KP+: Passionfruit Crème Brûlée
Same same but different in the best way
Hello and welcome to today’s KP+! Just before I left for my book tour (which was SO FUN - Toronto and Chicago, I love ya and thank you all for coming) and travels - which I am still on! - I started experimenting with a passionfruit custard recipe and wanted to share this with you today. This newsletter has a bit of 2:1 energy, with a custard tart thrown in there for good luck. The regular newsletter will resume next week :) Love, Nicola
For someone who constantly talks about how much they love custard, it is perhaps a bit silly that I have never posted or shared a recipe for what might be considered the pinnacle of custard desserts: The Crème Brûlée. Creamy set custard with a crunchy, burnt sugar top - what’s not to love? It’s so ubiquitous that even NORTH AMERICANS seem to accept it in their dessert cannon despite their ongoing custard suspicions.
…Which leads us, briefly, to a certain video that appeared on social media a few weeks back. Was it rage bait? Was it 6:30 pm and the food team just wanted to go home? Whatever it was, it was a disservice to Crème Brûlée and Clare de Boer’s (fantastic) recipe. And though this isn’t a full-blown deep dive into CB, I thought I’d run you through some of my best advice for achieving the best results for this dessert at home.
Today’s version is not traditional. Inspired by Louis Thompson’s introduction to tropical fruit last week, I made my own foray into the fragrant warmer shores world of passionfruit. The result is a passionfruit Crème Brûlée that could also be made as a tart (more on that soon). It has the perfect balance of tang and sweetness.
Before we get into the recipe….
My friend
and I are going LIVE on substack tomorrow at 7pm GMT to talk about Pancakes! WHY? Well, for those in the UK i’m sure you’ll know… but for those not in the UK, Tuesday is Pancake Day, so we’re here to answer your questions about the best flipping techniques, whether crepe suzette is the best (or the worst) of all the pancake desserts and we’ll both be demo-ing a few bits. You’ll need the substack app downloaded - just log in around then and you should get a notification to join the live!OK, let’s talk Crème Brûlée. Starting with… The formulation