Crème brûlée is one of my all-time favorite desserts. Admittedly, it may be more 1980s than 2012, but any custard--especially one topped with a crackly caramelized sugar shell--will always be fashionable in my mind. In creating this pumpkin version, I used Claudia Fleming’s basic crème brûlée recipe as a starting point, finding it to be the perfect cream to milk to sugar ratio. I also knew I wanted to caramelize the pumpkin first, having found that step to pay huge dividends when making Meta Given’s pumpkin pie. From there, I decided to swap out some of the white sugar for brown sugar, add a split vanilla bean, and lightly spice them with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. To enhance the caramel notes, I like sprinkling a little sea salt on top of the chilled custards before adding the raw sugar and torching them. That way, each time you crack through the hard caramel to the creamy, vanilla bean-flecked custard, you get a perfect salty, sweet, pumpkin-spiced bite.

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