The Quest for the Perfect Creme Brulee

Right now we at the editorial office are working on material for our upcoming EASTER BOOK - to be published in 2013.

Fond of good food as we are, it didn't take long for us to decide that we needed to include food in the book - to a limited extent, of course - it is, after all, (mostly) about the decoration. So all of last week, we were in the kitchen making champagne brunch with various homemade dishes, delicious lunches and wonderful dinners...  admittedly, there was also quite a bit of the kind where everything just needs to be nicely plated. I mean - you can buy SO many scrumptious delicacies these days - we don't have to make EVERYTHING from scratch, right? One thing that we actually receive quite a bit of praise for from our readers - is that sometimes it's EASY. That's how it is with some things, and then there's others that we feel just MUST be homemade. Creme Brulee is one of those things... Susanne and I HAVE tried several different ones of the storebought variety and it's just not the same. We've been there where it's baked too long - and we were left with a sweet, steamed omelet. So last week, we tried again. This time around, we were really careful to do everything exactly according to the recipe - we'd watched videos online and had asked everyone we know if they knew the best recipe. We'd bought both pasteurized, organic egg yolks and cream. EVERYTHING was ready. It failed!! Again!! This time only about the top ½ inch had set - the rest was completely liquid! I mean - how hard can it be? All the way back into town to buy new ingredients, we - Susanne and I - were discussing... was the cream too hot - too cold - was the oven too cold - not enough water in the water bath - too much?? We're gonna try again now - when we succeed, you'll be the first to know :o) /Vivian