Crème Caramel

A fairly simple dessert that can be prepared well ahead of time and which has a little bit of fancy.

Ingredients

Instructions

Place 200g sugar and water in a saucepan and mix together.

Place on a medium heat and carefully monitor without stirring. When you see a slight amount of browning, remove from the heat and stir gently. Replace on the heat until you see a little more browning then remove again. Continue this process until you arrive at a golden brown. The water may boil off, but continue with the heat and you will see the sugar melt. Be careful as it will burn easily.

Quickly before the mixture cools, pour evenly into the bottom of six ramekins.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Place the eggs into a bowl with the 100g sugar and the vanilla essence. Whisk together until well mixed.

Slowly add the milk while stirring. Continue till the mixture is fully incorporated and the sugar is dissolved.

Place the ramekins in a relatively shallow tray that can hold water and can fir the ramekins in it.

Use a ladle to almost fill the ramekins with the mixture.

Carefully place the tray with the ramekins in the oven and fill the tray with boiling water till its around half way up the ramekins. Cook for 35 minutes.

Once the time is up, leave them to cool in the oven for a further hour. Once they are cool enough, place them in the fridge and leave for at least 4 hours to properly set.

When ready to serve, with a very thin spatula (I have used a thin piece of stiff plastic), work around the outside of the ramekin to ensure that the creme is free from the side. The mixture will form a vacuum seal, so it may be useful to press ever so gently inwards to break that seal.

Carefully invert on a small plate and the creme should carefully drop out with a caramel topping.

Enjoy.