Creme Brulee

Santa (aka Mummy and Daddy) gave me a Creme Brulee Set for Christmas, and it was about time I gave it a go... What followed was not exactly a disaster, but I think I'll definitely need to practice this one. One or two of the four I made turned out 'ok', so although this is a fairly quick dessert (if you dont count refrigerating time of 2-3hrs, which I reckon you shouldn't if you make it the night before!), apparently its not so easy to get right...

Ingredients: 
- 1 cup cream
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
- Extra 1/3 cup sugar

Method:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 150degreesCelcius.

Step 2: Combine cream and 2 tablespoons sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir occassionally for 5-6 minutes until small bubbles begin to appear around the edges of pan. -This may have been my first mistake; I walked away for a minute and when I came back it was bubbling a fair bit... So, lesson to be learnt: don't walk away at this stage!!

Set aside.

Step 3: Beat egg yolks and vanilla in a bowl until light and smooth. Gradually pour hot cream into egg yolks while stirring constantly, until well mixed.

Step 4: Strain mixture through a fine sieve and pour evenly into 4 ramekins. Possible mistake number 2: I noticed when I poured it into the ramekins that they didn't all look the same - some had a slightly frothy top, others did not... Maybe I should have strained it twice??

Step 5: Place ramekins into a bain-marie (baking dish with boiling water up to halfway on the ramekins). Cover pan loosely with aluminium foil - possible mistake number 3: foil may not have been 'loose' enough...

Step 6:  Bake for approximately 25min until set. Possible mistake number 4: After 25 min they still didn't look set, so I left them in another 15min (checking on them every few minutes)... they still weren't all 'set' but at that point I figured they weren't ever going to...

Remove carefully from oven, cool, then refrigerate for 2-3hrs.

Step 7: Sprinkle extra 1/3 cup of sugar evenly over the custards.

Using a circular motion, heat the sugar with a Creme Brulee Torch. Continually move the flame over the sugar until it mels and becomes golden brown and bubbly.  

Tip: add sugar and then torch it one ramekin at a time... I found that by the time I got to the 3rd and 4th ramekins the sugar had sunk into the custard. Now this could just be because the custards didnt 'set' like they were meant to but I figure it can't hurt to do it one at a time anyway