Recipe for Crème Brûlée

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 6 tablespoons raspberry, blueberry, or blackberry spreadable fruit or jam
• 5 large egg yolks
• 12 teaspoons sugar (try brown sugar if you have it)
• About 1 and 1/2 cups mixed fresh raspberries, blackberries, blueberries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread a tablespoon of spreadable fruit in the bottom of each of six 3/4-cup ramekins, then press a mix of about six berries into the bottom of each ramekin (if necessary squash each berry a little so it doesn't protrude about the lip of the cup). Place ramekins into two 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pans. Mix cream and 1/2 cup sugar in medium saucepan. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean, and add seeds and pod to cream mixture. Heat to medium and stir until mix is simmering; cover pan, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove vanilla seedpod and discard.

Whisk egg yolks in medium bowl. Slowly add hot cream mixture to eggs, and divide evenly among the ramekins, covering the tops of the berries. Add enough hot water to the baking dish to come halfway up the side of the ramekins, then very carefully place the pans in the oven, without spilling water into the cremes or onto the floor. Bake about 40 minutes until the custard is set. Remove ramekins with a spatula and let them cool.

Now, the fun part: Sprinkle two teaspoons of sugar evenly across the surface of each creme; then, fire up the blowtorch and melt the sugar evenly until it browns, using a constant, circular motion. Garnish with a sprinkles of berries and serve.