Creme Brulee is one of my favorite easy dessert recipes. That’s right—Easy—and it requires only 5 ingredients to create this classic French dessert recipe. The creamy custard is topped with an irresistible, crunchy burnt sugar topping. This dessert will impress everyone who enjoys a cup!
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Helpful Reader Review
“Once I started making this at home, I had to quit ordering it at restaurants because I’m always disappointed. Your recipe is THE. BEST. crem brulee I’ve ever had!” – Sene ★★★★★
Creme Brulee Video
Grab a few fridge staples to make these luxurious pots of silky Creme Brulee custard. I’ll show you how I use my blow torch to create that famous crisp sugar topping.
Easy Creme Brulee Recipe
I’m here to tell you that you can make this fancy crème brûlée recipe with just 5 simple ingredients in your very own kitchen, blowtorch and all. It’s also totally approachable! My teenage son makes this on his own (with some supervision of the blowtorch). Creme Brulee is his favorite dessert, and I’m definitely not complaining!
Crème Brûlée (pronounced “krem-broo-lay”) means “burnt cream” in French. It’s a classic dessert made from a creamy custard base topped with a layer of sugar. The sugar is then caramelized or “burnt” with a kitchen torch to create a hardened, crunchy top.
Creme Brulee Ingredients
Open your fridge (and pantry) to find the 5 staple ingredients needed to make creme brulee from scratch. So easy!
- Heavy Whipping Cream has a higher fat content to set the custard properly. You can substitute it with full-fat coconut milk or cream for a dairy-free creme brulee.
- Egg yolks – help set the mixture to create a rich and thick custard. Save the egg whites for Pavlova or an Egg White Omelette.
- Sugar – I use granulated sugar for the custard and the caramelized topping
- Salt – Salt balances the sweetness and brings out the flavor.
- Vanilla – Use Homemade Vanilla or store-bought real vanilla extract, vanilla beans cut lengthwise and de-seeded, or vanilla paste.
How to Substitute Vanilla:
If you want to use a different form of vanilla, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract is equal to the seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.
If you prefer a different flavor altogether, try my Espresso Crème Brûlée, and Pumpkin Crème Brûlée, so you’ll have a favorite for every season!
How to Make Crème Brûlée
Making vanilla creme brulee from scratch is simple! Check out my tips for what to do if you don’t have a blow torch:
- Warm the cream – heat heavy cream in a saucepan until steaming, and then add vanilla extract and remove from heat.
- Add the eggs – whisk egg yolks, sugar, and salt together in a separate bowl, and then slowly pour the hot cream into the mixture while whisking.
- Strain the custard mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (optional, but it helps ensure the silkiest consistency). Pour into 6 (4 oz) ramekins and then place them into a casserole dish.
- Water bath – add boiling hot water to the casserole dish, and bake the creme brulee at 325˚F for 30-35 minutes (if using larger ramekins, increase the baking time). Crème brûlée is done when the centers are nearly set, with a slight wobble when you give the pan a jolt. Overbaking will result in a firm, more flan-like consistency rather than a creamy custard. Cool on a wire rack, cover, and then refrigerate at least 2 hours to set.
- Caramelize the Sugar – Just before serving, swirl up to 2 tsp sugar evenly over the custards, and then torch the top using circular motions until the sugar becomes deep amber in color.
Pro Tip:
A small, inexpensive handheld multi-purpose torch does the job. I picked up mine at Home Depot along with a can of butane. Also, a flame-thrower torch borrowed from the garage will also work fine.
Can I Make Creme Brulee Without a Torch?
True, you won’t hear that iconic “crack,” but I’ve tested other ways to make the hard caramelized topping (including under an oven broiler), but they don’t turn out consistently. Save yourself some frustration, and instead and try these toppings instead:
- Fresh Raspberries – or mixed berries with a mint leaf for color
- Citrus – orange or tangerine segments with citrus zest
- Berry Sauce – homemade Strawberry Sauce, or berry sauce from our Panna Cotta
- Caramel – drizzle your creme brulee with Caramel Sauce or Butterscotch Sauce
- Shaved bittersweet chocolate also makes an easy substitute for the crackly sugar topping.
I hope you’re inspired to whip up some quick and easy creme brulee this week! It’s easily one of my favorite desserts to make whenever I entertain, since it’s effortlessly impressive and so tasty.
Creme Brulee
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar, plus extra for caramelizing
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
Instructions
- Warm the cream – Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Pour heavy cream into a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring frequently until steaming and almost at a simmer, then add vanilla and remove from heat.
