Easy Crème Brulée

Crème Brulée, which lit­er­al­ly means “burnt cream,” is a French dessert con­sist­ing of a rich cus­tard cream base, topped with a hard caramel. The con­trast between the hard caramel and the soft cream makes for a deli­cious­ly impres­sive dessert. I assumed that such con­trast would be very com­pli­cat­ed to cre­ate. To my sur­prise, I found that crème brulée is actu­al­ly easy to pre­pare! After try­ing sev­er­al recipes, I found a recipe that is easy to fol­low, and gives a great result: a deli­cious crème brulée with a light vanil­la fla­vor. This dessert is sure to impress your guests! Enjoy!

The best recipe I found so far is this French recipe, avail­able here.

Utensils

The recipe calls for carameliz­ing with a Butane Torche. Though this is the most com­mon way to do it, you can also caramelize the cream by broil­ing it in your oven, which is what I did. Hence, you don’t real­ly need to buy a butane torch if you don’t want to. How­ev­er you will need ramekins to bake the cream in. If you do not have any, you can buy ramekins here:

Addi­tion­al­ly, because the cream needs to be refrig­er­at­ed for a min­i­mum of 4 hours after bak­ing, it is a good idea to pre­pare the cream the day before, and refrig­er­ate it overnight.

Recipe

Print Recipe

Crème Brulée

Course

Dessert

Prep Time

10 min­utes

Cook Time

40 min­utes

Pas­sive Time

4 hours

Serv­ings

peo­ple

Ingre­di­ents

• 6 egg yolks
• 2 cups Heavy Whip­ping Cream (500ml)
• 1/4 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar (50g)
• 1 vanil­la bean
• 6 table­spoons Raw Cane Sug­ar (to caramelize the top)

Course Dessert Prep Time 10 min­utes Cook Time 40 min­utes Pas­sive Time 4 hours Serv­ings peo­ple Ingre­di­ents 6 egg yolks 2 cups Heavy Whip­ping Cream (500ml) 1/4 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar (50g) 1 vanil­la bean 6 table­spoons Raw Cane Sug­ar (to caramelize the top)

Instruc­tions

1. Pre­heat oven to 325 degrees Fahren­heit. In a sal­ad bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sug­ar. Note: make sure you are only using the egg yolks, not the egg whites! (Egg whites are not used for crème brulée; you can put them aside and use them for anoth­er recipe).
2. Split the vanil­la bean down its length using a knife. Scrape out the vanil­la seeds with a knife. The vanil­la seeds is what we will be using in the crème brulée.
3. In a pot, warm the cream with the scraped seeds of the vanil­la bean until it starts boil­ing. As soon as it starts boil­ing, pour the cream on the egg yolk and sug­ar mix. Mix and fil­ter using a strain­er. Fill 6 ramekins.

   
4. Place the 6 ramekins in a big dish filled with warm water. This is called a “bain marie”. Bake in the oven for about 30–40 min­utes. The cream is done bak­ing once it is no longer liq­uid. If you take the cream out of the oven and it is still liq­uid, put it back in and bake some more.

   
5. Let it cool down and put it in the fridge a min­i­mum of 4 hours (or overnight).
6. When you are ready to serve the cream, sprin­kle the top with raw cane sug­ar.

   
7. Caramelize the top by using a butane torch or broil­ing it in the oven for about 3 min­utes. Wait 1 minute and serve imme­di­ate­ly. Enjoy!

   

Share this Recipe

The tra­di­tion­al fla­vor of Crème Brulée is vanil­la. How­ev­er, you can use oth­er fla­vors, such as coconut or orange, for exam­ple.

Bon Appétit!

French Mom

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