Creme Brulee (unofficial recipe) [Crème brûlée]

Basic recipe --- no fancy pre-cooking on the stove, and uses whole eggs instead of just yolks (so that you don't have left-over egg whites). But works out fine for home use. You will need 6 small ramekins or oven-proof glass dishes, and a large cake pan to set them in. (Apologies for the first pic above - my torch was running out of fuel at first, so the sugar topping is imperfect and looks a little bit scorched.) 

Ingredients:

2 cups (one pint) heavy cream (whipping cream)

3 whole eggs (or 5 egg yolks)

1/3 cup white sugar (or up to 1/2 cup)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 325F. Break the eggs into your mixing bowl (or 4 cup measuring cup), being careful not to allow any shell to remain. Add the sugar, vanilla and salt, and beat with a hand-powered egg beater to break up the eggs and mix them with the sugar. Gently beat in the whipping cream. There should not be any lumps or bits of unmixed egg left, but you are not trying to make whipped cream out of the mixture. 

Set the six small dishes in the cake pan, pour the creme/custard mixture into the dishes, dividing it equally as best you can (about 1/2 inch from the top of each dish). Carefully pour hot water into the side of the cake pan to reach half-way up the sides of the dishes, while you avoid getting water in the custards. Carefully place the whole thing (the cake pan) in the center of the oven. Bake for 25-35 minutes, checking frequently at the end - remove before any browning occurs on the tops of the custards. Allow the custards to cool, remove them from the cake pan, pour out the water (carefully), then chill the custards for several hours. (They need to be cold when you torch the sugar on the top.)

Several hours later --- sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons of white sugar on the top of a custard, turn on your small hand torch, and holding the torch at an angle, melt the sugar on the top of the custard. Repeat for as many as you are going to serve/eat right now. The edges of the custard dishes could be hot right after you torch the sugar, but should cool quickly, and the cold custard will cause the sugar crust to harden. 

Serve immediately. 

ps - Note - I just made a batch in my new Emile Henry flat baking dishes, and it filled 5 of the dishes about 3/4 inch. Used the water bath as usual. Needed to bake 30 min. at 325F.