Common Mistakes to Avoid When Making Crème Brûlée

Elegant may not be the first word that comes to mind when you think of dessert — unless you’re talking about crème brûlée. Crème brûlée is a classic French dessert featuring a cool, creamy custard with a crunchy, burnt sugar topping. This striking contrast is a part of the mouth-watering appeal of this decadent dish. Though the name is French — the direct translation means burnt cream — crème brûlée’s origin remains a mystery. A similar dessert, described as a sweet pudding with a burnt sugar top, dates as far back as 15th century England. Today, it’s a staple on dessert menus at restaurants everywhere, with delicious variations like mocha crème brûlée. Not to be confused with pots de crème, an eggier baked custard, crème brûlée is often compared to Spain’s crema Catalana. While vanilla is the traditional flavor créme brûlée is known for, crema Catalana is a softer, milk-based custard featuring notes of citrus and cinnamon.

During my stint as a restaurant line cook, I was often passed off to the pastry team when the kitchen wasn’t busy, and I spent hours preparing crème brûlée — separating eggs, steeping cream, and carefully tempering them together so they could be baked and chilled before diners arrived. I learned firsthand the missteps everyone makes when making crème brûlée and how to avoid them. These are the mistakes to avoid.

Serving crème brûlée in a ramekin is a classic presentation, but not just any ramekin will do, and choosing the wrong dish can ruin your custard. The standard ramekin with the tall sides might be the first thing you reach for when you’re making crème brûlée, but it’s actually not the best choice. The goal of this dessert is to create a wonderful balance of cool, creamy custard and crunchy burnt sugar topping. A regular ramekin is deep, perfect for baking individual soufflés, which need the additional space to rise, or shirred eggs.

For crème brûlée, a shallow ramekin or custard cup will produce the best result. Before cooking with custard cups in place of ramekins, it’s important to know the distinction between the two. Custard cups are similar to ramekins, but they are typically not as deep. A shallow dish makes it easier for the custard to cook evenly. Making crème brûlée in a deep ramekin instead of a shallow one can lead to an undercooked center and an overdone surface. A shallow ramekin or custard cup will also ensure the proper proportion of custard to burnt sugar topping.

Crème brûlée is all about texture. When prepared correctly, it should be silky smooth and velvety. You might think it’s just the heavy cream used to make it that is responsible for this smooth consistency, and it does play a role, but there’s another ingredient that’s also a huge contributor to creaminess — egg yolks. There’s a reason crème brûlée recipes call for egg yolks only and not whole eggs or egg whites. If you’ve ever wondered if you really need to separate eggs when baking, the answer is yes! Think of it as more than just an extra step in a recipe and more of an investment in the creamiest crème brûlée of your dreams.

Eggs contain protein, which, when heated, coagulates or solidifies. The fat in the yolks causes this to happen at a slower pace, but in egg whites, there’s no fat to decelerate this process. The whites will cause your crème brûlée to bake up with a sturdier texture instead of the soft, creamy texture you’re looking for. Using the whites is the egg mistake that hardens crème brûlée, so it’s best to set them aside for egg white breakfast cups or to make perfectly crunchy chicken breading.

The last thing you want when you’re making crème brûlée is a custard that bakes up dry, curdled, or cracked. Several steps can prevent this from happening, like carefully monitoring the temperature you’re cooking the custard at, paying close attention to the baking time, and, most importantly, baking your custard in a water bath. Baking with a water bath might seem like an unnecessary step, but it plays a big role in making sure your finished crème brûlée cooks evenly without cracking.

A water bath, also known as a bain-marie, is the process of cooking something in a large pot of water inside the oven. For crème brûlée, once you’ve poured the raw custard into your ramekins or custard cups, the ramekins are placed directly in the water. The goal of a water bath is to maintain moisture in the closed oven, ensuring that the custard cooks gently and evenly and doesn’t overcook. When you’re setting up your water bath, be sure not to overfill it. The water level should only reach about halfway up the sides of your baking dishes.

Traditional crème brûlée is known for its intense vanilla flavor that typically comes from steeping the cream with an open vanilla bean or by adding a high-quality vanilla extract. The resulting flavor is amazing and the taste we expect when we spoon into the custard. As much as we love the original, it’s sometimes fun to try something new. When you’re making crème brûlée, don’t be afraid to set tradition aside and add spices for an instant infusion of flavor. In other words, vanilla is not your only option for infusing your crème brûlée with flavor.

Take a deep dive into your spice drawer for inspiration for your next batch of crème brûlée. No disrespect to vanilla, but there are countless other options for making a delicious crème brûlée. You can rely on common spices like cinnamon or cardamom or mix it up with chai spices for a chai spice fall crème brûlée. Other spices like lavender, bay leaves, and saffron are also tasty options. Your imagination and spice rack are your only limitations. To use the spices, add them to the cream when you heat it, then let them steep for at least 30 minutes before straining and using in your custard.

