Creme Brûlée Pie

You heard me. Creme Brûlée pie. That’s the recipe I bring to you today!

Creme Brûlée Pie

I am in a festive kind of mood, and I’ve got my mind on holiday baking. All holiday desserts, Christmas desserts, Thanksgiving desserts, because this season is a baking blogger’s time to shine, right here.

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Not just me but all of my other food blogger friend’s out there are coming up with fantastic desserts for you to bring to your holiday celebration. Like this beautiful Peppermint Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream, by Itsy Bitsy Kitchen. Or what about this amazing Chocolate and Candied Hazelnut Mousse Cake by The Hungry Bites. And I can’t get my mind off these White Chocolate Pistachio Truffles by Wild Wild Whisk. I’d bring any of those to my holiday parties any day!

And I would for sure bring this Creme Brûlée pie to a celebration! I mean, can it get any better than this?

Creme Brûlée Pie

The crust of this Creme Brûlée pie is a almond cookie-like crust, my favorite. Also used in my Banana Cream and Raspberry Jam Pie. It’s one of my favorite crusts for pies and tarts.

The almond crust went so perfect with the creamy creme brûlée filling.

And the best part is that this Creme Brûlée pie is not hard to make at all!

First, you make the crust. Let it rest in the fridge. Roll it out, and press it onto the bottom of a pie plate. I used my wonderful deep pie plate by Libbey.

Creme Brûlée Pie

This dough is very play-dough like, and crumbly. So don’t be upset if it keeps breaking up. It should not be an elastic dough at all, so it will be pretty easy to patch it up and press it down slightly to bring it together.

Use your fingers to make creases on the sides of the crust. You don’t want to have a huge overhang of dough, because it will break apart when it bakes. Keep it short, with about 1/4 inch overhang.

You are basically pinching a piece of dough with your left hand while you make a dimple at the crease with your right index finger. Go around the whole crust.

And now you can put the rolled out crust in the freezer while you pre-heat the oven. This is the most important part, as you want the butter in the dough to be completely solid when the pie plate enters the oven. When the fat is solid at the beginning of baking, it will allow for the gluten formations to establish in the oven before the fat melts, which will provide your crust with a much better structure.

You can use pie weights to bake the pie if you want to, but I do recommend shielding the crust on the sides with some aluminum foil. Because it tends to burn much faster than the middle.

Creme Brûlée Pie

Once the pie crust has baked, you pour the hot filling over the baked crust, reduce oven temperature and finish baking your custard. If it’s browning to fast, but the middle isn’t cooked, cover the sides of the pie with aluminum foil.

The filling of this Creme Brûlée Pie is the most divine thing ever. It’s a baked custard made out of only 4 ingredients. Yolks, vanilla bean, sugar, and heavy cream. Heat the heavy cream and vanilla beans to infuse. Temper eggs with hot cream. Pour over crust. Bake. Done.

You want to let the pie cool down, and then let it chill in the fridge before spreading some sugar on top of the pie, and then using a blow torch to caramelize it.

Creme Brûlée Pie

Which is for sure, the best part!

Creme Brûlée Pie

If you are going to bring this Creme Brûlée Pie to a celebration, I suggest you wait til it’s serving time to brûlée the top of the pie.

Just bring your torch along with you.

And if you do bring this to a celebration, Thanksgiving or Christmas party, be ready to receive all the compliments, because this Creme Brûlée pie tastes as lovely as it looks.

Creme Brûlée Pie

And I also believe that the sugared raspberries added a bit of a festive touch to the Creme Brûlée Pie too.

How to make sugared raspberries

Super easy to make the sugared raspberries. Simply whisk an egg white until very frothy. Use a brush and brush a minimal amount of the whisked egg white on the surface of the raspberry. Then, roll the raspberry around in granulated sugar. And let it air dry. Simple as can be. And adds an amazing, cute, festive touch to your desserts!

Creme Brûlée Pie

I also made a bit of Marshmallow Frosting to top my Creme Brûlée pie. You could use whipped cream or just serve the pie plain. The reason why I wanted the Marshmallow Frosting is because I would be able to also toast it with my torch and add another cool touch to the pie.

So, if you are asking yourself: What dessert should I bring to a holiday party? Just go with Creme Brûlée Pie and you won’t be sorry.

Creme Brûlée Pie

And, of course, check out the amazing bakeware by Libbey. I’m linking them bellow.

Other recipes you might want to consider for your holiday celebrations: Almond Cherry Bars, Cookies and Cream Pie, Flan Cake, and Pecan Fig Cake.

