Calvados Omelette From 'Prune'

Though peppered with homey classics like cornmeal pound cake and apple galettes, by and large Gabrielle Hamilton's desserts in her new cookbook, Prune, are unusual, sometimes puzzling (like a ball of homemade fondant served in a glass of ice water). This doesn't mean they are all complicated; take her butter and sugar sandwich, which is just as it sounds, with a ramekin of heavy cream alongside for dunking. Simple and strange, at least to our American palettes, is the Calvados Omelette—sweet, enriched egg flambeed with apple brandy. We are not used to having our eggs for dessert, at least not served to us so unabashedly, instead of under the guise of custard or crepe or soufflé. And though the eggs here are mixed with a substantial amount of cream and a bit of flour, the end result is in fact just a plateful of sweet (buttery, boozy) eggs. But it comes off as elegant, urbane, and perfectly delicious.

Notes: The smallest non-stick pan I own is 8 inches, not 6, as Hamilton specifies. The omelette was therefore thinner and more fragile, making flipping it more difficult, but in the end, it was fine (if slightly mangled). If the idea of tipping the pan to ignite the alcohol intimidates you, use a long-necked lighter instead. (And just a small heads-up: When she instructs to, "Combine the ingredients for the batter...," note that the 4 teaspoons of butter included in that ingredient list are for the pan, not for the batter itself.)