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Creme Brulee

Felix Intelegando Updated All recipes

Crème brûlée is a baked vanilla custard under a thin, crackly layer of caramelised sugar. This recipe makes four ramekins from 4 egg yolks, cream, milk and half a vanilla pod: bake for 30 minutes at 160 °C in a water bath, chill for 3–4 hours, then caramelise the sugar just before serving. It is easier than its reputation, and it is a dessert where you get to play with fire.

A crème brûlée in a white ramekin with a dark amber caramelised sugar crust, a spoon lifting a piece of the crust to show the vanilla-flecked custard beneath
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A crème brûlée in a white ramekin with a dark amber caramelised sugar crust, a spoon lifting a piece of the crust to show the vanilla-flecked custard beneath

Recipe

Creme Brulee

Prep
15 mins
Cook
30 mins
Total
4 hr 48 mins
Serves
4

Ingredients

4 people

Method

  1. Turn on the oven at 160 ° C, conventional heat.
  2. Scrape the grains out of the half-vanilla bar.
  3. Mix them with egg yolks and the 85 g sugar, and mix with a stirrer manually. Now pour the whipped cream and milk into it a little at a time while continuously stirring. Tip: You can heat the whipped cream and milk together just until it begins to boil on the edge before adding it.
  4. Pour the mixture through a sieve.
  5. Distribute the mixture into four ovenproof dishes or ramekin of approx. 2 dl each.
  6. Put the ramekin on a pan tray, sheet pan or similar, and fill boiling water into the tray just until the water fills halfway up the sides of the ramekin.
  7. Bake the crème brûlées for 30 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, they must tremble/bounce. They settle when they get cold.
  8. Now place the dishes in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours – do not cover them.
  9. Distribute the last tablespoon of sugar over the desserts and burn them with a gas burner or gas torch until the sugar is caramelized.
  10. Settle for about 3 minutes. Then, immediately serve the finished cream brûlée.

Step by step, in pictures

The whole method in six moves, from the vanilla pod to the burnt-sugar crust.

  1. Line drawing of a kitchen knife beside two split vanilla pods on a cutting board, a few seeds scraped looseScrape out the vanilla seeds
  2. Line drawing of a whisk in a mixing bowl of liquid, with a small saucepan standing beside itWhisk yolks and sugar, add cream and milk
  3. Line drawing of a bowl pouring custard through a fine mesh sieve into a glass measuring jugSieve the custard
  4. Line drawing of a hand pouring liquid from a jug into the second of four small ramekins in a rowFill four ramekins
  5. Line drawing of four filled ramekins standing in a water-filled baking tray on an oven rackBake in a water bath
  6. Line drawing of a hand holding a kitchen blowtorch, its flame caramelising sugar on top of a ramekinCaramelise the sugar

What is crème brûlée?

Crème brûlée is a baked custard dessert: a rich, set cream base under a contrasting layer of hard caramel, made by melting sugar on the surface. Brûlée is French for “burnt”, which is why the dish is also called burnt cream in English. It is commonly described as a classic French dessert.

Is crème brûlée hard to make?

No. It takes five ingredients and about 15 minutes of hands-on work; the rest is 30 minutes in the oven and 3–4 hours in the fridge. Two moments need your attention: taking the custards out while they still wobble, and caramelising the sugar at the end.

Vanilla pod and cream: reading the ingredient list

Two names in the ingredient list read oddly in English. The “vanilla bar” is a vanilla pod (vanilla bean): split half a pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. The “whipped cream” is liquid whipping cream straight from the carton, not cream that has already been whipped – the method pours it in a little at a time and suggests heating it with the milk.

The quantities are metric. 2½ dl of cream is 250 ml, a little over 1 US cup, and 1 dl of milk is 100 ml, a little under ½ cup. The 85 g of sugar goes into the custard; the extra tablespoon is kept back for the crust. The ramekins hold about 2 dl (200 ml) each.

How long to bake crème brûlée, and how to tell it is done

Bake for 30 minutes at 160 °C with conventional heat (no fan), in a tray of boiling water that comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. When they come out, the custards should still tremble when you move the dish; they settle as they cool.

Some ovens run hotter or cooler than the dial says, so watch the custards rather than the clock. They should not bubble while they bake – if they start to, turn the heat down.

Chilling: why the ramekins stay uncovered

Chill the baked custards for at least 3–4 hours, uncovered. Leaving them open is the simplest way to stop condensation forming on the surface. If you prefer to cover them, fit the lids tightly.

How to make crème brûlée without a torch

Use the oven grill (broiler). Stand the chilled ramekins in a tray of ice-cold water, ideally with ice cubes, sprinkle the sugar over the top, and put the tray at the top of the oven under the grill until the sugar has melted and coloured. Watch them the whole time and take them out as soon as the crust is evenly golden.

For another caramel dessert, try our salted caramel brownies.

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