Vanilla Creme Brulee Recipe

There is nothing better than classic Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee. This rich and creamy custard with a crunchy sugar crust is a make-ahead restaurant-style dessert that you can easily make at home.

Vanilla Creme Brûlée is timeless!

Sometimes, you just can’t improve on a classic. Once in awhile, I love a modern restaurant dessert with unexpected ingredients and preparations.

But truly, is there anything better than an amazing dish of creme brulee? The rich custard paired with the crackly torched sugar top is irresistible, in my opinion.

What’s funny is that I’ve published more “creative” creme brulee flavors like grapefruit creme brulee and coconut creme brulee and even Christmas creme brulee.

But oddly, I’ve never published the most traditional version ever. The kind I was taught to make my first week of culinary school.

So today, I’m sharing my perfect recipe for vanilla bean creme brulee. It will never go out of style!

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee Ingredients

• heavy cream – I use heavy whipping cream for this recipe, and that’s it. Some people use a combination of cream and milk, but if I’m splurging and making creme brulee, I like it extra rich (cream is also what I use to make my microwave caramel sauce decadent).
• granulated sugar – you’ll need this for both the custard and for sprinkling on top to torch.
• egg yolks – you’ll need the yolks of 6 large eggs for vanilla creme brulee. Serious Eats has a bunch of ideas for what to do with leftover egg whites.
• vanilla bean – you’ll be using one whole vanilla bean for this vanilla bean creme brulee recipe.
• kosher salt – just a pinch. The finished dessert won’t taste salty, but it will taste balanced.
• fresh fruit and mint to garnish – this is optional, but I love including a few fresh berries and sometimes a small sprig of mint on top when serving creme brulee. Any extra berries can go into a tequila mojito or blueberry buttermilk muffins.
• blowtorch – you can use a specially made kitchen blowtorch, or just one from the hardware store. I use the full size hardware store kind.
• ramekins or creme brulee dishes – you’ll need six ceramic ramekins or dishes that are oven safe and will hold at least 5 ounces of liquid for this easy vanilla creme brulee recipe.

Vanilla Creme Brulee Recipe Home Chef Tips

 How to prep for Vanilla Creme Brulee

The first step to this recipe is preheating your oven to 300 degrees F and bringing a tea kettle of water to a boil on the stove.

You will need a roasting pan or a very large baking pan with high sides for this vanilla bean creme brulee recipe. If you have a big pan you break out once a year for baked ham with pineapple sauce, well, now you’ll need to break it out twice a year.

All of the ramekins need to fit onto the bottom of the pan in an even layer.

Once the custard mixture is prepared (more on that below), you will be dividing it between the ramekins. Then, place the roasting pan with the filled ramekins onto a pulled-out oven rack.

Carefully pour boiling water from the kettle into the pan around the ramekins. Be sure not to get any water into any of the custards.

You want to fill the pan with enough water so that the hot water comes up to the halfway point of each ramekin. This hot water bath will allow the custard to cook evenly without cracking.

Once the hot water is poured in, carefully push the oven rack with the roasting pan on it fully into the oven.

A note about ramekin size:

Size DOES matter for creme brulee ramekins. Not only will you need six 6 ounce ramekins, but you’ll need to pay attention to the shape of them and how it will relate to the baking time for this recipe.

If your ramekins are wide and shallow, your custard may bake a little faster. If your ramekins are narrow and deep, you will likely need to bake your custard longer.

In the photos you see in this post, I’m using wide and shallow ramekins, and my custard took about 38 minutes to bake until it was just set (the middles still trembled slightly, while the custard was set on the outer edges).

If you use narrow and deep ramekins, start at 35 minutes and continue baking, checking every 5 minutes until your custard is just set. It could take up to an hour.

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee: How to work with Vanilla Bean

First, carefully use a sharp paring knife to split the vanilla bean right down the middle, lengthwise. Then, use the tip of the paring knife to scrape as many vanilla bean seeds out of each side of the pod as possible.

