Sorry, I missed you yesterday. I was on a hunger strike trying to persuade the Food Network to cancel Semi Home Cooking. The good news is it ended in a draw. The Food Network agreed to not cut Semi Home Cooking and I agreed to start eating again.
Check out these mini cast iron pots I received for Christmas! The first thing I made with them was Creme Brulee for two. A single person could eat one, but you would need to have a defibrillator handy. Creme Brulee has nothing to do with skinny: heavy cream, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla. I guess the vanilla is the ‘diet’ ingredient. It tasted great, but as you can see from the above image, the sugar shell on top left something to be desired.
Just like fixing power lines in an electrical storm, always pick the right tool for the job. Part of the playfulness of the Brulee is the cracking of the shell. And, to break it, you (for the most part) have to see it. And, if you can see it, it should look as pretty as possible. The recipe I used called for brown sugar. It didn’t melt very evenly, thus not pooling evenly to make a pretty caramel disc. Using those dinky Brulee torches can sometimes be the issue, but I had plenty of horsepower (see above), so I knew that wasn’t.
With the remainder of the Creme, I finished two more Brulee tops, one with powdered sugar and another with white granulated sugar. The melting time was somewhat shorter than the brown sugar, but both yielded better results.
I know, the suspense is killing me, too. The Winner: Powdered Sugar. The race wasn’t even close. The only thing I would change would be to sift it on. I just sprinkled and there were a flew clumps that took longer to melt.
I just made creme brulee for the first time and white sugar worked fine for the tops. I will try powdered though! It was my first time and I didn’t have any ramekins, so I used silicone cupcake holders and mini bundt pans. I don’t recommend the bundt pans because they are metal and transferred the heat of the blowtorch to the pudding and melted the pudding!
I guess you didn’t see any effects from the corn starch in the powdered sugar? I’d be curious if the results would differ if you spun some white granulated sugar in a food processor and made your own powdered sugar.
Great Idea. I’ll give it a try.