Easy recipes for any cook: from cheat's meals to cooking from scratch

Cake recipes

Creamy charred leeks and brussels sprouts with polenta and chilli oil

20 minutes

Chilli recipes

Balsamic, chilli, tomato and red pepper soup

15 minutes

Fruity dessert

Lamb shanks with buttery roast fennel and baby carrots

2½ hours

Asparagus recipes

Asparagus-and-mozzarella phyllo tart

20 minutes

Pancake recipes

Burnt brown sugar pineapple-and-coconut crêpes

20 minutes

Sweet treat

Classic crème brûlée

45 minutes

Classic crème brûlée

Serves 4

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 2 hours

Cooking Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

4 free-range egg yolks
50 g sugar, plus extra for caramelising
2 cups cream
1 t vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light and creamy. Heat the cream in a saucepan over a medium heat until a skin forms on the surface. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract or the seeds of ½ vanilla pod.
Pour the warm vanilla cream into the egg yolk mixture, whisking continually. Strain the mixture, divide between 4 ramekins and cover with foil.
Place into a bain marie (a larger container half-filled with water) and bake for 45–50 minutes, or until set. Chill for 2 hours.
Sprinkle over a thin layer of caster sugar and blowtorch until caramelised. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
If you don’t have a blowtorch, melt a little sugar in a pan until golden and caramelised and carefully spoon over the crème brûlées.

Cook's note: Who doesn’t love cracking the perfectly caramelised layer on the top of a crème brûlée to get at the silky custard beneath? And you don’t have to be a chef to get it right – but you will need a blowtorch. Get one.

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Classic crème brûlée

Classic crème brûlée

Ingredients

Method