Creme caramel (François Perret)

A simple, delicious and regressive dessert today, the cremes caramel. This is a recipe by François Perret, pastry chef at the Ritz, but the ingredients are the same as in any crème caramel recipe: eggs, milk, sugar. You can add vanilla to it if you want, but it's not necessary, they are delicious plain too. Just plan ahead so that the cremes have some time to cool before tasting them, otherwise it only takes a few minutes to prepare.

Prep time : 10 minutes + cooking
For 6-8 servings :

Caramel :

165g caster sugar

17g hot water

Prepare a caramel with the sugar ; when it has a nice color, deglaze it with hot water then immediately pour the caramel into your molds.

Let it crystallize.

Crème caramel :

147g eggs (about 3)

25g egg yolks (1 large or 2 small)

33g caster sugar

533g whole milk

Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar.

Heat half the milk, then pour it while whisking over the eggs.

Add the rest of the cold milk, then pour the cream into the molds over the caramel.

For the cooking part, I did not follow the directions in the book because I did not have a plastic wrap compatible with the oven; if you have it, here is the procedure (for individual molds containing 200g of cream): put the pots covered with plastic wrap in a large dish, pour simmering water in the dish then put in the oven preheated to 90°C for 22 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap as soon as you take the cremes caramel out of the oven.

If like me, you don't have a plastic wrap that can be used in the oven, preheat the oven to 130°C, put the cremes caramel in the dish with simmering water and bake for about 30 to 40 minutes (at the end, the blade of a knife stuck in the cream should come out clean). Remove the cremes from the water bath, let them cool and then put them in the fridge until the creams are fresh.

Then, 2 options: eat directly in the molds, or unmold them, in any case enjoy  !