An elegant dessert, an easy to prepare recipe for Limoncello crème brûlée. Creamy pudding, Limoncello combined under a crunchy caramelized sugar crust. Delicious and refreshing.
Crème brûlée is a dessert that is always a great idea. After a delicious dinner, a nice Sunday meal or at Christmas. The creamy pudding under the crunchy sugar crust is elegant and super tasty. Crème brûlée is French and literally means burnt cream.
And now it may seem like a very tricky recipe, but it certainly isn't. Crème brûlée is very easy to prepare. It only takes some time because of baking in the oven and the cooling down afterwards.
With delicious Limoncello
And in the summer a great variant is a nice change from the basic recipe. And so I decided to add Limoncello. An Italian liqueur made from lemon. Limoncello is often consumed as a digestif: an after-meal drink that aids digestion. And why not combine that with your dessert.
How do you prepare crème brûlée?
The basic of a crème brûlée is a homemade custard that you cook in the oven in a water bath. This keeps the pudding nice and creamy and it makes sure it keeps moist. You can add all kinds of flavor accents to this basic custard if you want. And after cooking, you let the custard cool for 2 to 3 hours in the refrigerator
Then sprinkle the top of the custard with a thin layer of sugar. You can caramelize the sugar with a torch. If you don't have a torch, you can also caramelize the sugar under the griddle. I like the torch best because it allows you to work very precisely. And the griddle has the additional effect that it also makes the custard a little warmer and actually it's best when it's really cold.
Here I share the recipe of a Limoncello crème brûlée, but you can vary endlessly with this creamy dessert. For example, consider:
- If you want to go completely lactose free, you can replace the whipped cream with soy cream.
- Replace the limoncello with Kahlua and add 2 tablespoons of coffee for a coffee variant.
- Without a liqueur but with a summery taste: Take a handful of (organic) lavender and heat the cream mixture. Add the lavender and let stand for 15 minutes. Then strain it and follow the rest of the recipe (without the limoncello and lemon zest).
- Boil your water before pouring it into your oven / baking dish. This speeds up the cooking process and the pudding cooks more even.
- Pour the cream mixture into the egg yolks drop by drop while stirring. If you would add it in one turn, your egg yolks congeal by the heat and you get lumps.
- When you have sprinkled the sugar on the pudding, shake the ramekins gently back and forth so that the sugar is evenly distributed.
- Hold the torch 2 inches (5 cm) from the crème brûlée and form circles. You don't want to burn the sugar layer, otherwise the crispy top layer will taste bitter.
- Divide and burn the sugar crunch layer just before serving. Would you do that in an earlier stage than the sugar absorbs moisture from the pudding and it no longer is crispy.
You can prepare the limoncello crème brûlée well in advance and it will last for up to 3 days:
- Store in the refrigerator: You can keep the pudding covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Store in the freezer: Pudding gets a different structure in the freezer and that is less tasty. So don't store it in the freezer.
Other Delicious Recipes
- Crema catalana, Spanish crème brûlée
- Cinnamon honey crème brûlée
- Sex in a pan, six different desserts in one glass
- Creamy chocolate mousse, simple and easy to prepare. A real classic dessert.
📖 Recipe
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Limoncello crème brûlée
Ingredients
Crème brûlée
- 2 cups cream
- 3 tablespoons Limoncello
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 5 egg yolks size L
- ½ cups sugar
Crunchy caramel
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest organic
Ingredients you need per step are listed below the step in Italic
Instructions
Crème brûlée
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius.
- Boil water in the kettle.
- Prepare a baking dish or roasting pan large enough to hold the ramekins.
- In a saucepan, bring the cream, Limoncello with the salt to a boil over low heat.
- Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a bowl until the color is light yellow and the egg yolks are fluffy. Whisk about 3 minutes.
- Pour the cream mixture into the egg yolks drop by drop while stirring with a whisk.
- Pour the custard into the ramekins and put it in the baking dish.
- Continue to fill the baking dish with the boiling water until it is filled up to half the height of the ramekins.
- Place the baking dish carefully in the preheated oven.
- Cook the custard for 35 minutes.
- Carefully remove the oven dish with ramekins from the oven and then remove the ramekins from the oven dish.
- Leave at room temperature for 15 minutes.
- Put the pudding in the refrigerator and let it cool for at least 3 hours.
Crunchy caramel
- Mix the lemon zest through the sugar and rub it between your fingers, so that the sugar takes over the lemon flavor.
- Spread a thin layer of sugar over the top of your custard.
- Keep the burner 2 inch (5 cm) away and while making circular movements, let the sugar caramelize.
- Serve immediately.
Stephanie says
As a pastry chef and bakery owner I have made what seems like tons of crème brulee. This recipe for a limoncello crème brulee really hits the mark. Creamy, lemony and the perfect top crunch!
Mary says
Super creamy and the lemon flavor is awesome. What a good way to use homemade Limoncello. I had to do the caramelization under the broiler, but it worked perfectly!
Nora says
This Limoncello Crème Brulé is the most awesome! A wonderful combination, perfect for summer. You can not get enough of this!
Andréa says
You're so right! Have a nice weekend!
Andréa says
These are the best ways! Thank you!
Andréa says
Thank you!
Nancy says
Thanks for sharing this tasty recipe - I really enjoyed the lighter lemon on this creme brûlée take
Andréa says
Lemon and cream is such a great combination. Glad you loved it!