cookbook club

Creme Brulee

by Liz Pyle, a reader in Shoreline, WA.

I’m a much better reader than a cook. So, a good cookbook with realistic illustrations is my bible; it lets me appear so much more talented than I am. When I read that Lou Seibert Pappas’ Crème Brulee had “easy-to-follow recipes that will delight first time cooks as well as the most experienced chefs“ I sat down and read it from cover-to-cover. Pappas starts with basic information on ingredients, equipment and techniques and the recipes are clearly separated into four sections; Classic & Creative, Fruity & Fabulous, Chocolate & Nutty and Savory. It’s well written and artfully illustrated with photos depicting what a finished crème brulee should look like. But there was one flaw…
The experienced chef may not be dependent on the exact directions but I felt tricked when I didn’t get the perfect results on the Wild Rice & Crab Crème Brulee (page 83). It baked for 40 minutes, never jelled and was soupy. Same with the Sweet Corn – Roasted Red Pepper Crème Brulee (page 87). My success was better with the Peanut Butter Crème Brulee (page 75). That’s when I realized that the difference was in the size of the dish. In the equipment section, Pappas describes a typical flan dish as being 5 inches in diameter and says that a 6 ounce ramekin can be substituted. But unlike a boxed Betty Crocker cake mix, Pappas doesn’t take the size of the baking dish into account when telling you how long to bake the crème brulee. Further compounding the confusion are the photos which show every recipe in a different size and shaped dish.
Overall, it’s a lovely book with a great variety of recipes and if you’re a sophisticated enough cook to catch the issue of dish size/cooking time and can adjust, you might enjoy it. The recipes are varied and while the ingredients aren’t something you’d normally stock – I mean, really, who keeps that much cream, half & half and eggs on-hand – they’re generally available at any grocery store.
Pappas shows that crème brulee is more than just a dessert.