I LOVE turning every single dessert into crème brûlée. So I felt like making crème brûlée cookies was something that I needed to do….so here we are!
Honestly, the main reason why I like to crème brûlée-ify desserts is because I really enjoy foods that I can hit.
But apart from that, these do taste amazing. The crunch, the custard, the cookie, it all works so well together.
Video Tutorial
Breakdown of the process
There’s a few different parts to making this cookie. Each part is pretty simple, but there are a few parts.
Here’s an overview of what were going to be doing to make these crème brûlée cookies!
- Make the custard – I like to make this first, so that it has time to chill and thicken up in the fridge.
- Make the cookie dough
- Leave the cookie dough to chill – this is important, the cookie dough needs some time to chill in the fridge before baking.
- Bake the cookies
- Add the custard to them – at this point the custard would have cooled and thickened up.
- Add the sugar and brûlée it – I use a blowtorch. If you don’t have one, there are other ways you can do this, I’ll talk more about this later on!
Common questions
Do I have to leave the cookie dough to chill before baking?
YES. Don’t be skipping this step.
The cookie dough needs some time for the butter to set up before baking.
If you bake them straight away they will just spread too much in the oven, giving you very flat cookies. We don’t want this.
So they do need to be chilled in the fridge, 30 minutes is good!
Can I substitute the corn flour in the custard with something else?
The corn flour, also known as corn starch, is added to thicken the custard. If you don’t add it, the custard will be too runny.
If you wanted to substitute it, you could use plain/all purpose flour instead. But you need to double the amount!
I don’t recommend doing this though, corn flour works so much better in my personal opinion.
How to make these without a blowtorch
I understand that not everyone has a blowtorch lying around.
I do think it is a great little tool to have, I use it a lot more than I thought I would.
But there are 2 ways you can make these crème brûlée cookies without one.
The 1st way:
One way is by cooking the sugar in a pan first.
All you need to go is add a few tablespoons of sugar to a non-stick pot or pan.
Just heat this on medium heat, whiles constantly stirring, until the sugar has all melted and it has turned a deep amber colour.
Then just pour a thin layer of this on top of the cookies and leave them to set for a few minutes, so that the sugar can harden.
The 2nd way:
This way is not my favourite but it works.
Once you have added the sugar to the top of the cookies, you can place them under your grill/broiler for a few seconds.
I don’t love doing this because I feel like the heat from the grill can sometimes melt the custard but it is an option!
Making these ahead of time
The brûlée part of these cookies can not be added beforehand.
After a while, the sugar starts to melt, and it won’t be crispy anymore.
If the 6 cookies are not going to be eaten straight away, don’t add the sugar to all of them.
I recommend only adding the sugar and then brûléeing it before you’re about to eat them!
Looking for more cookie recipes. I think you should take a look at some of these:
Crème
Brûlée Cookies
Ingredients
Makes: 6
- For the custard:
3 egg yolks
40g granulated sugar
15g corn flour
230ml whole milk
20g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- For the cookies:
120g unsalted butter, melted
100g brown sugar
100g granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
230g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
Plus some extra granulated sugar
Directions
- Making the custard:
- Start by putting the egg yolks, sugar and corn flour into a pot. Mix these together, then add in the milk and mix this in too.
- Place this pot over low heat, you want to cook this until the custard thickens. Don't walk away during this, you need to be stirring constantly, if not the egg yolks can end up scrambling.
- Once the custard has thickened, take it off the heat and add the butter and vanilla. Stir until the butter has melted and the custard is smooth.
- At this point, I like to push this custard through a sieve to get rid of any lumps. If you feel like there are no lumps, you can skip this step.
- Add this into a bowl, cover with cling film (making sure that the cling film is touching the surface of the custard), then leave this in the fridge.
- Making the cookies:
- In a large bowl, add the melted butter, both sugars and vanilla. Whisk until combined, then whisk in the egg too.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add this into the other mixture and mix just until a dough forms.
- With this dough, make 6 cookie dough balls. I like to use a large ice cream scoop to do this, but you could also just use your hands. Each one of my cookie dough balls were around 95g.
- Place these onto a tray or plate, and leave them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Baking the cookies:
- About 10 minute before you're ready to bake your cookies, pre-heat your oven to 180c/350f.
- Place your cookie dough balls on a large baking paper lined tray. Make sure to leave a big enough gap between them so that they have room to spread.
- Bake these for around 20-22 minutes. Once they are baked, leave them on the tray for about 10 minute before trying to pick them up. These will be too soft to pick up after at first, they need time to set.
- Putting everything together:
- Once the cookies are cooled, you can put them together.
- Give your chilled custard a mix just to smooth it before adding it to the cookies. I like to use a piping bag to add the custard, but you could also just use a spoon to add it.
- Get some granulated sugar, or caster sugar works too, and spread a thin even layer on top of the custard.
- Now use a blow torch to brûlée the sugar, leave them for a few minutes so the sugar can crisp up but then enjoy!
Hello Ash! I noticed a mistake in your recipe in step 1 and 3. In step 1 it said to add all ingredients except butter and SALT, but in step 3 you said now add the butter and VANILLA. I’m not sure what you meant, but I just wanted to let you know!
Lots of happiness!
Naira
Ahh thank you thank you, I meant to say except the butter and vanilla. I’ve changed that now!!
Made these tonight and they came out delicious 😋.
Thanks for the easy to follow recipe!