This is one of Prince Andrew’s favorite desserts. Often it would be served with Sandringham oranges. The natural acidity of the oranges would balance the sweetness of the brûlée. For a change we would sometimes put peeled grapes on the bottom of the brûlée before baking and give it a fancy new name—Crème Brûlée au Raisin.
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 vanilla pod or ½ teaspoon vanilla
extract
2 cups heavy cream
4 tablespoons granulated vanilla sugar
(see page 76) for topping
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until they turn a light yellow color. Add the vanilla pod or extract.
2. In a separate heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a simmer. Once heated, immediately remove it from the heat, and slowly pour it into the egg yolk and sugar mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Put the liquid back into the saucepan set over low heat, and whisk or stir the milk mixture as it cooks, remembering to stir across the whole surface of the pan to keep the developing custard from forming lumps. Keep stirring until the custard thickens to the consistency of heavy cream. (Don’t be impatient; this sometimes takes a while.) This custard does most of its cooking on top of the stove, not in the oven, so you really want it to be quite thick at this point.
4. Strain the custard into a clean bowl. If you used a vanilla pod, remove it, split it open, and scrape the seeds from inside the pod into the custard.
5. Divide the custard equally among six small ramekins. Place the ramekins in a larger pan, and fill the pan with hot tap water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the custard jiggles like Jell-O when you give it a gentle shake. Remove the ramekins from the water bath, and let them cool completely in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
7. To serve, lightly sprinkle the tops of each ramekin with granulated vanilla sugar, and place them under a hot broiler until the sugar caramelizes, watching carefully so not to let the sugar burn.
MAKES 6 SERVINGS