Recipe courtesy of Mary Sue Milliken
and
Susan Feniger
Crema Catalana
- Level: Easy
- Yield: 6 servings
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 6 servings
- Calories
- 299
- Total Fat
- 12
- Saturated Fat
- 6
- Carbohydrates
- 37
- Dietary Fiber
- 0
- Sugar
- 33
- Protein
- 9
- Cholesterol
- 308
- Sodium
- 84
- Total: 1 hr 10 min
- Prep: 1 hr
- Cook: 10 min
Ingredients
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 quart whole milk
Peel of 1 lemon, left in 1 or 2 pieces
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 cinnamon stick
12 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar, plus extra for caramelizing
Directions
- In a small bowl, combine the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the milk, and stir to dissolve cornstarch. In a medium saucepan, heat remaining milk with the lemon peel, vanilla bean and seeds, and cinnamon stick, stirring. Just before milk comes to a boil, turn off the heat, cover pan and set aside.
- In a large, heavy saucepan whisk together the eggs, sugar and reserved cornstarch mixture. Remove lemon peel from the milk, and slowly add the milk (and cinnamon stick) to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Place pan over low heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick and discard.
- Strain the custard into a large measuring cup or bowl with a pouring spout, then pour the strained custard into 6 ovenproof ramekins. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Just before serving, heat a flat metal spatula over a hot gas flame. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of sugar over each custard, and then touch the surface of the sugar with the hot spatula just long enough to caramelize it. (Alternative methods for caramelizing are to place ramekins under a broiler, or use a small blow-torch).