I first met with crème brûlée (a.k.a. burnt cream) almost 10 years ago when traveling through France. After a nice dinner that included fish of some kind, I wished for a dessert that would be vanilla flavored, as I’d always been quite crazy about vanilla (nothing wrong with chocolate, though). So the last page of the menu offered exactly the thing for me. And what a dessert it was! I would never really get it out of my mind. A couple of years would pass before I tried making my own homemade version. For too long I’d thought it would be too complicated to prepare it myself. Turned out, it really wasn’t.
I didn’t live a low-carb lifestyle back then, so I would only prepare this dessert on most special occasions for it was so full of fat and sugar. Today, I represent you the ultimate keto version of crème brûlée. I’ve tried to keep it as close to the original as possible, so I still use heavy cream (which does contain a couple of grams of carbs), but I replace the sugar with erythritol. The custard consistency is very close to the original, one only needs to settle for the fact that the topping (caramelized “sugar”) doesn’t behave exactly like sugar, but it can be made crispy enough, and still does the job very well in the end.
I consider this dessert to be one of the most romantic ones out there. It might be because it takes me back to the approaching summer evening in France and the dinner with candles. Hopefully, you can conjure up the same image. Why not help yourself with a nice glass of French wine?
Too classic for you? Try out my keto matcha creme brulee!
Bon appétit!
Ultimate Keto Crème Brûlée
Ingredients
Creme
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 5 egg yolks
- 6 tbsp erythritol - (I used Sukrin)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 vanilla bean - (whole)
Topping
- 3 tbsp erythritol - (powdered)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 320°F (160°C). Place 6 baking dishes in a large roasting pan. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- In a medium saucepan, combine cream and 3 tbsp of erythritol.
- Split vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape its seeds into the saucepan, then add the pod. Heat gently on medium temperature just until the mixture starts to bubble a little (around 7 minutes).
- In the meantime, whisk the egg yolks with remaining erythritol and salt. Use a large mixing bowl and an electric mixer. Mix until the mixture gets pale yellow.
- Start adding the hot cream mixture into the yolk mixture. It might be best to use ladle. You want to prevent the eggs from curdling, that’s why you need add only a small amount of cream at first, and whisk to combine. Next, add two ladles of cream mixture, one at a time, and whisk after each addition. Continue in the same manner, until you mix in all the remaining cream mixture.
- Strain through a fine sieve into a large cup. You want to get rid of the vanilla pod and any bits of cooked egg, but try to force the vanilla seeds through the sieve.
- Pour custard into baking dishes. Place the roasting pan in the oven.
- Pour enough boiling water in the pan to come halfway up the sides of the dishes.
- Bake until custards are set (around 35 minutes). When shaken, they should tremble slightly in the middle. Don’t let them get too firm.
- Remove dishes from hot water and let them cool on a wired rack for up to 30 minutes. Then, cover them with a foil and place them in the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is best).
- Before serving, sprinkle about ½ tbsp of powdered erythritol over each creme brulee. Use a blow torch to caramelise it. Erythritol will not caramelise as well as sugar, but it will do the job well enough to offer a similarly crispy experience.
- If you don’t own a torch, you can use a broiler, but watch really closely for when the topping is melted. It is advised that you put the creme brulees in a freezer for 15 minutes prior to caramelising, to make sure the custards remain cold after “bruleeing.”
- Let the creme brulee sit for a couple of minutes before serving. Enjoy every bit of it!
Nutrition
MORE KETO FRENCH DESSERT TO TRY!
If you love this low-carb keto recipe, I recommend you also try:
Has anyone made this using splenda?
Creme brulee is one of my all time favorite desserts and this keto recipe was AMAZING!! I used Lakanto Monk Fruit sweetner and it was perfect in the recipe and created a nice crust when "torching" it for the crust. Thank you for this recipe. This will be a staple in our keto lifestyle.
So happy to hear that, Marna! Keto creme brulee has long been one of my top favorites, too!
mine tasted so sweet, but the consistency was really great
I swear I heard angels singing when I ate this pudding..... hands down best Keto treat I have ever tasted. I almost cried from happiness. Have made so many recipies and always felt disapointed. But not this time! Thank you so much.... ps.... you can freeze it and it is delicous when the frost is almost gone from it. Pardon my english... It is not my language.
