Crema Catalana Brûlée Tartlets

Method

1. Thinly butter 4 cups of a muffin tin. Cut the thawed puff pastry into 9 cm rounds (use a cup or bowl as a cutter), press one into each cup and prick the bases several times with a fork. Cold pastry rises better, so chill the tin for 10 min. Preheat the oven now.

   Add in this stepButter (for greasing) 5 gFrozen puff pastry, thawed 160 g

2. Bake in the oven preheated to 200 °C (oven) for 15 min, until the edges are deep golden. Straight away, press the puffed centres down with the back of a spoon to make room for the cream. Lift the cups out of the tin and cool completely on a rack.

   oven

3. Set aside about 2 tablespoons of the milk. Put the rest of the milk, the lemon peel and the cinnamon in a 14 cm saucepan over medium heat; when bubbles appear at the edge, turn off the heat, cover and infuse for 10 min.

   Add in this stepWhole milk 170 mlStrip of lemon peel (yellow part only) 1Cinnamon stick ½

   medium heat

4. In a bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, cornflour and the reserved milk until smooth. Remove the peel and cinnamon from the milk, pour the warm milk onto the yolks a little at a time while whisking, then pour it all back into the pan. Cook over medium-low heat for 5 min, stirring nonstop, until very thick and holding its shape on a spoon. It has a little more cornflour than the classic so it stands up in the tart.

   Add in this stepEgg yolks 2Caster sugar (for the cream) 40 gCornflour (cornstarch) 13 gWhole milk 30 ml

   medium-low heat

5. Transfer the cream to a bowl, press plastic wrap onto the surface, cool briefly and refrigerate for 1 h until cold and set.

6. Just before serving, whisk the cream a few times to loosen it and spoon or pipe it into the pastry cups in a small dome. Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top and torch until amber (about 2 min in total). The pastry edges catch quickly, so shield them with a strip of foil. Eat within an hour while the pastry is crisp.

   Add in this stepCaster sugar (for the burnt top) 4 tsp