Gran’s Caramel Cup Custard

Crème Caramel.

Gran gets all of the credit for this one or I thought she did. She confessed that the original recipe was passed down from Aunt Louise Toca who was my great aunt. She has soothed broken hearts and healed incurable diseases with this, the ultimate comfort food, crème caramel. She was always a little possessive of her little pyrex dishes, however. Happy to share the dessert but you better not forget to return her much loved pyrex cups!

Caramel:

1 cup sugar

Pour the sugar into a cast iron skillet or a non-stick skillet. Place over medium heat. As sugar begins to melt, stir continuously until it turns a beautiful brown caramel color. Remove immediately and distribute evenly into individual baking cups. Let cool.

Custard mixture

4 eggs

1 C sugar

41/2 C milk

1 tsp vanilla

Beat all ingredients together with a whisk and then strain. Place pyrex cups or baking dishes in a larger glass-baking dish. Pour egg mixture evenly into caramel filled cups. Then pour hot almost boiling water into glass baking dish until it comes about ½-3/4 of the way up around the sides of custard filled cups. This is called a “bain-marie.” Bake for one hour at 325. Let cool and then refrigerate. To serve, run a knife around the side of the cup releasing the custard. Place a small serving bowl over the cup and turn it over. As the French call it “crème renverse” because you turn it over or reverse it, and the caramel sauce is on top…Voila!!