Just when I thought I'd never need a blow torch.

Crema Catalana (Cataluña)

Crema Catalana (from Cataluña) was one of the first desserts I tried in Spain - and it is delicious. It is like arroz con leche without the arroz and with a whole lot more thickness and creaminess. So…not really at all like arroz con leche? 

I thought it would be relatively easy to make, minus the blow-torching of the top. Because I lack a blowtorch (and now I kinda want one - just for fun). But it was surprisingly finicky in the same way making the base for the leche frita was. My first attempt went horribly wrong. I made the milk/cinnamon/zest combo, added the milk/corn starch combo and chilled it - but in the time it was supposed to thicken, it did not. It remained about the consistency of milk, but with a gritty and unpleasant texture. In an attempt to thicken it, I put it back on the stove and added more cornstarch. This resulted in an even grittier liquid that tasted very strongly of cornstarch and only mildly of the flavors I actually wanted to be tasting. Not ideal.

So I dumped it. 

And started again. 

This time I added just a piiinch more cornstarch to the milk/cornstarch combo that I poured into the milk/flavor combo. And I was much more patient with the stirring, letting it really thicken in the pot.

It didn’t get AS thick as I would like, but it was better.

Instead of blow-torching, I put it in the oven with it set to broil. The internet warned me that this could do some weird stuff to the actual crema if I left it in too long - or it could burn the sugar on top. So I took it out when the sugar had melted. In retrospect I should have put them back into the fridge to harden after that, but I didn’t. We wanted to eat them right away.

They were a little too sweet (probably cause I didn’t let them rest again). It was fine. But the cremas that I have had in restaurants were better to such a dramatic degree that I think it’s probably better to let the professionals handle this one.