These creme brulee inspired sugar cookies came from Fine Cooking Magazine's (December 2010) "Dessert in a Cookie." The article featured cookies inspired by classic desserts like lemon meringue pie, chocolate mousse, and creme brulee. Usually I refrain from posting recipes that require fancy cookware (like blowtorches in this case!) but I just couldn't resist trying this one. So if you have the tools, give it a try! It makes for a very cool, unique presentation. The caramelized, burnt sugar on top of the cookie is nice and crunchy. They are best served right after being torched, but I stored some in ziplock bags and they seemed to hold their crunch for at least a few days.
I had a few problems with the recipe, so I made some impromptu modifications. The recipe below is how it was printed in Fine Cooking, but I ended up rolling out my sugar cookie dough and cutting the cookies out with circle cutters. The log-method might work better if you actually freeze the dough for an hour or two to make it easier to cut off round slices without having the dough morph and smush under your knife. I also decided to cut my cookies with a smaller 2-inch cutter, which made for MANY more cookies, so you might want to half the recipe.