Holiday Crème Brulee

Ingredients for the Brulee Sugar:

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• ½ cup granulated white sugar
  

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 10 TBS granulated sugar
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 1 tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 9 egg yolks
• ¾ cup canned pumpkin - NOT pie filling
  

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
• Combine the Brulee sugars, mixing well to integrate evenly.
• Spread on a baking sheet and dry in the oven for about 1 hour.
• Transfer to a blender and process to a fine powder.
• Set aside, covered, and store in a cool dry place at room temperature.
• Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees
• Combine milk, cream, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, clove and nutmeg and heat on medium flame until hot, but do not allow to boil.
• Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.
• After it has cooled a bit, cover and refrigerate for 45 minutes.
• Remove cinnamon stick.
• Whisk eggs into mixture.
• Add the pumpkin and whisk again until smooth.
• Strain the mixture through a sieve.
• Pour the custard into ramekins (8)
• Prepare a shallow roasting pan by filling it about ½ way with hot water.
• Put ramekins in roasting pan. (Water should be about ½ way up the ramekins)
• Bake until the edges of the custard are firm, but the center still jiggles a little.
• Remove ramekins from roasting pan and allow custard to cool to room temperature.
• Only after they have cooled, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or a minimum of 8 hours)
• Preheat the broiler (unless you have a propane torch used in kitchens)\
• Remove the plastic wrap
• Sprinkle each custard with the brulee sugar.
• Broil only for 30-60 seconds, allowing the sugar to caramelize but not burn.
• Serve immediately.