Crème Brûlée

We have looooads of eggs in the house at the moment. I have a couple of recipes for meringues I'd like to make and to use the yolks I thought I'd try making crème brûlée.

I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I'd never made custard from scratch on the stove before, so I didn't really know how thick or thin it should be, and what it should look like. It hadn't thickened much, but I eventually just put it in ramekins anyway, chucked it in the fridge and hoped for the best.

It probably shouldn't be doing this...

It turned out much better than I expected it to be. The custard wasn't quite as smooth as it could've been (overcooked?) but it was still fine. For the toffee glaze, I heard you could either use a blow torch or a grill. I decided to try both. I found more success with the grill, and it was easier anyway.The fat from the cream rose to the top a bit when serving...I didn't really know what to do about that.

Crème Brûlée

from Margaret Fulton's Encyclopedia of Food & Cookery

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

4 large or 5 small egg yolks

1 tsp cornflour

2 cups cream

1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Directions:

Beat sugar into egg yolks gradually and continue to beat for 2-3 minutes until pale yellow. Beat in cornflour, then gradually stir in milk, scalded with vanilla bean.

Pour mixture into top part of double saucepan, place over hot water and stir slowly and continuously until custard thickens sufficiently to coat back of spoon. Keep custard well under simmering point (...I think this is where I stuffed up). Remove from heat and stir for 1-2 minutes to cool slightly. Strain. Pour into 4 individual or 1 larger serving dish and chill well.

Just before serving, stand custard in shallow baking dish to keep custard chilled. Sprinkle white or brown sugar in a 3 mm (1/8 in) layer over top and put under preheated grill until sugar melts and forms a toffee glaze. Serve immediately. Serves 4.