Grapefruit Creme Brulee

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F and place the baking rack in the middle.

2. In a medium saucepan combine the cream, the seeds from the split vanilla bean, the vanilla pod itself, the citrus zest and heat the cream until almost boiling.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together 6 egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar. Slowly pour the hot cream in, while continuing to whisk. This will temper the egg yolks.

4. Strain the custard through fine mesh sieve.
5. Line a deep baking dish (glass Pyrex dish also works) with 2 layers of paper towel. Place 8-10 empty ramekins inside. Pour the custard into your ramekins, making sure that the amounts are even in all the ramekins. Pour enough hot water around the ramekins to go halfway to your ramekin height. Cover the baking dish with foil.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes. If you have a flat and shallow crème brulee dishes, 30 minutes is enough. If you have deeper round ramekins (soufflé dish), give it 40 minutes.
7. Once done, the middle will still be ‘jiggly’, but that’s ok. Remove the ramekins and let them cool at room temperature and then refrigerate them for 3-4 hours until thoroughly chilled.

8. Right before serving, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar on top of your custard (for round soufflé baking ramekins - 1 tsp, for the shallow crème brulee ramekin – 1 tblsp), then shake the ramekin around for the sugar to evenly distribute throughout the surface. Take your blow torch and point towards the middle, slowly rotating the flame in circles. As the sugar caramelizes rotate the ramekin and continue with the blow torch towards the outer edges until all of the sugar has been caramelized.

To make Whipped Cream/Chantilly Cream

1. Whip 1/2 cup chilled heavy cream with 1 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract until fluffy and supple, with hand mixer.

Serving suggestion

1. Serve with a tablespoon of heavy whipped cream or cool whip, decorating with fresh fruit or berries of choice.

Serve right away.