How to Make Crème Brûlée for Gardeners

Crème Brûlée Recipe for Garden-to-Table Living

It’s like a thin coating of ice on a pond. You can’t quite see what’s below…but you know what’s there. The thin, amber-hued sheet of caramelized sugar over top of this dessert is as important as what’s underneath.

An assertive tap with a spoon, and you’re through—and into the creamy custard.

I’ve never had a kitchen blowtorch. Using the broiler, I could never get the sugar to melt into that perfect, thin, brittle sheet of caramel.

When I got a weed torch to flame-weed my flagstone walkways, I had a vision. And it had nothing to do with gardening.

My family thought I was nuts as I carried the tray of custard to the garden.

But they smiled as their spoons clinked through the brittle topping.

I’m pleased to say that a weed torch is versatile for garden-to-table living (though I don’t recommend using it in the house!)

Ingredients

• 3 cups whipping cream (35% cream)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 6 egg yolks

• 1/4 cup granulated (white) sugar for the custard

• ¼ tsp. salt

• Granulated sugar for the top (Just use granulated sugar…no need for darker “raw” sugars. Plus, with granulated sugar you see darkening as the caramelization happens, and it’s easier to know when you’ve torched it enough.)

Crème brûlée with blueberries. You can get the perfect, brittle topping with granulated (white) sugar, no need for fancy raw sugars.

Directions

Make the custard early in the day if you want this ready for an evening meal.

Keep the torch moving to prevent burning the sugar.

• Preheat oven to 325°F

• Heat cream in a saucepan until it’s steaming, but not boiling

• Whisk together egg yolks, salt, and sugar

• Slowly add hot cream to yolk mixture as you continue whisking it (do this slowly…you don’t want to make scrambled eggs)

• Sieve the cream-yolk mixture to remove any stringy bits from the egg yolks

• Whisk in vanilla

• Divide up into ramekins or other heat-proof dishes

• Time for the water bath: Put the ramekins into a deep pan (I use a roasting pan) and add boiling water up to about half the height of the ramekins

• Bake 30 minutes

• Remove from roasting pan to cool

• Refrigerate uncovered for 4 hours

• The last step is just before serving: sprinkle sugar evenly over the top, so that all the custard is covered, and then flame it with your weed torch

• The goal is a dark, golden-brown layer, and the trick is to keep the torch moving so it doesn’t rest in any one place and burn the sugar…brown is good, black is not

• After you’ve torched them, give them 5 minutes to cool before you serve your guests

• Wait for the accolades

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Variations

Add Fruit

I love putting blueberries or raspberries in the custard, after it’s cooled, and before I pop it into the fridge to set. The tanginess plays well with the richness of the custard.

Bigger Bowls

Why limit yourself to small ramekins?

I like to use the larger, oven-proof bowls we use to make French onion soup!

Like Creamy Desserts?

Another one of my favourites is panna cotta, an egg-free custard that’s set with a bit of gelatine.

Like crème brûlée, it goes nicely with berries.

But we do something different. We make it with fig leaves. You don’t eat the leaves—but steep them in the cream to pull out the fig-leaf flavour. I’d describe the flavour as somewhere between toasted almond and coconut.

Here’s my recipe for fig-leaf panna cotta.

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