Crème brûlée
A baked orange-scented cream custard with a thin, crisp caramelised sugar top.
Ingredients
- For the custard
- 5 fresh egg yolks
- 80 g caster sugar
- 500 g double cream
- Peel of 1 orange, in strips without the white pith
- For the top
- 4 tsp (about 20 g) caster sugar
Method
- Heat the oven to 120°C (conventional). Warm the cream and orange peel in a small pan; as soon as it comes to the boil, take it off the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale, without making them foamy.
- Strain the cream to remove the peel. Add the egg mixture to the cream a little at a time, stirring constantly; the cream should be warm rather than hot, so the eggs do not scramble.
- Strain the custard once more, skim off any bubbles and divide it between four 150 ml ramekins.
- Stand the ramekins in a deep roasting tin and pour in hot water to come halfway up their sides. Bake for 60 minutes, until the edges are set and the centre still wobbles slightly.
- Lift the ramekins out of the water and leave to cool, then cover and chill for at least 4 hours.
- Just before serving, sprinkle a thin, even layer of sugar over each custard, caramelise it with a kitchen blowtorch and leave for 1-2 minutes to harden.
From Chef Fatma's notebook. Where the notebook listed only the ingredients, we wrote out the method for a home kitchen. Measures: 1 cup = 200 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml. Oven temperatures are for a conventional oven without a fan. If you have an allergy, please read the ingredients carefully.