Creme Brulee

Creme Brulee From Cooks Illustrated

4 c. chilled heavy cream
2/3 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean halved lengthwise
12 large egg yolks
8-12 teaspoons Demerara sugar (or sugar pulsed in a blender until fine)

Heat an oven 300 degrees and place rack in the middle of the oven.
Combine 2 c. cream, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan.
Scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod with the back of a knife and add the seeds
and pod to the cream mixture.
Bring to a boil over medium heat,stirring occasionally to ensure the sugar dissolves.
Take off heat and let seep 15 minutes.
Place a kitchen towel in the bottom or a baking dish or roasting pan and arrange 8 4-5 ounce ramkins on the towel.
Bring a kettle of water to a boil.
After the cream has steeped stir in remaining 2 c. cream to cool down the mixture.
Whisk in yolks in a large bowl until combined.
Whisk in one cup cream mixture into yolk mixture until combined.
Repeat with another cup of cream.
Add remaining cream and whisk until evenly colored and combined.
Strain out any solids into a large clean bowl using a fine meshed strainer.
Pour or ladle into the ramekins.
Carefully put baking dish into the oven and then pour the hot water around the ramekins being careful not to splash into the brulee.
Make sure the water comes up 2/3 up the height of the ramekins.
Bake until the centers are just barely set and no longer soft or until an instant
read thermometer into the center is 170 to 175 about 30-35 mins (25-30 mins for shallow dishes).
Transfer ramekins to a wire rack to cool 2 hours.
Set on a rimmed baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in the fridge
for at least 4 hour, up to 4 days.
When ready to serve, uncover and if water condensed on the top, just
dry off with a clean kitchen towel.
Top each ramekin with sugar.
Torch each top and cook until the sugar bubbles up and turns a dark caramel color.