Tuesdays With Dorie: Creme Brulee

Well you guys, it wasn't a total disaster! Looking at these photos you wouldn't know that what happened actually happened. The picture above is what the cremes looked like as I set them out too cool. But let me start at the beginning. Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake picked this week's recipe challenge and let me tell you, I was nervous. It's one of my favorite dessert picks at Italian restaurants, but I never imagined myself making it, especially since it called for using a blow torch. I was able to find a Chef's Torch at Ross for about $13.00. The package came with 4 rammekins too, so it was a steal (although I didn't use the rammekins this time around). I could have used the broiler method to carmelize the sugar, but I wanted the challenge.

The cremes were so easy to prepare. There were only 5 or 6 ingredients and the only substitution I made was the 2% milk for whole milk, which is where I suspect I went wrong. Anyway, I baked the cremes for 60 minutes at 200 degrees and when I removed them from the oven, the centers didn't seem to be completely set. Then again, I didn't know what I was really looking for as far as a "set center", so I cooled them to room temperature (picture below) and then put them in the refrigerator overnight thinking they'd firm a little bit into the texture I'm so familiar with.

And I thought they had. Until I did the carmelizing today. The Chef's Torch was actually real easy to use despite my fears. It was really fun too. So I heated the sugar until I got some really nice color on the cremes. And then I got my spoon out and tapped through the crunchy sugar crust.......

And creme soup everywhere! I wasn't too disappointed though. The creme tasted delicious. Now I have 5 more servings that I don't want to serve to anyone. Oh well, more for me! I'll be able to get more practice with the torch! So, if you're reading this and have any ideas for how I can do this next time (which I will), feel free to comment and clue me in! And thanks, Mari, for helping me to get over my creme brulee-making fears! If you want the recipe, then hop on over to her beautifully colored blog!

Funny, it's almost as if I was prepared to fumble this week's challenge. Over the weekend, I had some extremely ripe bananas that I had to get rid of. So I pulled out Dorie's cookbook and pulled out a recipe for a banana cake. I'll be posting it later on, so stay tuned!