Perfect Crème Brûlée | Learn Pastry Chef Secrets (2024)

Friends, if you want to learn to make the best possible creme brulee at home, please stick with me.

This is more a class in making creme brulee more than it is just a recipe, so if you want to know all the ins and outs of making perfect creme brulee, stick with me!

You may also want to take a look at my butterscotch creme brulee. And for ease of browsing, you can find all my custard recipes in one place. Now let’s jump right in.

Watch my how to make perfect creme brulee web story here.

Creme Brulee, At a Glance

Welcome to My Creme Brulee Class

And I’m not just saying that. Here’s a comment from reader (and creme brulee maker) Gayla:

Like Gayla, if you read this post all the way through and follow all my tips and tricks, you will be rewarded with a perfect creme brulee. Hooray!

And if you just want the recipe and are ready to go for it, please jump down to the recipe.

What Is Crème Brûlée?

Crème brûlée is a classic French still custard.

By still, I mean it is cooked undisturbed in the oven unlike stirred custards such as pastry cream and pudding that cook on the stove top.

The name literally means “burnt cream,” but in reality, the only “burnt” part is the sugar you sprinkle on top and then melt and caramelize with a handheld torch or under your broiler.

The classic flavor is vanilla bean, but you can easily make variations by steeping different spices and flavorings into the cream in the recipe.

What Makes the Perfect Crème Brûlée?

A perfect crème brûlée is a delight. Rarely do you find a perfect one.

Follow my tips, and you’ll soon be making your own perfect creme brulee. Probably even better than ones you’ve had in restaurants.

Ever seen crème brûlée served in ramekins like these?

Using ramekins that are shallow and wide ensures that you get a bite that runs from cold at the bottom through warm and then hot at the top and from silky smooth to crunchy with the lovely, thin, glass-like caramelized sugar topping, all without being so rich it’s hard to enjoy.

And it’s hard to deny that you get more delicious caramelized sugar crunch with wider ramekins.

What Kind of Torch To Get to Brulee Your Fancy French Custard

Here’s the Bernz-o-matic torch I have. It makes me feel like a badass.

You can also purchase these types of torches at your local home improvement store, along with the canisters.

Make sure to purchase the type of canister rated to go with the nozzle you buy.

If you’d like something a bit more understated for occasional use, consider a butane torch model.

You will need to purchase the butane canisters separately. You can get them at camping and outdoor stores, or go to your local Asian grocery store.

Tips for Making Crème Brûlée

• Do not leave out the salt. You will need approximately 1/4 teaspoon salt per 2 cups of cream. If you leave it out the creme brulee will taste very flat and won’t have a lot of character. The salt will bring out the sweetness, the vanilla, and the eggy goodness. Seriously, don’t leave it out.
• Crème brûlée should be served in shallow and wide ramekins. It’s rich, so 4-6 oz. is plenty.
• It should be brûléed (torched) right before service because part of the joy of the crème brûlée is the sensation of warm on top/cold on the bottom and the juxtaposition of the warm crisp sugar brûlée with the creamy cool custard.

To reiterate, I am Very Serious about NOT leaving out the salt. Learnwhysaltisnecessaryindesserts.

Vanilla Beans vs Vanilla Extract

I have made creme brulee with vanilla extract and with vanilla beans, and I am not sure I have a preference.

Since vanilla is the predominant flavor, if you’re going to use an extract, use an excellent quality extract. And if you like the look of specks of vanilla suspended in the custard, use a vanilla paste or an extract that features vanilla bean flecks in it.

Personally, I love Mexican vanilla, so I steeped a whole slit and scraped Mexican vanilla bean in the cream.

If you’d like to try Mexican vanilla extract, try Blue Cattle Truck. It’s one of the best I’ve found.

How to Make Crème Brûlée, Step by Step

As I said at the beginning of this post, crème brûlée isn’t necessarily hard to make, but like many French desserts, the magic is in the details. Here’s how to make it like a pastry chef.

1. Heat dairy.
   Bring the dairy to a simmer. If you are steeping anything in it, such as a split and scraped vanilla bean, lemon zest, a cinnamon stick, etc, put those in the hot cream and let them steep for at least 30 minutes or up to an hour. You can also pour your cream into a bowl, add your split and scraped vanilla bean (or whatever your using), and let it infuse for 24-48 hours in the fridge before heating anything up.
2. Divide sugar between the dairy and the yolks.
   Add half the sugar to the steeped cream and reheat to a simmer. Whisk the yolks together with the rest of the sugar and the salt. Whisk this mixture occasionally to keep the yolks nice and creamy.
3. Temper your cream into the eggs.
   While whisking the yolk mixture constantly, pour the hot cream (and whatever you’re steeping) into the yolks to bring the temperature up gradually. Once you’ve added about half the hot cream, you can pour the egg mixture back into the pan and whisk well. Resist the urge to continue to cook the custard until it thickens. You’ll end up with creme Anglaise and it will never set up in the oven.
4. Chill custard overnight.
   To get the smoothest, most gorgeous crème brûlée, cover the bowl and chill overnight. If you don’t have the time, you can continue with the baking, but you’ll get the silkiest custards by chilling the mix for at least a few hours.

Jenni Says: Chilling the custard overnight, or ripening it, ensures that it is completely cold before putting it in the oven. As I’ve said, the slower you cook it, the creamier it will be, so starting with a super chilled base makes sense.

Step-by-Step in Photos

For those of you who love a good visual, I’ve made some collages of some of the more important points of making creme brulee.

For each subheading, you’ll get an overview, a collage of numbered images, and, below the collage a detailed description of each photo.

