Crème brulée is easy, after a couple of tries

I wrote last week about my failed attempt at crème brulée. Well, persistence paid off. I did finally manage to make a successful batch. It's not a complicated dessert, but you have to watch what you're doing and whisk like mad when you add hot cream to the eggs, or your eggs will get all lumpy. The first recipe I used called for using a double boiler, and I don't have one (those are hard to find in kitchen stores these days), so I made do by putting a heat-proof dish over the saucepan as I heated the cream. Kind of a clunky operation.

The recipe I liked better was from "Paris Bistro Cooking," a beautiful cookbook that my friend Marti bought for me before our trip to France. Author Linda Dannenberg profiles wonderful Paris bistros, and features recipes and gorgeous color photos in her book. When we were in Paris, we went to one of her featured restaurants, and showed staff there our copies of the book, and the staff signed them for us. They were great. (And so was the food.)

According to Dannenberg, this recipe comes from "Le Petit Marguéry," a restaurant on Boulevard Port-Royal. We didn't make it there on last month's trip, so we have something to look forward to next time.

Crème brulée
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 split vanilla beans
7 eggs yolks
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar (or super-fine sugar)

Combine milk and cream. Add the vanilla beans, scald over medium heat. Discard vanilla beans. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks and eggs with the granulated sugar. Gradually beat in the milk (whisking constantly!) Strain into oven-proof custard cups or a 1-1/2 quart baking dish.

Place custards cups or baking dish in a large pan of very hot water. Bake until custard is firm (about 40 minutes) Let cool for several hours. Just before serving, preheat broiler and sprinkle custard with brown sugar. Run dishes under the broiler to carmelize the sugar, watching carefully to prevent burning. Or better yet, use a crème brulée torch. I don't have one, but my friend Marti brought hers over for us to use last weekend. She also brought over super-fine sugar from Williams Sonoma, and we ended up with a perfectly crisp sugar crust.