🍮 Crème brûlée
Crème brûlée is a baked custard of cream, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla, finished with a layer of sugar caramelised into a hard, crackling shell. The contrast between the brittle top and the cold, silky custard underneath is the whole point. It is baked gently in a water bath in shallow ramekins and torched just before serving.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 ml cream
- 5 egg yolks
- 80 g sugar, plus 4 tbsp for the top
- 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Heat the oven to 150 °C. Warm the cream with the split vanilla pod until steaming, then remove from heat.
- Whisk the egg yolks with 80 g sugar, then slowly whisk in the warm cream and strain.
- Pour into 4 shallow ramekins, set in a roasting tin and add hot water halfway up their sides.
- Bake 30–35 minutes until set at the edges but still wobbly in the centre. Cool, then chill 3 hours.
- Sprinkle each with 1 tbsp sugar and caramelise with a torch until amber.
How to make it lighter
- Cream makes this one of the richest custards; a 120 g ramekin is a full dessert, so skip extras on the side.
- Choose smaller, shallow ramekins: the crust stays the same, the custard portion shrinks.
- Serve with fresh berries to make a smaller portion feel more generous.
History
The name means 'burnt cream' in French, and a recipe under that name appears in François Massialot's cookbook of 1691. Similar custards existed in England and Catalonia, and each claims a share of its history. The dessert became a restaurant favourite worldwide from the 1980s.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →