Crème brûlée with passion fruit topping and a thank you

No, no, the crème brûlée bug has not bitten me – to be honest, I made this recipe just because of the passion fruit topping. :)
Not sure if that is a sensible way of choosing a recipe to make, but what else could you expect from someone who watches “Lie to Me” just because of Tim Roth? ;)

On a totally different note, I would like to thank Amanda for this lovely, beautiful article about my blog, and my reader Tania Pereyra for telling me about it! xx

Crème brûlée with passion fruit topping
from Simple Essentials Fruit

4 cups (960ml) single/heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
8 egg yolks
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) caster sugar
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon (162g) caster sugar, extra
pulp of 1 passion fruit*

Place the cream and vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over low heat and cook gently until the mixture just comes to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and let infuse for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F. Remove the bean from the cream and reheat it.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and pale. Pour the warm cream over the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Return the mixture to the pan and stir constantly over low heat for 6-8 minutes or until custard coats the back of a spoon. Pour the custard into eight ½ cup (120ml) capacity ovenproof dishes and place in a deep baking dish. Add boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for 25 minutes or until just set. Let cool then refrigerate for 3 hours or until custard is completely set.
Combine the extra sugar and passion fruit pulp, cover the custards with the mixture and caramelize with a blowtorch.

* the passion fruit I used were huge (there’s a photo here) so ½ was enough

Serves 8