Crema Catalana

Catalan Custard with Burnt Sugar

A custard made with milk, cooked on the hob and scented with cinnamon and lemon peel, under a sheet of sugar burnt until it cracks. It is lighter than crème brûlée, which is baked and made with cream, and Catalans will tell you theirs came first.

The two recipes read follow the same method: milk is infused with cinnamon and citrus peel, whisked into yolks, sugar and cornflour, and cooked, stirring, until it comes to a simmer and thickens. It sets in shallow dishes and the sugar is burnt on top just before serving.

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 litre whole milk
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • Pared zest of 1 lemon and 1/2 orange, no white pith
  • 8 large egg yolks
  • 120 g caster sugar
  • 30 g cornflour
  • 6 to 8 tbsp caster sugar, for the top

Method

  1. Infuse the milk Set aside 100 ml of the milk. Heat the remainder with the cinnamon and citrus zest until it just reaches the boil. Take off the heat and leave for 10 minutes.
  2. Mix the yolks Whisk the yolks with the sugar in a large bowl until pale. Stir the cornflour into the reserved cold milk until smooth and whisk it into the yolks.
  3. Cook Strain the warm milk onto the yolk mixture, whisking. Return everything to the pan and cook over a medium-low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens and the first slow bubbles break the surface. Take it off the heat at once.
  4. Set Pour into shallow dishes. Cool, then chill uncovered for at least 2 hours; a slight skin helps the sugar to sit on top.
  5. Burn the sugar Just before serving, sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar evenly over each custard and melt it with a blowtorch, or under a very hot grill for 2 to 3 minutes, until dark amber. Leave for 2 minutes to harden.

Food safety

Melted sugar is far hotter than boiling water and sticks to skin. Stand the dishes on a metal tray, keep fingers clear and let the crust set before serving.

Stir into the corners of the pan. Custard catches there first.

Burn the sugar at the last minute. In the fridge the crust softens within half an hour.

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