Crème Brûlée is very popular. It is on the dessert menu of a large percentage of the better restaurants. I have been making it for years and actually have 2 blow torches and an extra canister of fuel, just in case. To be honest, the Brûlée part (charred sugar) is not my favorite. I talked about this with my friend Lucien last spring while we were in France together and he agreed. He told me that he makes custard for his wife’s mother and instead of Brûlée he tops the custard with fresh fruit. This variation on a theme is simply brilliant.

Fast forward to the summer peach season and what I call:

Crème Custard with Fresh Peaches and Berries

This has become the go-to dessert of the summer. It is the kind of dish that you can be pretty sure that if your guests don’t like the dinner, they are going to love the dessert. There is one variation to Lucien’s theme that I love and that comes from tossing the fresh fruit in maple syrup. Somehow the smokiness of the syrup adds a caramel note to the custard. I even thought of calling the dish Crème Caramel with Fresh Fruit but I didn’t in homage to my grandfather.

My grandfather loved Custard Pie. My mother would always make it when he visited. My father complained that mom wouldn’t make it for him, but she always made it for her father. Unfortunately for Gramps, it is pretty rare to find Custard Pie. Gramps would take us to Stanley’s, his favorite diner, where he would order Coconut Custard Pie and scrape off the coconut. How could he have known back then that his chubby grandson would go on to be the President of a coconut company, Franklin Baker Company of the Philippines? I can still remember Gramps saying: “This meal was so good, I just wish I was still hungry so I could eat more.”

Gramps with a smile that says his custard pie was so good that..

My grandfather was the family icon of his generation. (Check out the blog). He had 10 grandchildren. A few years ago I was playing golf with my cousin Buddy and the question came up of: Who would be the family icon of our generation? Almost in harmony we both answered, “It’s not me, it’s not me.” My vote is for my cousin Virginia who is the queen of her idilic valley on Maui. I am not sure if her connection with Maui Wowie helps or hurts her chances. Maybe that is just another  variation on a theme.

My cousin Virginia in Maui with our grandkids

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