billionaire's dessert unlocked: crème brûlée baked directly in a roasted Japanese sweet potato recipe

i cried tears of joy eating this; it was that good. My mom salivated

scroll down for this gluten-free recipe

Dear Fam,

Growing up, I lived and breathed Japanese culture, and when I was 12 years old, I told Ah Gong (my maternal grandpa) how much I loved anime, sushi, and ramen, and he scolded me rather furiously. Ah Gong lived through the Second Sino-Japanese War; the Japanese captured and tortured him. He barely survived their bombing raids of China. He didn’t understand why his favorite granddaughter was such a Japaneseophile.

We never spoke about Japan again.

I only recently understood why I love Japanese food and culture so much. As a child, I was ashamed to be Chinese. I thought I was ugly because people kept making fun of my “chinky” eyes. They told me to go back to China. (I was in my late 20s when I finally visited China, but I just touched Hong Kong.) Whenever something was “Made in China,” it felt cheap and dirty. Rampant xenophobia made me shun my own culture to embrace everything Japanese.

So, I grew up a weaboo, and these days, when I cook and bake, I turn to Japanese inspiration and recipes. In February, my family and I are returning to Tokyo, our favorite city. We watched many Japanese tourism videos, like the ones from Paolo from Tokyo.

He raved about a street food found near Asakusa, crème brûlée baked directly in a roasted sweet potato.

Of course, I had to recreate it at home because it is still months away before we go on our family trip to Japan.

I can roast sweet potatoes perfectly and make crème brûlée with just four ingredients. Easy peasy. Here is my technique on roasting sweet potatoes:

https://katlieu.substack.com/p/for-the-creamiest-roasted-sweet-potatoes

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PS: 8% of proceeds perpetually go to fundraisers and helps sustain my projects like Subtle Asian Baking and pumping out free recipes for you, my dear friend <3

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Before you start this recipe, note you will need a few hours, so I recommend roasting the potatoes the day before and keeping them in the fridge. The next day, make the crème brûlée base.

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Reel for reference:

katlieu

A post shared by @katlieu

ROAST THE POTATOES FIRST, about 3 to 4 of them:

https://katlieu.substack.com/p/for-the-creamiest-roasted-sweet-potatoes

Make the crème brûlée base

Ingredients: