Creme of the Crop

Goat cheese creme bru^lee? Yes.

Rocky road creme bru^lee? No.

Sweet corn creme bru^lee? You betcha.

Peanut butter and chocolate creme bru^lee? Not quite.

It’s by no means a comprehensive scorecard, but it offers a general idea of the lengths to which Debbie Puente of Thousand Oaks went to create her newly published cookbook “Elegantly Easy Creme Bru^lee & Other Custard Desserts” (Renaissance Books).

“Think of vanilla ice cream and all the variations on vanilla ice cream, and that’s some of where I got my ideas--I must have checked out 30 or 40 ice cream books from the library,” Puente said. “There are also a lot of variations floating around on the Internet. Goat cheese creme bru^lee is very innovative. It sounds weird, but it’s fantastic.”

Some of the 70 offerings in Puente’s cookbook may raise a few eyebrows, but the author swears by them. Puente will discuss some of those recipes and share her creme bru^lee knowledge at a prix fixe dinner and book signing Tuesday at Cafe Provencal in Thousand Oaks.

As mentioned in a previous column, the Thousand Oaks French restaurant has its own creme bru^lee--a version that calls for an ounce of lavender flowers thrown into the mix--included in the book. Recipes for cognac, ginger-chile, persimmon and spice, white chocolate with macadamia nut and eggnog creme bru^lee are also featured.

Puente said she was amazed when she first followed creme bru^lee directions offered on a Wolfgang Puck cooking video.

“Ten years ago, as a gift, somebody gave me the video, and immediately after I saw it I made the creme bru^lee and took it to the home of some friends,” Puente said. “Everybody thought I was like a miracle worker. It was a secret how easy it was.”

The impetus for a full-scale cookbook came while Puente was in charge of cooking demonstrations at the Williams-Sonoma outlet in Thousand Oaks. “It was simply people coming in the store wanting to learn how to make creme bru^lee, wanting to know if we had a book on it,” she said.

“Plain and simple, it’s a comfort food; it’s what we’re used to when we’re little,” she said. “The other reason it is so popular is that very few desserts have such a sharp contrast. It’s velvety smooth and cool, with a crunchy top.”

The Cafe Provencal menu for the evening will include a (Hawaiian-Provence style) tataki tuna served with wasabi and pickle ginger sauce, onion soup, leg of lamb with zucchini gratin and Provencal tomato and a lavender creme bru^lee for dessert.

The cost of the dinner is $32. The restaurant is at 2310 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. For reservations, call 496-7121.

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A Passover debate has raged for ages: Should a matzo ball be hard or soft? Proponents of each side of the argument steadfastly defend their cause and their choice.

In her free “Matzo Ball Mania” class at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Let’s Get Cookin’ culinary school in Westlake Village, Chef Myrna Spiegel will offer her secrets for both the fluffiest of fluffy and the most rock-solid of matzo balls.

For reservations, call (818) 991-3940.