Classic crème brûlée

There’s a reason why France's most famous dessert has been around for so long. It’s just delicious, with a crisp caramelised topping and creamy centre.

Credit: James Martin's French Adventure

• serves

  8

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  35 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 350 ml thick (double) cream
• 125 ml milk
• 2 vanilla pods, split and seeds scraped
• 4 eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 130 g caster sugar

Infusion time: 20 minutes. Chilling time: 1 hour.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C (325°F/gas mark 3).
2. In a saucepan, gently warm the cream and milk with the vanilla pods and seeds, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse and cool for about 20 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks with 50 g of the sugar until smooth. Remove the vanilla pods from the pan, then whisk the infused cream mixture into the egg mixture.
4. Pour into 8 ramekin dishes until nearly full. Sit the ramekins in a high-sided ovenproof dish and pour in enough warm water to come two-thirds of the way up the ramekins.
5. Carefully transfer to the oven and cook for 30 minutes until just set. Remove the ramekins from the water bath, leave to cool and then chill in the fridge for an hour.
6. To serve, sprinkle over the remaining 80 g of caster sugar and blowtorch to form a crisp caramel. Alternatively, heat the grill to high and grill until the sugar is crisp and golden.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.