Creme Brulee Recipe
French Burnt Cream Custard

This creme brulee recipe may quickly become one of your favorite desserts. Of course, several countries have their version of this dessert, including England where you will find it called burnt cream.

Recipe Notes

This lovely dessert is a symphony of tastes and sensations. The hard, warm, almost bitter tasting caramel top contrasts with the cool, smooth, sweet cream custard on the bottom. Your mouth is pleased in so many different ways!

Since it has to cook for a while, and chill even longer, it might be convenient for you to make it in the evening for dessert the next day. The actual mixing of the ingredients is taken care of in just a few minutes.

The only hard part about making this recipe is that it requires caramelizing the sugar topping just before serving. The aim is to get a hard shell caramelized finish without warming the cream underneath and this can be difficult without the right tool. You may find that your oven broiler is strong enough to accomplish this, but all I ever get is a mushy warm custard cream and sugar that is barely melted.

So I splurged on a blow torch. Actually it cost very little and is well worth the price because creme brulee is so easy and delicious, it is worth making again and again. Also you can use the culinary torch to brown meringues and melt cheese toppings.

This creme brulee recipe is best made in shallow ramekins that allow a maximum of surface area. This way you get a bite of crunchy topping with every spoonful.