Colorful Red Velvet Cupcakes

The cupcakes are decorated with cream cheese frosting that has been dyed in bright neon colors.

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche-How to make an amazing Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

I came upon this recipe one Friday afternoon recently looking for something to make for dinner that did not have meat in it because it is currently the Catholic season of Lent and on Fridays we are not supposed to eat meat.  I immediately liked this recipe by looking at it because it was simple and easy plus I had all the ingredients in my house.  So I thought I had read the directions completely, but to my surprise, I had not and when I put the garlic, onions and broccoli in the saucepan, I did not put the butter in because I had failed to read that butter was listed twice, separately. Ooopsies! It must not have been my day because then I chose a pie crust and pan that was too shallow and when I started to pour the liquid over the vegetables, it overflowed!  Whoops!  Thank god for my trusty assistant, mom, otherwise it would have been a huge castastrophe besides a huge mess.

Broccoli Quiche

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, minced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups chopped broccoli
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Over medium-low heat, melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add onions, garlic and broccoli.  Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft.  Spoon vegetables into crust and sprinkle with cheese.

Combine eggs and milk.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in melted butter. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until center has set.

Lemon Poppyseed Bread - How to make a simple and delicious Lemon Poppyseed Bread

Lemon Poppyseed Bread is something that I just absolutely love and have always been looking for a simple and easy recipe to make myself.  So imagine my delight when I happened upon this recipe and had all the ingredients on hand in my house.  So excited!  I love lemon and I especially love lemon poppyseed anything. 

So the same day I made the chocolate depression cake, I also made this bread and could not stop eating it because of how moist and sweet and scrumptious it was!  Wish I had a piece right now!  Hope you enjoy this recipe for lemon poppyseed bread as much as I did!  Happy baking!

Ingredients

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Lemon syrup

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup granulated white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place the oven rack in the center of the oven.  Butter and flour (or spray with non stick spray) the bottom and sides of a loaf pan ( 8x4x2 1/2 inch).  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter and flour the paper.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract and milk.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon zest and poppyseeds until combined.  Add the softened butter and half the egg mixture and mix on low speed until moistened.  Increas the speed to medium and beat for about one minute.  ( This aerates and develops the cake's structure.)  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining egg mixture in two batches, beating about 30 seconds after each addition.  (This will strengthen the structure of the batter.)

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 55 to 65 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  You may have to cover the bread with buttered foil after about 30 minutes if you find the bread over browning.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the sugar and lemon juice to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

When the bread is done, remove from oven and place on a wire rack.  Pierce the hot loaf all over with a wooden skewer or toothpick and then brush the top of the loaf with about half  the hot lemon syrup.  Cool the loaf  in the pan for about 10 minutes then invert onto a greased wire rack.  Brush the remaining syrup onto the bottom and the sides of the loaf.  Reinvert the bread so it is right side up and then cool the bread completely before wrapping.  Store at least overnight before serving to allow the lemon syrup to distribute throughout the loaf.

Note: Do not make the syrup as soon as the bread goes in the oven because it will get cold and then when you go to heat it up it will start to get thick.  I also made the mistake of thinking it needed to be thicker, but it doesn't because then it will not soak the bread as it should.  I also didn't do what it said to when taking the bread out of the pan and putting it on a greased wire rack and bread turned out just fine.



Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake-How to make an easy chocolate cake

Chocolate cake is not one of my favorite desserts, but it is one of my family's favorite desserts.  So one day while looking at recipes online like I love to do, I came across this recipe for Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake and was intrigued by it.  The thing about this recipe that caught my eye is that it does not have any eggs or butter in it.  About a week or two ago, I decided to give this recipe a try and was pleasantly surprised.  Chocolate cake is something I shy away from and usually don't consume, but I liked this one.  Even after it had been sitting in an airtight container for a few days, it was still moist, much to my and my dad's surprise and delight.   So I decided to share the recipe for Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake with you, hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients to gether by hand.  Add all the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until well combined.  Pour into an 8 by 8 square pan that has been prepared with non stick spray.
Bake for 30 minutes until done or when toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely before serving.