Chilling Custard and Filling Ramekins

After you make the custard, ideally you’ll chill it overnight. Here’s what happens next:

1. After making your custard, tempering in the eggs, and pouring into a bowl, let it cool to warm, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh strainer and into a pitcher. DO THIS even if you didn’t steep anything in it. You want the custard to be as smooth as possible.
3. Arrange your ramekins on a half-sheet pan on an oven rack (pulled out) in your preheated oven. NOTE: You can line the pan with a kitchen towel to minimize splashing when you add the hot water. Fill each ramekin to within about 1/8″ of the top.
4. Carefully slide the rack back into position–there may be some sloshing. It happened to me. It’s fine. Carefully pour boiling water in to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins. NOTE: When my rack is pulled out, it tilts down just a bit, so I filled the pan a little way, then pushed the rack in so it would be level before adding the rest of the water. That way I don’t accidentally add too much.

Go Deeper: Filling the Ramekins and Getting That Water Bath Going

Water baths can be intimidating. You don’t want hot water to get on you or to splash into your custard or all over your oven. This is the best way I’ve found to get the custard into the ramekins, the ramekins in the pan, the pan in the oven, and hot water into the pan all without making a mess.

• Heat your oven to 250F-300F (depending on how much time you have).
• Bring a kettle of water to a boil (or heat a quart of water to a boil in the microwave).
• Line a shallow baking pan such as a half sheet pan with a kitchen towel. (Optional. But using a towel can minimize accidental splashing.)
• Place the empty ramekins into the pan on top of the towel.
• Pour the custard mixture into each ramekin to within 1/8″ of the top.
• If there are any bubbles on the surface of your custard, pop them by running your torch over each one.
• Pull out the center rack in your preheated oven.
• Carefully place the tray onto the rack and slide it back in.
• Once the rack is back in place, slowly pour the boiling water into the tray near the edge, away from the custards to keep it from splashing. Pouring slowly and pouring onto the towel will also help keep it from splashing.
• Fill the pan with water until it comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
• Close the oven door.
• Tada! No mess!

Pro Tip: To ensure the surface of your custard is completely smooth with no bubbles, briefly run your torch over the surface before baking to magically pop them.

Baking and Removing from the Oven

Filling your water bath and pushing the rack back into the oven is the hardest part. Now, to bake and get them out of the hot water without hurting yourself or dropping anything!

1. The custards will bake for roughly 45-50 minutes at 300F. Check them at about 40 minutes, and jiggle them a bit.
2. The custards are done when they wobble but don’t slosh. Another good indicator is that any egg mixture that ended up in your pan will also be done. You may also be able to tell that they are a bit more yellow when baked.
3. Pull the oven rack out, and lift each ramekin out of the hot water with a spatula. Get the ones in front and then place them on a dry pan, starting at the side away from you. This will minimize any accidental dripping into other custards while “de-water bathing.”
4. Allow the custards to cool to warm, and then refrigerate until cold. DO NOT cover with plastic wrap until they are cold. This minimizes condensation. This is important, because for even torching, the tops of the custards must be dry.

Getting Ready to Torch!

Can you serve creme brulee without torching it? Yeah, but then it’s not bruleed. You may as well just make vanilla pudding.

The torching part doesn’t have to be intimidating. Let’s run through it together.

1. Use a spoon to sprinkle a generous amount of sugar on top of your chilled and DRY custards.
2. Tilt the custards and tap them to spread the sugar evenly. When the first one is done, dump the excess onto the next one, adding more sugar as necessary.
3. Once the custards are nicely coated with a thin layer of sugar, wipe off the rims so you don’t get burnt sugar on your ramekins.
4. Torch! Hold the torch about 2″ (5 cm) from the custard and keep it moving. Move fairly quickly, but don’t rush.

If you want a thicker layer of sugar, repeat steps 1-4, but do it quickly. Remember, we still want the custard to be chilled on the bottom and warm at the top.

Troubleshooting the Caramelized Sugar

Using a torch, especially a big guy from the home improvement store, can be a little bit fraught. It’s a little heavy, and it takes a little time to get a smooth and even layer of caramel.

Here are a couple of issues that can come up and also how to prevent or at least minimize them.

Because, face it, even a less than perfect creme brulee is way better than having no creme brulee at all.

1. In the first image, I have just started to torch that guy. Notice that little bits are starting to burn. That’s because the surface of the custard wasn’t completely flat–I think I must’ve accidentally run parchment over it and messed it up a bit.
2. In the second photo, I’m holding the torch still in the center for just a second or two. Too long! I did this for y’all. But it’s a reminder to keep that torch moving in little circles while holding it far enough away from the custard that the sugar has time to melt before it caramelizes.
3. The two “problem children.” The one on the left has burned sugar in the center. It’s still edible, but it will definitely be a little bitter there in the middle. And the one on the right? The brulee is actually kind of beautiful, but it’s not perfect since the custard didn’t have a smooth, flat surface.

Crème Brûlée Questions & Answers

How Do I Know When It’s Done?

This is a great question and one that often trips people up.

You can rely on visual cues–that the custard shimmies rather than sloshes–but if you’ve never made it before, you may not be able to tell when the slosh ends and the shimmy begins.

To be perfectly sure, cook your creme brulees to an internal temperature of 165F. Just stick the probe of you instant read thermometer into the center of the custard.

Don’t worry. Any stab marks will be covered by the layer of sugar you brulee on top.

A Decadent Variation

What do you do to make a creme brulee even more decadent than it already is?

Add cream cheese and Greek yogurt and turn it into a cheesecake creme brulee.

If you love the original, you owe it to yourself to give this version a try!

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

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Thank you so much for taking the time!

And that’s it, friends. Enjoy your delicious, creamy French custard. Thanks for spending some time with me today.

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