Why it’s so good!
This caramel crème brûlée tart is the ultimate indulgent dessert and it’s gorgeous in every way. It looks stunning, tastes seriously amazing, and you’ll feel like you got it at a high-end restaurant.
Imagine a super creamy and totally smooth caramel-flavoured custard inside a simple, crisp pastry crust. The top of the filling is brûléed to give that crunchy shell on top with a satisfying crack. Oh, and creme brulee just happens to be very easy to make at home.
I have several posts on SSM dedicated to crème brûlée, like my chocolate creme brulee and coffee creme brulee to name but two. I wanted this one to be a caramel flavour (my favourite of all flavours), just lightly salted, using my salted caramel pots de creme as inspiration.
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Ingredients
This creme brulee tart uses relatively few ingredients, and that’s even making the pastry from scratch, which, while you could use store-bought, tastes so much better than pre-made pastry and is very simple to make.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
- Flour: The pastry just needs plain flour / all-purpose flour.
- Sugar: There is just a little sugar in the pastry and I chose brown sugar to enhance the caramel flavour of the tart. Then use caster sugar (superfine sugar) for the crisp toffee topping.
- Butter: Stick to unsalted butter in the pastry and make sure it’s cold.
- Eggs: One egg is used in the tart crust and another 5 are used in the creme brulee filling. You will have some egg whites leftover but they’ll keep in the fridge for 2-3 days and freeze well too ready to use in other dishes.
- Caramel sauce: To keep things very simple, I use a store-bought caramel sauce, to be specific, I use the Bonne Maman caramel. You could also use dulce de leche, like the Nestle Top N Fill Caramel.
- Cream: You’re after a cream with about 35% milk fat. Called thickened cream or whipping cream where I am, you might know it as heavy cream too.
- Salt: Use cooking sea salt or kosher salt in the caramel and a pinch in the tart shell as well.
How to make crème brûlée tart
While some might be intimidated by making both a tart shell and creme brulee, it’s truly very easy to do. The pastry is created in a food processor then just rolled out and into a tart shell. The caramel crème brûlée filling is even easier.
Jump to the recipe for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Make the tart crust dough
Start by blending flour, sugar and butter in a food processor until the smallest pieces of butter are about lentil-sized. Add the egg and blitz again to combine until it looks like breadcrumbs (below).
With the food processor running on low, dribble in the water until it starts clumping together, like this.
2. Shape the tart crust
Pull the clumping dough together into a disk, then roll it out on a lightly floured surface. To transfer it to the tart pan, place the rolling pin in the middle of the dough, and pull one side of the dough over the top. Now just lift and transfer it to the tart pan.
Press the sides of the dough downwards into the corners and leave any overhanging pastry standing up. If it’s falling over at the edge and pulling the tart crust out of shape, just trim a little off with scissors. You’ll need to chill the tart shell for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days if it’s easier for you to make it ahead.
3. Blind bake the tart crust
You’ll need to partially bake the crust before adding the filling. To do this, start by using a knife to trim off the excess pastry from around the edge, then prick the base all over with a fork (this is called docking and allows steam to escape as it bakes).
Now, line the tart crust with baking paper, then fill it with pie weights or baking beans (or rice/lentils, etc) making sure they’re pushed right into the corners. You’ll bake the tart shell for 15 minutes like this, then remove the paper and weights and bake for another 8 minutes.
4. Make the filling
First thing’s first, reduce the oven temperature to 160C (140C fan forced) / 320F.
The creme brulee tart filling is so incredibly quick and easy to make. Start by heating some cream in a saucepan until it’s steaming, then whisk together a large egg, 4 large egg yolks and the room temperature caramel in a bowl.
Stir the salt into the hot cream, then slowly dribble the hot cream into the egg mixture while stirring with a whisk. This process is called tempering the eggs and allows you to add hot cream to the eggs without scrambling. Slower is better here.
5. Add the creme brulee tart filling to the crust
Pour the creme brulee filling into the tart shell until it reaches nearly the top: The amount that fits into your tart shell will depend on the exact size of your tart pan (for instance, I have 2x “9 inch” pans that vary in size slightly) and also on how much your tart crust shrank when baking.
TIP: It can help to pour the filling in while the tart pan is on the oven shelf so that it doesn’t slop about as you try to transfer it from your kitchen bench to the oven.
Bake until it wobbles when you gently shake, but it doesn’t look liquid. This is around the 35-38 minute mark.
6. Brûléeing the top
Brûlée is a French term meaning burnt and creme brûlée translates to burnt cream. The burnt part comes in the form of caramelising the sugar on top of the custard and to do that, you’ll need a kitchen blowtorch. While you can technically do it under an overhead grill or broiler, this method can heat the custard to a point of melting again so a blow torch is always my preferred method.
Scatter the sugar over the top of the set, cooled tart, and spread it evenly with a spatula or back of a spoon. Now, heat it with your blowtorch until it turns amber and melts into a crunchy coating.
Tips and tricks
- Cold ingredients for the pastry: To get a light and flaky crust instead of hard and crunchy, make sure to use cold butter, egg and water. This results in the butter staying in very small pieces in the tart shell. As it bakes, steam is released from the butter creating little pockets of air.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough: If you don’t chill the dough, it will shrink too much when you bake it, giving it an uneven, short side and not allowing enough room for the filling. The longer you chill the more it will keep it’s shape but 2 hours is about perfect.
