Orange Mascarpone Bruleé

Mascarpone cheese is soft and semi-sweet, tasting like the fields of flowers and grass that the cow whose milk it came from ate. Its composition is very high in milk fat (60% to 75%) from its double and sometimes triple creaming, which made it a versatile choice to be applied to a crème bruleé style dessert.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup mascarpone cheese
• 2 cups milk
• 1 orange
• 3-4 tbsp sugar, the finer you have on hand, the better.

Method

Start by separating 3 eggs, reserving the yolks.

Then, add orange zest to the egg yolks. Be sure to wash your orange first. File:Zesty.jpg

In a saucepan, combine the milk and cheese together with a whisk and slowly bring to a boil, but do not let it boil for longer than 30 seconds. File:Milkandcheese.jpg

Remove the milk and cheese from heat immediately and combine with your eggs, whisking them well to blend. File:Cheeseandeggs.jpg

Return this mixture to your stove, but do not let it boil. Allow it to cook until it coats a spoon, and remove from heat. Distribute into ramekins (this recipe will fill 2 3 1/2" dishes but you can distribute it otherwise if you wish) and chill until set.

You can accelerate the chilling process by freezing the ramekins if you're sure you won't forget about them overnight. Otherwise, leave them covered in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Sprinkle sugar across the top and break out your mini-torch. Apply heat evenly while turning your dish to ensure that the sugar caramelizes as evenly as possible.

The finer sugar you choose to use will produce better results at this step. I ground demerera and refined white sugars with a mortar and pestle, but you can also use a burr grinder to obtain finer granules and a nicer looking crust.

Either way, this tasted like heaven. And now, I'm looking for a gym membership and a quadruple bypass.