Crème caramel

I totally forgot I said I would give you a recipe for crème caramel... Well, here it is.

Crème Caramel (from a recipe by Delia Smith)
Ingrdients
Caramel:
175 g sugar
2 T tap-hot water

Custard:
150 ml milk
275 ml cream
4 eggs
1 t vanilla extract

Use a soufflé dish with a capacity of 850 ml (Delia suggests one around 13 cm in diameter and 8 cm deep). You will also need a deep roasting tin that this dish can fit into.

Method
Preheat your oven to 150ºC. 

First make the caramel. Put the sugar in a small saucepan on a medium heat, and leave it. Once around a quarter of the sugar has melted, give it a gentle stir and continue melting it until all the sugar is liquid and a dark amber colour. Take the pan off the heat and add in the water, being careful as the mixture will splutter. Now return the pan to low heat until the sugar and water are combined and any lumps have dissolved. Then quickly pour two-thirds of the caramel into the soufflé dish so that the bottom and sides are coated.

Now make the custard. Pour the milk and cream into the saucepan containing the remaining third of the caramel, place it over a low heat and use a whisk to thoroughly combine everything. When the caramel is all dissolved, remove the pan from the heat.

Next, break the eggs into a large bowl or jug and whisk them until combined, then pour the hot caramel-milk into the eggs, a little at first then gradually more, whisking all the time (seriously, do not stop whisking). Add the vanilla extract, then pour everything into the caramel-lined dish.

Now place the dish in the roasting tin and pour in enough tap-hot water to come two-thirds of the way up the sides of the dish. Place everything in the oven and leave it there for one and a quarter hours. When it's done, the custard should be slightly springy to the touch in the center. Remove the soufflé dish from the roasting tin the leave it till it's cold. Cover it in clingfilm and put it in the oven for several hours to chill it thoroughly.

When you're ready to serve, put a plate over the dish and turn it upside down - you will need to shake the dish fairly vigorously before the crème caramel will come out. Also be careful because if it comes out too fast it will splash.

Also, because Blogger apparently hates PDFs, here are my notes from LUX.