You'll be surprised how easy it is to make this delicious French classic. Ingredients: 1 3/4 cups heavy cream 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 4 large egg yolks 1/4 cup granulated sugar (plus more for topping) Pinch of salt **Note: this recipe makes 4 servings, you can easily multiply the recipe if you would like to make more** Preheat oven to 300 °F. Pour cream into a saucepan over medium heat and bring to just a simmer. You may mix your cream gently as it comes to a simmer but do not mix it too much otherwise it will give it a frothy texture when it is cooked. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the cover and let stand another 10 minutes or until it is lukewarm. While your cream is cooling, in a bowl gently whisk together the sugar, salt and egg yolks just until combined. When the cream has cooled slowly pour in about half of the mixture to temper your eggs (otherwise you will have scrambled eggs) then add the remaining half. Add in your vanilla extract and mix slowly and gently only to combine.
If you feel your mixture is "chunky" pour the mixture through a fine sieve to remove all clumpiness. Pour your mixture into four ramikens (I have multiplied my recipe and made more but the recipe is for 4). Do not fill to the top. Place your ramekins in a baking dish that is at least as deep as your ramekins. Add boiling water to the baking dish until it is about 2/3rd of the way up your ramekins. Taking extreme care not to get any water in your ramekins otherwise your custard will not set.
Place in preheated oven and cook for approximately 30-40 minutes, or until your custard has a slight jiggle to it when you nudge it, the tops should not brown. Remove the pan from the oven and take the ramekins out of the water bath using a slotted spatula. Let your custards cool at room temperature for 1/2 hour then transfer to the fridge and allow to cool uncovered for 3 hours. You can prepare your custards upto 2 days in advance, just cover with plastic and keep in the fridge.nce your custards have had time to cool, sprinkle the top with sugar, the more sugar the thicker the crust will be. In order to caramelize the tops, I used a small kitchen torch. You can pick one up at any kitchen store. I got mine from Kitchen Stuff Plus for $14.99.
If you don't have a mini torch and don't want to purchase one do not fret, you can reach the same result by placing your ramekins on the high broil setting of the oven. Just make sure the oven is nice and hot so the sugar melts right away and you don't risk heating the custard. Carefully remove the ramekin from the oven and allow the top to cool for a minute, garnish with your favourite fruit or serve as is.
