If you love crème brûlée you need to try this recipe!

Spanish Crema catalana probably reminds you of crème brûlée as it’s actually the recipe that inspired French chefs ! Differences are that it only uses milk and not cream and it’s cooked in a pot instead of baked resulting in a lighter texture 💯

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🌱Vegetarian

🌾Gluten free

🍽4 portions

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🍮Ingredients

• 2 large oranges

• 500g whole milk

• 1 cinnamon stick

• Peel of 1 orange

• 12g cornstarch

• 5 egg yolks

• 80g caster sugar

• 1 tbsp orange juice

🍮Method

• Make your orange cups by slicing the oranges in half and scooping out the flesh

• Add the milk, orange peel and the cinnamon stick in a pot. Slowly bring to a boil for 5 minutes so the milk infuses. Then remove the orange peels and cinnamon stick by passing the milk through a strainer

• Dissolve the cornstarch in a splash of water in a separate bowl

• Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow. Beat in the dissolved cornstarch

• Slowly add the warm milk to the bowl with the egg yolk mixture, making sure to keep whisking so that the eggs don’t scramble! Finally add the orange juice

• Transfer mix back to the pot and stir constantly over a low heat, until the mixture has thickened

• Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into the orange cups

• Cover oranges in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for several hours (better overnight)

• Before serving let them come to room temperature. Then sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top of each and caramelise with a blowtorch

FAQS and Tips

• If you don’t own a blowtorch you can caramelise the crema catalana in the oven after it has set in the fridge. Just put it at the highest top heat setting until you see the sugar melting and crystallising

• For a super easy version if you don’t want to bother with making the orange cups you can just pour the crema catalana mix into some ramekins

• What texture should the crema catalana have? It is supposed to be a soft custard with a consistency similar to that of greek yogurt. If it’s too runny that means you didn’t cook it for long enough in the pan and if it is too thick and jelly like it means you over cooked it

• I overcooked my custard and it formed lumps. You can use an immersion blender to fix this lumps and then pass the custard through a fine strainer. If you see lumps forming at the beginning, remove immediately from heat, transfer to a bowl and use the immersion blender to blend them. Transfer it back to the pot and continue cooking until it thickens and finally pass through a fine strainer