Summer time is great for Creme Brulee, with all the fresh berries and mint in season.  It is a great custard that you can serve cold.  It is a very old dessert consist of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard  caramel. The top of this is cooked using a torch or some people use flaming liquor. But, this dessert is served cold.

“The Spanish have taken credit for this sensuous custard as “crema catalana” since the eighteenth century, while the English claim it originated in seventeenth-century Britain, where it was known as “burnt cream” and the English school boys at Cambridge demanded it. It apparently wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that common usage of the French translation came into vogue, putting it on the map from Paris to Le Cirque in New York City. Its wide recognition today seems to have given the French credit for inventing crème brûlée.”

I worked with Karla Spies a food stylist and we came up with this very quaint idea of making the Creme Brulee in a tea-cup, very pretty.  Just make sure that you put the cup in a bath of water when you put the custard in the oven to cook.  Makes a very nice presentation and a great way to use that old china.