Thanks Iris!
Fantastic recipe and I can't wait to try it. I believe you mean, "present", not "represent". Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Jill!
I salute you! It sure is "the ultimate" keto creme brulee.
Thank you, Rona! You've made my day!
Seriously, mix Swerve brown or any of the brown sugar sweeteners, with white sweetener of choice.. about 3:1, and not only does it harden like real sugar, it stays hardened when refrigerated...SOOOO good!!!
Awesome, Christine! That's a piece of very precious advice!
Mon fruit sugar does not cook like sugar and erythrotol. It does not disolve. Mix 1/2 sugar and 1/2 erythropoietin great.
I have tried monkfruit in pound cake, angel food cake, blueberry pie and it did not dissolve. The pound cake was like a brick, the angel food cake was 2” high and gritty and the blueberry pie was gritty. The mixture of E and S is best. Trust me!
Can I replace Erythritol with monks fruit?
I guess you mean monk fruit - erythritol mixture? Yes, just watch for the amount of sweetness - erythritol is less sweet than sugar and the monk fruit-erythritol mixture is as sweet as sugar.
If you have pure monk fruit powder extract, then you only add a tiny bit according to instructions on the box.
There is ground vanilla bean, a while back (2 years ago) I bought it for $13 and its still 1/4 full (im an optomist lol). It gives it specks without breaking the bank
Thank you for this I can't wait to try it! My doc is putting me on keto and I've been mourning the loss of my favorite desserts.
You are more than welcome, Dagny! I hope your keto journey turns out a fun path towards better health for you!
This recipe is amazing & I've made it several times. Sometimes I use the vanilla bean, sometimes I just use extract, it's good either way. Vanilla beans have gotten very expensive. Today I made a coconut version, replacing half the cream with coconut cream & adding a few drops of coconut extract. They're currently chilling, I can't wait to try one.
Hi, Virginia! Thank you for the feedback - much appreciated! I am happy that you've been enjoying the recipe.
Yes, I know, vanilla beans are expensive. I really only use them for special occasions but somehow believe that creme brulee just has to have those tiny black spots. 😉
Let us know how the coconut cream version turned out!
Prior to my Keto diet transformation, I used to make this all the time. I converted my recipe from sugar to mink fruit/erthritol. I cook them in my pressure cooker or more commonly an Instant Pot. Cooks in about 6-7 minutes. You cover your ramikins with foil, place them on the rack stacking them to the top. You add about 1 1/2 cups water to the bottom and close. Cook on high pressure for 6-7 minutes. Rapid release the pressure and carefully take the ramikins out (I use canning jar grabbers) and place on the counter to cool. Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Always perfectly cooked.
Nice, Ali! Thank you for your feedback. I will try this method out for sure when I get myself a pressure cooker.
Créme Brûlée is one of my favourites! Thank you for this great keto recipe! Years ago, my husband and I stayed at a hotel where the Chef made a different flavour of Créme Brûlée every night. We had the dessert for seven nights in a row! When we returned home I made it for special occasions. At the time it was the sugar-filled version. So nice to have a sugar-free version!
You are very welcome. Créme Brûlée is for sure a very special dessert that one can hardly go wrong with.
Great recipe. It’s delicious. Next time I will omit 2 tables spoons of swerve because to my taste it’s too sweet. Also I will make it into ice cream which I think will freeze very well. Thank you for the recipe
Hi Hazel, thank you for the feedback.
I think Swerve is as sweet as sugar which is not true about erythritol. So yes, I would also use less swerve than the amount of erythritol stated in the recipe. Another problem is we all have different tastes. Tatse can vary even from day to day sometimes. I can find my own recipes sometimes being barely sweet enough and other times being too sweet using the same amount of erythritol in the same recipe.
How many carbs does this have?
Hi, Liz. As stated in the recipe instructions, one serving comes out to be 320 Calories, 31.5 g Fat, 3.7 g Net Carbs, and 3.9 g Protein. There is no fiber so total carbs equal net carbs.
