Cooking with Wine

Preheat oven to 315°F degrees.

Split the vanilla bean pod in half lengthwise and scrape the pulp out. Put the bean pod and pulp in a medium saucepan with the cream, salt, and orange zest. Over medium heat, gently bring to a light boil, stirring often. Once gently boiling, remove from heat and let the hot cream rest for 5 minutes.

While the liquid rests, in a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and ⅔ cup of sugar until pale yellow and combined.

Strain the cream mixture using a fine-mesh wire strainer, or fine sieve, and discard the solids (the vanilla bean pod and orange zest). Add the cream to the egg mixture gradually (1/2 cup at a time) whisking constantly to temper the egg yolk mixture. Add the orange juice and combine thoroughly. Once combined and mixed, pour the mixture into crème brûlée dishes or ramekins about ⅔ to the top.

Place ramekins / crème brûlée dishes onto a baking sheet or roasting pan (for deeper dishes) and fill the pan with warm water halfway up to the top of your creme brûlée vessels. Place pan with water bath into the oven and bake for 20-45 minutes. This will be a visual cook as every crème brûlée dish is different. The cooking time will depend on the vessels you use - shallow wide dishes (pictured in this post) will not take as long to set as deep ramekins. Either way, your crème brûlée will be done when the center is still jiggly but the sides have just set. Once done, remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

Place crème brûlées in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

At this point, you can put plastic wrap over the crème brûlées and they will last for 5 days in the refrigerator. If serving at this time, remove from the refrigerator and sprinkle about 1-2 tbsp of superfine sugar (depending on the surface area of your dish) over the top of the custard as evenly as you can so the custard is completely covered. Using a kitchen torch (or propane/butane torch) melt the sugar gently until you achieve a few very dark brown spots and several golden brown colored spots. Ensure all the sugar has melted then let rest a couple of minutes, then top with fruit and serve.