Most dishes are either decidedly sweet or savory. There’s no in-between, but there are delicious exceptions to every rule in the kitchen. Paper-thin crêpes are just as comfortable being filled with fruit and drizzled with chocolate sauce as they are stuffed with spinach, turkey, and mushrooms. Crème brûlée can also go both ways. You can add savory ingredients like sweet corn or bay leaves to add a nuanced flavor to crème brûlée while still keeping it sweet or really switch things up and skip the sugar altogether. Though it’s typically found on the dessert side of the menu, a few simple ingredient swaps can turn crème brûlée into a delicious savory dish.

Aromatics, leeks, and peppercorns are an excellent way to infuse your crème brûlée with savory flavor. Cheese is another option for adding strong, savory flavors to your custard. Blue cheese lovers can pair a creamy gorgonzola with fresh herbs like dill, parsley, or tarragon for a rich and silky custard. If it’s seafood you’re craving, a silky crab crème brûlée will give you a perfect blend of sweet and savory.

Water and custard do not mix. Despite the fact that water plays a significant role in creating the silky smooth consistency crème brûlée is known for, water can be a hazard to your custard. While cooking the custard in a water bath is not only a critical step in making the perfect crème brûlée, it’s imperative that no water comes into direct contact with the actual custard. A waterlogged custard will bake up with an off texture and a bumpy surface.

There is a simple way to avoid getting water in crème brûlée. To prepare your ramekins for a successful bake in a water bath, all you need is some aluminum foil and an extra minute or so. Wrap ramekins or custard cups with foil. Make sure the foil is taller than the edge of the ramekin. This extra height gives added protection in keeping any water from making its way into the ramekins, which will ruin your custard. You can further protect your custard from splashing water by placing the water bath in the oven before adding the ramekins. You won’t risk water sloshing into the ramekins as you transfer the pan to the oven.

The crunchy burnt sugar topping is arguably the best part of a perfect crème brûlée. The snap of your spoon cracking the surface is a precursor to the deliciousness that’s underneath. From turbinado to demerara, muscovado to brown sugar, there are many types of sugar to choose from. Each serves a specific purpose, and it’s important to use the right one. If you’re thinking sugar is sugar, think again because all sugars are not created equally when it comes to topping your crème brûlée. You might be tempted to use a fancy, expensive sugar, but don’t. You can save your money and reach for the inexpensive sugar you already have in your pantry. The best type of sugar for topping crème brûlée is plain white granulated sugar.

It may seem counterintuitive to choose a sugar with a one-note flavor instead of the richer flavors of sugar varieties like turbinado or demerara, but white sugar is the better choice for a couple of reasons. First, white granulated sugar is processed so that the grains are the perfect size for torching. Their small size allows them to melt quickly. Larger-grained sugars require more heat to melt fully, and that extra time can cause them to burn. Color is another benefit of using white sugar. You can clearly see when it’s golden brown. Darker sugars start out brown so there’s less of a distinction when they’re melted.

Substitutions or alternative methods are common in recipes. Clever cooks can adjust to make up for a missing ingredient or a kitchen tool you may not have on hand. In some instances, a substitution might be available but they don’t always produce the same level of results. That’s the case with crème brûlée. You need to use a specific sugar and a specific method for burning the sugar on top — a torch. Most recipes will recommend a torch and instruct torchless cooks to place their custard under the broiler to achieve a similar result, but you should think twice before broiling crème brûlée. Your broiler will likely melt the sugar and brown it, but it won’t give you the trademark burnt sugar crunch you’re looking for.

A torch has the advantage of sending direct heat directly to the sugar so that it melts quickly and easily. It also only heats the sugar. Placing your custard under the broiler will heat up the custard, as well, eliminating the contrast between the cool custard and the warm sugar topping. Yes, broiling will work well enough if that’s your only option, but investing in a small kitchen torch will yield the best results.

Unlike other desserts, like apple pie or chocolate soufflés, where warmth is part of the dish’s charm, crème brûlée is a dish best served cold. The ultimate goal for a perfect bit of crème brûlée is a cool, velvety custard with a warm, crunchy sugar coating. The contrasting temperatures are as much a part of this dessert’s allure as the mix of flavors and textures it provides. Achieving this can be tricky, especially after you’ve heated the sugar to melt it.

The easiest way to attain this temperature contrast is to thoroughly chill your custards once they’re out of the oven. Remove them from the fridge and allow them to cool completely before placing them in the fridge. They should chill for a minimum of four hours but can safely hang in the fridge for a couple of days, making them the perfect do-ahead recipe for entertaining. Some recipes even recommend returning the custards to the fridge after you’ve torched the sugar in an effort to re-chill the custard. The sugar will stay crisp for a while, but over time, the sugar will begin to soften.