Crema Catalana

The other week we were making a variety of tapas dishes for our friends Hannah, Gray, Kat and Rob. We decided to do a Crema Catalana for pudding.

I'd never made Crema Catalana before but it was very easy indeed and I will definitely be making it again. However I think we really need to either get ourselves a nice blow torch to do the sugar burning or put the cremas under the grill in advance then cool before serving. They were too hot!

Still, we enjoyed the flavours and it was a nice light dessert. Good old Spanish food!!!

Recipe:
200g sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tbsp cornflour
1 cinnamon stick
The rind of 1 lemon
240ml milk
Extra sugar for sprinkling

Pop the sugar into a bowl. Add the egg yolks one at a time and whisk thoroughly. Whisk in the cornflour before adding the cinnamon stick and lemon rind.

Finally, add the milk and mix well before transferring to a saucepan.

Place the saucepan over a low heat and cook slowly, stirring constantly, until just thickened - it will look pretty much like custard. Remove from the heat.

Remove the cinnamon stick from the crema and ladle the mixture into ramekins.

Put the ramekins in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, or until ready to serve. When you get to serving time, sprinkle the tops of the cremas with a teaspoon or two of sugar and heat up the grill (better if you have a blow torch, we don't!)

Place the ramekins under the grill until the sugar on top of the cremas starts to brown. Remove from the heat and chill again before serving.