Creme Brulee with Strawberries in a White Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

Prepare your favorite creme brulee recipe (for the recipe I used, see the related link).

For the white balsamic reduction:
Mix sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil rapidly for a few minutes, cooking down the vinegar until it reaches a syrupy consistency.

Caution: don’t cook too long or you will end up with an extremely sticky candy-like substance instead of syrup. Taste your syrup to make sure you’ve cooked it down enough. You should still be able to taste the vinegar, but it shouldn’t have as sharp a bite—it should be sweet. Balsamic vinegar has such a rich, deep flavor. When you reduce it, you lose some of the overwhelming vinegar and that rich flavor really shines through.Yum.

Slice fresh strawberries (if they aren’t quite ripe and sweet, sprinkle with a little bit of sugar).

Arrange sliced strawberries on top of each ramekin of creme brulee, then drizzle generously with white balsamic syrup.

Enjoy!