Crema Catalana

I made a flavorful authentic crema catalana which reminded me of living in Seville Spain and smelling orange blossoms in the air. I made this recipe twice in order to get the ingredients and directions just right. Hope you enjoy!

Crema Catalana

Author: Alexis Avila, A Day in the Bite

Recipe type: Cream Custard

Cuisine: Spanish

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

4 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, scraped and bean into pot
3 lemon, 3 orange peels
1 cinnamon stick
5 TB sugar
10 egg yolks
5 TB Sugar
1 cup whole milk
3-4 TB corn starch
1 TB white sugar per ramekin and blowtorch (or broil in oven) for caramelization

Instructions

In pot medium heat put the following and heat milk until it forms a think solid milk layer and bubbles start forming around edges (don’t bring to boil)
whole milk (4 cups)
vanilla bean, scraped and bean into pot
three lemon, three orange peels
cinnamon stick
sugar (5 TB)
turn off heat and let flavors sit for half hour and to let it cool down
in a separate large bowl whisk:
egg yolks (10)
Sugar (5 TB)
in smaller bowl whisk:
whole milk (one cup)
TB corn starch (four TB)
Pour contents of small bowl into big bowl and whisk together
pour contents of pot through a mesh sieve and into big bowl and whisk together
Pour the big bowl liquid back to pot and turn heat to medium low to medium heat and constantly stir with a spoon (no whisk) for 10-20 minutes (don’t scrape bottom of pot when stirring) until liquid thickens and coats back of a spoon.
Once crema has thickened slightly, immediately take off heat and immediately take out your strainer and Pour crema through a strainer into 6-8 ramekins. This will make your crema smoother leaving behind any larger bits (if you leave crema in pot after turning heat off you will continue cooking it and it will overcook your crema)
Let the ramekins cool for a few minutes
Seran wrap each ramekin and put in
fridge for at least 4 hours but best to leave overnight so flavors infuse.
for each ramekin, cover the top with a a thin layer (1 TB) of white sugar, blowtorch sugar (or broil) to caramelize sugar on top until golden brown