I don’t know how it happened, but it was only about a year ago while on a business trip to San Diego that I first tried crème brûlée. What in the world was I thinking — waiting that long to eat the most wonderful dessert on the face of the planet!

From that moment on, I was obsessed with finding the best and easiest recipe for crème brûlée. It took me a few tries and one or two (dozen) wasted eggs, but I finally found what I believe is the best one so far.

I’m not sure that I’ll keep trying to find the best crème brûlée recipe. I do know that I will try to find variations on a theme recipes. I want to find a Bailey’s Irish cream crème brûlée recipe — and chocolate crème brûlée doesn’t sound so bad either.

While I’m still looking and testing and cooking — I thought I’d share the best one of the bunch:

Simple Crème Brûlée

2 cups heavy cream
5 egg yolks (make sure all egg whites have been separated)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 7-oz ramekins

preheat oven to  275°. Whisk the cream, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl. Mix until nice and creamy — no lumps. Pour mixture into ramekins and place them in a baking pan. Fill the baking pan with warm water — about half way up the side of the ramekins. Place the pan with the ramekins in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour. After 45 minutes, check the ramekins every 10 minutes. You’ll know they are done when a knife in the center comes out clean. Remove the ramekins from the baking dish set them on the counter and let them cool.

Once they have cooled to room temperature, cover and refrigerate to let them chill overnight.

Sprinkle a thin layer of granulated sugar on the top of each ramekin. Make sure you spread a thin layer — but also make sure it’s even and completely covers the custard.

Now it’s time to play with fire!

Torch the tops of the custard until the sugar melts and has begun to turn golden brown. What you want is a thin hard crust that completely covers the top of the custard.

Mmmmm, Mmmmm, Good!

Enjoy!

Tags: amazing and simple creme brulee recipe, amazing creme brulee, cream brulee, creme brulee, custard recipe, egg custard, flamed custard, playing with fire in the kitchen, simple cream brulee recipe, simple creme brulee

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