Easy Creme Brulee Recipe

I've tried many recipes. All ended in yuckness. Granted, I'm no master chef. I'm sure those other recipes work fine if you really know what you're doing. But I don't want to have to go to culinary school. I just want a creme brulee.

So I'm talking to my mother on the phone tonight, as I'm about to embark on another creme brulee experiment, and she mentions, "Oh, well, your Aunt Carol makes a great creme brulee; it's always good."

So I called up Aunt Carol, got the recipe, gave it a shot, and what do you know? Perfect. So unless you're a master chef, return that double-boiler, forget about scalding the cream, don't fret about scrambling your eggs. Just follow this easy recipe for a creamy, great-tasting creme brulee:

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Whisk the cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract together in a bowl. Mix it all up until it gets nice and creamy. Pour this mixture into ramekins (those little ceramic dishes). I got it evenly distributed between 4 7-ouncers. I suppose you could pour it all into one smallish casserole dish too. Place the ramekins in a baking pan Fill the baking pan with hot water, about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Place the pan with the ramekins in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour or so. After 45 minutes or so check them every ten minutes. You'll know they're done when you can stick a knife in one and it comes out clean. Remove the ramekins from the baking pan, set them on the counter, and let them cool for 15 minutes or so.

Then put them in the refrigerator and let them chill overnight.

Sprinkle a thin layer of the light brown sugar on the top of each. Make sure it's a THIN layer, but also make sure it completely covers the custard. Now torch it! Or, if you don't have a torch, you can supposedly put them under the broiler for a minute or so. I haven't tried this. [I got my wife one of those little kitchen torches for Christmas at Williams-Sonoma for about 25 bucks. It's fun!] The point is, you need to caramelize (melt and let harden) the sugar.

Anyway, that's it. They came out just right the first time. Easy. And they tasted GREAT. The consistency was perfect. Enjoy!