Number Twenty: Creme Brulee (1/5th of the way there!)

After the sausages and mash, which was an absolute TOUR DE FORCE (if I may say so myself), we moved on to creme brulee for pud. I made the custard mix and put it into ramekins the day before (really doesn't sound like I've been doing much revising at all now does it!) so all I had to do before serving was add the sugar and blowtorch it.

The recipe fills six 150ml ramekins, but Nigella prefers to use one large dish. Do as you will.

Under the custard layer, I had a layer of rhubarb and orange blossom compote (homemade, of course), as my dad loves rhubarb and I thought it would work nicely.


Ingredients

600ml double cream
1 vanilla pod, split
8 egg yolks
3 tbsp caster sugar
about 6 tbsp demerera sugar (but I didn't need quite this much)


Method

1. Put the six 150ml ramekins/one 20cm pie dish (filled, if you want, with a layer of fruit compote) in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. Half fill the sink with cold water - if the custard looks like it's going to split, you can plunge the saucepan in here and beat furiously to save it. Seriously, make sure you do this. I needed it. Twice.

2. Put the cream and the vanilla pod into a saucepan and bring to boiling point, without letting it boil.

3. Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar together in a bowl large enough to comfortably house the cream.

4. When the cream is ready, pour it into the egg mix, vanilla pod and all, beating whilst you do this. Rinse and dry the pan, and then return the cream and egg mix to it.

5. Cook over a low heat, stirring pretty much the whole time, until the custard thickens. This should take about 10 minutes - you want it to be really thick and creamy.

6. Retrieve your ramekins/pie dish, discard the vanilla pod, and pour the custard into the cold container/s.

7. Leave to cool, and then put in the fridge until cold. You can leave them for a day or two until needed. To serve, sprinkle the demerara sugar evenly over the cremes.

8. Then, blast them with a blowtorch until you have a blistering crust on the top. If you don't have a blowtorch you can use the grill, but the torch is way more effective, so I recommend investing in one. It doubles up as a lazy man's campfire when you want toasted marshmallows on a whim.

9. Give the crust a moment or two to harden into its crunchy glory. Then serve.


I did have a picture of one of the creme brulees with a spoonful taken out, so that you could see the rhubarb compote beneath...but it looked really ugly so it's not emerging. Sorry.

Of course, it is perfectly acceptable to have the creme brulees as they are, unadulterated by any adornments. But if you want to jazz it up a bit as I did, any sort of fruit compote would work nicely, as would a layer of jam, or a layer of fresh summer berries. I suppose you could also try a layer of chocolate or caramel sauce, but if you use fruit then at least you can pretend it's healthy ;)