These seeds will go into the cream mixture on the stove as you start the vanilla creme brulee custard. You will also throw the two pod halves into the cream mixture, too, to coax out any remaining vanilla beans and lend the custard even more vanilla flavor.

The pod will be strained out in the final step of making the custard.

How to make the custard for vanilla creme brulee:

In a small saucepan, combine the cream, 6 tablespoons of sugar and the vanilla beans you scraped out of the pod, along with the pod itself.

Heat this over medium heat until the cream just starts to bubble around the edges of the pan. Watch it carefully, because you don’t want the mixture to come to a full rolling boil.

While you’re keeping one eye on the cream, grab a large bowl and whisk together the egg yolks, salt and remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar.

Once the cream mixture starts to bubble, grab a ladle and slowly add 4 ladles of the hot cream mixture to the egg mixture while whisking constantly.

Then, whisk the remaining cream into the egg mixture while continuing to whisk.

Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer set over a large liquid measuring cup. Don’t skip this step! Just like with my apple rose tart, it’s important to ensure the smoothest, creamiest final product.

Then, divide the strained vanilla bean creme brulee mixture between the ramekins in the roasting pan.

Bake the custards 35 to 40 minutes or until they are JUST set. Gently shake one of the ramekins, and the custard should tremble slightly in the middle but be set on the outer edges.

Tips for torching Vanilla Creme Brûlée

First of all, just like with my lemon creme brulee, you want to be sure to get an EVEN layer of sugar across the surface of each custard.

I sprinkle the tablespoon of sugar across the custard as evenly as I can, and then I kind of tilt and shake and shimmy the ramekin until it’s even more evened out.

Once you start torching the sugar, it’s important to remember to keep the torch moving constantly so none of the areas burn.

Personally, I’ve found it easiest to brown the sugar of the vanilla creme brulee in stages. Meaning, first I torch the entire surface of the sugar until it is light golden brown.

And then I go back and keep torching until everything is medium golden brown. And then again until it’s all dark golden brown.

As soon as you start to smell any sugar burning, stop torching immediately (a keen sense of smell is even more important with chocolate creme brulee). Dark brown sugar is delicious, but burnt sugar is just bitter.

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee recipe adaptations

This best creme brulee recipe makes six servings of vanilla bean creme brulee.

But, if you have a family of three like me, or perhaps you’re doing a date night at home and need a sweet treat after lemon caper pasta, it’s super easy to make a half batch to make three servings.

If there’s just two of you, you’ll have one extra to share with a neighbor, or split for dessert tomorrow. I’ve done the math for you for a half batch of the custard:

• 1-1/2 cups heavy cream
• 4-1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• Pinch of kosher salt

And then you’ll need an additional 3 tablespoons granulated sugar for topping and torching this vanilla bean brulee recipe.

How to store this Vanilla Creme Brulee Recipe

How long can you keep Vanilla Crème Brûlée in the fridge?

When tightly wrapped with plastic wrap, creme brulee can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days before torching and serving. Creme brulee is best stored in the refrigerator after baking, but before torching.

Can Vanilla Crème Brûlée be frozen?

Or, if you want to make all 6 but can’t eat them right away, just like my pumpkin creme brulee, vanilla bean creme brulee is able to be frozen!

To freeze, complete the recipe through Step 5, but instead of transferring to the refrigerator, wrap and transfer to the freezer instead. It’s best if you put the wrapped ramekins in a freezer bag, as well.

Like my shortbread thumbprint cookies, and brownie pie recipe, the custards should keep about 3 months in the freezer.

When ready to serve, thaw in the refrigerator for about 4 to 6 hours, and then sprinkle the tops of the vanilla bean creme brulee with sugar and torch just before serving.

If you love freezer friendly recipes like this best creme brulee recipe, be sure to check out my homemade pizza dough, cottage cheese lasagna and vegetable lasagna recipe.