Thanks for all our hard work here-for the time you took to help us out-but-I must be so DUMB. I do not know what "erythritol is. (I have powdered white sugar on hand) Something else I looked up.I have always liked creme brulee, but never thought of "making" it. We have a LIQUID Stevia on hand and use it in coffee.
I guess I can figure out what "nut milk" is but never saw of anything other than coconut milk. We have tons of coconuts in our yard. IF someone husks them I always drink the "water" which I like better than the "milk". (from them when green)I did not know what "sukrin" was but guess it is same as artifical sugar-like Stevia.
Hi, Ramona.
Can you purchase erythritol from Amazon? It is not a usual find in local grocery stores, although that has been slowly changing ...
What size ramekin cups are you using?
The ones in these pictures are small and deep - only 3 inch in diameter. I also use 4.5-inch but don't shorten the cooking time much.
I got some like that at Dollorama. 3 for $2.00
Can I use the granulated Swerve as topping to brûlée or is the powdered version best for some reason. I plan to broil it in the oven. Thanks!
Granulated is fine. Caramelizing sugar replacement is tricky in any case. 😉
Hi, could you use monk fruit or swerve in this instead of sukrin? I usually prefer the taste of monk fruit but don't want to mess up the recipe by substituting.
Hi, Clara. I think you can. I just got a few packets of monk fruit mixed with erythritol to try out. You really only need to adjust the amounts according to the sweetness of the product you use.
Turned out very good thank you for sharing. My changes...I couldn't find erythritol so I used Truvia (same amount) and it worked good. I used Truvia on top of a few and that worked well and compared to sugar in the raw which tasted better but i think its like 5g of carbs for one packet of that stuff. I also tried Stevia in the raw to burn on top and that didn't work well. Burned up to much.
I also didn't want to spend $15 for one vanilla bean at my local grocery store so I substituted 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract and i think the flavor is good enough.
Cracking me up--"$15.00 for ONE vanilla bean". I could not understand from the beginning why not to use the liquid vanilla, besides mine is super potent-purchased in Haiti and another from Mexico. I hope the answer was that liquid works just as well. Is there such a thing as a "vanilla spice"?
Wow, in local grocery stores we can get much cheaper beans, while pure liquid vanilla extract is expensive.
The original creme brulee recipe uses beans: They do add certain vanilla taste and look fabulous.
Of course, you can use an alternative.
I do not have whole vanilla beans and it's super icy outside so I can't get to the atone to get some. Can I use pure vanilla instead?
Of course you can. Is’s just that vanilla seeds add the extra touch and character the the creme brulee.
This was delicious! My daughter loved making it and did a fantastic job. We used 8 ounce ramekins and it turned out great! We used a combination of xylitol and Swerve and the top caramelized perfectly.
I made this using a can of coconut milk, worked great!
Awesome, Susan! 🙂
When you say to use half the erythritol do you mean half of each kind. Can you explain that a little better?
Hi, Misty. You are right, the instructions seemed a bit unclear. Half erythritol meant 3 tbsp out of 6 tbsp listed in the ingredients.
This is amazing! Used sukrin brown for topping, perfect!!
I made this the other day after making another keto creme brûlée. This one is the bomb! The texture is perfect, the taste amazing! I used a little Sukrin brown and it melted perfectly. Couldn't tell it wasn't brown sugar! This will be made again and again at my house?
Seriously people, this is one of the best desserts I have made! I was so curios on how it would taste, I took a spoonful while it was still warm. Yea, that dish never made it to the fridge to sit overnight. Truly amazing!!!!! Thank you for such a wonderful treat!!!!
Adding a bit of regular sugar (just a bit of it !) allows the erythritol to turn into a brown and hard caramel very close to the original one ! It adds 1 grams of sugar (4kcal) to your daily macros, but it also adds a lot of pleasure to your dessert 🙂 ...
Thank you for this suggestion, Zoziau! 🙂
This looks fantastic! Bring I don't have enough a serve and I'd like to use nut milk instead of heavy cream. Can I still make this work using these two adjustments?
Hi, Linda!
I think you can try the adjustments, but I can't guarantee how they'll turn out. The texture may end up too runny as nut milk is usually way less fatty than heavy cream. You could try compensating using additional egg yolks, though. If you decide to make the creme brulee like that, do let me know how it turned out! 🙂