Eggnog Crème Brulee

One of Bev’s favorite desserts is crème brulee and the other day she asked if I could find a recipe for eggnog crème brulee to have for Christmas. I looked around and to my surprise, it’s a pretty common item with many recipes available. I’m not a fan of commercial eggnog as it’s too much of everything for me, but I love a good homemade version. One of the first I found came from Epicurious and started with cream, eggs and sugar rather than purchased eggnog and it contained rum and brandy, which also was appealing.

Ingredients
· 4 cups whipping cream
· 2/3 cup sugar
· 8 large egg yolks
· 1/4 cup dark rum
· 1 tablespoon brandy
· 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
· Large pinch of salt
· 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar


Process

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place 11x8-inch (8-cup capacity) shallow ceramic baking dish in roasting pan. Mix cream and 2/3 cup sugar in medium saucepan. Bring to simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Whisk yolks in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in hot cream mixture, then rum, brandy, nutmeg, and salt. Transfer to baking dish. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of dish. Carefully transfer pan to oven.


Bake until custard is set around edges but center still jiggles slightly when dish is gently shaken, about 40 minutes. Remove ceramic dish from water. Chill custard on rack until cold, at least 3 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled.)


Preheat broiler. Press brown sugar through strainer over custard to cover completely and evenly. Watching closely, broil custard 4 to 6 inches from heat source until sugar bubbles and caramelizes, about 2 minutes. Chill custard until topping hardens, at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours. Serve cold.

Rather than use the broiler, I wanted to use a torch to melt the sugar – like I see on TV, but when I tried, the brown sugar almost immediately burned. I decided I was holding the torch too close and after looking at other recipes I discovered many use white rather than brown sugar. Unfortunately, I already had brown sugar on all of them, so I’ll have to wait for the next batch to find out.

Regardless of how you get the sugary crust on top, if you like eggnog and crème brulee, I think you’ll love this version and it’s simple to make - I even liked it, as it was lighter and less custardy than the others I've tasted.  I’m looking forward to them for Christmas dinner and I’ll make sure we make a couple of extras to practice sugar melting on.  We ate them before I remembered a picture.

I’D APPRECIATE ANY SUGGESTIONS ON CREATING THE SUGAR CRUST.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry