Ramekin cups are lined with melted chocolate before a traditional creme brulee custard is added and they are slowly cooked. Best bit is the 'burnt' sugar on top which is easily done under the grill with no fancy kitchen tools.
This was my first time making creme brulee, and it turned out great! Couple things I did. I heated the cream/sugar/salt over a double boiler until hot, but not boiling. I tempered the eggs as stated in the recipe before adding them to the cream mixture. Once I added the egg mixture, I heated again until hot, but not boiling - then strained into a bowl with a pour spout. I used the water bath as suggested, but did not cover them with the foil. I baked for about 45 minutes, as my ramekins were not the short, wide ones - but the narrower, taller ones (I got 5 out of this recipe). I cooled them for about 10 minutes before refrigerating them. I also brought them to room temp (about 40 minutes) before carmelizing the top. I used the broiler, but I think I will invest in a kitchen torch for the next time, as it made the mixture too hot, and I didn't have time to cool them again before serving. The taste was WONDERFUL! - 18 Jun 2008 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
Yummmmm. We made the recipe as-is, and caramelized the sugar in the oven. We thought the creme brulee tasted great (with the vanilla as-is). The chocolate was melty, not hard as a rock for us. Although I'm sure it was hard as a rock after chilling in the fridge, putting it in the oven to caramelize the sugar melted it. The amount of sugar in the recipe was too much for our ramekins, ours did not have that much surface area. I would recommend only using enough sugar to just coat the top. - 25 Jun 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
I made this recipe the other day and it turned out great! Definitely a keeper. Following the advice of others, I only sprinkled enough sugar just to coat the top of each ramekin. I also mixed a teaspoon of milk into the melted chocolate in each ramekin to prevent the chocolate from getting too hard in the refrigerator. - 11 Sep 2007 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)