Crème brûlée

Graduating takes a lot of time and effort, none of which having anything to do with academics. But, it's over now, and I never have to do it again, as college graduation is much different I hear. I did well on my AP exams, though not as well as I would have liked in French. C'est la vie.

On the 4th of July, my parents were cooking a nice dinner for us, with steak and caramelized onions, but we didn't have a dessert planned yet. My favorite dessert, possibly of all time, is crème brûlée, but I'd never tried to make it before. Thus, an epic quest began.

They look mighty pretty here in the oven, but there were some crazy adventures to get them to this point. I would have taken pictures, but it's hard to photograph saucepans of boiling hot cream and lemon zest overflowing onto the stove. For future reference, cream boils hard, and fast.

My favorite part is torching them at the end. I use a butane torch and nuke a bit of granulated sugar that I put on top. The crème brûlées have to cool completely before you do this though, and it's a long wait.

I think they look nice (and taste great!) with cute fruits on the top.