Creme Caramel

Name: Creme Caramel
Ingredients: Caramel:; 250 ml (1 cup) water; 250 ml (1 cup) sugar; ! of lemon juice or cream of tartar; Custard:; 2 large eggs; 500 ml (2 cups) heavy cream, scalded; 5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence; 4 egg yokes; pinch of salt; 80 ml (1/3 cup) sugar

I love the wicked smoothness and lusciousness of this classic dessert. Follow this fool proof method the next time you want to indulge your dinner quests.

Published 15 September 2020

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 ºC (325 ºF).
Make the caramel. Dissolve the sugar in the water with the ! of lemon juice or cream of tartar. Bring to the boil and simmer briskly until the syrup is a rich golden brown. Pour the caramel into 4 ramekins and tilt them so that the caramel coats the sides and bottoms of the ramekins. Invert the ramekins on grease proof paper to remove the excess caramel.
Mix the custard. Beat the eggs together with a fork. You don’t want a lot of foam. Add the scalded cream, vanilla essence, pinch of salt and the sugar. Mix well. Strain the custard through a fine sieve and pour the custard into the caramel lined ramekins. Place the ramekins in a water bath onto a clean dish cloth and cover the water bath with foil. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until a skewer !ed into the custard comes out clean. The centre should still be a little wobbly but will firm on cooling.
When cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours. When ready to serve, pop the ramekins in hot water for a minute and turn them out onto serving plates. Garnish with a fresh strawberry or serve as is. Beautiful!