Vanilla Creme Brulee

Michael and I were back in New Hampshire on June 23rd, the day of our wedding anniversary. Although we had already celebrated the previous weekend in Virginia, I still wanted to do something special. So I decided to try to make vanilla creme brulee, which is the dessert that Michael usually orders when we go out to a fancy restaurant to eat. There is something lovely about the taste and mouth-feel of rich creamy creme brulee. Michael also enjoys cracking through the hardened melted sugar on top to get to the creme brulee beneath. It's a wonderfully sanctioned reason for playing with one's food.

I had tried to make creme brulee a few years ago, but I couldn't get it to set up and become thick and creamy the way it does in restaurants. However, I was feeling brave, so I decided to try again. This time I consulted several different recipes before trying the following combination of ingredients. It was really pretty easy to make, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. Since I'm not sure what I could have done wrong before, I think I'm going to blame the oven in our old apartment for my previous failures. And now that I've figured out regular creme brulee, perhaps I will experiment with coconut milk creme brulee next time.

Vanilla Creme Brulee
serves 4


Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream. Look for one that does not have any additives or preservatives that could come from corn. I used Trader Joe's brand, but other organic brands might work.
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Use Trader Joe's alcohol-free vanilla extract or another vanilla extract that does not have corn syrup and is preferably alcohol-free, since the alcohol could be derived from corn. Recently I have been using Rodelle Vanilla Flavor alcohol free all natural extract, which I found at Stop and Shop.
  
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 tsp. turbinado sugar (aka. Sugar in the Raw) on top of each ramikin

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a medium pot heat one and a half quarts of water to boiling. Next place a small pan over medium heat. Add the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and half of the sugar to the small pan and heat until boiling. While the cream mixture is heating, whisk together the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar. After the cream mixture has come to a boil, pour one fourth of the cream mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Then pour the egg yolk mixture back into the rest of the cream while whisking continually. Pour the liquid evenly among four 7-ounce ramikins.

Place the ramikins in a 9"x13" pan. Pour the one and a half quarts of boiling water into the pan around the ramikins so that the water goes half way up the sides of the ramikins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, place the ramikins on a cooling rack, and cool to room temperature. Then place the ramikins in the refrigerator and let them cool for at least two hours. After the creme brulee has cooled thoroughly, sprinkle two teaspoons of turbinado sugar over the top of each ramikin and melt using a kitchen torch or the broiler.