Creme Brulee Wars

Sesame Creme Brulee with Sesame Soil

Finally.

I don’t know how some people manage to both live normal lives and keep up successful blogs. If anyone has tips, please let me know because this is a blog I’d love to keep going but not at the cost of my day job.

But I’m finally on vacation and can try to keep up with my little sister’s blog posts. This post is a response to her crème brulee challenge post. The recipe for crème brulee is pretty much everywhere so follow one of them if you want, but realize that because the recipe’s everywhere, everyone’s going to have had it and everyone’s going to be a little bit underwhelmed by what you’re serving. That’s basically me saying that what my little sister posted is going to be less than impressive. =p

Mix it up a little by adding something exotic to your crème brulee like I did---with sesame oil! You can substitute about a tablespoon of sesame oil for the heavy cream used in a recipe. What you end up with is a more complex dessert that can be paired with a sprinkling of ground sesame seeds and demerara sugar. I thought about what I liked about crème brulee and it was the contrasting textures in the same dish and thought to continue that by accompanying it with the sesame “soil.” You might like it too.

Another riff on the recipe is a suggestion for those of us who can’t afford blow torches or cook’s torches, thereby making them otherwise unable to achieve the crispy caramel top of crème brulee. What I suggested instead was the use of a light layer of liquid caramel. Just cook some sugar and water on a stovetop and pour a very thin layer over the top of the crème brulee. Careful not to put too much or you’ll end up with a thick candy layer that even a spoon won’t be able to crack! [words of experience] The nice thing about this is that you end up with a beautiful golden mirror/sheen over your crème brulee, that I think looks nicer than some charred sugar. Just something to vary it up b/c as of late it seems as if you see run-of-the-mill brulee everywhere.

Enjoy!