Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O

'Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O!' says a very frustrated Julia Roberts to Cameron Diaz who is at her wits end. For those of you who haven't ever watched My Best Friends Wedding, being Crème brûlée is like being the French macaroon among cupcakes; classes apart.

The first time I made crème brûlée I hadn't ever tasted one yet and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The custard curdled, all the gas had leaked out of my brand-new blowtorch, and I thought I'd never ever make a perfect crème brûlée. I tasted one at a celebration dinner at the Ambassador : YUM.

Today everything came together perfectly! My father still called it a gora caramel custard but his ramekin was wiped clean, so thank God for small mercies.

Crème brûlée freshly made at home.

The recipe I used can be found here. This recipe makes more that the prescribed 5 servings, I got about 7.

Just a few tips. I immersed the ramekins in a shallow water bath to ensure that they cooked evenly. Since cream is being used for the custard and not milk I didn't find the need to return the custard to a double boiler after the hot cream is mixed with the egg yolk mixture; I ladled it directly into the ramekins. I also used sugarfree for the custard instead of sugar, however I did used sugar for the caramel. Always remember to sprinkle the sugar and caramelise as close to the serving time as possible because if done in advance the uncaramelised sugar dissolves into the custard. Crème brûlée can be served as a hot dessert or cold just refrigerate after caramelisation.


And if you think you're too Jell-O to make an amazing crème brûlée just tell yourself 'YOU could never be Jell-O' a couple of times; everyone can be crème brûlée once in a while :)