- Add the eggs – In a medium bowl, whisk together 5 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt until blended. While whisking constantly, gradually drizzle in the hot cream. Start very slowly to avoid scrambling your eggs.
- Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup with a pouring lip. Discard anything left in the sieve. Divide the mixture into 6 (4-oz) ramekins and place in a 9×13 casserole dish.
- Water bath – Fill the baking dish with boiling water about halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake at 325˚F for 30-35 minutes, depending on your ramekin size, or until the centers are nearly set and have just a slight wiggle in the center. Carefully transfer ramekins from the water bath to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, and then cover and refrigerate creme brulee until fully chilled (2 hours or up to 3 days).
- Caramelize sugar** – When ready to serve, put 1 1/2 to 2 tsp sugar on each custard, swirling to spread evenly. Use a Blowtorch over the top, moving in a circular pattern until the whole surface is caramelized to a deep amber color.
Notes
Storage:
- Make Ahead: The custard can be made 3 days in advance, cooled, covered, and refrigerated. You’ll want to wait until serving to add the sugar topping; otherwise, the humidity of the refrigerator will soften the caramelized topping.
- To Refrigerate – cool the custard in under 2 hours, cover tightly with plastic wrap so it doesn’t touch the top, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- Freezing: It’s also possible to freeze creme brulee, though it may reduce the quality of the custard a bit. Prepare and bake the custard as directed, leaving off the sugar topping. Once the ramekins have cooled, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and foil and freeze them for up to 1 month. Thaw in the fridge, then top them with sugar and torch them as usual before serving.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
More Single-Serving Desserts
Once you try this easy crème brûlée recipe, check out my other single-serve dessert recipes, perfect for Valentine’s Day or a special occasion.
- Chocolate Lava Cakes
- Apple Roses
- Chocolate Mousse
- Mini Cheesecakes
- Cream Puffs
- Strawberry Shortcakes
- Lemon Posset
- Raspberry Macarons
- Eclairs
- Chocolate Soufflé Recipe
Easily the best crème brûlée I’ve ever had. It maintained a good firm texture over several days in the fridge and made and excellent top.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Quinn! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I’d never made crème brûlée before and I used this recipe and made it twice in a couple of weeks for guests and everyone loved if. I’m so glad I tried this recipe first. It’s the best and an absolute keeper! Next, I’d like to try adding some passion fruit puree…
Love the recipe, worked great! I’d love to see a coconut macaroons recipe to use up some of the leftover egg whites 🙂
I have a customer whos friend is going through Chemotherapy and is craving these. I will make individual servings. Can they be frozen?
Hi Sandi! I haven’t tried freezing it but based on my research, it can be.
For a fun twist replace cream with southern comfort vanilla spice eggnog
Thank you for that suggestion, Fish!
Hi! Love this recipe! It used to be possible to change the measurements to metric, but it’s not working now. I’ve tried different browsers and on my phone. Is it possible to make this function work again?
Hi Barbara, I just tried to change it on the recipe card and it worked well, it may be your browser? I recommend trying a new browser or restarting your device/ clearing your cache. I wish I could be more helpful from afar.
This was great, I definitely recommend anyone making this to get a sifter. The one that got the last of my cream/egg mixture had egg pieces in it. It’s not a bad thing just throws you off texture wise.
I really like how as long as you do it slowly you can temper the eggs and not have to let the cream cool. A lot of recipes I’ve seen have the person waiting for it to be room temp. This makes it a lot quicker to make than the other recipes. Appreciate the instructions. Made it great my first try!
BEST EVER! It was such a hit with family and friends
I would like to ask why my crime brûlée shrank around 35% on volume after the 45’ in the oven bath? How can I solve the substantial volume shrinking? And the temperature was 325 F degrees, what did I wrong?
Hi Andrea! Did you make any changes to the recipe or ratios of ingredients? The most common cause is overcooking. This could be due to the oven and even the type of ramekins used. Not all oven bake evenly. Are you using a conventional oven? If your using a convection/fan oven, it would bake faster and adjustments would be needed.
If you don’t already, I highly encourage the use of an internal oven thermometer (Amazon affiliate link) to ensure you’re oven temp is accurate. You may try lowering the temperature just a bit to ensure a more gentle cooking process. I hope that helps.
Probably a crazy question, but can I just use one of those lighters with a long handle instead of a torch?
I’m not sure that it would work well.
This my favorite dessert by far! Your recipes always work and are tasty. Strangely enough, when filling my ramekins, I had only enough for 5 -4oz. ramekins. I always use measure-by-weight everything mixed up per plan yet only five not six.
