You bake a custard of cream, yolks and vanilla, chill it thoroughly, then finish it under a blowtorch until the sugar becomes glass. The spoon should crack the caramel with an audible snap. The contrast — cold cream, hot caramel — is the entire point.
France and Catalonia both claim a burnt cream; the French version, baked in a bain-marie and caramelised to order, is the one the dining rooms made famous. It is not a crème anglaise poured into a dish. It is a set custard with a lid of sugar.
Bake at 300°F until just trembling at the centre, then chill thoroughly. Burn the sugar at the last minute and wait a minute — not ten — before serving. Sauternes if you must drink with it.
Method
- 01
Heat the oven to 300°F. Warm the cream with the split vanilla pod and its seeds until it just steams — do not let it boil, or a skin will form and the cream will taste cooked. Take it off the heat and infuse 10 minutes, then discard the pod. The kitchen should smell of vanilla, not of scalded milk: that perfume is the entire flavor of the custard.
- 02
Whisk the yolks with the caster sugar until the mixture is paler and slightly thick, a minute or two, no more; you are not making a mousse. Pour on the warm cream, stirring constantly so the yolks do not scramble. Strain into 4 ramekins to catch any bits of cooked egg or vanilla pod. The custard should be silky and flecked with seeds.
- 03
Set the ramekins in a roasting tin and pour in hot water to come halfway up the sides. Bake until the custards are just trembling at the center, 35 to 45 minutes — set at the edge, a faint wobble in the middle, like gelatin. Cool, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, until they are thoroughly cold. A warm custard under hot caramel is a puddle.
- 04
Dust the tops evenly with demerara sugar and caramelize with a blowtorch until the crust is glass, deep amber, and will crack under a spoon. Wait a minute — not ten — before serving, so the sugar hardens and the cream beneath stays cold. That contrast is the entire point. The spoon should snap.
