Baked Apple Crème Brûlée
Creamy vanilla custard, tender apple, warm cinnamon, and a thin layer of crackly caramel come together in this apple crème brûlée. The custard is flavored with concentrated apple purée and baked directly inside a hollowed apple for extra fruit flavor and a soft contrast to the crisp brûléed top. It is a cozy individual dessert that works especially well for fall dinners and holiday occasions.
30 min
55 min
?
Time for chilling, freezing, resting, marinating or rising, in addition to preparation and cooking.
270 min
🍽️ Servings: 2
Apple Purée
Ingredients
- 2 apples
- 10 g granulated sugar
- 5 g lemon juice
Instructions
- