• Preheat oven to 300.
• Place a thin dishrag or towel in the bottom of a deep baking dish or roasting pan that's big enough to hold six ramekins, and start a kettle to boil with enough water to fill the pan about 2/3 full.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until it's smooth and creamy. Set aside.

  I used a 4-cup measuring cup because you'll need to pour from it, and i used the immersion blender and it made easy work of it.
• In a small saucepan (preferably one with a spout), heat the whipping cream over medium heat, stirring frequently, until just starting to simmer. As soon as you start to see the little bubbles, it's go-time.
• Remove cream from heat, then stir in the vanilla extract.
• Here's where it starts to require some patience...and this part is important because it'll be like eating a ramekin of scrambled eggs if you hurry and go too fast.

  SLOWLY, and while whisking constantly (or running the immersion blender, drizzle in the hot cream. SLOWLY.

  As you get more mixed in, you can go a little bit faster, but be patient so the eggs don't start cooking. That would be bad.
• Once all the cream is mixed into the egg/sugar mixture, pour the custard through a fine mesh strainer into the ramekins...for the ramekins you have, you'll want to to fill each one about half-way.
• Set the baking dish on the oven shelf, then pour the boiling water into the dish around the ramekins (don't get water into the ramekins/custard. Again, that would be bad.). Fill it about halfway up or so...roughly to the same level as the custard inside the ramekins.

  Basically, you're creating a water-bath around the ramekins to help them cook evenly and to make the custard that yummy smooth texture.
• Bake at 300 for about 40 minutes. The tops should just be starting to turn golden, and when you poke the ramekin, the center should jiggle *just* a little bit. You dont' want it to be runny....but you also don't want it to be hard. (you might start checking them at 30-35 minutes if your oven runs hot)
• Remove them from the oven and then CAREFULLY remove the VERY HOT ramekins from the water bath and set them on a cooling rack to, well, cool. This is tricky because they're HARD to keep a hold of with clunky oven mitts (and you're sure to drop them if you try to use tongs), but they're also hot AF, so please don't burn yourself.
• Let them cool to room temperature, then move them to the fridge until they're chilled (at least a couple hours, and up to a couple days)

To Serve:

• Dust a thin coating of plain white sugar evenly across the top of each custard. Then caramelize the sugar with a blowtorch. Keep the flame moving at a medium speed either sweeping back and forth across the surface or in a circular/spiral pattern ... under the heat, the sugar will start to melt and then will quickly bubble and brown.

  If you go too long, it will burn, and it does take a little practice, so just keep at it. I usually go a little light on my first pass, then come back and re-torch any sections i missed or that need darkened up a little bit.
• Pop them back into the fridge for a few minutes to cool the caramelized topping down to a crunchy crust, then enjoy!