Melting Sugar On Creme Brulee

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For Nigella's Creme Brulee (from NIGELLA BITES) the sugar topping is caramelized by using a small blowtorch. These are found in many cookware stores and also on-line. It is also possible to caramelize the sugar under a hot grill (broiler) if you don't have a blowtorch.

The first references to a dessert similar to creme brulee appeared in medieval Catalan recipe records and in this version iron rods were heated in a fire and then pressed onto the sugar. Then the French chef Francois Massialot listed a recipe in his cookbook around 1691, where the sugar was caramelized using a hot fire shovel. After this a version of creme brulee was made at Trinity college, Cambridge, called Trinity Cream or Cambridge Burnt Creams, where the sugar was caramelized using a hot branding iron with the college's coat of arms. The use of blowtorches became popular in the 1980s. Today Crema Catalana should still have the sugar caramelized with a hot branding iron, though most home cooks will not have access to these and use grills or blowtorches.