Crème Brûlée for Four

In English, “crème brûlée” means “burnt cream.” In reality, you don’t burn the cream at all. That said, you do caramelize a layer of sugar on top of perfectly baked and chilled vanilla custard. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like crème brûlée. This version is one of the first recipes Aunt Kim taught me. I love to serve this in individual ramekins for dinner parties. It makes the simplest of meals a little bit fancy.

2 cups heavy whipping cream 

5 egg yolks

1⁄2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1⁄2 cup lt. brown sugar

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 275°F.

Step 2: Whisk cream, yolks, sugar, and vanilla together.Pour evenly into four large ramekins.

Step 3: Fill a roasting pan with a half-inch of water. Carefully place the ramekins into the roasting pan "bath." 

Step 4: Bake between 50 minutes and 65 minutes. The custard is cooked when a knife poked into one of the brûlées comes out clean. You don’t want to over-bake it. A little jiggle is fine.

Step 5: Remove from the oven. Once cool enough to handle, transfer the ramekins onto a baking sheet and into the fridge until chilled and set.

Step 6: About a half-hour before serving, remove the tray from the fridge and evenly sprinkle about 1 1⁄2 tablespoons of brown sugar on top of each brûlée.

Step 7: Place the tray of ramekins into the freezer for a half- hour. This helps keep the custard cool when you brûlée the sugar. No one likes a warm crème brûlée!

Step 8: Preheat the oven to broil and broil the brûlée until the sugar on top caramelizes. Of course, you can also use your kitchen blow torch... or a real one as Bob did once (with caution!).

Garnish with fresh berries.