How to make
All of the ingredients need to be at room temperature. Heat the milk slightly. Put the sugar for the caramel in a casserole and put it on the stove. Let it caramelize, without stirring or touching it, you can shake the container carefully but don't stir, otherwise you risk the sugar hardening and not having a good caramel.
Cook the sugar to a light brown color, be careful not to burn it because it'll taste bitter in the cream. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar to a creamy consistency, then add the vanilla and milk. Stir to a homogeneous mixture, then strain the mixture into another container.
Prepare oven-safe cream cups, use a spoon to pour a little caramel into them and let it cool. Arrange the cups in a suitable tray, pour some strained egg-milk mixture into each but don't fill them up all the way.
Pour cold water into the tray so that the cups are half submerged and put it in a preheated 340°F (170 °C) oven for 40 min. or until the cream thickens and turns golden. Check the water in the tray from time to time, it must not come to a boil. If necessary, keep adding a little cold water during baking. Take the tray out and leave the cream to cool, then put it in the fridge for 24 hours.
After the 24 hours have elapsed, serve the cream cold, inverting the cups carefully onto plates. If you have any caramel left over after you've put some in each cup, you can make a beautiful decoration as follows: make stripes and figures from the caramel onto baking paper and leave them to cool. Then they'll be easy to remove from the baking paper and make for a superb decoration.
