Blackberry Creme Brulee

Crèmes brulées are my mother-in-law's pêcher mignon, which literally translates to "cute fault" in French (which means guilty pleasure). I keep telling her that these custard desserts can be flavored with anything and she keeps challenging me. She brought home a whole case of blackberries from our local market and asked if I could make her favorite dessert cups with them.

So after flavoring crème brulée with lemon, cherry, butterscotch, matcha green tea and masala chai, I was able to prove to her that I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.  It has occurred to me though that maybe her "challenge" is just an excuse to get me to make more crèmes brulées. As long as I can come up with more flavors, I'll keep playing along. After that, she'll have to come up with a better reason!

Tarte Tatin aux Pommes (Upside down Apple Pie)

 Tarte Tatin sounds like a fancy dessert, but really, it's just an upside down caramel apple tart. I made a simple tart shell using dough called pâte brisée. Instead of filling the shell though, I placed slices of apples that were cooked in a caramel sauce into the mold and then covered them with the tart shell. The tarts then went into the oven to cook the shell. 

You really should eat these treats almost as soon as they come out of the oven. To plate, just flip each mold and the apples will now be on top. If you wait too long, the caramel will harden and it will be difficult to unmold.  If you flip the tart out and let it sit, the crust will get soggy. This has never been a problem at my house because the smell of freshly baking apples always manages to gather the entire family in the kitchen.

Mango and Coconut Creme Caramel

Mango and Coconut Yule Log Cake (Buche de Noel)

Bûche de Noël is known by many names. Whether you call it a Yule Log, roulade or simply a roll cake, few desserts are as synonymous with Christmas. For this recipe, the roll cake I used is a simple, coconut-flavored génoise. It's basically a sponge cake. The filling is a mango and rum ganache and I made a chocolate rum butter-cream to cover the log.

When I was a kid in France, we used to buy a Yule Log every year. It may seem strange, but the flavor we would always get was mango. It's like a warm tropical breeze on a cold winter night. Though mango is clearly not a traditional holiday flavor, once you try this Bûche de Noël, you won't go back to vanilla and chocolate.

Matcha Green Tea Creme Brulee

This dessert combines two of my favorite things, crème brulée and green tea. I love the natural jade color of matcha green tea powder, along with its distinctive flavor. It's an ingredient I use a lot in desserts. Whether it's in cookies, madeleines, pound cakes, crème pâtissière or chocolate truffles, the result is always a success.

My personal favorite application for green tea powder though is crème brulée. One could probably add spinach to crème brulée and it would still taste great, but there's something special about the flavor of green tea that cuts the decadence of the dessert while enhancing its elegance.