The art of improvisation

Being a housewife has allowed me to work on my improvisation skills. Although I've never been huge on following recipes to a T, the thought of re-venturing outside into 2 degree weather outside when I realise I've as usual forgotten something from the shops (grocery lists help, but I'm a skim reader from way back - I tend to miss things) has forced me on many occasions to sift through the cupboards and improvise our meals.

During our 'housewives conference' (as I'm calling it - it sounds like a great excuse to me for regular catch ups, lets hope Easy Jet does frequent flyer miles!) the other week, I think we fine tuned the art of improvisation when attempting the ultimate in French desserts - the Creme Brulee. Light, creamy and full of custard-y goodness, creme brulee is topped off so perfectly by that crunchy caramelized sugar top - cracking it always reminds me of the film Amelie...

Step 1: Purchase equipment. We bought some little white ramekins and a blow torch to set us off on our creme brulee adventure.

Step 2: Fill the blow torch with gas. Sounds easier then it actually was... My little torch didn't work and gas leaked out of it when filling - no surprises there really considering I purchased it from Xenos (think along the lines of 'Crazy Clarks'). We also discovered that it tends to give you unpleasant electrical shock if you attempt to light it while touching the metal on top...

Step 3: Make the custard. This had to be done one day in advance (which was painful - I like eating things as soon as they're made!) and was surprisingly simple. We boiled away the ingredients on the stove, placed the ramekins in a tray of water and baked away.

Step 4: Once the custards had set in the fridge overnight (we were SO good and didn't even peek or dip a finger in!), the fun part began - burning the brown sugar on top. Feeling overly confident in our dessert skills, I had decided earlier that day that we could definitely improvise the lack of a blow torch. I had thoughts of burning matches over the sugar; or somehow holding it over the flame on the gas stove; heating a spoon and attempting to use it to melt the sugar... A little bit of Googling later and we had our solution - putting the custards in a tray of ice water and under a very hot grill. We knew it would be challenging as the custard has to remain cold, but these 2 housewives rose to the occasion...

Step 5: Bon appetit! Our little creme brulees were delicious (no photos sadly - we just dug into them far too quickly to turn a camera on) - the custard was ever so slightly overheated, but I think we did pretty well for our first attempt. Our hard work definitely paid off when cracking the sugar on top - yummmmm..... But, I think it's time to bite the bullet and purchase a proper blow torch - I could definitely see creme brulee featuring on the menu again :-)