Crème Brûlée

I had my first crème brûlée in Paris and it was love at first bite. I especially love that first bite when you break into the crispy top to dig into the silkily smooth and creamy mixture underneath. Yum! Good food is so much cheaper in Paris in my opinion. Many of the restaurants serve what would be prix fixe menus in the US, perhaps because eating is more a ritual to the French and should be done right and a meal is incomplete without dessert. Even the tiny shops selling paninis give you deals where you get a panini and a nutella crêpe for lunch for, when I was there, 3.5 euros. That's about the cost of a 6-in subway in the US but I suppose most people would take a panini and a crêpe over a 6-in subway anytime, right? 

Well, I am rambling. My point was that while crême brûlée is available at reasonably-priced restaurants in Paris, it is expensive (costing about $10 in Chicago area) and really only available at somewhat fancy places. But it is really very easy to make at home once the proper gadgets are acquired. You will need a kitchen torch, and a few ramekins. I prefer the shallow ones, but you can certainly use the regular 6-oz ones.

INGREDIENTS:

Make 6 servings (using the shallow ramekins)

2.5 cups heavy cream

4 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1 vanilla bean
1/3 cups sugar + more for the top
1.5 pints raspberries
Lemon zest (optional)

METHOD:
Preheat the oven to 325º. Split the vanilla bean, scape the pulp. Put the cream, pulp and the bean itself in a sauce pan over medium heat until the mixture about to boil. Remove the pan from heat, cover and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes. Remove the bean.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the color about to lighten. Slowly add the cooled cream to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

Pour the mixture into the ramekins before placing them into a larger baking pan. Pour hot water into the pan up to about half the height of the ramekins. Cover the pan with aluminum foil (after many trials, I found that covering helps create the perfect top, you can bake without the cover but the heat will create a little burned top, although it's still okay since you will torch the sugar later on anyway but if you allow your guests to do the torching, the foil is a great addition) and bake for about 30 mins (more if you use deeper ramekins) until the crème brûlée is set but the center still jiggles. Remove the ramekins from the pan and chill in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Remove the crème brûlée from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

Clean the raspberries before macerating them with about 1 Tsp of sugar and lemon zest.

Spread granulated sugar evenly on top of the crème brûlée, use a kitchen torch to brown the sugar. Add some raspberries on top and serve. I want another one as I'm writing this but I think I have to wait for a while before the next intake of heavy cream :((