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Adapted from Donna Hay’s magazine (n°21)

I recently stumbled upon a great French épicerie which sells lots of original ingredients, served in beautiful packages.When browsing through their website, i fell in love with some of their products. I really had to try them! I sampled:
- huile d’olive extra vierge à la vanille [extra virgin vanilla olive oil] (can’t wait to try drizzling it over a good homemade vanilla ice cream or over lobster)
- vinaigre balsamique à la framboise [raspberry balsamic vinegar]
- sel de Guérande aux cinq baies [Guérande sea salt with 5 peppercorns]
- sucre coco-vanille [vanilla and coconut sugar]
- and last but not least, my favourite: sucre à la guimauve [guimauve sugar]

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As soon as i got this sugar, i couldn’t help but think about the endless possibilities: ice cream, panna cotta, raspberry soup…

After hours of deep brainstorming i had my dessert: a delicious crème brûlée. I did think the crème brûlée will turn out green as the sugar is blue, but i really didn’t mind: it had to be this.

Guimauve is a French kind of marshmallow. The name comes from the plant: Althaea officinalis (french name - guimauve officinale) which was used instead of gelatin.

Nowadays guimauve is made the same way marshmallows are made.

Though french guimauves are slightly more sophisticated, both by their name and orange blossom flavour.

Crème brûlée à la guimauve
I only replaced the caster sugar by the guimauve sugar i had bought.
These crèmes are heaven: a crisp sugar coating and a melting/velvety inside.
I reckon the guimauve flavour does add something: color and taste-wise (the flavour is enhanced by the luscious custard).
If you can’t find guimauve sugar, feel free to melt some bought guimauves into the cream used for the custard.

Crème brulée à la guimauve

makes 4

500ml double cream
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 egg yolks
60g guimauve sugar (see note above)
2 tbsp caster sugar, extra

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Place the cream and vanilla bean inb a small saucepan over low heat and cook gently until the mixture just comes to the boil.

Remove from the heat.

Whisk the egg yolk and sugar together until thick and frothy. Pour the warm mixture over the eggs a,d whisk to combine.

Return to the saucepan and stir on low heat for 6-8 minutes or until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Pour the custard into 4 ovenproof ramekins and place into a deep baking dish. Pour in enough water to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for 25 minutes or until just set.

Remove the crèmes from the baking dish and refrigirate for 3 hours. Sprinkle each dessert with two teaspoons of extra sugar and caramelize the topping either with a hot spoon or a blowtorch.

PS. I accidentaly deleted all the comments for this article. Sorry.

Posted by fanny who loves recipe inside, spoon desserts