Creme Brûlée Pie

Creme Brûlée Pie

This is a Creme Brûlée Pie. It features a cookie-like almond crust, and it’s filled with the most delicious vanilla bean custard. Topped with Meringue and sugared raspberries.
5 from 5 votes
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine French
Servings 10 people
Calories 280 kcal

Ingredients
  

Crust
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened (113 grams, 4 oz)
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar 63 grams, 2.25 oz
  • 1/4 cup almond flour 24 grams, 0.8 oz
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 190 grams, 6.7 oz
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Creme Brûlée Filling
  • 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 vanilla bean seeds scraped* Note
  • 5 yolks
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar 100 grams, 7.1 oz
For the top
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • You will also need a torch
Meringue
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar 50 grams, 1.7 oz.
  • 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
 

Make the crust
  • Start by creaming butter for about 30 seconds at medium high speed.
  • Add powdered sugar and mix on low. Raise speed and cream for about 30 seconds until incorporated.
  • Add almond flour and mix until combined.
  • Add egg and mix on medium speed until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure to incorporate everything.
  • Add vanilla and mix.
  • Add flour and salt and stir until combined, you don’t want to overmix or knead the dough, you just want to bring it together.
  • Once all the flour has hydrated and dough has come together, simply turn it into a ball, wrap it with plastic wrap, flatten dough into a disc.
  • Place it in the fridge for about 3 hours.
Make the Filling (part 1)
  • Start to make the filling right before you want to bake the crust. You should add a hot filling to a hot crust. So this is how it works out perfectly: while the crust bakes, you make the custard.
  • To make the custard, bring the heavy cream and scraped vanilla bean seeds to a boil in a small sauce pan over medium heat. You don’t actually want to bring it to a boil. As soon as you see foam starting to rise, and before it starts to bubble up, remove from heat.
  • Set heavy cream aside to infuse with the vanilla beans for about 15 minutes.
  • Now, you want to remove the crust from the fridge and start to roll it out while your heavy cream infuses with the vanilla.
Bake the crust
  • Remove from the fridge, roll it out, press it onto the bottom of your pie plate. Trim edges or simply use your fingers to press it down lightly to make the surface of the crust smooth and even.
  • Place crust in the freezer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, you can start pre-heating your oven to 350F.
  • Place chilled crust in the oven for about 10 minutes.
  • You might want to use pie weights on the bottom of the crust, to prevent air bubbles to form and rise up.
  • I also like to use pie shields or aluminum foil on the edges of the crust, because they will bake way faster than the middle, and will start to burn.
  • After pie crust is golden on the bottom, remove it from the oven.
Make the filling (part 2)
  • While your crust is baking, you can re-heat your heavy cream and vanilla bean mixture until it almost comes to a boil. Turn it off the heat.
  • Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until well incorporated.
  • Slowly start to add the hot cream to the yolk/sugar mixture.
  • Add 1/4 cup and whisk. Then add another 1/4 cup and whisk. That’s called tempering the eggs, you slowly raise their temperature by adding a bit of the hot liquid at a time, If you add all the hot liquid a once, you will end up with curdled eggs.
  • Finish adding all the cream to the yolks, whisking vigorously.
Bake the pie
  • Reduce oven temperature to 325F.
  • Immediately pour the filling on top of crust, using a strainer or a fine mesh sieve to catch any bits of curdled eggs.
  • Place pie in the oven, and bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the center seems set, but slightly jiggly, and also slightly caramelized on top.
  • Remove from the oven. Let pie cool, and then chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
  • Right before you want to serve it, sprinkle the top of the pie with sugar and use a blow torch to burn the top and create the crackling caramel.
Meringue
  • Mix all ingredients, except for the vanilla extract together in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  • Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water over medium heat.
  • Whisk mixture while it sits in the double boiler.
  • Keep whisking over simmering water until it reaches 140F.
  • That way the egg whites will be in a safe temperature to be consumed.
  • Move bowl to the mixer.
  • Whip with the whisk attachment for about 5 minutes on high speed.
  • Add vanilla and mix to combine.

Notes

*Note: You can add the vanilla bean pod to the pot with the heavy cream to infuse it, after removing the seeds, and then remove the pod before adding the hot cream to the yolks. I usually just stick my vanilla bean pods in my homemade Vanilla Extract container, instead. But if I didn’t make vanilla extract at home, that’s what I would do with the pod.
Keyword creme brulee, pie

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12 Comments

    1. Hello Jean,
      I have never frozen creme brulee, however, I just did some research and found several sources saying it is fine to freeze creme brulee. As for the pie crust I am positive is fine to be frozen.
      So I would bake the pie, let it cool down, and then wrap it and freeze it.
      Thaw it on the refrigerator overnight and torch the top before serving.
      I’ve never tried this but I saw some reliable bloggers claiming it’s possible.
      Also, they say it will freeze well for up to 1 month.
      Best of luck!!

  1. Hi Camila,

    We are trying to make this recipe for a professional development and I was just wondering, could we potentially use the broil function on the oven for a few minutes to avoid purchasing a blow torch? Please let me know.

    Thanks!
    Ariana

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