Vanilla Crème Brûlée Recipe (2024)

Another way to brown is the sugar is to use a metal spoon, heat it up for a minute on the stove and lightly touch the sugar. Do it gently and a couple of times and it gets brown and crispy!

Suggestion: Warm everything up first. Set the eggs and cream out so they warm up to room temperature. Fill the baking dish with hot tap water and use that to warm up your ramekins while you assemble the mixture. Then, once the oven's preheated and the water's boiling in a pot on the stove, remove the ramekins from the baking dish and toss the warm water, fill the ramekins with the mixture, pour the boiling water and put it in the oven.

I absolutely love this recipe and often just make it for 2 :) Here are the measurements for the recipe divided by 2.5 to get to 2 egg yolks:3/4 cups of heavy cream 1 teaspoon of vanilla (I keep it at 1 for the flavor)2 egg yolks 1/2 cup of sugar Enjoy!

Very nice, well-received at a dinner party on my first attempt even! However, I'm making it again for a few reasons: one, 30 mins wasn't nearly enough time, for at 30 mins the center was still liquid. I baked it for closer to 50 mins; two, to perfect the sugar/browning (I think a bit more sugar and a bit less time, at least with my oven's broiler); and three, to know how much time it needs to set up after browning, to better coordinate it when serving at a dinner party.

Really good & nearly foolproof recipe for crème brulee. I prefer using kitchen torch instead of broiler setting on oven for the brulee step. Not sure anyone has mentioned this in previous comments, but to share the rookie mistake I made 30 years or so ago when newer to brulee making, the reason this says serve within two hours is if you let the brulee sit to long the sugar will start to melt. I only had to make that mistake once. But to share so others might avoid it. ;-)

I am a 20 year old male just now learning to cook - decided to serve this after the first dinner I ever cooked for my family. They went goggle-eyed when I whipped out the blowtorch and they lost their minds when they tasted it. This thing is the easiest dessert you will ever cook and it tastes fantastic. Thank you NYtimes

I am a 12 year old girl, and this was the first dessert I made. It was super fun to make, and it was easy! Now I want to be a pastry chef when I grow up. Thank you very much!!

Real Crème brûlée is never baked above 212 F - it’s supposed to be dense and rich, not airy, gummy, fluffy. When you overheat the cream, like this recipe does, it causes it to dome before collapsing. I’m really disappointed in this recipe - check out Emile Henri’s recipe for a better result.

I've made this recipe a lot of times and it is fantastic. However, I cook it at 200 degrees for about an hour and ten minutes. The texture comes out creamier. I was feeling a little adventurous and decided to make chocolate creme brulee with this recipe, and I added three tablespoons of cocoa powder. There were a few lumps of cocoa when I was done, so I strained it. It turned out amazing. Also, I add all the ingredients cold into a bowl, and cook over a double boiler until it is just hot.

I agree that you really NEED a butane torch to get the proper crust. And most restaurants do 3 thin layers of sugar to get ultimate "Crunch"

This is a very tasty, fancy, and yet easy dish. I am 13 and made this for my family. It was delicious and very simple to make! One thing to be aware of is that the bake time is a little off, is I needed to leave mine in longer than 30 minutes... It was probably more like 40 mins. maybe longer. That being said, make sure to watch the actual "jigglyness" of the creme brulee' instead of just going by the time of the recipe... All in all, I highly recommend this rec

Hi, try this... after you add all the ingredients in the pan, before you put them in the ramekins try cooking the custard a little longer, constantly Stirring. When it coats the back of a wooden spoon without running off. Slide your finger through the custard base is done when it Holds the shape. Happy baking! :-)

Didn't have a torchblower, and I was worried from the comments the oven way wouldn't work, so I put the ramequins in a dish half filled with ice cubes and cold water and put the dish about 3-4 minutes on broil - worked perfectly! best crème brûlée I ever ate!

Best recipe for creme brûlée ever. I’ve made lots of creme brûlée and this one is the best, no frills, no odd flavors, just simple custard at its velvety best. I do pour it through a sieve just to make sure there isn’t the odd bit of something or another. Comes out perfect every time. I should add that I use heavy cream, not half and half. Very easy.

Simple and perfect. Amazing what a little cream, a little sugar, and a few eggs can turn into.

Thank you so much for this recipe. That fact that it could be made with 1/2 and 1/2 makes it possible for me to want to make it. I have made it twice already, cutting the recipe in 1/2 and making 2 portions. The first time around I believe I added a full tsp of vanilla instead of cutting that in half. It was spectacular!!! The best Creme brulee ever. I have invested in brulee dishes and I’ve bought a new torch. Having fun!!

Everything about this recipe was wonderful except the cook time they provided. It took closer to an hour and a half to get mine to set.

This is delicious and creamy. As others have said, it takes at least 40 minutes to cook, and 5 minutes under my broiler blackened the top. I should have set the timer for two minutes, then checked, and that probably would have been long enough. Otherwise, great recipe.

Excellent dressing- I doubled the quantity and added a tsp or so of Dijon, plus a splash of red wine vinegar to amp it up even more.

This crème brûlée was silky smooth & creamy. Followed the recipe and method except that I strained the mixture thru a fine mesh strainer to remove hard egg protein bits. Out butane kitchen torch yielded a shatteringly perfect top.

To bake, line line baking pan with kitchen towel, don’t let ramekins touch, and pour in hot water.

I’m not sure about the vanilla bean. Do put it in whole? Do you slit it open as shown here and scrape out the beans? Do you do this before cooking it?

Do I bake this on the middle rack or bottom of oven?

This was an utter failure for me. The custard didn’t set even after cooking for over an hour. And then I put them too close to the broiler and they blackened in under 5 minutes. Will try again, when I’m not in a rush. And I’ll use my propane torch.

Made with homemade vanilla extract and half and half. Wasn't sure what "just hot" meant, so I brought the half and half to about 150 and visibly steaming. I used another poster's suggestion to put a tea towel beneath the ramekins before adding the boiling water. Needed to bake them about 50 minutes to feel like the center was "barely set" - a knife inserted in the center came out thinly coated. We had a plumber's torch for the finish. It was really delicious! I'd make it again.

whoops! I believed you on the 5 minutes and had a blazing charred mess at 3 minutes. Can’t take this recipe literally!’Now I see the warning in the notes not to do this and check every 30 seconds

Outrageously good

After a Valentine's Day of mis-steps (husband had bad reaction to lunch of shrimp and corn chowder and seafood salad I had just brought home), then multiple smoke detectors going off due to smoking hot cast iron skillet where I was cooking zwiebelrostbraten and almost ended up having to call 911 for smoke inhalation, I managed to salvage the day with this wonderful recipe! So easy, so creamy, so good! "Restaurant worthy" review from same husband who somehow manages to still smile.

The secret is to use the best cream. Ban ultra pasteurized and try raw cream. Not readily available in NY but in Maine raw milk is easy to get.

Just saying, I only had 1 1/2 cups of half-and-half, so I topped it off with oat milk, and it ended up tasting great and had a smooth consistency. I tried to brown the sugar in the broiler, but had to finish it with a torch. Next time, I will use less sugar and toast 3 layers as suggested below. Delicious!