Note: When it says that the salt is optional, I say definitely put it in because salt brings out the flavor in anything especially when you are baking.

Vanilla Bean Biscotti - An easy and delicious biscotti recipe

Biscotti cookies are a traditional Italian cookie that have been a part of my life since I was kid and my Auntie Ida would make them every Christmas from scratch.  She is no longer with us and I unfortunately, do not have her amazing biscotti recipe.  So it has been my mission and goal for years to find a really good and not so complicated biscotti recipe.  Then, all of a sudden this past year while looking for cookie recipes to make for Christmas to pass out to people, I happened upon this recipe and decided to give it a go. Helllooooooo! I have found an amazing biscotti recipe that earned me so many compliments this year, followed with "you'll have to give me this recipe."  Happy baking!

Vanilla Bean Biscotti

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons butter, melted

If using a vanilla bean, scrape seeds from pod; discard pod ( or put the pod in sugar to make vanilla sugar).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets; set aside.  In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Make a well in the center of flour mixture.  Add melted butter and vanilla seeds or extract; stir until dough starts to form a ball.

Divide dough into 3 portions.  On a lightly floured surface, shape each portion into a 14-inch loaf.  Place loaves 3 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets; flatten slightly until about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Bake in preheated oven on 2 oven racks for 25 to 30 minutes or until firm and lightly browned, switching pan positions halfway through baking.  Cool on cookie sheets for 15 minutes.

Using a serated knife, cut loaves diagonally into 1/2 inch slices.  Place slices on cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes.  Turn slices over; bake for 10 to 15 minutes more or until crisp and dry.  Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.  Makes about 72 cookies.

Note: Definitely follow the directions to the t because biscotti cookies are a very labor intensive cookie for a reason: they are heaven when done right.  When I made these cookies, I set a timer for each part including when it said to let them rest.  When you are cutting them with a serated knife, the knife has to be serated or they will break when you cut them.  Also when you are cutting them, use a careful sawing motion so as to have as little breakage as possible.  Definitely use a vanilla bean if you can find them (Costco sells them) because it makes them so much more delicious. There is a part where you are supposed to stir until it forms a bal, it's much easier at that point to use your hands instead of a spoon.  Also when it says to add the butter and vanilla seeds, add the seeds to the butter because it is much easier for the seeds to incorporate evenly then when you don't put them in a liquid.  You could also put the seeds in eggs instead of the butter. Bake them until they are golden, not burnt because biscotti are supposed to be crispy anyways.

Food porn website

I love to bake and am now starting to dabble in cooking, but one of the things I love to do the most is browse websites looking for recipes.  One of the best websites to find recipes on or to just look and gawk  at food porn (yes, that's right, food porn) is http://www.tastespotting.com/.  It has some of the most amazing pictures of food you have ever seen in your entire life and a collection of some amazing recipes and websites/blogs.  If you are ever bored or looking for fun and new recipes to try, then definitely go check out http://www.tastespotting.com/ because you will have a blast looking through the pages upon pages of pictures to make your mouth water and recipes to fill collection; you will not be disappointed!

Giant Cupcake Pan - Tips and ideas for the Giant Cupcake Pan

The giant cupcake pan is a relatively new and fun cake pan that after some trial runs with it, is easy to use.  My advice to anyone trying to use this pan for the first time is don't try to make it on your sister's birthday a few hours before you would like to eat it like I did because it's going to be frustrating and the end product might not be what you want it to be.  For one, definitely follow the instructions where it says to grease and flour the pan especially the first time.  The first time you grease and flour the giant cupcake pan, it's like you are seasoning pan so it gets easier to use the pan and you will have less stickage (less cake getting stuck to the pan).  The other thing that is really cool about using this cake pan and making a cake with it, is that when you are actually icing the cake, you can make a kind of hole or well in either both or one side of the cake and fill it with icing or filling so that you have a filled cake.

