I've never made desert before, so I tried some coffee creme brulee:


4 cups whipping cream
1 cup plus 8 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons coarsely ground espresso coffee beans
2 teaspoons instant coffee powder
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg

Bring 1 cup sugar, cream, ground espresso beans, coffee powder, vanilla extract and cinnamon stick to boil in a heavy saucepan. Stir until sugar and coffee powder dissolve, and remove from heat. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve. I found that a reusable coffee filter works well for this, since the idea is to filter out the coffee grinds.

Preheat oven to 325 Fahrenheit. Whisk egg yolks and egg in a large bowl, and slowly whisk in strained cream mixture. Divide among eight 3/4-cup custard cups, and place custard cups in a baking pan. Fill baking pan with hot water up to half the height of the custard cups, and place in oven for about 55 minutes. Remove cups from pan, cool, and refrigerate uncovered overnight.

The next day, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar over each custard, and use a cooking torch to brown the sugar until it caramelizes. The cooking torch is quick and fun to use. Here is a picture of my housemate playing with the blowtorch:


Once sugar has been caramelized, chill custards for 1 hour before serving. This recipe makes 8 servings, provided you don't drop any like I did.



Creamy and bittersweet. These are great, you'll love them if you like coffee.