13 Best Ways To Elevate Your Crème Brûlée

No visit to a fancy restaurant is complete without a ramekin of crème brûlée to finish it all off. There's something so otherworldly about the sweet custard enshrouded in a crackly, caramelized sugar coating. By the looks — and texture — of it, you may assume that it's one dessert that you're better leaving off to the professionals. However, with some basic pointers and a blowtorch, you too can make crème brûlée from the comfort of your home kitchen. 

Once you master all the steps, including getting the milk to the right temperature, mixing your eggs without letting them scald, and mastering the perfect brûléeing angle, it's time to start playing with different flavors and add-ins. While there is some merit to a classic, vanilla crème brûlée, there are so many other potential flavors that are worth exploring. We consulted with "Dessert Wars" champion and pastry chef Jess Lewis to get some of her best tips for elevating and flavoring this exquisite dessert.  

Crème brûlée is a dessert that is often exclusively reserved for vanilla, but that's not to say you can't play on the dark side when you try it at home. "Adding high-quality melted chocolate to the custard gives it a richer, silkier texture and a deep cocoa flavor that pairs beautifully with the crisp caramelized top," says chef Jess Lewis. 

The trick is to be very selective about how you add your chocolate to the crème brûlée, as well as what kind of chocolate you use. You can select from an array of different chocolate types, depending on how sweet you'd like your recipe to be. If you want to let the egginess of the custard stand out, for example, you're going to want to opt for a bittersweet chocolate. It will add richness and complexity, but it won't overwhelm the entire thing with sweetness. But, if you like things sweet, semi-sweet chocolate may be the way to go. Add the chopped chocolate to the scaled milk and melt it until the mixture is smooth. Be sure to chop your chocolate as evenly as possible, as you don't want to have bits of burnt chocolate disrupting a silky smooth custard. This dessert would be especially decadent garnished with fresh raspberries or strawberries. 

While you may not think of the most famous of all campfire desserts, s'mores, when you look at a crème brûlée, it might be about time to. Jess Lewis recommends giving your chocolate crème brûlée base a unique spin by topping it with torched marshmallow whip and serve it with graham crackers. You can either leave the crackers whole and use them as a dipping accompaniment for the dessert, or add a sprinkle of them on the top for a colorful, texture-enhancing garnish. 

Making your own marshmallow whipped cream may be easier than you think. And no, it's not just taking a jar of Marshmallow Fluff and schmearing it atop your dessert. Rather, you're going to want to combine the marshmallow creme with a little bit of heavy cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar — the latter of which is optional, but may help to stabilize your whip a little more. Once it reaches a pipeable consistency, you can easily transfer it to a piping bag and carefully swirl it atop your crème brûlée. From there, all you need to tie this dessert together is a roaring campfire. 

The base flavor of crème brûlée is vanilla, but that doesn't mean you can't add unique additions and flavorings to alter its profile a little bit. If you like things that are fragrant and complex, you may want to try your hand at infusing your custard with fresh herbs. 

To do this, start with a sprig or two of your favorite herb. Add them to the cream as it's steaming and once about 10 minutes have passed, you can remove the sprigs with a mesh strainer. Then, just add the flavored milk to the eggs. You'll want to give the herbs enough time to infuse their delicate flavor into the custard, but not leave them on the stove so long that the milk starts to boil. 

There are tons of different herbs that you can use for this crème brûlée upgrade. Rosemary is a popular choice for home gardeners, and it is a great complement to the vanilla. You can also serve it with a lemon-infused whipped cream to better highlight the herb. A lavender-infused crème brûlée would also be a great dessert to serve at a spring or summer gathering. 

Crème brûlée is an already sweet dessert, but some sweeteners offer more than just that sole flavor. Take maple syrup and honey, for example. The former can add a uniquely oaky and warm profile to your dessert, while honey can introduce a floral element that plays well with a vanilla base. 

Naturally, introducing more sugar to anything can alter its chemistry — and its flavor, of course — so you're going to want to be mindful about how much of these sweeteners you add. You can whisk both of these sweeteners in when you are mixing up your yolks. Some recipes will call for using half of the normal sweetener and maple syrup and/or honey, so be sure to pay attention to those ratios when you are cooking. If you neglect to do this and add too much sugar to your recipe, you may inadvertently expedite the caramelization process and also alter the balance of moisture in your recipe. 

One of the easiest ways to upgrade your crème brûlée, as suggested by Jess Lewis, is to swap out the white sugar for brown sugar. She explains that the brown sugar can give your recipe a "slightly less sweet, warmer taste with hints of molasses." In other words, it's the sugar of choice for when you want something complex and flavorful — though not something too foreign. You can add it to your recipe the same way you would add regular sugar. 

The one instance where you shouldn't use brown sugar, though, is as a topping for your custard before you brûlée it. Brown sugar is very moist and will clump up on top of your ramekins as you apply the heat. It will also more readily burn than other types of sugar, which can spell bad news for the taste and color of your dessert. Instead, you'll want to crack open the bag of regular ol' granulated sugar for the perfect crackly top. 

Is the secret to making any dessert better adding booze? Yeah, kinda. You don't even have to add a ton of your favorite spirit to your crème brûlée to give it the perfect boozy flavor. Stir in an ounce with your sweeteners, eggs, and sugar to flavor the custard. Bourbon would be a great spirit to start with, as it has a subtle oaky flavor that plays well on brown sugar, vanilla, and a little splash of maple syrup. You can also use a few tablespoons of dark rum for a flavor that's a little more pronounced and heavy; it's in good company with chocolatey or caramel flavors. 

You can also incorporate a little bit more of a booze-forward flavor in your garnish. A boozy whipped cream, for example, would be a great way to upgrade a plain Jane crème brûlée and ensure that the spirit's flavor hits your taste buds with full force.

