Burn, baby, burn
Saying so long to '24 with flaming crème brûlée

The dark days of winter have a way of making humans hunger for light. But sometimes pretty lights might not do it, especially if we are bidding farewell to a dumpster fire of a year. Sometimes we gotta just straight-up light stuff en fuego.
This is for all the people who don’t have one of those silly crème brûlée torches. If you’ve been melting your crèmes brûlée under the broiler, like a sensible person, you get a star. And if it never occurred to you to simply ignite a bunch of sugar and booze atop a bowl of solid eggnog, you’re excused.
The bourbon and sugar bonfire atop this custard burns not to destroy but with a clear purpose: to form a penetrating sauce that will soak into the custard and stiffen into a topping that’s firm yet soft, quite distinct from the rock-hard exoskeleton of a typical crème brûlée. In our case, the bourbon prevents the melted sugar from recrystallizing into a glassy sheet.
As it burns, we’ll toss a pinch of cinnamon in, which will sparkle like miniature fireworks. A fitting grand finale, as we show the door to 2024.
The flavors of orange juice, nutmeg and bourbon balance each other, while adding excitement to this otherwise mild-mannered custard.
Orange Eggnog Crème Brûlée Flambé
Fills four small ramekins
Custard:
2 cups cream
4 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
2 t. freshly ground nutmeg
¼ cup fresh orange juice + 1 T. OJ concentrate
1 T. vanilla extract
¼ t. salt
4 buttered ramekins
Optional: thin-sliced orange peel for the garnish
Preheat oven to 325. Place an edged cookie sheet on the top rack. Pour two cups of water into the sheet (to create steam for the custard). Heat the cream slowly in a heavy-bottomed pan. Meanwhile, combine the yolks, sugar, nutmeg, orange juice, vanilla and salt in a mixing bowl. When the cream starts to simmer, add it slowly to the mix, stirring in a little at a time to temper the yolks. (“Temper” means combining the yolks with the hot cream in a smooth, controlled way that doesn’t cook and curdle the eggs.)
Add the warm batter to your buttered vessels, place them on the cookie sheet in the steaming water, and bake for an hour, until bubbling evenly and the entire surface shrinks and hardens into a darker yellow.
Remove from oven. If serving right away, prepare to light your fire. If serving later, allow to cool to room temperature. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
Flaming Bourbon Sugar Sauce:
2 T. white or turbinado sugar
2 T. brown sugar
4 T. bourbon
Cinnamon for the flame
Mix the sugars and pour a tablespoon of whiskey into each ramekin. Garnish with orange peel. Light with a long-necked BBQ lighter and let burn for about 30 seconds while you toss three or so pinches of cinnamon into the flames. Finally, add a tablespoon of sugar mix to each flaming ramekin, and allow the flaming whiskey to dissolve the sugar.
When the fire dies, it’s ready to serve. Happy New Year.
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