• Pour the milk together with the vanilla extract, cinnamon stick and lemon peel in a pan and bring to the boil.
• Turn off the heat and leave for 15 minutes. Then sieve the mixture.
• Pour the flavored milk back into the pan and heat until it almost boils.
• In the meantime, whisk the eggs with the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until you have an airy light yellow mass.
• Remove the pan from the heat and pour the hot milk with the egg mixture in a thin stream while you continue to beat.
• Pour everything back into the pan and let it slowly thicken on low heat. Keep stirring otherwise you get cooked egg and use a wooden spoon to do so. Check if the custard is thick enough by taking the spoon out of the custard en draw a line with your finger. If you can see the line for 2 seconds it thickened enough. Put the heat out immediately.
• Strain the custard and divide over the dishes.
• Allow to cool for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Caramel layer

• Put the sugar for the caramel layer in a saucepan and add 100 ml of water.
• Bring to a boil over low heat and let it slowly turn into an amber colored caramel (stay there because caramel burns quickly).
• Pour the hot caramel over the cold custard, it will harden immediately.
• Serve immediately or let it cool in the refrigerator. Tap the caramel when you eat the crema catalana with the back of your spoon to crack it