Creme Brulee Toasties

We have only tried one sweet toastie so far this month, and due to a fortunate series of events we had some desserts going spare, and decided to try the creme brulee (technically crème brûlée) toastie. In the wild this should be a set custard with a caramelised sugar crust. Which clearly lends itself to toasting.

The caramelisation (read: setting fire to things) is the fun part, providing a satisfying crunch which is essentially the whole reason for ordering this dessert in the first place. Once you have cooked your toastie in the normal fashion sprinkle one side liberally with sugar and blowtorch on the smallest flame until melted, golden and crisp.

Making custard is significantly harder than Birds’ would have you believe, and Barny’s quantities are of the chef variety and begin with 18 egg yolks and 2 and a half pints of cream. I’d probably just use a different recipe.

Creme Brulee Toastie

• 1 portion of crème brûlée
• A swirl of fruit compote
• Granulated sugar for the topping

Taste
It had the satisfying crunch, the sweetness and the gooey, pleasurable moreishness of a great dessert. A restaurant creme brulee would normally be served with a biscuit or shortbread of some description, so seriously sweetened toast worked a treat. Plus it involved setting fire to stuff, and everyone loves a bit of that. 8.5/10

Appeal
It sold well at Barny’s old restaurant, and it involved more cooking than most of us can ever be bothered with. It’s a dessert toastie though, and consequently will never be loved quite like the others. 6/10

Suitability as a signature
It’s a sweet toastie, which will always be its main problem. On the other hand this is right up there amongst our best ever sweet toasties. 5/10

Difficulty rating
If you really want a creme brulee toastie then it will probably take a few attempts to get the custard to behave. It likes to split, tends not to set and sometimes just randomly turns into scrambled egg. Rated Nope.

Summary
I want to try this one in the wild soon. It’s just delicious. I would recommend trying it at home, but it will be a right pain to make. We will be happy to help out.