Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:

2 cups cream (preferably raw)
6 egg yolks (preferably pastured. Read more about the different kinds of eggs here.)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
a pinch of real salt

Sugar for topping (preferably Pure Organic Whole Cane Sugar)*

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. (Don’t whisk it!)
2. Strain custard mixture through a fine sieve
3. Pour into ramekins (depending on the size of ramekins it will probably fill 4 – 6. I usually get 5.)
4. Place ramekins into a 9 x 13″ glass baking dish. Fill baking dish with water so that it comes half way up the side of the ramekins.
5. Bake for 1 hour at 300 degrees, or until set. Let them cool at room temperature for 10 – 20 minutes and then transfer into the fridge. Chill for 2 hours – 3 days (as if they’ll last that long!)
6. Just before serving, sprinkle 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of sugar on top of the creme brulee and use a kitchen torch (or its likeness) to gently carmelize the sugar (you could also try putting it under the broiler, but watch it carefully!). Let it sit for five minutes before serving. (If using the whole sugar cane crystals, try grinding them up before adding on top.)
7. Devour!

*A note about the sugar on top:

What is the difference between “normal” sugar and Pure Organic Whole Cane Sugar?  Whole cane sugar, or Rapadura, is an unrefined sugar prized for its unique caramel flavor and fine grain texture. This deliciously pure sugar retains a beautiful golden color and offers unmatched nutritional value because – unlike other sugars – it is not separated from the molasses stream during squeeze-dried processing. This means there is some good stuff in there, like minerals. Awesome, right?

This sugar, because of it’s size, tends to burn more than caramelize when using a torch. I have found that putting the sugar in a bowl and then using the bottom of a cup to grind it up into a finer size makes it work wonderfully!

Of course you could always skip the “brûlée” part (crème brûlée means “burnt cream”) and just eat the custard. It’s delicious by itself, too.