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Easy Crème Brûlée

Published on July 26, 2018

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Many beginner bakers are SHOCKED at how easy

creme brûlée is! Only 6 ingredients required and if
you follow my success tips, you’ll be gi!ed with the
smoothest, creamiest dessert ever.

Flecked with espresso and flavored with pure

vanilla, this is my favorite crème brûlée recipe.
The brilliantly creamy custard can only be reached
by cracking through a crisp caramelized sugar
ceiling. The textural di!erence between the two
layers is unbelievable and separates this dessert
from every other. Simply put, crème brûlée tastes
like luxury.

The GREAT news is that you don’t need to dine at

a fancy restaurant for the best crème brûlée
experience. Not many realize how easy it is to
make at home, not to mention several dollars
cheaper than the $12 price tag you pay at a
restaurant.

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Overview: How to Make

Crème Brûlée at Home
The full printable recipe is available below, but let
me walk you through the process so you can
understand the steps before beginning.

1 Start with kitchen staples: heavy cream,

sugar, egg yolks, salt, vanilla. I like adding a
little espresso powder for added flavor. What a
di!erence it makes! I know many may not have
espresso powder at the ready, so it’s an
optional ingredient. But trust me when I say
that espresso powder makes a good crème
brûlée the best crème brûlée.
2 Cook: Heat the heavy cream + salt on the stove.
O! heat, add vanilla to flavor. Whisk the egg
yolks and sugar together. Temper the egg yolk
mixture by slowly whisking in some of the
warm heavy cream. Pour into ramekins and
bake. Let them cool down, then chill for at least
4 hours or even overnight. (Overnight makes
crème brûlée an AWESOME make ahead
dessert and your guests will be entertained
when you whip out that kitchen torch for the
topping!)
3 Top with: sugar, then caramelize it under the
broiler or with a kitchen torch.

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That’s it, you’re done. Yes, it really is this easy.

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Crème Brûlée Success Tips

Best ratio: Heavy cream and egg yolks are the
key ingredients in crème brûlée. It took a little
bit of testing to figure out the best ratio, but I
loved 5 egg yolks with 3 cups of heavy cream
the most. This produces a VERY creamy and
lush crème brûlée. Save the le"over egg whites
and add them to omelets and scrambled eggs
the next few mornings.
Temper egg yolks: If you’ve never done it
before, tempering egg yolks is nothing to fear–
all you’re doing is slowly raising the
temperature of the egg yolks so they don’t
scramble. Whisk *some* of the warm heavy
cream into the egg yolks + sugar, then whisk it
all into the pot of warm heavy cream. You can
watch me temper the egg yolks in the video
tutorial.
Should I strain it? Straining the custard before
cooking it is, in my opinion, optional. If you
notice the custard is thick with any lumps,
definitely use your sieve to strain it before
baking.
Shallow ramekins: Serve crème brûlée in
individual ramekins. The small ramekins ensure
the custard cooks evenly, though you could use
a large wide ceramic dish instead. See my recipe
note below. I love using individual wide,
shallow ramekins so there is more surface area
for the caramelized sugar! I suggest these oval
ramekins or these circle ramekins. (This recipe
yields about 8-10 crème brûlées so you’ll need 2
sets of the oval ramekins OR you can bake the
extra custard in other ramekins you may have.)
Water bath: Place the ramekins in a large
baking dish (I used a 9×13-inch baking pan),
pour the custard in each, then fill the pan with
hot water. The water bath creates a moist and
humid environment for the crème brûlée, which
is imperative for their texture. (Same story for
lemon pudding cakes.) A regular hot oven
typically produces rubber-y tasting crème
brûlée with cracked surfaces.
Best bake time: You will likely over-bake
the crème brûlée your first time. That’s what my
friend told me before I began my crème brûlée
adventures. They key, he said, is to look for a
jiggly center. The edges will be set, the centers
will jiggle like jello. (Anyone ever watch My Best
Friend’s Wedding with Julia Roberts? Crème
brûlée can never be jell-o. YOU could never be
jell-o.) For a more accurate answer, use an
instant read thermometer. They’re done when
the thermometer registers 170°F (77°C).

