rustic creme brulee

or as the french would say crème brûlée...

i had wanted to make creme brulee for a long time. i had also wanted a kitchen "blow-torch" for a long time, couple of weeks ago i finally found one that was reasonably priced (and came with 6 ramekins, not pictured).







the hardest part of making these was trying to find butane in my hometown for the torch, the fourth place had it...

separating the yolks and whites, mixing the ingredients, warming up the cream and tempering, was easy but messy...

the torch came with 6 ramekins and a "recipe book" (as in one recipe in a tiny booklet). the one recipe was meant to serve 4 and to me that is a bit confusing, why would they then have 6 ramekins in the package when the only recipe serves 4?

the internet is full of recipes for creme brulee, but this is the one that came with the torch:

2 cups heavy cream
½ cup plus 4 tbsp sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract







as i didn't want to haul the ramekins to cottage (we had enough "stuff" as it was) mom and i had to digging in her cupboards for dishes to cook the cremes in. we found these kilta cups from way back when every kitchen in finland had some. perhaps not quite the right shape but worked this time...







i think i might have used a "wrong" kind of cream, 28% fat, low-lactose and only meant for whipping, therefore the overly yellow color. despite the height of the "ramekin" the creme was nicely cooked thru. with the help of the fresh -15C outside temp, had the cremes cooled sufficient enough to be still cool after torching the sugar on top.







very good...will be even better when i use the proper cream and ramekins...






ps. unfortunately i found a finnish website that sells kitchen gadgets and then some. too many things i didn't know i needed!