Non-stick baking cups

Non-stick baking cups are, in my opinion, a great thing for a couple of reasons.  For one, if you like to take the cupcake completely out of the wrapper before you eat, then these non-stick baking cups make that so much easier.  The other reason, my favorite reason, is that when you bake cupcakes in non-stick baking cups, you can still see the design on the cup after you have baked the cupcakes.  When you bake cupcakes in the regular baking cups, the design is usually hard to see because the cupcake has saturated the liner preventing the design from standing out like it is supposed to.  Another good thing about these non-stick baking cups is that they are a bit thicker because the inside absorbs the cupcake oils and the outside has the design on it which is not altered during baking.

There are a few different non-stick baking cup designs availble by Reynolds for purchase on their website as well as local grocery stores.  I have used the new foil ones myslef and love the look and the fact that they are lined. I have purchased them in red and green for christmas and pink for a birthday.  I look forward to more non-stick design from Reynolds.

Baking Website-bakeitpretty.com

Baking is not only my chosen career path, but it is one of my favorite things to do because it allows me to be creative, have fun and it also calms me.  I love to just surf the internet all day for recipes and related products, even baking themed jewelry and tshirts. I especially love prodcuts such as cupcake liners, cookie cutters and sprinkles. One of my favorite places to find these things and to daydream that I had the money to buy everything on this site is bakeitpretty.com. They have so many interesting products from a wide variety of sprinkles to retro packaging materials. I love this website because of its retro, fun feel and huge selection of all things related to baking. I have purchased items from this site a couple times and can honestly say that the service is good and the product is even better. So if you are looking for a website to purchase something cute and fun for your next baking adventure, then I suggest you check out http://www.bakeitpretty.com/.

Peppermint Bark Candy-Make simple Peppermint Bark

Tis the season to make and eat peppermint bark candy! This time of year I go crazy for peppermint, especially peppermint cany that I can make and give out. I always thought making candy from scratch was something was going to be difficult and complex, but not all candies are. This recipe for peppermint bark is so easy and only has 2 ingredients! Plus, it's so pretty and elegant, a great gift to give to anyone. So get ready to make some peppermint bark candy!

Peppermint Bark
1 (12 ounce) package white morsels
24 hard peppermint candies ( I use candy canes-1 box of 12)

Line baking sheet with wax paper.

Microwave morsels in medium, microwave safe bowl on medium-high power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10 to 20 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Place peppermint candies in heavy duty plastic bag. Crush candies using rolling pin or other heavy object. While holding strainer over melted morsels, pour crushed candy into strainer. Shake to release all small candy pieces; reserve larger candy pieces. Stir morsel peppermint mixture.

Spread mixture to desired thickness on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved candy pieces; press in lightly. Let stand for about 1 hour or until firm. Break into pieces. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

Note: For a more gourmet candy, melt dark chocolate morsels and spread on baking sheet first. Let cool just until it's to the point when the chocolates won't mix and then pour and spread the white chocolate-peppermint mixture on top and let cool.

Butter Cookies - Easy holiday Butter Cookies

These butter cookies are so easy and simple to make, plus they are so yummy! The holidays are upon us and it is a family tradition in my house to make Christmas cookies of all kinds and pass them out to friends, families, co-workers and they are even our dessert we take when we go to holiday parties. Every year we make the same cookies, plus some new ones and the ones that are good and turn out get added to the list of cookies we make year after year. Well let me tell you that this recipe for butter cookies will definitely be staying on the list indefinitely!

Butter Cookies
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup(1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg yolk

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; set aside.

Combine butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and egg yolk in medium bowl; beat until well blended.  Add flour mixture; beat until well blended. Cover; refrigerate until firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough on lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness; cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Note: For a more holiday look, brush unbaked cookies with beaten egg white and sprinkle with colored sugar before baking. Also, since this recipe only makes 2 dozen cookies, I doubled it and they turned wonderful and delicious and got twice the cookies. For cookie cutters, I used round scalloped edge cutters for a more simple and understated cookie.

Blueberry Muffins - How to make the best blueberry muffins ever!

Blueberry muffins are one of my favorite sweets ever, especially when they are big and moist.  Coincidentally, blueberry muffins were also an item on my co-workers baked goods sign up sheet.  Well, for as long as I have been baking, it has been one of my goals in life to find a moist muffin recipe.  Eureka!  I have found a super moist and yummy blueberry muffin recipe, so good that you won't be able to eat just 2 blueberry muffins!

Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt 2 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or defrosted frozen
1 Tbs flour
3 Tbs sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line muffin tin with paper liner and grease rims with butter (batter may overflow).
Cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with yogurt.
Mash 1/2 cup blueberries and mix in.
Toss remaining blueberries with 1 Tbs. flour and fold in by hand.
Fill muffin cups to top.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool for 30 minutes.

Note: When I made these, I used a combination of fresh and frozen blueberries.

The blueberry muffin batter.

The lovely cupcake liners from http://www.bakeitpretty.com/

The lovely and oh soooo yummy finished blueberry muffins.



Coconut Cream Pie - A farewell Coconut Cream Pie

Coconut cream pie is something that I have never made before, but I am always up for a challenge-well most of the time.  It is common knowledge at my workplace of almost a year now that I love to bake.  So upon discovering this, a co-worker of mine decided to start a sign up sheet for other employees in our department to put their name and baked good they would like me to bake.  On a list of about 7 items, I think I have baked 2 of those items. So this past March, one of my favorite supervisors-who is a fellow watcher of TLC's Cake boss-got promoted and transferred to a new location.  To celebrate him and wish him well, I made him one of his favorite desserts, though not his requested life size replica of our workplace.  He had told me a while back that he loved coconut cream pie and so is born the farewell surprise pie.

Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

3 cups half and half
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a medium saucepan, combine half and half, eggs, sugar, flour, and salt.  Bring to a boil over loww heat, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat, and stir in 3/4 cup of the coconut and the vanilla extract.  Pour into pie shell and chill 2 to 4 hours, or until firm.
Top with whipped topping, and with remaining 1/4 cup of coconut.

To toast coconut, spread it in an ungreased pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occassionally.

French Bread- Suggestions for using French Bread before it's no good

It's a frequent occurance in my house: we buy fresh french bread, have a few slices with butter and then it ends up in the garbage after a few days.  So the last time this was about to happen I decided to do something about it.  The first loaf or two (for some reason we had more than one loaf) I cut into cubes and made croutons.  You do this by cubing the bread and tossing the cubes either with melted butter or olive oil. Add some seasonings if you like (italian seasoning or ranch dressing dry mix or garlic powder or just some salt) or keep them plain. Either way homemade croutons are the best on a salad.  Then spread them on a sheet pan and baking until golden in a 400 degree oven. Watch them because it takes 10 minutes give or take.  With the other loaf (that was so hard I could have thrown it at someone and done damage) I cut it as best I could and tossed it in a food processor and voila! bread crumbs. Add some herbs if you like, keep in an air tight container and toss in the fridge for freshness. Enjoy all these different uses for french bread and never throw it away again!

Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

This chocolate fudge layer cake is a recipe that my sister asked me to make to aid in her job's publishing of a cookbook.  So to help my sister, I made this cake for my dad's birthday which was this past saturday, January 16th.  This is a good, moist, rich cake which I think should be named death by chocolate cake because I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake and this was definitely a lot of chocolate.

Best Ever Chocolate Fudge Layer Cake

1 package (2 layer size) chocolate cake mix

1 package (4 serving size) jell-o chocolate flavore instant pudding & pie filling

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

1 package baker's semi sweet baking chocolate, divided

1 tub (8 ounces) cool whip whipped topping, thawed

2 tablespoons planters sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans.  Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil and water in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moistened, scraping side of bowl frequently.  Beat on medium speed 2 minutes or until well blended.  Stir in 2 squares of the chocolate, chopped.  Spoon into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near centers comes out clean.  Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire rack.  Loosen cake from sides of pan with spatula or knife.  Invert cakes onto rack; gently remove pans.  Cool completely on wire rack.

Place remaining 6 squares chocolate and whipped topping in medium microwaveable bowl.  Microwave on high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.  Stir until well blended and shiny.  Cool 5 minutes.  Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread 1/4 of the chocolate mixture over cake.  Place second cake layer on top; spread remaining chocolate mixture over top and sides of cake.  Garnish with almonds.

