Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Pumpkin Crème Brulee- This 3 ingredient crème brulee is as luxurious as it is simple. It’s sure to be a show stopper!

November 16, 2024 by Nicole Collins

Today, we’re making Pumpkin Crème Brulee!

Crème brulee is one of those deserts that just feels fancy. It’s not something that most restaurants serve. It can be a little labor intensive and finnicky. Even the French name makes it feel exotic and luxurious. But, I’ve got a secret ingredient that takes all the stress out of making the perfect crème brulee. So, this one is on the table with only 3 ingredients!

If we majorly simplify crème brulee, it starts with a thick custard that’s very similar to a thickened crème anglaise (a thin custard made from egg, cream, sugar, and vanilla), it gets baked it in a water bath, chilled, and it’s finished with torched sugar. Now if we majorly simplify ice cream, we learn that ice cream is basically frozen crème anglaise (it’s basically all the same ingredients). Then by that math, if we melt ice cream, we have crème anglaise…which is also just what we need to make crème brulee. So, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

We’re going to start with some pumpkin flavored ice cream. It’s pretty easy to find this time of year. In fact, I just got a store brand version. We’ll melt the ice cream in the microwave (to basically get our crème anglaise), whisk an egg yolk in to help thicken the custard, and that’s it for our crème brulee base. No stovetop, no tempering, no cooking, no stress!

We’ll pour our custard mix into an oven safe ramekin, then place that ramekin in a high sided baking dish. I found the absolute cutest pumpkin ramekins on Amazon that are the PERFECT size for this project. (I’ll link them below, and they’re also in my Amazon storefront if you want to get your hands on them too.) We’ll fill the baking dish with boiling water until the water level reaches halfway up the side of the ramekin, then to the oven it goes until the custard is mostly set but just a little bit jiggly.

The next step is the hardest part of this whole recipe and that is waiting for the custard to cool. We need to cool it to room temperature first, cover it, then cool it again in the fridge until it’s chilled. The pros to this are that this makes this a great make ahead dessert. You can store these in the fridge for up to 3 days until you’re ready to serve them. The cons to this are that you have to be patient. It’s a small price to pay!

When we’re ready to serve, we’ll sprinkle some sugar over the surface of our custard, carefully use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar, allow everything to set for about a minute so that sugar can harden, and it’s time to dig in.

What words can I use to describe this pumpkin crème brulee? Comforting, creamy, luxurious, fancy, delicious, epic, homey, beautiful…should I go on? Those warms spices mixed into the custard from the pumpkin ice cream make this dessert so comforting, and it’s a really lovely contrast to the cool and creamy mouthful that we’re actually experiencing.

And the best part, the formula is so simple…1/2 cup ice cream to 1 egg yolk…so you can make as many or as few of these as you need to serve the mouths in your house!

Ok, everyone!! That’s it for this year’s small batch holiday cooking series.

Or, is it? I promised you 6 recipes, so there’s one more bonus recipe left that might surprise you. So, stay tuned!

I hope you guys enjoy. And, let’s eat!

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Serves: 1 Print

Ingredients:

½ cup pumpkin ice cream
1 egg yolk
½ tbsp sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Add ice cream to a glass measuring cup. Microwave for 30-45 seconds until ice cream is completely melted. If ice cream is still cool to the touch, add egg yolk to the cup. If the melted ice cream is warm, allow it to sit for 5 mins before adding the egg yolk. Whisk until fully combined.
Place an 8 oz oven safe ramekin in a small high sided pan. Pour ice cream mixture into ramekin. Pour very hot water in to the pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekin, being careful not to get any water in the ramekin. Carefully transfer the pan to the oven, and bake for 40 mins. The custard should be mostly set and just a little jiggly in the center. Remove the ramekin from the water bath, and cool to room temperature. Once cooled, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or up to 3 days. (Or you can chill in the freezer for 30 mins if you’re impatient like me.)
When ready to serve, remove custard from the fridge. Sprinkle sugar evenly over the top of the custard. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar, making sure to move the flame back and forth until the sugar starts to bubble and darken. Allow to sit for 1 min to harden. Serve immediately.

Recipe notes:

*This recipe is easily doubled/tripled/quadrupled, as needed. Just evenly divide your custard mix between each ramekin.

*These are the pumpkin ramekins I used.

*Some people like to brulee the sugar by popping it under the broiler, but I don't like this method because it warms the custard (weird!). Kitchen torches are pretty inexpensive. This is the one I use.

*The custard recipe is adapted from Tasty.

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