Orange Crème Brûlée
This Orange Crème Brulee is creamy, smooth, and decadent. It’s a citrus infused twist on the classic that is much easier to make than you would expect, coming together quickly for a dessert that is impressive and great for prepping ahead.
Servings: 8
Calories: 447kcal
Ingredients
- 6 large egg yolks
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3½ cups heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- zest 1 large orange
- 2 tablespoon orange juice freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Ramekins: For this recipe, you will need 8 ramekins, each 8oz in capacity. The ramekins used in this recipe are 3.15 x 3.15 x 1.57 inches.
- Preheat the Oven: Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- Prep Tea Kettle: Fill a tea kettle with water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and set aside
- Egg Yolk Mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar.
- Heavy Cream Mixture: In a medium saucepan, add the heavy cream, salt, orange zest and orange juice. Bring to a simmer on medium heat.
- Temper the Eggs: To temper the eggs, slowly pour roughly ⅓ of the heavy cream mixture into the egg mixture while whisking the egg mixture constantly. Add the remaining heavy cream into the egg mixture while continuing to whisk.
- Straining the Custard: Strain the custard using a fine mesh strainer to remove any pieces of egg and orange zest. This ensures a smooth texture in the crème brulee. If possible, strain it into a measuring pitcher or container with a spout for easy pouring into the ramekins.
- Divide the Custard: Place the ramekins into a large baking dish or two baking dishes if needed. Divide the custard evenly across the 8 ramekins. The custard should come up to about ⅔ the height of the ramekins.
- Water Bath: Carefully add the hot water from the tea kettle into the baking dish (but not the ramekins) so that the hot water comes about ½ inch up the sides of the ramekins. Be careful not to burn yourself with the hot water, noting that the baking dish will turn hot quickly from the hot water.
- Bake: Place the baking dishes in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The outside of each crème brulee should be set, but the center should still be wiggly. Remove from the oven. Carefully, using a silicone oven mitt, if possible (fabric oven mitts will get wet and therefore hot very quickly), remove each ramekin and place on a wire rack to cool, approximately 1 hour.
- Chill: Cover each ramekin with plastic wrap and move to the fridge for 3-4 hours.
- Caramelize: Add 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar to the top of each ramekin. Tap the sides of the ramekins to evenly distribute the sugar across the top. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar, moving the torch constantly and being very careful to keep your hands back from the flame.Serve soon after caramelizing the top, as the sugar will soften and melt if left for too long.
Notes
- Choosing Ramekins: If you do not have 8oz ramekins, that is okay. It is helpful if they are all roughly the same size as each other. Keep an eye on them in the oven and take them out when needed. The shallower the custard is in the ramekin, the shorter the baking time. The deeper the custard is in the ramekin, the longer the baking time.
- Tempering Eggs: Be sure to continue to whisk quickly the whole time. This will help to prevent the eggs from curdling.
- Straining the Mixture: Strain the mixture into a measuring pitcher that has a spout. That way, you will have an easier time pouring the custard into each of the ramekins without spilling.
- Silicone Oven Mitts: Use silicone oven mitts when working with the ramekins. This is an extra helpful measure to ensure that even if the oven mitts get wet from the water bath, the hot water will not permeate the oven mitts.
- Caramelize Right Before Serving: Wait to caramelize the creme brulee until right before serving. If it sits for too long, the sugar will soften and melt.
- Kitchen Torch: When using the kitchen torch, move in a side-to-side or circular motion, paying attention to the color of the sugar. Watch it go from starting to melt to light brown to a deeper golden brown. If there are any areas of the top that are not well caramelized, you can add a touch more sugar and go over it again with the torch to get that nice golden color.
- Using the Oven: While a kitchen torch is preferable, you can absolutely use the broiler in the oven to caramelize the top. Set the oven to broil. Add the sugar to the top of the ramekins and broil on high for 2 minutes with the oven rack set in the middle. Check, then add 2 more minutes if needed for a total of 4 minutes max. The tops will be nice and caramelized. Keep a close eye on it as it can go from caramelized to burned in seconds. When using the broiler to caramelize the custard, the custard will get a little bit warmer than if using a torch. It's still delicious and does not affect the texture. It's just that the temperature will be a little bit warmer.
Nutrition
Calories: 447kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 25g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 255mg | Sodium: 107mg | Potassium: 122mg | Fiber: 0.01g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 1723IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 0.5mg
