Creme Brulee

Crème Brulee

Clyde Van Arsdall

Ingredients

• 1-quart heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean split and scraped
• 1 cup of sugar (1/2 for recipe ½ cup for topping)
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 quarts of hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Place the cream, vanilla bean and all its contents that were scraped into a medium saucepan over medium to high heat and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Remove vanilla bean. 
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together ½ cup of sugar and the 6 egg yolks until it becomes less gritty and lightens in color. Add cream a little at a time stirring continually.  Pour the mixture into 6 ramekins.  Place the ramekins into a large roasting pan.  Pour enough hot water into the pan so the water comes halfway up the ramekins.  In French, this method is called a bain-marie or water bath.  Bake until the crème brulee is set but still a little giggly in the center.  This will take about 45min to and hour.
4. Remove ramekins form water bath and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 5 days.  Let the crème brulee warm up for at least 30-40 minutes after removing form the refrigerator before caramelizing the sugar on top.  Using a torch melt the sugar to form a crust on top.  Allow the crème brulee to sit before serving.
5. Top with fresh berries or for something different try using Luxardo cherries.

Note: When removing hot ramekins from the water bath use tongs with rubber bands twisted around the tips.  The rubber bands help the ramekins not to slip when being removed.