With tongue & cheek, could this be why you ‘didn’t want to talk about it’, meaning the 5 ramekins in your fridge? Haha. I will try interpolating the recipe to fill that sixth cup.
Anyway, I loved your dramatics. I use the small torch as the linoleum torch is bit of an overkill.
I think I will top the burnt sugar with blueberries – the favorite of my wife, who is also Ukrainian but coming to America only two years ago.
I wonder if you had larger size ramekins? It’s hard not to eat them and I couldn’t wait. ha!
I tried that. It leaves a butane odor that dilutes that scrumptious flavor. These torches are low cost, and the can of fuel lasts a long time. Maybe check Natasha’s notes for the link to buy one. Sure, she earns a small commission — but our lessons here are free. 🙂
It definitely did not work for me at all. Added sugar to all 3 ramekins and thought it wouldn’t be too big of a difference if it didn’t melt, but it was. It was inedible. 🙁
Hi! Great recipe, and I may have an alternative for the sugar crust!
I made creme brulle with my friend before, and since we didn’t have a torch, we followed a recipe that says the melt some sugar in a pan until it is a dark gold color amd add a bit of water. Then you should pour the melted sugar on top of the creme brulee and let it harden. It creates a lovely golden crust for your creme brulee that is just as fun to Crack open!
I hope that this helps anyone looking for a crust alternative!
Oh that’s a great suggestion! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
300 degrees for 30-35 minutes is not nearly long enough for it to set. It needs to be 325 for 30-40 minutes.
Hi, it can depend on how hot your water is that you pour in, and also if your oven was fully preheated. Not all ovens are created equal. When I put an oven thermometer in my oven, I found out that it was 25 degrees under when it said it was preheated so I have to let it preheat for longer.
So pleased with how this turned out! It was simpler to make and tasted like it was much harder to prepare than it actually was. Thank your for a very well-written recipe and all the tips.
I’m so glad you loved it! Thank you.
The recipe looks like it would be easy to cut in half, except for the egg. Any suggestions?
Hi Teri, if you need to halve an egg, You can crack the egg into a bowl and beat it lightly with a fork to combine the yolk and white. Then, measure out roughly half of the beaten egg by volume using a tablespoon or measuring cup. If the recipe calls for 1 egg, you can use approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons of the beaten egg. I hope that helps.
what happens if you add the egg yolk mixture into the warm pot with the milk instead of cream into eggs? i did it that way accidentally and it tasted great, but also the same so not sure if i missed something. there were literally zero solidified egg pieces when i strained which surprised me
Hi Russell! That’s great that it turned out for you. In my experience it can cook the egg yolks
if doing it that way so this has been the most efficient and recommended way to do it.
A great recipe. A smooth and creamy custard with just the right amount of vanilla.
I used 250ml wide-mouth mason jars and a glass pan for the water bath. 35min cook time was not nearly enough to set. So checking every 10min, it needed 30 min more in the oven. Total cook time was 1 hour to set with a wobble at the center. For the brûlée, I used turbano sugar and it caramelized easily.
This recipe is perfection!
Thank you.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, RG!
Simply wonderful!
This is my third time making it. I followed the recipe completely the first time. Then I added a heaping teaspoon of espresso powder. I put half of the sugar.
It is amazingly simple to make and quite wonderful!!
Thank you for this recipe!!
please provide the vanilla creme brulee recipe online in a printable format. following recipe on computer in kitchen while cooking is not appreciated, nor is writing the recipe while the video is running.
HI Janis, if you scroll down to the recipe card, that is a print-friendly version that prints on a page or two usually. I hope that helps! There’s also a button at the top that takes you to that recipe card.
I had no problem following this wonderful recipe on my computer. Printing is a waste of trees
Hi Natasha I don’t have any ramekins,can I use a 8×8 glass dish or any other size dish instead?
I haven’t tested it with a 8×8 glass dish yet to advise
Hi Natasha! If I wanted to half this recipe for two 6-ounce ramekins instead, how many egg yolks should be used?
Hi Babs, if you need to halve an egg, You can crack the egg into a bowl and beat it lightly with a fork to combine the yolk and white. Then, measure out roughly half of the beaten egg by volume using a tablespoon or measuring cup. If the recipe calls for 1 egg, you can use approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons of the beaten egg. I hope that helps.
Awesome, thank you for this! Could we also substitute the heavy cream with milk instead?
Hi Babs, milk won’t thicken to the desired consistency as whipping cream will.