Creme Brulee.

Recipe 9.

Creme Brulee
(from Barefoot Contessa herself)
(and in the kitchen of the beautiful, talented Hayley Marie)

Troy Bolton: What's up? 
Chad: What's up? Oh let's see, um you miss free period workout yesterday to audition for some heinous musical, and now suddenly people are confessing. Yeah Zeke, Zeke is baking. Crème brûlée. 
Troy Bolton: Oh. What's that? 
Zeke: Oh, it's a creamy custard-like filling with a caramelized surface, it's really satisfying. 
Troy Bolton: Yeah, cool. 

Ingredients:
1 extra-large egg
4 extra-large egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar (and a little extra)
3 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp of orange flower water

I guess if it's been a long day you could use orange liqueur like the original recipe, but if it's been a long day you really shouldn't be making creme brulee. You should be napping.

Buy some raspberries and mint leaves, just for decoration. It's just for decoration, man.
Be sure to have someone really awesome and amazing like Hayley there to help you along the way.
Although she wouldn't let me photograph her (I snuck in a few), I assure you she is fantastic.

Preheat the oven to 300.  Mix the egg, egg yolks, and 1/2 cup of sugar together on a low speed until just combined.  If you are lucky, your kitchenaide can do this for you while you scald the cream in a saucepan until its very hot but before it boils.  Slowly add the cream to the eggs while still mixing on low.  Add the vanilla and alcohol, ahem, I mean flower water.

Smile as you pour the mixture into ramekins until they are almost full.  Place the ramekins in a baking pan and carefully pour boiling water into the pan.  You need enough water to come up about halfway on the ramekins.  We poured in the water before the mixture, I don't trust myself.

Look! There she is! The famous and gorgeous Hayley Boberg! Well, at least the back of her head.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until they are set when you shake them.  I think it actually took ours around 50 minutes.

Pull the ramekins out of the water bath (I love that it's called that) and let them cool to room temperature. Warning: Be patient, this takes forever. We actually baked something else in between all this waiting time.  Once they are room temperature, refrigerate them until they are firm.

Then, you get to play with fire! Which actually terrifies me, but I think I handled it pretty well.  Pour a bit of sugar onto the creme brulee, and rotate it around so there is a thin layer of sugar across the top.  Pour the excess out.  Using a torch (which is awesome), smoothly flame the top layer until the sugar caramelizes into a crisp layer as shown:

Doesn't that look absolutely divine? It was so fun to make.

Whip up some cream with your left over heavy cream and some sugar.

And there you have it. Although I could never have done it with out Hayley (thank you ma'am), I am so proud of my creme brulee! It was heavenly. Just don't tell anyone that I was motivated by the fact that now I can truly sing along with Zeke from HSM.