Walked into a bakery in Portland and saw a pastry chef using a kitchen torch wrong

I stopped by a little French bakery in Portland last Sunday and watched the new hire torch the top of a creme brulee for almost 30 seconds straight, just blasting the sugar into black smoke. The head chef came over and showed her you only need a quick 3 to 5 second sweep to get an even caramelized crust. Has anyone else seen baking shortcuts that end up causing more trouble than they save?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nina19d ago

Read somewhere that over-torching destroys the volatile compounds in vanilla, which is why those burnt creme brulees taste flat and bitter instead of creamy and sweet. A 5 second pass is all it takes to get that glassy shell without turning the custard into a science experiment gone wrong. Sounds like that new hire needs a quick lesson in why less is more with a torch.

jesse98819d ago

Come on, @the_nina, a good black char on top of creme brulee adds a smoky complexity that pairs perfectly with the vanilla custard underneath. Some of the best brulees I've had actually had a slightly bitter edge to balance the sweetness. That 30 second torch job might have been an accident, but a controlled heavy char can be a signature move if you know what you're doing. A 5 second pass is fine for the classic look, but a deeper burn can bring out a whole different flavor profile if the custard base is sturdy enough to handle it.