Crème brûlée is one of my favorite desserts, but did you know you can ‘brûlée’ more than just custard? Light up your kitchen torches friends — we’re going to caramelize all kinds of foods!
When it comes to delicious food, fire is primo. Nothing beats it for taking something from edible to incredible in an instant. I love to toast, char, grill, roast, sear, and, most fun of all, brûlée my food. Brûlée simply means burnt in French, and we’ve come to know it through the insanely wonderful dessert, crème brûlée, which is a soft custard that’s sprinkled with sugar and then caramelized with a butane torch. The surface bubbles and then hardens to a paper thin, crisp crackly sweet crust that shatters when you dig in.
Yesterday I was working on a recipe for a client and I wanted to see if I could ‘brûlée‘ a halved tomato. I sprinkled on some raw sugar and torched the surface. I got the same thin crackly surface as on a creme brûlée dessert. I drizzled it with some balsamic vinegar, added a few basil leaves, and sat down to lunch! The point is, the simple concept of caramelizing a light sprinkling of sugar has possibilities way beyond crème brûlée, and your kitchen torch can be used in lots of surprising ways, here are some of my favorites…
Crème Brûléed Pork Belly | Lady and Pups
Vanilla Crème Brûlée Macarons | Hint of Vanilla
Crème Brûlée Cupcakes | Cooking Classy
Brown Butter Brûléed Doughnut Holes | Joy the Baker
Mango Passionfruit and Yoghurt Brûlée | Drizzle & Dip
Mango Brûlée | Dine & Dish
Butternut Squash Brûlée | Baked by an Introvert
Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Bars | Handle the Heat
Brie Crème Brûlée Crostini | Foodness Gracious
Oatmeal Brûlée | The View from Great Island
Brûléed Persimmon Tarts | The Little Epicurean
Creme Brûlée Pineapple | Tommy Bahama
Creme Brûlée Monte Cristo | Lady and Pups
Brûlée Bananas | Anthology Magazine
Brûléed Lemon Sour |Boxwood Avenue
Creme Brûlée Frozen Custard | Spoon Fork Bacon
Homemade Brûléed Fluff | Alexandra’s Kitchen
Grapefruit Brûlée | The View from Great Island
Raspberry Brûlée | Saveur
Wow Sue, you gave me a lot of ideas 🙂
We will definitely post it on our Instagram page. We are building our blog and we will be adding all recipes that require a kitchen torch, will definitely repost yours and add a link to your blog post.
Would you like to test one of our premium cooking torches? DM us.
Thanks for sharing.
Jane @ NewportButane.com
What a lovely post! So far I’ve only ever done creme brulee…but need to do it over other things, especially tomatoes! I’m totally pulling out my torch =)
Oh, wow! Delicious ideas! I need to put a brulee torch on my wish list 🙂