Easy and delicious raspberry creme brulee recipe, this fruity twist on the classic French dessert is made with heavy cream, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and fresh raspberries – or raspberry jam.
In a small bowl, mix most of the raspberries (save some to decorate the finished creme brulees) with 4 tablespoons of sugar. After 15 minutes of maceration, crush the berries using a fork.
Preheat the oven to 300F (150 C)
Heat the cream over low heat until right before it boils. Add in the vanilla extract.
In a medium sized bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the eggs with the sugar until they are creamy and pale.
Add the warm cream to the eggs, start with very small increments, about ¼ cup, and then gradually add the rest.
Pour the mix thru a fine mesh strainer.
Divide the mashed raspberries into four ramekins or small baking molds. If using raspberry jam, add about 1 tablespoon to each ramekin. Pour the strained creme brulee into the ramekins.
Fill a square or rectangular baking pan with warm/hot water and add the ramekins to the baking pan – the water should about ½ of the height of the ramekins.
Bake the creme brulee, in the water bath (bain marie) for about 1 hour and 15 minutes – the exact time will vary of size and height of the ramekins. The taller ones took the full 1:15 to set, while the wider shallow ramekins took 1 hour. The texture should be set but still jiggly.
Let the creme brulee cool down until you can safely remove them from the water bath and refrigerate them for at least 4 hours before serving.
To serve the raspberry creme brulee, pre-heat the oven broiler (you can also use a blow torch).
Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of sugar over each individual dessert - if you want a thicker layer of caramelized sugar you can add more sugar.
Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and put it under the broiler until the sugar caramelizes – about 2-3 minutes depending on the oven. Keep a close eye on the creme brulee during this process to make sure the sugar doesn’t over burn.
Serve immediately with the reserved fresh raspberries.