Great Christmas!

It has become tradition in my family to end Christmas day right with a cup of coffee and Mom's crème brulée. I think I started salivating in early November in anticipation of it. For those of you not fortunate enough to have tasted my mom's Christmas Brulée, consider yourselves deprived. How sad for you, because you have not truly lived. It is absolutely remarkable. I've had crème brulée all over Paris, twice in Italy, a couple times in Germany and a zillion times from Allegria in Malibu (theirs is actually pretty good). But NONE have even come close. It wasn't until I've had buckets of crème brulée, that I realized how good I had it. So, here's my mom's famous recipe. I hope it makes some of your future Christmases merry and bright!


CRÈME BRULÉE


1 pint heavy whipping cream
½ cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Sugar for the topping:
4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Heat cream over low heat until bubbles form around the edge of the pan. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar together until thick, about 3 minutes. Gradually beat in to the cream. Stir in vanilla and pour into six 6-ounce ramekins. Place ramekins in baking pan that has about ½ inch water in the bottom. Bake until set - approximately 45 minutes.

Remove ramekins from the water and refrigerate until completely chilled. Sprinkle each custard with 2 teaspoons of the sugar blend. Torch topping or place on top rack under the broiler and cook until topping is medium brown. Chill before serving.

Makes 6 servings