Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée has always been delicious, but when it is local it is even better. Recently, my mom and her friends have been having cookbook parties where each of them cooks one recipe from the same cookbook.  With all these great meals we are having, we are getting introduced to all these new great cookbooks. This recipe is from one of those cookbooks and it is great! We personally had a little trouble with our culinary torch to solidify the sugar, but other than that, it was a great recipe. The jams and jellies at the bottom perfectly round off this delicious dish!! I hope you enjoy this!

Note: these need to chill at least 3 hours in the refrigerator before serving so, if you are planning these for a dinner party, it is best to make them the night before.

Ingredients:

 2 tbl. jam or jelly
1 & 1/4 cups heavy cream (Winder Farms)
1/2 cup whole milk (Winder Farms)
3 large egg yolks (Clifford Family Farm)
1/3 cups sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
brownulated or strained brown sugar for topping

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Center rack in the oven.
2. Place six ramekins on a baking sheet lined with silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Spoon 1 tsp. of jam or jelly in bottom of each ramekin and spread out as evenly as possible.
3.  Using a medium sized bowl or 4 cup glass measuring cup, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together and set aside.
4. Mix the cream and milk together and bring just to a boil in microwave or on stovetop.
5. Place the bowl with egg yolk mixture on a silicone baking mat or dish towel to keep it from sliding around. Whisking constantly, add about one quarter of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks slowly in a small stream to avoid cooking the eggs. If you add the hot liquid to quickly to the egg yolks, you risk cooking the eggs so be very patient. The slower you go, the creamier the mixture and the less likely that you will need to strain the final mixture. Continue to whisk in the remaining hot cream in a slow but steady stream. Stir in the vanilla.
6. Rap the bowl to remove any air bubbles. If there is a lot of foam on the top of the mixture, skim it off. Pour approximately 1/2 cup of the cream into each individual ramekin. You may need to strain the cream if you notice any lumps. Again, tap each ramekin to remove bubbles and skim any foam off the top.
7. Carefully place the baking sheet with prepared ramekins in the center rack of the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the centers are just set.  You can test this by tapping the side of the ramekins. The custard should jiggle just a little but should appear firm and set.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature. Cover each ramekin with plastic rap and place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight.
9. You can serve these without caramelized sugar on top but if you have a kitchen torch, working with one creme at a time, sprinkle one tablespoonful of brown sugar on top of the chilled creme and then caramelize with your torch until the sugars bubbles and browns. We have tried using less than one tbl. of sugar to save calories but it doesn't really work and you just end up heating up the creme itself so if you are going to caramelize the creme, I think you are stuck using that additional tablespoonful of sugar.
from Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan