Chocolate Malted Creme Brulee

Chocolate Malted Creme Brulee
Dear Chocolate Malted Creme Brulee:
It’s true that our relationship didn’t start off on the right foot. When your recipe first turned my head and I attempted to prepare you, I didn’t read clearly enough and realized that I had misjudged you. You cannot be rushed. On that day, our paths were not meant to cross. You are not a last-minute kind of dish…Oh, no, not you… to gain access to your company, a suitor must begin early in the day and allow for plenty of time to allow you to simmer and then cool again, gently stirring, then warm you up again in a sultry oven bath…and then chill again, before the eventual climax of sugar and open flame.
After that first initial attempt, it would have been easy to turn away forever, dismissing you as “fussy” or “time-consuming” or even “high maintenance,” but to do that would be to forever miss out on your creamy goodness, your decadent richness, your vanilla bean-speckled loveliness. How shall I describe what one would forever lose if one is unwilling to put forth the effort that is necessary? A warm version of a rich chocolate malt, with a crisp and crackly-sweet crust that melts in your mouth? Something sweet and wholesome enough to put a smile on the face of not one, but two, innocent children, but sultry and decadent enough to satiate two jaded adults as well?
Yes, it’s true…you’re not “easy”, but if one is willing to read carefully and plan ahead, then you will make it all worthwhile.
Chocolate Malted Creme Brulee, I love you.
Until we meet again,
Yours very sincerely,
Lara
This recipe is originally from the “RSVP” column in Bon Appetit magazine, from a now-closed Martha’s Vineyard restaurant called Bittersweet, and not available “officially” online anywhere, but some lovely soul has done us the favor of typing it in here. I halved the recipe (yes, I halved an egg yolk) to make 4 portions, but this is so rich that the portions could easily be sized down and baked in smaller ramekins to serve more.