- Fill the tart in the oven: The filling is very fluid so if you need to carry the filled tart to the oven, it can easily slop over the sides. To prevent this, sit the tart shell (still in the pan) onto the oven shelf and fill it there. Then, gently slide in the shelf and close the door.
- Don’t brûlée the top until serving: Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it will absorb water and dissolve. Ever made macerated strawberries and noticed how you get that lovely strawberry-flavoured syrup? The sugar has drawn water out of the strawberry and dissolved to form that syrup. It will do the same once you add it to the crème brûlée too. Even after brûléeing it, it will gradually absorb moisture from the tart filling and, essentially, melt. All this to say, leave the brûléeing until right about serving time. This can be a fun thing you can do in front of the guests, creating the anticipation of that crackly surface.
⏰ Time-saving tips!
We all lead busy lives, and sometimes you might need to try to fit this tart in and around work, kids’ activities, social events, and so on. Here’s some tips
- Make the pastry ahead (⏰About 5 minutes): The tart dough / or pastry can be made in advance. You can store it as a disk in the fridge for 2-3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Speed things up by sitting your food processor bowl onto a kitchen scale and weighing your flour, sugar and butter straight into it.
- Or go one step further and make the tart shell ahead (⏰ About 7 minutes): Go ahead and roll out the pastry right after you’ve pulled it into a disk and line your tart pan with it. Chill the tart shell for 2-3 days in the fridge.
- The whole tart can be made in advance: Once you’ve filled and baked the tart, it will sit happily in the fridge in an airtight container overnight. You can keep it longer (up to 2-3 days) but the longer you store it the softer the tart base will become.
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. Be aware, the sugar topping will melt over time and will no longer be crunchy. It’ll turn more into a syrup.
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Ingredients
FOR THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY
- 225 g plain flour (all purpose flour) (1 ¾ cups / 8oz)
- 50 g light brown sugar (¼ cup / 1.8oz), notes
- 100 g unsalted butter, cold and cubed (7 tablespoons / 3 ½oz)
- 1 large egg, cold
- 1 ½ tablespoons cold water
FOR THE CREME BRULEE FILLING
- 500 ml thickened cream (heavy cream) (2 cups) (notes)
- 4 egg yolks (from large eggs)
- 1 large whole egg
- ⅔ cup store-bought thick caramel sauce I use Bonne Maman, notes
- ½ teaspoon salt optional
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar (superfine sugar) for topping
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- food processor
- 9 inch fluted tart pan with removable base
- Saucepan
Instructions
- FOR THE PASTRY:In the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, sugar, the cold butter and a pinch of salt. Process until the pieces of butter are about lentil sized. Add the egg and pulse on low until it resembles bread crumbs. Be careful not to overprocess. Finally, with the processor on low, dribble in the cold water and let it continue blending until it start to form clumps.
- Turn the pastry dough out onto a clean surface and pull it together with your hands, kneading it just enough to make it mostly smooth.
- Dust the surface with flour, place the dough on top and dust a little flour over the top of the dough. Roll it out to about 4mm (⅙ inch) thick and about 11 inch round, moving it regularly and adding a little flour as necessary – try not to add too much though.
- Place the rolling pin in the middle of the dough and fold one side of the pastry over the top. Lift the rolling pin so the pastry is hanging over it, and lightly dust off any excess flour from underneath. Carefully lay it into a 9 inch round tart pan with removeable base.
- Press the dough down in to the corners all the way round, then press it into the scalloped sides. Leave the overhang standing upright and place the tart pan into the fridge to chill for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
- PAR BAKE THE TART SHELL:Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) / 350F.
- Use a fork to prick the pastry base all over. Use a small paring knife to trim off the excess pastry laying the blade flat to the edge of the tin and working around.
- Line the tart shell with a sheet of baking paper and fill pie weights or rice. Fill it quite full and making sure it’s pressed up tight against the edges.
- Bake for 15 minutes then carefully remove the paper and pie weights and bake a further 8 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before going onto the filling.
- FOR THE FILLING:IMPORTANT! Reduce the oven to 160C (140C fan forced) / 320F.
- Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat until you see it steaming. Stir in the salt.
- Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, whole egg and caramel to combine.
- Very slowly pour half of the hot cream mixture into the eggs while gently stirring with a whisk at the same time, then pour in the rest. TIPS: Make sure to pour slowly so the sudden heat doesn't scramble the eggs. Don’t whisk too aggressively or you’ll get a lot of froth.
- Pour the mixture through a strainer into a large pouring jug or back into the saucepan, then use a spoon to carefully skim just the froth off the top if there’s any.
- Pull the oven shelf part way out and put the tart shell, still in it’s tin, onto the shelf. Now pour in the filling – as long as your tart shell didn’t shrink too much, the filling will fill just shy of the top of the tart shell. If it did shrink, you can fill it to the top, then pour any leftover into a little ramekin and bake it right alongside the tart as a cooks treat.
- If there are lots of bubbles over the top, just gently run the back of a spoon over them to dissolve them away.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until the filling has a wobble when you give it a gentle shake but doesn’t look fluid.
- Let it cool for 20 minutes then refrigerate to set for at least 2 hours.
- Right before serving, sprinkle the extra sugar over the top then use a kitchen blowtorch to melt and caramelise the sugar.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- Your caramel needs to be thick – dollop off the spoon thickness, not runny. Bonne Maman is gorgeous and perfect and what I used here but even dulce de leche from a can will work great. A runny caramel sauce may not set so well but if it’s all you can get, add an extra egg yolk to the filling.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
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