Crème brûlée (French)

The crème brûlée is a traditional French (and some say British) dessert, egg-yolk and cream based, that consists of a creamy rich mousse topped with sugar that gets burnt (caramelized) to create a crunchy crust on top. The contrast between the top crunch and the soft and gooey interior is charming. 
Here we made it in its most classical version. From this base, you can make a whole variety of crème brûlée(s): with chocolate or mint or fruit flavors etc. Enjoy.

Last year: Simple chocolate brownies with walnuts, Corn tortillas without masa harina (experiment) and Huevos Rancheros (Mexican).




Ingredients (serves 4):

• 500 ml cream (30% fat)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 pinch of salt
• 55 g sugar
• 4 extra tablespoons sugar for decorating (and burning)

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Put a large pot of water to boil. In the meantime, combine the cream, sugar and salt in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir once in while until water begins to evaporate from it. In a bowl, combine the yolks with the vanilla until well blended:

Pour the hot cream over the yolks, a little at a time, until all is combined. Put the resulting cream in 4 individual ramekins or small serving bowls (heatproof). Put the ramekins in a deep tray and pour the hot water in the tray until it reaches 1/2 of the ramekin height.

Put them in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After they cool, cover them with something and let them chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours:

When you're ready to serve them, put a little sugar on top of each one and burn it with a torch or place them under the oven's grill for 3-4 minutes. It's done, dig in! :)