Green Tea Creme Brulee???

It is Sunday morning I have gone for a jog, hit the gym and done the groceries…Tubby is still sleeping...

I decide to work on tonight’s dessert green tea crème brulee using a recipe I modified from topchefs.chef2chef.net. Although the flavour turns out well the texture is not quite creme bruleeish as I had misinterpreted instructions and only realised this after I put the brulees in the oven. Sadly as the broiler was broken I was limited to using the oven only and couldn't produce the caramelised sugar topping. Tubby and I agree that although we want to reproduce this dish we should not make any more desserts until we lose all the excess weight we have gained (note I had replaced original ingredients with healthier options).

Yields: 4 to 6 servings (but will depend on ramekin size)

Ingredients:
1 cup milk or skim milk
1 tbsp green tea powder (matcha)
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for topping
1 cup cream or extra light cream

Instructions:
1. Heat milk and green tea powder in small saucepan on medium-high until bubbles rise to the surface. Leave cool for 5 minutes

2. Beat egg yolks and sugar until light, add cream and stir. Let rest and refrigerate for a few hours

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pour mixture into ramekinds and place ramekins in a baking dish, fill dish with water halfway up the side of the BAKING DISH not the ramekin (this is the instruction I misinterpreted). Brulees are very sensitive to heat so this is very important to achieving the right brulee texture. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until center is barely set.
4. Refigerate.
5. When ready to serve, cover the top of each custard with a think layer of sugar and caramelise with a torch or under the broiler.

Result:

Lessons learnt:
This time Tubby the purist is right. Although I am the queen of improvising today alas I learn with creme brulees equipment is half the game. Paper cups inside tin cupcake holders don't quite work. Although the tin cupcake holders by themselves might of worked I did not want my food touching tin. So I have two choices when I reproduce this dish I either adopt Tubby's recommendation that I just invest in good ramekins or I can do the usual improvisation technique and see if I can use this mixture to turn it into a more flan like dessert. We'll just have to wait and see what I decide or maybe I'll do both.... But I really must get a broiler ... This weekend was not a successful weekend.