Crème caramel

Another classic dessert of which there are many regional variations in France, Spain and Portugal.

Preheat oven to 190 °C. First make the caramel: in a small pan heat 70 g sugar with a tbsp of butter while stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar melts and turns a dark-golden colour. Pour the liquid caramel into a loaf tin and set aside to cool (attention: the caramel will be very hot), it will turn solid. In a saucepan bring the milk with 80 g sugar and the split and scraped vanilla pod to the boil, remove from heat. Briefly whisk the eggs in a big bowl, then pour the hot milk over the eggs while stirring, remove the vanilla pod. Strain the milk/egg mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Place loaf tin in a roasting tin, add hot water to the roasting tin to come up about half way of the loaf tin. Bake for about 50 to 60 minutes until it feels ‘wobbly’ and set when touching the top (you may have to cover the loaf tin with aluminium foil if the surface darkens too quickly). Set aside to cool, then refrigerate overnight. To turn out, run a sharp knife around the edges of the tin, then put the bottom of the tin into a shallow puddle of hot water in the sink for a minute. Remove and dry tin, place a suitable dish over the top of the loaf tin and turn upside down – the set crème and the liquid caramel should easily slip out.