Mindy Carlson

Preparation method
Pre-heat oven 150C/300F/Gas 2. Warm the ramekins in the oven, so they are warm when the caramel is poured in. (Do not butter them yet, that part comes later.)

First make the caramel. Pour the sugar and six tablespoons of water into a clean stainless steel pan.  Dissolve the sugar slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon over a low heat. When there are no sugar granules left, stop stirring (really, stop stirring) and boil until the sugar turns a copper color.

I took my caramel to a very dark color. I should have stopped when it was this color below, but I went darker and ended up with a slightly (but not unpleasant) bitter flavor.  If you are looking for a spin on a flan have a bitter caramel is a great way to do it.  Having some slightly sweetened pouring cream at the end helps to off-set that bitterness.

Remove immediately from the heat to ensure the caramel does not burn. It will continue to cook in the hot pan. Quickly pour the caramel into the warmed ramekins. Set aside to cool and become hard. (Do not put in the fridge because the sugar will absorb moisture and go soft and tacky).

You can see how far I took the caramel. It’s really very dark. It should be a lighter copper color.  If you like that slightly bitter flavor go for it, but if you want a nice sweet dessert go lighter.

Once hard, butter the sides of the ramekins above the level of the caramel.

For the custard, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and caster sugar together in a bowl until well mixed.

Pour the milk into a saucepan, gently heat over a low heat until you can still just dip your finger in for a moment, then strain the milk through a fine sieve onto the egg mixture in the bowl. Whisk together until smooth, then pour the mixture into the prepared ramekins.

In Switzerland it’s easier to find vanilla bean pods that it is to find extract. Therefore, I put a vanilla bean into the milk and heated it up to get out that vanilla flavor.  It was going through a sieve anyway so no extra steps were required!

Stand the ramekins in a roasting tin and fill the tin half-way with boiling water from a kettle.

Cook in the oven for about 20-30 minutes or until the custard has set. Do not overcook the custard – check around the edges of the dishes, to make sure no bubbles are appearing.

I had to fiddle with the temperature of the oven quite a bit. I was convinced there were bubbles around the edge so I turned down the oven. Then they weren’t done after 30 minutes so I cooked them longer.  Fiddling with the oven temps adds to the danger of over cooking. You don’t want the custard to be too loose, but you don’t want it extremely firm either – just a bit wobbly in the middle.

Take the crème caramels out of the oven, remove the ramekins from the water bath and set on a cooling rack. When cool, transfer to the fridge overnight so that the caramel is absorbed into the custard.

To serve, loosen the sides of the custard by tipping the ramekin and loosen with a butter knife round the edges. Place a serving dish on top of the ramekin and turn upside down. Serve with pouring cream.