Crème Brulee

In the new book Creme Brulee, author Lou Seibert Pappas delivers something for every palate with her numerous variations on this classic dessert. The book features everything from basic recipes infused with different flavorings to unique interpretations using nontraditional ingredients and techniques. Creme Brulee is broken down into eight chapters offering a number of beautifully composed photographs and over 50 different recipes. In staying with tradition, many of the recipes in this book offer simple modifications to the classic recipe, as with the Lavender-Lemon Creme Brulee and Mexican Chocolate Creme Brulee. Some of the other recipes, however, such as the No-Bake, Zesty Lime Creme Brulee, whose ingredients include just cream, sugar and lime and the Wild Rice and Crab Creme Brulee, which is really just a savory rice pudding topped with browned parmesan cheese, stray decidedly far from tradition and will lead any purist up in arms. One glaring oversight in this book is that there is no mention of varying the baking times of the custards depending on the size and type of dishes being used. While one section does suggest substituting 5 inch flan dishes (the standard dish used for every recipe in the book) with 6 ounce (3 1/2 inch) ramekins, it fails to mention that the cooking time will most likely require adjusting in order to accommodate the taller, more narrow dish. Not offering this tidbit of advice, particularly considering that many of the photos in the book present the custards in a number of differently sized and shaped dishes, is a recipe for disaster and will likely lead to inconsistent results and some frustrated cooks. Reviewed by Andrea Rappaport