Candied Brie

Safety tip: If you find yourself with a pan on fire, place the lid on the pan and smother the flames.

When cooking it is important to be humble and pay attention, otherwise you may need to implement the safety tip above. As I did on Thanksgiving this year. The two foot flames and clouds of smoke really made me regret the “cooking Thanksgiving is easy” comment.

No one was hurt and the pan was salvaged after a great deal of scrubbing. Burnt sugar is much easier to clean than burnt oil. When oil is overheated it polymerizes which is essentially turning to plastic, sugar just burns to ash which does not adhere to stainless steel very well.

The culprit was the appetizer. Isn’t it always the appetizer, or the dessert? The first is always lost in a sea of other priorities, salad, main course etc. The latter is often finished after a few glasses of wine. Wine is good for sauce but rarely helps the cook.

Here is the recipe
This is a crowd pleaser, showy like baked brie but a lot easier, even with the fire we were able to remake it and serve it without throwing off our timing.

Candied Brie
1 small soft cheese round, brie or camembert work well
1/2 cup sugar
A little water, enough to help the sugar dissolve any extra will just take more time to boil off.

1. Place cheese on serving plate.
2. Put sugar and water in sauce pan bring to a boil. Boil until sugar caramelizes.
3. Pour hot sugar syrup over cheese. Tilt cheese plate to get even coating if needed. Careful it is very hot.
4. Allow to sit for a few minutes or so to harden. Serve with crackers or bread.

For the Flaming version replace step 2 with Put sugar and water in sauce pan bring to a boil, leave the kitchen to attend to arriving guests and then watch some TV with the kids until your wife screams “The kitchen is on fire” Then repeat steps 2-4 above.

Every cook needs to have a little kitchen fire now and again.