Air Fryer Crème Brûlée Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret of crème brûlée? ›

Baking crème brûlée in a water bath, also known as a “bain-marie” in French cuisine, is a gentle and precise cooking method that helps ensure the custard cooks evenly resulting in a creamy, and velvety custard with a perfect texture. The water bath helps prevent overcooking and promotes even heating.

Both are rich, delicate, vanilla-scented custards, but the former is topped with a hard, crackly caramel lid, while the latter is coated in a liquid caramel sauce that forms during baking (the caramel actually starts on the bottom, but becomes the top when inverted, like a flan).

It could be your sugar. I find sugar in the raw to be the easiest and most even burning sugar for creme brûlée. You could also combine equal parts brown sugar and white sugar. When burning the sugar make sure to keep moving the torch evenly across the sugar.

For the caramelized sugar crust, we recommend turbinado or Demerara sugar. Regular granulated sugar will work, too, but use only 1 scant teaspoon on each ramekin or 1 teaspoon on each shallow fluted dish.

Heavy Cream Is The Traditional Dairy In Crème Brûlée

While there are only a handful, they come together to create harmony in a ramekin. The crème brûlée base is typically made with heavy cream, which gives it an over-the-top, decadent, and rich flavor.

French, literally, scorched cream.

Crème brûlée or crème brulée (/ˌkrɛm bruːˈleɪ/; French pronunciation: [kʁɛm bʁy. le]), also known as burnt cream or Trinity cream, and virtually identical to crema catalana, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar.

Undercook the creme brulee and it will still be liquid. Overcook it, and it might curdle. It's why during this step you carefully cook the egg yolks. In a creme brulee you want the entire filling to be set, smooth and firm.

If you don't have ramekins, use a large wide ceramic or glass dish. Do not use metal. The bake time will increase with a larger size pan. Oven Broiler Directions: If you don't have a kitchen torch, use the oven broiler to caramelize the sugar in step 7.

How do you mess up crème brûlée? ›

Sprinkle the sugar over the top of the custard to create a thin layer of sugar. Broil the crème brûlée. Set the oven to broil and the temperature to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the ramekins on the top shelf and let them broil until they become lightly golden or for about one minute.

Equipment: For best results, use a kitchen-size propane torch to “burn” the sugar crust.

Before You Fire up the Torch

Crème brûlée is an elegant French dessert with a creamy, often vanilla-flavored base and a crunchy, caramelized sugar topping. Once you've got the crème part down, it's time for the brûlée—which means "burnt" in French. You'll be using a butane culinary torch.

Tips for the Perfect Caramelized Topping:

Cover custard completely with sugar: You want to cover the top of each custard completely with a thin layer of sugar, because any exposed custard will curdle when you torch it. The amount of sugar will depend on the width of your ramekins.

Undercooked: It's possible that you didn't bake it long enough. Crème brûlée should be set around the edges but still slightly wobbly in the center when you take it out. It will continue to set as it cools. Too much liquid: Make sure you're using the right proportion of cream to egg yolks.