Girl Scout cookie lovers around the world, rejoice! It is almost that time of year again.  You know the time of year I’m talking about…. When the adorable little girls in their cute little outfits stand outside of every grocery store known to man, and come a knockin’ on your door, selling their ever so tempting, ever so delectable, ever so evil little cookies.

I don’t know about you, but I always have a very hard time saying no.  Particularly when I’m pregnant, but even just in my normal state.  After all, those little girl scouts are so cute I just want to eat them! (I also want to eat their cookies.)

This year, the Girl Scouts of Western Washington are once again holding their annual cookie contest.  The idea is to come up with outside the box girl scout cookie recipes.  Of course, I was in the second I heard that I would get 5 free boxes of cookies to play around with recipes with.

Last Friday, I had a dinner party with a few of our couple friends.  I had not yet decided what to do with my cookies, and I will admit, I was having some trouble being inventive.  I was serving one of my favorite tried and true recipes, Crème Brûlée, for dessert.  Of course the boxes of cookies sitting on my counter immediately piqued the interest of my guests, and while we were eating our Crème Brûlée, we spent some time discussing what you could do with the various cookies- including some discussion about what the most popular girl scout cookie is.  Samoas and Thin Mints were the top runners in our conversation, but I have to say that my favorite cookie is the Trefoil.  I suppose I am boring that way.  Anyway, the idea for Trefoil Raspberry Crème Brûlée was born.

Crème Brûlée, also known as burnt cream, is a French dessert consisting of a rich custard base, and topped with a hard, crunchy, caramel topping.  In my mind, the addition of a buttery shortbread crust and some Raspberry preserves could only improve my favorite dessert.  I was right.

Do not be intimidated by Crème Brûlée.  I was, until I tried it.  It is truly one of the easiest things ever to make, but people think you slaved away in the kitchen for hours.  Go out and get yourself some Trefoils and try this recipe!

A Rumbly in my Tumbly original recipe.
makes 4 

Ingredients:
1/2 package of Girl Scout Trefoil Cookies
2 Tablespoons of melted butter
2 Teaspoons of granulated sugar

1.5 cups of heavy cream
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup of granulated sugar, + 4 more tablespoons for sprinkling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons of Raspberry Preserves

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°

Take a tube of trefoils and crush them into crumbs.  I used a food processor.  If you don’t have one, use a ziplock bag and crush the cookies with a rolling pin.

Add 2 Tablespoons of melted butter and 2 Teaspoons of granulated sugar to the cookie crumbs and mix together well.

Place 2 Tablespoons of the cookie mixture into each Crème Brûlée dish.  Resist the urge to eat the remaining cookie mixture with a spoon- it will be hard.

Pat crumb mixture into the bottom of each dish.  Place into the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from oven and set aside.  Reduce oven temperature to 300°.

In a small, non-stick sauce pan, scald your cream.  Scalding your cream means to bring it to just UNDER a boil.  When little bubbles start to form around the edges, you are good to go.

Meanwhile, while cream is scalding, mix your egg, egg yolks, and sugar in a mixer until just combined.

With your mixer on low, add the scalded cream VERY slowly to your egg mixture. This is called tempering. If you do it too quickly, you’ll get scrambled eggs, and trust me, nobody wants scrambled eggs in their Crème Brûlée.

When cream and egg/sugar mixtures are completely combined, add your vanilla extract.  Set custard aside.

Take your cooled cookie crusts, and put 1 Tablespoon of Raspberry preserves into the center of each dish.  Spread around in the center (very carefully, this is tricky to do without the crumbs coming up) leaving the edges alone.

Place your crusts into a jelly roll or other deep baking dish.

Pour the custard mixture almost to the top of each dish.  Fill the pan with boiling water, so it goes halfway up the side of each dish.

Place your dish into the oven carefully.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until custard is set.  Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, and then place in the refrigerator overnight, or for at least 6 hours.

Right before serving, sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of sugar over top of each custard.  Using a kitchen torch, or your broiler, caramelize the top of the custards and serve.

Enjoy!