Again with a recipe from Catalonia region. This time is a dessert and I want to include it also at the My Kitchen, My World travel to Spain.

Crema Catalana is a custard topped with a layer of hard caramel. It's similar to French Crème Brûlée, though with some differences: Crema catalana custard is flavoured with lemon and/or orange zest and cinnamon and is not baked in bain-marie as crème brûlée is.

What we need (serves 4):
- 1/2 l milk
- 4 egg yolk
- 75 g white sugar
- 4 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1/2 stick cinnamon
- zest of 1/2 lemon
- zest of 1/2 orange
- 25 g of corn starch

How we prepare...
In a small saucepan, heat milk with cinnamon and lemon zest and orange.
Meanwhile, place the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl and mix them well.
When milk is hot remove the zest and cinnamon and pour it in the egg yolks and sugar mixture. Dissolve the starch in a little cold milk and strain it. Add the dissolved starch to the milk.
Put the cream into the fire and continue stirring until it boils. When this happens, remove it from heat but continue stirring for a while.
Then spread the cream in small bowls or plates and let cool completely. Before serving it, and when quite cold, cover with brown sugar. Burn it with the utensil you may have.

Picture by Paul Goyette @ Flickr

Olga's remark: I don't have the correct utensil to burn the sugar, but so I put the custard in the oven to gratiné, but it was a completely failure, as sugar became liquid but not hard, and it ended breaking the custard...