Lavender and Raw Honey Creme Brulee

My love affair with creme brulee began shortly before my eighteenth birthday. I started working at this little upscale bakery as a cashier. Before the week was out, I was in the back baking and doing various other tasks. My favorite part of the day was when I could go hide in the back of the bakery, caramelizing the sugar on tray after tray ramekins filled with creamy little custards.

Creme brulee is as elegant as it is simple. The first time you crack the glassy surface of the sugar coating and plunge into the rich, velvety custard, you begin a hopeless addiction.

I admit, I may be obsessed, but I'm certainly not alone. What I'm about to say may offend your average creme brulee elitist, but as wonderful as a simple vanilla creme brulee is, my favorite thing to do is crank them out in as many different flavors as cross my mind.

I recently came across a batch of culinary lavender. Lavender is a very fragrant flower, with supposed anti-septic as well as calming properties. Its' floral fragrance scares off a lot of cooks who would otherwise enjoy using it in their recipes. Don't be intimidated, however keep in mind, there is a fine line between a delicate lavender flavor and a dish that tastes of perfume. When in doubt, less is definitely more.

Lavender is complimented by vanilla flavors and tastes heavenly with honey. In this recipe, I use raw honey, which is unheated, unfiltered, and unprocessed. It retains most of its' nutrients and enzymes this way, and has a rich, delicious taste. I figure if you're going to use honey, you might as well get all the nutrition you can out of it. You can buy raw honey at your local health food store, as well as order it online from many places.

As for the caramelized sugar crust, I recommend buying a small kitchen torch to burn the sugar you sprinkle on top, however you can find recipes that tell you how to make a syrup on the stove and pour over the top to harden, as well as broiling the sugar tops in the oven (this is inconsistent, as some will burn well and others too much or not enough).

I'm using the creme brulee recipe out of  The Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball as a base. This is one of my most loved and worn out cookbooks. He goes through and tests out all kinds of recipes for the best combination of ingredients and then rewrites the recipe based on the outcome. His creme brulee is a little unconventional in that he uses whole eggs rather than yolks and mixes light and heavy cream. Despite these differences, it makes one of the best and silkiest creme brulees I've ever made, and I'm sure your guest won't notice the difference.

Ingredients

• 1 c heavy cream
• 1 c light cream
• 1 tbsp dried culinary lavender buds
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tbsp sugar and extra for the tops
• 1 generous tbsp raw honey
• pinch salt

Preheat oven to 300F. To prepare a water bath for the creme brulees, find a large roasting pan or casserole dish and place a dishtowel evenly in the bottom. Place ramekins on top of the towel, making sure they do not touch the sides of the pan or each other. Bring some water to a boil.

Place the heavy and light cream in a saucepan with the lavender and bring to a light simmer. Remove from heat. Gently whisk the eggs, sugar, honey, and salt together in a medium bowl. Slowly add about a cup of the lavender and cream mixture, whisking gently until combined. Add the rest of the cream while stirring with a spoon. Strain into a measuring cup and pour into the ramekins. Pour the hot water into the roasting pan until it is halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Place the roasting pan in the oven. You will most likely have to bake them anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. You'll want them to be set but still jiggle in the middle. Let the creme brulees cool and then remove them from the water. Set in refrigerator to chill, preferably overnight but an hour or two will work in a pinch.

Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of sugar over each creme brulee and caramelize the sugar with a small kitchen blowtorch.

 Enjoy!

Lavender and Raw Honey Creme Brulee