Homemade Crème Brûlée Ice Cream

This Homemade Crème Brûlée Ice Cream transforms the French Classic dessert into this tasty treat. Using a vanilla bean custard base, the ice cream is mixed with crunchy caramel pieces that give it the signature tastes of the burnt caramel we all know and love from a traditional crème brûlée dessert.

Another ice cream recipe for you in my summer series. I'm building an array of delicious frozen recipes that you can turn to when the heat strikes your part of the world. (Let's be honest though, ice cream is a year-round food group!)

My Pecan Praline Ice Cream and Strawberry Mascarpone Ice Cream are firm quick and easy favourites. For custard-based ice creams try my Chocolate Gelato or Toasted Marshmallow Ice Cream. For entertaining, however, then my Chocolate Hazelnut Semi Freddo is a show stopping centrepiece.

❓ What is Crème Brûlée?

Crème Brûlée is essentially a custard that's then baked to set. A layer of sugar is then sprinkled over the set custard and torched until it caramelises and hardens providing that signature crack when tapped with a spoon. It doesn't get more French than this!

How do you turn Crème Brûlée into Ice Cream?

With a French mum, I grew up loving Crème Brûlée and Crème Caramel. They were much-loved desserts in my home and I was wondering how I could incorporate that classic into ice cream. It's actually a fairly simple process as the two elements are the same.

For the ice cream, you still need to make a vanilla custard base, which is essentially the basis for traditional gelato and instead of baking the custard, it's churned in an ice cream machine until thick and creamy and frozen.

To get the torched caramel taste that is key to the crème brûlée flavour, we essentially make hard crack caramel by melting down sugar until it caramelises. Once hardened on a tray it can be broken into a million pieces and stirred through the custard base before freezing.

As the ice cream freezes, it softens the caramel brittle turning it into burnt sugar ribbons passing through the ice cream. If you are a die-hard crunch lover then sprinkle caramel brittle over the ice cream before serving. Regardless, the taste is unmistakenly a French classic dessert rolled into a frozen dessert. And it's pure bliss!

🧾 Ingredients Needed

With only five ingredients, milk, cream, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla bean, you'll have all that you need in your fridge or pantry. I've made a few notes on some of the ingredients below that are worth reading.

Vanilla Pod - I used a vanilla pod to get the maximum flavour into the ice cream. You can substitute with 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste. Vanilla extract (not essence) can also be used but you will miss out on the hundreds of little vanilla specks. Add 2 teaspoons if using extract.

Sugar - I use regular sugar for this recipe, but feel free to use golden granulated or caster or even light brown sugar which will give the ice cream base a more caramel flavour.

Eggs - 5 egg yolks are needed. Make sure they are at room temperature. If you forget to bring them to room temp before starting the recipe then pop the eggs in a bowl of warm water for ten minutes. It's actually easier to separate the yolks from the whites once they are at room temperature.

STEP 3. Combine the two mixtures together. We're then going to temper the eggs now. What does that mean? The milk mixture is warm and if you add the eggs directly to that, it would basically scramble them. Disaster! So, we temper by adding a little of the milk mixture at a time to the eggs whilst continuously whisking which brings the temperature down of the milk and up for the eggs.

Whilst whisking continuously, pour the cream slowly (Image 5) into the eggs until fully added.

STEP 4. Thicken the custard. Then pour the combined mixture back into the saucepan (Image 6) and onto the stove at low heat. Carry on whisking whilst the custard heats and thickens . This can take about ten minutes. Don't be impatient and turn the heat up hoping for the thickening to happen soon. All you'll get is a split custard and bits of cooked egg.

Be patient and whisk constantly. The custard is ready when it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and you run a pass-through it that doesn't join (Image 7).

STEP 5. Sieve, cool and refrigerate. To guarantee a smooth custard, take the pan off the heat and pass the custard through a sieve into a bowl (Image 8). Sometimes the egg can catch on the bottom of the pan - definitely don't want those bits in your custard!

Cover the custard straight away with plastic wrap - but make sure the wrap sits touching and covering the surface of the custard (Image 9). This prevents a skin from forming.

Leave the bowl to cool for an hour and then refrigerate until cold - a minimum of 3 hours.

Make the Caramel Brittle

Whilst the custard is chilling, you can make the caramel brittle.

STEP 6. Make the caramel brittle. To get that real Crème Brûlée Ice cream flavour, we have to add that torched caramel flavour throughout the ice cream. Add the sugar into the saucepan on the stovetop (Images 10),and on low heat melt the sugar. Stir infrequently, simply jiggle the pan around.

It's an interesting process to watch sugar dissolve and caramelise. After a little while, it'll start to get lumpy and you may think that you' ha've done something wrong (Images 11). You haven't - keep the heat on low and those lumps will continue to dissolve away. The sugar will gradually turn liquid and golden brown (Image 12).

When there are no more lumps then pour it onto a parchment paper lined baking tray (Images 13) and smooth it thinly with an offset spatula (Images 14). Work quickly as it sets very quickly!! Let it cool completely then chop into pieces of varying sizes (Image 15).

Churn and Freeze the Ice Cream

STEP 7. Churn the ice cream. I hear you, churning the ice cream can feel like an extra step, getting out the machine, freezing the bowl beforehand. I know. It's an extra process. But really, nothing beats churned ice cream. You see, as it freezes the ice cream mixture, it also adds in air which ultimately makes the ice cream super smooth and creamy.

Back to the recipe! Once the custard base is cold, pour it into the ice cream machine and churn as per the manufactures instructions (Images 16 & 17).

STEP 8. Add the caramel brittle and freeze. Pour the churned custard ice cream into your favourite freezer-safe bowl/dish/container (!) and mix in the caramel pieces. I reserve some to sprinkle over the top (Images 18 & 19). Cover in plastic wrap and freeze for a minimum of four hours. I tend to make it the day before and let it freeze overnight.

And then scoop away when ready to enjoy!