch of desserts, just like flan(creme caramel) and pot de creme. Custards traditionally consist of milks, eggs and sugar. In the case of creme brulee, we use heavy cream instead of milk. And there is also a thin, brittle caramel, which is created by blowtorching sugar on top of the custard.

I don’t like a real “eggy” custard, so this recipe was probably best sampling I’ve ever tried. I used a recipe I found from Tyler Florence since I’ve had good luck with some of his recipes so far.

You’re going to need:

9 egg yolks

3/4 cup superfine sugar(regular granulated sugar is fine), plus a few tablespoons to sprinkle

1 quart of heavy cream

1 vanilla bean – if you can find them fresh in the produce, kudos to you! Otherwise, look for them in sold bottled individually in the spices area

1) Cream together the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is pale yellow and thick.

2) Pour the cream into a saucepan over low heat. Split the vanilla bean in half, and scrape out all the good bits from the inside and stir them into the cream. (I threw in the bean too afterwards just for some extra steeping) Let the cream come to a simmer, but watch it carefully! One minute it’s barely simmering, and the next it’s boiling over. Take off from heat once simmered

3) Temper the eggs/sugar mixture by gradually whisking in the hot cream. Make sure you straight out the vanilla bean skin and don’t add too fast or the eggs will cook!

4) Divide the custard into ramekins, or any individual sized, oven proof containers and place in a baking dish. Pour hot water into the baking dish so that it goes half way up your ramekins. Cover loosely to prevent browning, and bake for 40 minutes. (for some reason, mine took more like 55 minutes) You’ll know it’s done when the custard is barely set around the edges. It should be pretty loose, but not very runny.

5) Cool to room temperature, and then place in the fridge for about 2 hours. Sprinkle with sugar and torch that bad boy for a minute or so until it’s a golden brown/caramel color. I usually let the caramel cool slightly to form that nice crunchy crust on top…plus it’s really hot.

What you should have is a super rich, vanilla bean flavored, creamy custard. There should be a great contrast between the smooth, velvety texture of the custard against the sweet crunch of the caramel. Trust me, make this recipe!!

….Just don’t eat too much of it. Every tablespoon of heavy cream has 5g of fat. Yes, you read that correctly….every tablespoon has 5g of fat. And we just used a whole quart!! haha!!