By the way… my friend was right, I over-baked

them my first try. The next few tries, pictured in
this post, are texture perfection. You want that
creamy custard. Learn from my mistake and take
those custards out of the oven early.

Burnt Sugar Topping

Crème = cream. Brûlée = burnt. Burnt cream. So as
many times as I say “caramelized sugar” it’s really
burnt sugar. It’s the CRUNCH on the CREAM and
it’s so so tasty!

A"er the custards bake, cool, and chill, it’s time for
that special finishing touch. All we’re doing here is
sprinkling the surface with granulated sugar.
Some recipes insist on superfine sugar for the
topping and some recipes call for coarse sugar. I
tested the recipe with both, but ended up just
using regular granulated sugar– the same sugar
we’ll use in the custard themselves. It produced a
thick and sturdy caramelized sugar topping, just
the kind we want! One important note: Cover the
entire surface with a thin layer of granulated
sugar. No exposed custard. When applied to heat,
the cooled custard will curdle.

©Sallv'sBakin asallv'sBakinaAddicti

Kitchen Torch or Oven

Broiler?
For caramelizing, you need intense heat. A kitchen
torch is magic. Kitchen torches are surprisingly
inexpensive and the couple times a year that I
need it, I’m glad I have one. It really makes a
di!erence. Other recipes where I use my kitchen
torch:

S’mores Brownie Cupcakes

Brownie Baked Alaska
No-Bake S’mores Cake
S’mores Tartlets

See my recipe notes for using the oven broiler

instead.

Easy Crème Brûlée | Sally's Baki…

Burnt sugar on creamy custard = simple beauty

and decadence. Doesn’t this make you feel fancy?
We should be wearing pearls and eating our
crème brûlées with crystal spoons while sitting on
our gold thrones calling each other on our
diamond encrusted phones talking about how
fancy we are.

4.8 from 75 reviews

Easy Crème Brûlée

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Yield: serves 8

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Description

This is the BEST and creamiest crème

brûlée recipe! Flecked with espresso and
vanilla, you only need 6 simple ingredients
and they’re ready to bake in only 15
minutes.

Ingredients
5 large egg yolks
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar, divided
3 cups (720ml) heavy cream or heavy
whipping cream*
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder (optional
but recommended)*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract*

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ALDO Philippines
ALDO Philippines

Instructions
1 Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C).

2 Whisk the egg yolks and 1/2 cup (100g) of

granulated sugar together. Set aside. (At this
point or before you temper the egg yolks in
the next step, bring a small kettle or pot of
water to a boil. You’ll need hot water to pour
into the baking sheet for the water bath.)

3 Heat the heavy cream, espresso powder, and

salt together in a medium saucepan over
medium heat. As soon as it begins to simmer,
remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Remove about 1/2 cup of warm heavy cream
and, in a slow and steady stream, whisk into
the egg yolks. Keep those egg yolks moving
so they don’t scramble. In a slow and steady
stream, pour and whisk the egg yolk mixture
into the warm heavy cream.

4 Place ramekins in a large baking pan. If you

don’t have 1 pan large enough, bake them in
a couple pans. Divide custard between each
ramekin, filling to the top. Carefully fill the
pan with about a 1/2 inch of the hot water.
The baking pan will be hot so use an oven
mitt to carefully transfer the pan to the oven.

5 Bake until the edges are set and centers are a

little jiggly. The time depends on the depth
of your ramekins. My ramekins are 1-inch
and the custard takes 35 minutes. Begin
checking them at 30 minutes. For a more
accurate sign, they’re done when an instant
read thermometer registers 170°F (77°C).

6 Remove pan from the oven and, using an

oven mitt, remove the ramekins from the
pan. Place on a wire rack to cool for at least 1
hour. Place in the refrigerator, loosely
covered, and chill for at least 4 hours and up
to 2 days before topping.

7 Using the remaining granulated sugar,

sprinkle a thin layer all over the surface of
the chilled custards. Caramelize the sugar
with a kitchen torch and serve immediately
or store in the refrigerator for up to 1 hour
before serving. (Caramelized topping is best
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