Crème Brûlée

This is one of my favorite French desserts, need I say more?  I've ordered it many times in various restaurants, yet I tend to prefer what I can make at home most times.  I took this recipe from Sur La Table's website years ago and wrote it on a recipe card; when I checked recently, this version of the recipe is no longer there.

Ingredients:
8 egg yolks
1/3 c. sugar, plus more for caramelizing
2 c. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or seeds scraped from one vanilla bean)

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Instructions:
1. Whisk egg yolks and 1/3 c. sugar together until sugar is dissolved and mixture is thick, slightly paler yellow:

2. Add cream and vanilla, continue to whisk until well blended:

3. Skim off the foam/bubbles from the top of this mixture.  You will not be able to get every bit of it; just get the majority :)

4. Place ramekins in baking pans with some space between them--should not be touching.  Pour mixture into the ramekins; you may fill to preferred level--keep in mind that baking time will need to be increased for deeper filled ones.  Mine are filled at a depth of about a half inch:

5. Carefully add water to the pan to create "bain-marie" (water bath) for the ramekins.  The level should be approximately 2/3 the height of the fill level of the ramekins:

6. Gently slide pans into oven and for 1/2 inch depth with metal pans, bake for 40 minutes.  To check if they are "set"/ready, jiggle pan slightly.  There should be movement of the water but not in the baked items.

7. Place pan on a cooling rack and cool them in the "bain-marie" until the water has cooled to room temperature:

8. Remove ramekins from 'bath' and place, uncovered, in fridge for at least 2 hours.
9. Do not do this step until you are ready to serve them shortly after, as the caramelized sugar will not remain hardened for a long amount of time.  Remove the ramekin from the fridge and sprinkle sugar over the top of the baked cream, until the surface is covered completely.  It should be just enough to cover, not too thick of a layer.  Use a small kitchen torch** on medium flame setting, passing over the sugar again and again until it browns and bubbles.  Do not stay in one spot for very long or your sugar may flame up!

10. Continue to caramelize the sugar top until all the sugar crystals have browned:

11. Place ramekin back in fridge for at least 10 minutes, but not longer than an hour.  Remove and enjoy!

**If you are VERY careful and have ramekins rated for it, you can use the broiler setting in a toaster oven for the caramelization, but you have to watch attentively and it may not turn out exactly the same.**