Thai Tea Creme Brulee

On Christmas, after watching Don 2 at 9am, playing at an empty Dave and Busters, roaming around Bryant Park and eating Kati roll, my cousin Samira, her husband Jibu, and my friend Akber decided to go to The Spot Dessert Bar. The have interesting flavored desserts such as Chocolate green tea lava cake, smoked coconut cheesecake, and green tearamisu. Asian fusion meets classic American desserts is their inspiration.  One of my favs at the spot dessert bar was the thai tea creme brulee served with a jasmine rice wafer and a shot of hot Thai tea with simple syrup and milk to personalize to your own taste. It was so yummy that I had to recreate it.

Thai tea is no stranger in my home, I occasionally make a large batch to drink iced with sweetened condensed milk, tapioca pearls, and half  & half. Since I know how to make Thai tea and creme brulee how hard can it be to mix them together?

Here's my recipe-I would not recommend using heavy cream. Even if you want a denser custard its like drinking a cup of heavy cream (which usually is 40% + of milk fat) and egg yolks. Half and Half also works and it makes a light custard that still has a pudding texture.
This recipe is enough to fill 4 ramekins. I think mine are somewhere in between 4-6oz each not sure though.

4 tbs Thai Tea
2 cups half & half
1/2 cup sugar
5 egg yolks

Heat the milk in a sauce pan and add the Thai tea. You don't want to boil it but have it hot enough to steep the tea. It should be a dark orange color. (keep it on simmer for about 5-10 minutes)

 On the side whisk the egg yolks with sugar until its pale yellow. Once the milk is ready, strain it through a fine mesh strainer, I have a Thai tea strainer which sieves the tea through a fine cloth, a cheesecloth folded a few times would work too. The tea can have small particles and you want to make sure you have strained it all out.

Temper the yolk mixture by adding a little milk to the yolks while whisking. Make sure the milk isn't too hot or you'll have scrambled eggs. Once you have tempered the eggs, add it all into the milk while whisking. Place the custard base into ramekins that are in a oven safe dish deep enough to add water to create a hot water bath. Place the dish into an oven preheated to 375 degrees. Add boiling water into the pan to cover about 3/4's of the ramekins and bake for 30 minutes. The custard should still wiggle when you take it out of the oven but should not be watery.

Cool the ramekins in the fridge until the custard is set. Once your ready to serve, sprinkle the tops evenly with a thin layer of sugar. Tap it on the counter to make sure it's evenly distributed.

 Use a torch to caramelize the sugar, just a few concentric circles with the torch around the ramekins should do it. Let it cool just a tad so the sugar hardens and serve!

I don't have a picture of the creme brulee with the sugar crust, but will update one soon.