Weekend Bake: Lemon Thyme Creme Brulee

This took a couple of tries. It makes enough for 6 shallow ramekins, I think ... there was some left over from my four.

400 mL heavy whipping cream
100 mL milk
5 - 6 twigs of fresh thyme
1 tsp lemon zest, minced finely
4 large egg yolks
70 g sugar
Turbinado sugar for caramelizing

Put 1/4 inch of water in a large baking pan and preheat oven to 300 with the pan inside. Heat the milk and cream just to a boil. Remove from heat and add thyme sprigs and lemon zest. Let steep for 15 minutes. Strain the resulting liquid; you can add back some of the zest and thyme leaves if you want.

Whisk together sugar and yolks, then gradually add the liquid. Do NOT do this until the liquid is relatively cool or the eggs will cook. Place towel in bottom of baking pan in the water to cushion ramekins, then place ramekins in the pan. Ladle liquid gently into ramekins. If there are bubble, make a quick pass over the ramekins with your torch until they are gone. Bake for 20 minutes, then check for doneness. They should wiggle a little in the middle but not on the sides. Remove from oven and refrigerate for 4-24 hours. Sprinkle tops with turbinado sugar and blast it with the torch. Eat.