Crème Brûlée - Daffodil Acres Style

The other evening we had company for dinner.  I had never made crème brûlée.  I was super excited to try this recipe.  I went to Walmart, and bought a few ramekins for about $2 each.  

These ramekins are part of the Pioneer Woman's collection.  I thought this only appropriate as I planned to use guinea eggs to make it.  We had already ordered a culinary torch off amazon.  I had successfully "tempered" the eggs and hot cream - and did a happy dance as so far it looked like I might not have to use my ice cream back up plan in case of epic fail after all!  

The desserts were in the fridge chilling.  We finished dinner and got the creamy yellow goodies out.  And then the hubs couldn't get the culinary torch to work.  I hadn't even thought to test it, or read the accompanying literature that would have explained everything.  Ha!  He fussed with it for a while and then figured out that the fuel was apparently sold separately.  Oops. 

If my husband is good at anything though it's improvising.  Not to let a little thing like a non-functional culinary torch stand in his way, he went out to the barn and retrieved the big yard torch he uses for killing weeds and starting controlled fires.

I don't really recommend this method of caramelizing the tops... nonetheless this is what happened...

 Yep.  It was, needless to say, a memorable night for everyone.  *Insert hysterically laughing emoticon here.*  Happily, our friends are easy-going good sports and loved every minute of it.  We were practically all holding our sides by the time it was all said and done.  Amazingly, the dessert actually turned out pretty good too!  (Although the bigger flame melted the top part of the dessert underneath the candy caramelized sugar top just a little, but hey.)

I was pleasantly surprised.  This fancy French dessert wasn't nearly as difficult to make as I had imagined.  In fact, once we get the proper fuel for the culinary torch, I believe I'll make it again.  Maybe next time I'll get the brûlée part closer to right.

So there you have it folks: crème brûlée - Daffodil Acres style!

2 cups heavy cream
6 Tbsp sugar, plus 4 Tbsp sugar for later
6 egg yolks (or 7 guinea egg yolks - they are a little smaller)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the cream in a pan until steaming (don't boil it)
In another bowl beat together the egg yolks, vanilla and sugar
Slowly whisk (temper) the egg mixture into the hot cream until combined
Pour into 4 ramekins and bake in a water bath at 275 for 55 minutes
Chill at least 2 hours after cooling down on the counter first
Take the remaining 4 Tbsp of sugar and sprinkle one Tbsp over the top of each dish
Use a culinary torch and carefully caramelize the tops into a crunchy candy shell top.