French Friday with Dorie: Catching up on Creme Brulee

CREME BRULEE WITH A CRACKLY CARAMELIZED BROWN SUGAR TO

I’m quite proud of myself.  Even with my hectic life, which seems to get more hurried with more seemingly  important things as the years march on, I’ve only missed 3 FFwD experiences.  Since this is one of those really crazy weeks where I do not have time to shop or to think carefully about a new-to-me recipe, I’ve decided to catch up on a recipe that I’m really sorry to have missed.  Note to self: By catching up on this recipe, but by missing today’s...I’ve still missed out on 3 recipes!

Creme Brulee has always been a family favorite.  For Christmas several years ago, we gave our kids and extended family members  all-the-things-you-need-to-make-Creme-Brulee gift boxes.  There were pretty ramekins, torches, and recipe books for everyone.  We all enjoyed Creme Brulee in all its varieties and flavors.

The favorite part of this dessert making was the torching, or caramelizing, of the sugar to produce the crackling top.  We’ve used many kinds of sugars which all work well and give different flavors or intensities of flavors.   For Dorie’s recipe we are asked to use brown sugar or Brownulated sugar, which is a granulated brown sugar that works the same as the cheaper, more common brown sugar.  At our house, we’ve also used methods similar to Dorie’s Bonne Idee where fruit or berries are used as part of the custard or to top this dessert.  All are fabulous. 

HOT OUT OF THE OVEN

But, I’ve never used jam or jelly on my ramekin bottom, and the biggest, newest idea, is to bake these custards at only 200^ for an hour without a water bath.  I’ve just placed my Creme Brulee’s into the oven and I’m very interested to see how they turn out using Dorie’s new-to-me method.  If it works, which coming from Dorie, I expect that it will, my Creme Brulee baking will have just become soooooo much easier.

I love the new methods from Dorie, and  the tips I get for you all which make all this FFwD experience so great.

Dorie instructs us to bake the brulees for 50-60 minutes at 200^.  After checking mine at 50 minutes they are nowhere near set, or done.  I set the timer for an additional 15 minutes...same thing happened when I again checked...reset the timer for an additional 15 minutes...same thing so at 1 ½ hours baking time,  I got a little smarter and decided you check your write-ups and found that several of you had the same problem back in December when you all posted this experience.  And I recalled talking to my Frolicking Night Owl Daughter when we went to her house to taste her brulees...she made a couple of varieties...and she had also commented that her Dorie brulees had not set well.

So, I saw where a couple of you turned up the oven temp to 250^...I did that and have reset the timer for an additional 15 minutes....I’m trying to be patient....this is just a custard and it will set at some point, right???

THE MOST FUN PART--THE TORCH

OK...Finally...after 1 hour and 45+ minutes and an upward temperature adjustment, my Creme Brulee has finished baking.  After cooling I will refrigerate them for several hours.  Hubby is working out of town today and will be back late...I hope to have a lovely, comforting dessert waiting for him.  And I might let him be the torch man, which is giving up a lot as it is the most fun part of this dessert...but after a long day on the road it will be a treat for him.

Thanks to my cyber friends...you all saved my day or at least this dessert.

Hope you all have a fun Presidents’ Day weekend!

Note to Self:  This brulee is very sweet and the jam on the bottom adds too much extra sweetness.  The jam becomes liquid during baking and creates extra moisture that this recipe does not need--hampers the set up process, and any that makes its way to the top melts the topping sugar before the torch can caramelize it.  A drier fresh fruit would be a better choice.   The whole idea is lovely and otherwise this is an elegant dessert.

In summary I did not like the jam on the bottom and the temperature was too low.  But, the brulees did not need a water bath and that was a much easier way to bake these desserts...so I"m happy to have learned something new.