Nutmeggy Baked Custard

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and set a kettle of water to boil. Put the cream, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a small saucepan and heat it on medium heat (medium-low if you have a gas range) until is just begins to steam- about 5-10 minutes.
2. In a medium-large bowl, whisk the eggs, egg yolks, sugar, and salt together until pale yellow and a bit frothy. When the cream is steaming, remove from the heat and very slowly pour it, a tiny bit at a time, into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. I usually put a dishtowel underneath the bowl so that it doesn't move all over the place while I'm whisking with one hand and pouring with the other. The trick in this step is not to cook the eggs- you don't want pieces of cooked egg yolk or white in the custard. If you whisk constantly and pour slowly, you will have no problem with this.
3. Put 4-6 ramekins or small oven-proof bowls in a deep roasting pan. Divide the egg-cream mixture among them. Pour the boiling water into the pan so that it reaches 1/2-3/4 way up the ramekins. Put the pan into the oven (be careful not to spill the hot water on yourself!). Cook the custards for about 20-30 minutes (my convection oven usually does it on the faster side), until just set, but still wobbly in the middle. Remove from the oven and use tongs to take the ramekins out of the pan and sprinkle the top of each one with cinnamon and nutmeg. You can eat them as soon as they're cool enough, or cool them completely and keep them in the refrigerator for a day or two. Enjoy! P.S. Try topping with raspberries or a drizzle of chocolate, or both! Mark Bittman also recommends adding some crystallized ginger to the mix before baking.