Sugarcane creme brulee with orange lime crips

Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 quart heavy cream or half and half
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 piece of candied orange peel
3/4 cup (5 oz.) sugar
8 lg egg yolks
3 Tbsp Cointreau
sugar for crust

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 250F.
2. Heat the heavy cream to just below the boiling point. Add the vanilla bean and the orange peel; cover and keep warm.
3. Stir the sugar, egg yolks, and orange liqueur together just until blended. Gradually stir in the hot cream and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Ladle the custard through a fine-meshed sieve into the ramekins (each 1/2 cup capacity, about 1 inch deep).
4. Slide the oven rack onto the middle level of the preheated oven. Arrange the molds in the baking pan, slide out the rack, and set the pan upon it. Very carefully pour enough boiling water around the molds to come halfway up the sides of them. Even more carefully - so as not to slosh water into the custards - slide the rack back into the oven. Bake about one hour or until the custards are set. Test by poking the tip of a paring knife 1 inch from the side of the mold into the custard. The knife should come out clean, but the custard should still tremble slightly - showing it is not overdone.
5. Shortly before serving, coat each with sugar and use blowtorch to make sugar crust.Note that custards may be made several days in advance; cover and refrigerate. Create crust shortly before serving.