Classic Creme Brulee (4 Ingredients Only!)
Classic Creme Brûlée is a creamy, smooth, custard dessert. A simple recipe on how to make this Creamy Custard Dessert with a sugary crust. It takes only 4 ingredients and under 15 minutes to make this Creme Brulee Recipe.
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What Is Creme Brulee?
This Classic Creme Brulee is a custard topped with a thin caramelized sugar layer, which is achieved by melting the granulated sugar using a blow torch. The thin layer of hard caramel is one of the most iconic components of this custard dessert.
As I was making something with a ton of egg whites, I had some egg yolks leftover and wanted to use it them up. Creme Brûlée was the first thing that came to mind and since it’s a super relatively easy thing to make, I went for it.
All you need for this creamy, smooth, custard dessert is eggs, sugar, heavy cream and vanilla bean/extract, 15 minutes of your time and the oven and the fridge will do the rest of ‘heavy lifting’. Now get to it, you know you want to!
Classic Creme Brulee Recipe(4 Ingredients Only!)
Yield: 12 ramekins (1/2 cup each)
Ingredient for Creme Brulee:
- Egg yolks
- cream
- sugar
- vanilla
How to make Creme Brûlée:
- Whisk the egg yolks with sugar and vanilla, then temper them with hot cream.
- Divide the custard between the ramekins and bake in the over in a water bath. Remove and allow to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.
- Right before serving sprinkle with sugar and using a blow torch melt it into a caramel layer.
Try these other Creme Brulee related desserts:
- Banana Creme Brulee Tart Recipe – Puff pastry brushed with chocolate, filled with custard and topped with bananas.
- Coffee and Chocolate Pot de Creme – Little pots of chocolate cream heaven.
- Grapefruit Creme Brulee – A classic creme brulee recipe with a grapefruit twist!
Here’s an easy print version with the more detailed version of the recipe.
Classic Creme Brule (4 Ingredients Only!)
A classic creamy and smooth custard dessert. This simple classic Crème Brulle is
ready in under 15 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 cups heavy cream
- 6-8 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp vanilla extract or seeds of 1 vanilla pod
For Caramelized Crust:
- 12 tsp fine sugar
Instructions
How to make the Creme Brulee:
Prep:
-
Turn oven to 325°F.
-
Line a baking sheet with tall sides (glass baking dish or turkey roasting dish works well) with 2 layers of paper towel or 1 layer of kitchen towel, set aside.
-
Place the empty ramekins inside the baking dish.
-
Fill a tea kettle with water and allow to come to a boil.
To Make the Creme Brulee Mixture
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Add 4 cups heavy cream to a large saucepot and allow to come to a simmer. If using the vanilla seeds add them right now.
-
Meanwhile, whisk together 6-8 egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until pale yellow color.
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Pour the hot heavy cream into the egg yolk/sugar mixture in a thin stream, while continuously whisking to prevent the egg yolks from curdling. If using the vanilla extract add it to the mixture.
-
Pour the mixture into the ramekins. This is best done using a pitcher.
To Bake & Chill
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Put the baking dish with filled ramekins onto the middle rack of the hot oven and pour the hot water around the ramekins until it comes halfway up to the sides. Loosely cover with foil.
-
Slide the baking rack back inside the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Then, remove from the oven and allow to come to room temperature. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours until thoroughly chilled.
-
Within 30 minutes, sprinkle the tops with 1 tsp of sugar and shake around until it covers the surface. Now using a torch caramelize the top.
To caramelize the top:
-
Hold the ramekin in one hand at a 45 degree angle with the blow torch in another hand. Go over the sugar with the blow torch in circles, rotating the ramekin which will allow the sugar to caramelize the whole surface and make an even layer of the sugar crust.
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Question
Are you saying to leave the paper towel or kitchen towel in the pan while it’s cooking in the oven?
Yes Paula. The water around the towels will prevent it from burning if that is something you were worried about 🙂
I need to make 12 for our group. How many does this recipe make?
This recipe makes about 5 cups of the creme brule. Take a measuring cup and pour enough liquid to fill your 12 ramekins and count how many cups water you used. Then translate that into how much creme brule you need to make.
Recipe calls for eight 1/2 cup ramekins. Here you say “twelve”I did wind up with twelve but had to do a quick 2-step getting more ramekins out and a larger baking dish to put them in! In the oven will follow up…
Currently making these!! Question – when taking out of the oven to cool at room temp & fridge, am I leaving the ramekins in the baking dish & water bath still? Just curious. Thank you!
Hi Melissa,
You should remove the ramekins out of the water bath to cool. Just remove them and place them onto a wire rack to help the air to circulate all around and speed up the cooling. If you don’t have the cooling rack, just leave it out on the table.
Yum! I can’t believe this but I’ve never actually made creme brûlée. I don’t have a torch!
You know what to get yourself for Christmas now 😉
So delicious looking! Creme brulee is one of my favourite desserts in the world. Eating it always takes me back to one rainy day dinner in Paris and sharing a two-person ramekin of creme brulee with Brad. I’ve actually never made it myself but I think I will this week while kids are away at camp. 😉 Thank you for the inspiration, my friends!
Oh, I need to make a creme brule-Paris memory…I have creme brule, now I just need to make it to Paris lol
You will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to make 🙂
Creme brulee is my husbands favorite dessert. Funny story, we were in Riviera Maya for our honeymoon a few years ago and were at a resort with 7 different restaurants. We would special order creme brulee at all of the non-French restaurants because we knew the kitchens of the restaurants were all mostly in one area. We loved eating unlimited creme brulee! 🙂 Your photos look so clear and crisp, I love how you set up the photo. Now, would you mind bringing one all the way over to Ohio? 😉
Clever of you guys 😉 and thank you for your wonderful comment! Now let me put a couple of them through the fax machine 😀