Finished product

Recipe by Noémie, Chef and Owner of Les Secrets Gourmands de Noémie, featured in next month’s December issue of French Marie Claire

I always need a sweet after lunch. Just one bad cookie, or one piece of chocolate… just a little something to finalize the meal. At Noémie’s cooking school on Rue Nollet, the standard post-lunch dessert is not standard at all. Pistachio creme brulee, anyone?

This is a luxurious, elegant dessert with petit room for error (just save a bit of room around your waistband). Present this recipe at a small holiday soiree. Your guests will be impressed that you made a festive dessert sans food coloring.

Ingredients for 6: 5 egg yolks, 65g granulated sugar, 1 tsp pistachio paste, 250ml milk, 250ml liquid cream, 1 vanilla pod, 20g brown sugar “cassonade”, 6 ramekins

Recipe: Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. In a small saucepan, pour the milk, cream, 1/3 of the sugar, and the vanilla pod opened lengthwise and grated. Simmer over low heat until the vanilla infuses. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the rest of the sugar (2/3 of total amount of sugar) until whitened. Add the pistachio paste. Pour in the hot vanilla milk and cream mixture. Stir to combine.

Strain the mixture through a chinois. Pour the mixture into the ramekins, leaving half an inch at the top so that they don’t spill over. Bake for 45-60 minutes, depending on the quantity of cream in each mold. Remove from oven. The cream should be almost liquid. Reserve and chill in refrigerator. Before serving, sprinkle brown sugar on top and caramelize with a torch, holding it about 3 inches away. If you don’t have a torch, place them under the broiler for a few minutes, or until the sugar turns deep amber.

Before the brown sugar and torching

Sprinkling on the brown sugar