Crème brûlée: An all-time favourite from 17th century France.
(printout version recipe march/april 2005 (1 page A4) 

Ingredients:
1/2 litre (2 cups/1 pint) milk
5 egg yolks
75 gram (1/3 cup) ground pistachio  nuts of prime quality (for crème brûlée with limes) OR
70 gram (1/3 cup) ground almonds (for crème brûlée with oranges)
60 gram (1/4 cup) sugar
15 gram (2 Tbsp.) flour
1 cinnamon stick
the peel of  3 limes OR 2 oranges
half a teaspoon of orange blossom water for crème brûlée with limes OR
1 tsp. of orange blossom water for crème brûlée with oranges
enough (icing) sugar to cover the crème 

Preparation in advance: Mix the egg yolks with flour and sugar, orange blossom water, and either ground almonds or ground pistachio nuts.
Bring the milk to the boil with the stick of cinnamon. When the milk starts to boil, temper the heat and remove the cinnamon stick. 
Now pay attention: to thicken a hot liquid with raw egg yolks can be tricky if you do not have any experience with it. Please read the instructions.
When you have added the egg-mixture to the milk in the pan (or in the bowl if you prefer the "au bain marie" method) you can also add the peel of limes or oranges. Now keep stirring until the mixture has thickened to the consistency of custard. If you stop now, that is exactly what you have prepared: custard!
Pour the mixture at once into a large shallow dish, or in individual small shallow dishes, and let the custard cool without any covering to room temperature. If you do this several hours in advance to serving, place the dish(es) in the refrigerator when they have cooled. The top-layer must be slightly dried to obtain a nice crisp layer of caramelized sugar.

Preparation: Preheat the built-in grill in the oven, heat your fire-shovel, or pick up your gas jet (blow torch) . Sprinkle the as yet "unburned" crème with a thin layer of sugar. Take care that the whoile surface is covered, because the crème itself will burn where there is no sugar. Place the dishes under the grill, apply your fire-shovel, or use the blow torch. Please read the instructions.

To serve: You have to serve the crème brûlée as quickly as possible, because the the hard layer of caramelized sugar will turn soft again when it absorbs moisture from the crème underneath. And what is the most appealing of this recipe is the contrast between the crisp, hard layer of sugar and the soft creamy custard.