Bananas probably aren't the fruit that comes to mind when you think of crème brûlée, but Jess Lewis makes a case for this tropical fruit. Not only does she recommend serving the custard with a couple of slices of brûléed bananas on top, but she also shares that you can infuse the custard with banana extract. Pair it with a little bit of cookie butter in the custard, per her suggestion, and you'll have a whimsical, tantalizing twist on a banana cream pie — and potentially a bananas Foster if you brûlée the slices with some dark rum and caramel. 

While it might seem like the most difficult part of making this banana-forward crème brûlée is the topping, it's actually the process of adding the extract to the custard. If you add too much, it can make your entire custard taste like banana Laffy Taffy — and not in a good way. If you don't like the plasticky flavor of this extract, you may want to avoid it altogether, or stick to very, very small amounts of it. 

There are tons of fruity renditions of crème brûlée out there, and you don't even have to just settle for a couple of measly berries on top. You can actually make a fruit-infused bite by cooking down the fresh (or frozen, we won't judge) fruit with a little bit of sugar on the stovetop. Once the mixture has thickened and the fruit has broken down, you can spoon a little bit into the bottom of your ramekins and top them with your normal custard base. It's an easy way to infuse floral, sweet flavors into every bite, and there are tons of different fruits that would work well for it. 

Raspberries, for one, have the perfect balance of acidity and sweetness that will enhance the mouthfeel of your custard. Though, you could also transform a bumper crop of strawberries into a strawberry compote to use for a summery crème brûlée, garnished with a sprig of mint, neat dollop of whipped cream, and fresh-sliced berries. 

There is no harm in wanting to color between the lines when it comes to crème brûlée — and honestly, there's something to be said about a silky smooth, well-made custard with a crisp top that shatters when you give it a slight tap with your spoon. While cinematics are important when it comes to this show-stopping dessert, it's also important that your recipe tastes great — and that's where real vanilla pods come in. 

Many crème brûlée recipes will call for vanilla extract, but that alone is not enough vanilla flavor. If you're willing to spend a little more, you may want to consider purchasing vanilla bean paste or whole vanilla pods to scrape into your recipe. The flavor of these alternatives is far bolder than extract alone, and you'll get those tantalizing little flecks of vanilla that will tell everyone at your table that you really went the extra mile for the dessert course. You can generally substitute vanilla extract and bean paste using a 1-to-1 ratio, so not much math is required on your end for this simple swap. 

If you are a self-described "java-junkie," you may (like us) pounce at any opportunity to add coffee to your dessert. And now is the time to do so. You can whip up a mocha crème brûlée to satisfy both your craving for coffee and chocolate in every single bite. Coffee in the form of espresso powder is mixed in with the chocolate as the cream simmers away on the stove. Not only will it infuse it with a mocha-y richness, but the coffee will also help the flavor of the chocolate become pronounced; the two are in good company with each other and are frequently paired together in other desserts. 

The key here is to use espresso powder — which is not the same thing as regular espresso that you'd brew up in a machine. Crème brûlée is a fickle beast in terms of its texture and moisture content, so dumping the leftovers from your French press or a fresh shot may throw off the entire consistency of the dessert. The espresso powder, which can also be substituted with instant coffee, will dissolve into the cream without altering the moisture content or watering it down. 

When you think of "crème brûlée," your mind probably goes straight to a dessert course at a fancy restaurant, complete with white linen tablecloths and fine silverware. But it turns out that there are more ways to enjoy this fancy, after-dinner delight. 

For one, you can give it a little more of a playful, New American restaurant vibe by experimenting with savory elements. Our recipe for silky crab crème brûlée (yes, you did read that correctly) brings together juicy lump crab meat, chopped bacon, and chives instead of the usual suspect, like sugar and vanilla. The base of the crème brûlée is essentially the same; the crab, bacon, and herbs are set in the ramekins before being topped with a creamy, eggy custard and baked in a water bath. The only sweet element that's introduced here is the sugar that's brûléed on top before serving. Now that we think of it, it's kind of like a personal omelet in a ramekin ... just bring us a bloody mary to go with it so we can call it a well-rounded breakfast. 

Vegetables are another one of the ingredients that you may be a little wary about adding to your crème brûlée (and rightfully so). Though in terms of vegetables, there's one that's a safer bet than others: corn. The vegetable is not all that uncommon in sweet recipes, including cornbread and pudding, and adding it to your crème brûlée will bring out more nutty undertones. Corn is also in good company with other additions, including warming spices like cinnamon and cloves, as well as sweeteners like maple syrup and brown sugar.

To make use of this easy veggie addition, you'll want to add the corn straight from the can into your recipe. Though, if you have fresh corn on your hands, you can also try roasting the whole cobs and cooking the kernels in the cream mixture until they're soft and plump. Using the stuff from the can expedites this process, and it will allow you to make corn-y crème brûlée at any time of year — not just when ears are plentiful. 

If your crème brûlée is begging for any flavor in particular, it's likely that of warming spices. You already have your sugar and your vanilla, so it's easy to see how warming spices can really rejuvenate the flavor of your custard and add some cozy vibes to it. For a fall crème brûlée, you may want to consider adding in chai spices. This blend of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, and ginger will add a complexity to your dessert without introducing too many weird and wild flavors. If you have all of these spices on hand, then you can just measure and plunk them into your simmering cream. Or, just infuse the entire teabag in your cream to get a touch of that black tea flavor along with the spices.

You can also opt for pre-mixed spice blends, like apple pie or pumpkin pie spice, to introduce warmth and flavor to your crème brûlée. These blends are kind of like a one-stop shop for seasoning, though we won't blame you if you the up the ante with more cinnamon or ginger.