Monday, May 25, 2009

Creme Brule Quest: My kitchen

Since my parents were here this weekend, I wanted to celebrate my mom's birthday a little early. Instead of making another cake or some cupcakes or even recreate the year I made her a lemon meringue pie and whipped the meringue by attaching the beaters to my dad's drill because the beater stopped working. (Yes, it worked just fine but the damn drill was soooooo much heavier than your average kitchen beater. I don't really recommend it unless you're in a pinch like I was).

I kept things a little simpler this year and decided to try to make creme brule. We enjoyed it so much on our trip to France, I thought it would be fun to give it a whirl. Luckily, my mom is also a bit of an adventurous cook so she wanted to help.

We got our recipe from the Better Homes and Garden The New Cookbook. Instead of using a blow torch to caramelize the sugar, the recipe calls for caramelizing it on the stove top and drizzling it on the dishes.
The creme brule is in the dishes and in the water bath ready for the oven.All cooked up and cooling.The caramelizing starts (above) and finishes up a few minutes later (below).
I gotta say, the creme brule was pretty good and I'd make this dish again! It wasn't quite as good as the ones we ate in France, but it came pretty close! We had three dishes left over and ate them the following night. And it tasted even better the second night! The vanilla was very distinct after it had time to really mix in with the creme and eggs.
And you can't have creme brule without French wine! We opened the bottle from Domaine Terres Blanches that I hauled back from France! It was a great dessert to cap off a great weekend!

5 comments:

IdahoGirls said...

You know I have never had Creme Brule. Does this mean I have not lived? To answer your question, from my blog that song was written to honor Jen - Sara provided a quick link for me from my blog you should check it out if you have not heard it yet it is a good song. I am not as much of a country fan anymore but I like the sound of that group's voice!!

Shannon said...

Ha! You kill me -- I had never heard about the drill beaters incident. I can just picture it...

Then you seal the deal by using the phrase "I kept things a little simpler this year" in the same sentence as "creme brulee." That's simple? You're Martha-ing, my dear.

But you know I love you. ;-) I am super impressed! The whole dessert looks incredible! What a lovely birthday treat for your mom!!!

Holli said...

OMG! Yum! (and no strawberries ;)

The Oberoi Girls said...

Good job Meg. I bet that yours was just as good as the one you had in France, it just didn't taste as good because you weren't looking at the beautiful French scenery while eating it.

Sara K. said...

How can April not have tried creme brule before? Dearie me! WE better get on that! Maybe in August!!! -S

PS-Looks tasty! Now you just need your mini-blow torch!