Spiced Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

October 13, 2021

There is something a little extra fancy about crème brûlée. This French custard dessert is creamy, rich and luscious with a delightfully crunchy sugar topping. Translating to “burnt cream”, crème brûlée is mostly known for it’s sweet top layer that is “burnt” with a chef’s torch to a shatteringly crisp texture that pairs so perfectly with the creamy custard beneath.

So, crème brûlée can be made in several different flavors, but since it is October and we finally have had some weather below 70 degrees, we are going to whip up some spiced pumpkin crème brûlée, because it is fall time and I just made a big batch of pumpkin puree… and I love pumpkin…

Let’s get started…

Begin by gathering 1 3/4 cups of heavy cream, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 5 egg yolks, 2/3 cup of pumpkin puree, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of cloves, 1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/8 teaspoon of all spice, 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon of salt.

Crème brûlée is very simple to bring together if you prepare everything in advance, so I while my oven is preheating to 325 degrees, I like a deep baking dish with a thin kitchen towel and arrange my ramekins over the towel.

This recipe will fill 4 six ounce ramekins. I find that crème brûlée bakes best in a wider, more shallow ramekin instead of the classic round, deep ramekin. If you use wider ramekins, you may need to use two baking dishes like I did.

Now that your baking dish is set up, let’s start making our crème brûlée…

Begin by bringing a teapot or saucepan full of water up to a boil for the water bath (I will explain more on this a little later on)…

In a large bowl, whisk 2/3 cup of pumpkin puree with 5 egg yolks, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon of cloves, 1/8 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/8 teaspoon of all spice, 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon of salt until smooth. Set aside for now.

Combine 1 3/4 cups of heavy cream with 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. As soon as this mixture begins to gently simmer, slowly pour it into the pumpkin puree mixture while whisking constantly. Be sure to slowly add the hot heavy cream. If you add it too quickly, you may scramble your yolks, so pour a little bit at a time and whisk to both cool and combine the ingredients.

Whisk until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated and then transfer this mixture into something with a pouring spout…

Carefully divide the mixture evenly between the four ramekins.

Once the water is boiling, carefully pour the hot water onto the towel (the towel will help prevent the water from splashing) until the water comes about half way up the side of the ramekins. Be careful not to splash any water into the crème brûlée, while adding the water or when transferring the baking dishes into the oven.

Bake the crème brûlée in a 325 degree oven for 30-40 minutes (depending on how deep your ramekins are) or until they are softly set. They are ready to come out when the center jiggles just a bit when you tap the side of the baking dish.

As soon as they are ready to come out, carefully transfer the 4 ramekins out of the water bath and onto a flat baking sheet. Chill the crème brûlée for 2 hours and then cover them tightly with plastic wrap and continue chilling until fully chilled. This takes about 4 hours, but they can easily stay in the refrigerator overnight to be ready to a quick beautiful dessert tomorrow!

Once the crème brûlée is chilled and your are ready to serve, generously dust the top with granulated sugar (confectioners, brown or natural sugars do not work well for this topping, so avoid substituting them). Use a chefs torch to brûlée the sugar until it has crystalized and formed a deeply golden brown, crunchy crust.

Note: Keep the chefs torch moving in a circular motion when brûléeing the sugar topping. As soon as you see the sugar begin to liquify and bubble in one area, move to another area and keep repeating this process until the entire surface has been brûléed.

Look at that shiny sugary topping just begging to be cracked into…

Shattering that beautiful sugary crust is one of my all time favorite dessert moments (and this is one very long list). The combination of the crunchy topping and the rich, creamy custardy filling is everything it should be and the flavors… oh the flavors….

The spices are boldly fall-ish with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves creating the perfect pumpkin accompaniment, but the pumpkin is the real star of this show. If you love pumpkin pie and the texture of a rich, creamy custard then you are going to absolutely love this spiced pumpkin crème brûlée…

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