Ingredients
Flourless cooking spray for greasing
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar (divided use)
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 vanilla bean
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
6 Tbsp sugar (superfine if available)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Bring a teakettle of water to a boil. Coat six 6-oz ramekins or custard cups lightly with cooking spray and set them on a kitchen towel in a deep baking pan.
Combine the cream, ½ cup of the sugar, and the salt in a nonreactive saucepan over medium heat.
Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds and the pod to the milk mixture.
Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture steep for at least 30 minutes. Strain into a clean pan and return to a simmer.
Meanwhile, blend the egg yolks with the remaining sugar. Gradually add about one-third of the hot cream to the yolks, whisking constantly.
Add the remaining hot cream and stir. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean container.
Carefully ladle or pour the custard into the prepared ramekins, filling chem three-fourths full.
Place the baking pan on a pulled-out oven rack. Add enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Carefully slide in the rack and bake until the edges have set and a nickel-sized spot in the centre jiggles slightly when a custard is shaken, 20-25 minutes.
Remove the ramekins from the water bath. Let the custards cool on a rack for 30 minutes, wrap individually, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days before finishing with the brulée layer.
To finish, evenly coat the top of each custard with a thin layer of sugar, about 1 Tbsp. Use a kitchen blowtorch or the broiler to melt and caramelize the sugar evenly. Serve immediately.
Crème brûlée means burnt cream" in French, but it is a custard loose, with a 'burnt’ sugar coating. The trick is to quickly cook the sugar into a glass-like crust without overcooking the custard underneath it.