Note: If I make this cake again, I would melt the 2 pieces of chocolate put into the cake batter because they do not completely melt while baking. Also do not freak out like I did when melting the cool whip and chocolate.  The cool whip will completely melt into liquid and yes, there will be enough to fill and cover the entire cake.  Work quickly when covering the cake because the chocolate mixture will start to harden.  Had fun making this cake even though I dropped the container of sour cream on the floor causing it to bust and splatter everywhere.  In this situation, I just used the sour cream that didn't have any floor on it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes - A great recipe to make Red Velvet Cupcakes with Martha Stewart's Cream Cheese Frosting

It is an annual tradition that I make red velvet cupcakes for our favorite holiday party.  I usually use the Mccormick recipe for cupcakes and icing, but forever in a rush this year I used Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting recipe.  Gotta love Martha, you can always count on her to have a recipe for everything!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 bottle (1oz) red food color

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.  Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Mix sour cream, milk, food color and vanilla.  Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed just until blended.  Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool in pans 5 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool sompletely.  Spread with frosting.  Makes 30.

Martha Stewart's cream cheese frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 pound (4 cups), confectioner's sugar, sifted

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and cream cheese until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low.  Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and then vanilla, and mix until smooth and combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.  If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 3 days in an airtight container; before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Fudgy Brownies

Fudgy brownies are something I don't have a lot of experience with, so for Halloween I tried this recipe. For Halloween this year I made cupcakes, cookies and these really good brownies. While shopping at Target one day I happened to find these aluminum foil little ghost shapes.

Fudgy Brownies

1/4 cup butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or 60z semi-sweet baking chocolate
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Spray bottom of a 8x8 glass pan with non-stick spray.

Put the butter and chocolate chips in a medium microwaveable bowl and heat on high for 1 minute;stir. Heat for 30 seconds more and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

Add the sugar and stir until the sugar and chocolate mixture is completely combined.

Add the vanilla and eggs, and stir until the mixture is completely combined.

In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and flour;mix well to break up any lumps in the cocoa powder. Add to the chocolate mixture and stir until completely combined.

Bake for 26-28 minutes, or until the top of the brownies are flat and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean (you want a few moist crumbs to cling to the toothpick). Cool completely before cutting to get the best looking pieces.

Note: I just dusted them with powdered sugar and they were great. Carefully watch the baking time if you want moist brownies.
This recipe was found online on another blog (I forget which one).

Creme Brulee

My sister absolutely loves creme brulee and has been asking me to make it for her since the beginning of time. So this year for her birthday I decided to surprise her and make creme brulee. Of course I bought the wrong size ramekins because they were huge and could have fed two people instead of just one. Ooops!


Creme Brulee

2 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split
2 oz granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
granulated sugar, as needed

Heat the cream and the vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over medium high heat until bubbles appear along the sides of the pan.
Quickly whisk the sugar into the yolks.
When the cream is hot, slowly pour it into the yolk mixture. Whisk until well combined.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a pitcher or large measuring cup. Scrape the vanilla bean with the tip of a paring knife to remove the remaining seeds; stir the seeds into the custard.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Arrange the ramekins in a 2 inch deep pan. Pour the custard into the ramekins. Set the pan of ramekins inside the preheated oven and then carefully pour enough water into the pan to come 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until just set, 45 to 50 minutes. The custard should be set, not soupy, with only a small area of jiggle in the center.
When the custards are done, carefully remove the baking dish from the oven and allow the ramekins to cool in water bath. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before service or up to 2 days.
At service, sprinkle tops of custards with granulated sugar, then immediately caramelize the sugar with a blowtorch or broiler.
recipe from On Baking

Tips: Before putting custards into the oven, turn on your blowtorch and gently go over custards. This removes air bubbles.
I have never heard of letting the custards sit in the water bath after taking them out of the oven, I always dump the water right away. When you are doing this at home, I used a baster to remove the water because my oven is too low and too far from the sink. Plus, I am not a fan of hot water (too many bad memories and physical scars).