Early fall time is just a great time to try out new desserts before the holidays are here.

Making creme brulee at home is easy. Creme brulee is such a pretty and delicious dessert which has actually only a few pantry ingredients. It looks so fancy, whether served in a little ceramic pudding cup or as pictured, in a tin.

No matter what vessel your creme brulee is served in, it will be creamy, delicious and a showstopper.

Creme brulee is a vanilla-lover’s dream dessert. It’s light after a holiday meal and just enough sweet to please anyone that likes their “something sweet” after a full meal.

Baker’s Note: Granulated sugar would work OK in this recipe. However, I find that the more-fine caster sugar works out best.

Creme Brulee

4 cups of heavy cream

½ cup of super fine caster sugar

8 egg yolks

1 fresh vanilla bean

Extra caster sugar, for the top

On a clean surface or cut board, cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place the seeds into a medium sauce pot with the cream. Heat up your cream with the vanilla seeds in until scalding. Set aside the cream and seed combo to steep for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Place eight small ramekins into a roasting tray.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks. First, because the cream was heated, pour just a little of the heated cream into the egg mixture to temper the egg mix. Then, add the remaining cream to the egg mixture and combine.

Next, pour the entire egg and cream mixture through a fine strainer. Pour the crème into your ramekins. Carefully, without getting water splashed into the filled ramekins, pour boiling water into the roasting tray half way full around the ramekins. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until they are slightly jiggly in the center. Keep the baked ramekins in the tray until cool. Place into the fridge overnight. Sprinkle the extra caster sugar on to the top of each ramekin. With a small chef’s torch, brulee each top to a nice medium golden brown when ready to serve.

Sarah Schweitzer is dual-certified in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts (www.escoffier.edu). Sarah is currently working as a Sous-Chef and pastry chef at Ateira’s on First and has her own blog simplysarah.online. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.