Lightened Up Crème Brûlée
All About This Lightened Up Crème Brûlée
My favorite dessert of all time is crème brûlée. Hands down. All day long. End of story. (Do you get my point yet?) If my husband and I go out to eat at a restaurant and crème brûlée is on the menu, you better believe I’m going to order it along with a cup of hot coffee. One of my ultimate goals when I started this food blog was to recreate this classic dessert with a lightened up twist. But, since it is my favorite dessert, not any version would do. It would still have to be creamy and decadent and everything else there is to love about classic crème brûlée. I tried over the course of several weeks, and some versions were a definite “no,” while others were “good, but not good enough.”
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to report that I finally have a lightened up version of crème brûlée that I am happy to post here. Let’s get started!
What You’ll Need
Equipment
- Medium bowl
- Whisk
- Sauce pan
- Spoon
- Pie dish, tart dish, or individual crème brûlée dishes (options here, here, and here)
- Small bowl
- Culinary torch (I use one similar to this)
Ingredients
- Fat free half and half
- Evaporated fat free milk
- Cornstarch
- Egg yolks
- White sugar
- Vanilla extract
- White sugar and brown sugar, for topping
How To Make This Lightened Up Crème Brûlée
A Note From Sara
First, I want to point out that this recipe is a labor of love. While I typically post recipes that are simple and easy, this one is a little more labor intensive. Please don’t let that discourage you from trying this out. I want to be candid and honest though. While this is not a hard recipe to follow, there are just a lot of steps. If you are preparing this recipe for a special occasion or event, I would just make sure you have enough time allotted so that you don’t have to rush the process at the end.
Making The Custard
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract together until the mixture is thick and creamy. In a sauce pan, heat the half and half and evaporated milk until it almost comes to a boil. Remove the sauce pan from the heat immediately and stir in the corn starch. Stir until well combined. Add the egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract mixture and whisk until well combined.
Pour this mixture into the top pan of a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can set a glass bowl on top of a sauce pan that has a couple of inches of simmering (not boiling) water. In this case, you would pour the mixture into the glass bowl. Allow the mixture to simmer for 3-5 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour into a shallow baking dish. You can use a pie dish, tart dish, or individual sized crème brûlée dishes.
Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely to room temperature. Once it has reached room temperature, transfer to your refrigerator and allow it to chill for at least two hours. You can even allow it to chill overnight. (This is what I would recommend.)
Making The Crust
In a small bowl, combine the white sugar and brown sugar and sprinkle evenly over the top of the chilled custard. Use a culinary torch to melt the sugar until it starts to caramelize and form a crust. It will be light brown in color.
If you do not have a culinary torch, you can also use your oven that is set to broil (550 degrees). Once your oven is ready, place the custard in the oven for approximately 2 minutes. You will want to keep a close eye on this so that the sugar does not burn. As soon as you see the sugar melt and start to caramelize, you will want to remove it from the oven. If you are using this oven method, you will then want to return the crème brûlées back to the refrigerator to allow the custard to set again. If you skip this step, the custard will be runny because it has gotten hot in the oven.
Making Homemade Whipped Cream
This is optional, but oh-so-good. There is seriously nothing better than homemade whipped cream… besides crème brûlée, of course. If you want to make your own whipped cream, use a whisk or an electric hand mixer to beat heavy whipping cream in a bowl until it thickens up. That’s it! Don’t forget to top your coffee off with some of this yummy goodness too… so delicious!
Serving Suggestions For This Lightened Up Crème Brûlée
My favorite way to serve this Lightened Up Crème Brûlée is to garnish with fresh berries and homemade whipped cream, along with a cup of hot coffee. Enjoy!
Nutritional Information
This Lightened Up Crème Brûlée makes eight servings. Each serving comes out to 138 calories, 6 WW Green SmartPoints®, 6 WW Blue SmartPoints®, and 6 WW Purple SmartPoints®.
Go here to calculate your own WW PersonalPoints™ for this recipe
More Dessert Ideas
Are you looking for more dessert ideas? Be sure to check out my Apple, Pear, And Blueberry Crumble, Apple And Cranberry Crumble, Pumpkin Roll With Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese Filling, and Pretzel Rolo Bites!
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below, or post a picture and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter with @cookingwithfudge or #cookingwithfudge.
Lightened Up Crème Brûlée
Equipment
- Medium bowl
- Whisk
- Sauce pan
- Spoon
- Pie dish, tart dish, or individual crème brûlée dishes
- Small bowl
- Culinary torch, optional
Ingredients
- 1 cup fat free half and half
- 1.5 cups evaporated fat free milk
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 6 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons white sugar for topping
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract together until the mixture is thick and creamy.
- In a sauce pan, heat the half and half and evaporated milk until it almost comes to a boil.
- Remove the sauce pan from the heat immediately and stir in the corn starch. Stir until well combined.
- Add the egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla extract mixture and whisk until well combined.
- Pour this mixture into the top pan of a double boiler. If you don't have a double boiler, you can set a glass bowl on top of a sauce pan that has a couple of inches of simmering (not boiling) water. In this case, you would pour the mixture into the glass bowl.
- Allow the mixture to simmer for 3-5 minutes.
- Remove the mixture from the heat and pour into a shallow baking dish. You can use a pie dish, tart dish, or individual sized crème brûlée dishes.
- Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely to room temperature.
- Once it has reached room temperature, transfer to your refrigerator and allow it to chill for at least two hours. You can even allow it to chill overnight.
- In a small bowl, combine the white sugar and brown sugar and sprinkle evenly over the top of the chilled custard.
- Use a culinary torch to melt the sugar until it starts to caramelize and form a crust. It will be light brown in color.
- If you do not have a culinary torch, you can also use your oven that is set to broil (550 degrees).
- Once your oven is ready, place the custard in the oven for approximately 2 minutes. You will want to keep a close eye on this so that the sugar does not burn.
- As soon as you see the sugar melt and start to caramelize, you will want to remove it from the oven.
- If you are using this oven method, you will then want to return the crème brûlées back to the refrigerator to allow the custard to set again. If you skip this step, the custard will be runny because it has gotten hot in the oven.
Notes
Nutrition
My favorite dessert Creme Brûlée lightened up?! I will be trying this ASAP!
I hope you love it, Ashley!
I love lighter versions of my dessert favorites!
I couldn’t agree more, Audrey!
Do you use regular sugar/brown sugar, or a substitute like truvia for the top?
Hi Sarah! Great question. I use regular sugar in all of my recipes! Sugar substitutes tend to give me really bad headaches, so I’ve just learned to use less sugar instead. I hope that helps!
From everything I’ve read, you should be able to use something like Splenda Sugar Blend and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend as a substitute. If you try this, let me know how it turns out!
Delicious – Creme Brulee is a favorite of ours!
I couldn’t agree more, Raquel!
I’m a BIG fan of creme brulee (it’s one of the only easily GF desserts I can usually eat at a French resto), but not a big fan of its mounds of calories. Your adaptation manages to be both delicious and healthy – great work!
I really appreciate that! Thank you!
Such a delicious dessert!
Thank you so much, Alexandra!
Creme brulee is my favorite dessert, so yummy and comforting, a true classic.
I would have to agree with you, Adriana!
Hi Sara!
I’m thinking of making this for a date night. Though I don’t know what kind of dish to use. What size ramekin do you recommend I use for this?
Thank you!
I use a 10-inch tart dish for this recipe!