My grandmother, Baba, and I share a similar passion for the delicate French dessert: Creme Brûlée. We’ve made it together multiple times and now I’ve gotten the hang of making it myself. Baba gifted me an awesome torch not too long ago and I am finally putting it to good use. My husband, Ryan, suggested I put a fall twist on the classic dessert and make it pumpkin spice-flavored, and I instantly deemed it a genius idea … Since fall brings out the basic B in all of us.
So I searched for a good recipe and lo and behold… BAM! Emeril has the perfect one.
This turned out to be amazingly delicious and not too overwhelming with pumpkin spice… It was just right. The only tweak I made to the recipe is hat instead of using cinnamon and nutmeg, I used McCormick’s “pumpkin spice”, which has cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice… And everything nice.
Also, one of my college roommates, Mary, and I share a love for when you get the layer of Caramelized sugar just thick enough to crack with a tap of your spoon. So pile on the sugar and torch it till kingdom come 🙂

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Ingredients
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar, plus 4 teaspoons
8 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin (I used canned)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Arrange 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins or custard cups in a large metal baking pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and lemon-colored. Slowly add 3/4 cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot cream, and whisk. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin, and whisk until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl. Divide among the prepared custard cups.

Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the custards are just set in the center but not stiff, 45 minutes to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sprinkle each custard with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining sugar. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. (Alternately, preheat the broiler, and broil until the sugar melts and caramelizes, watching closely to avoid burning and rotating the cups, about 1 to 2 minutes.) Place on small dessert plates and serve.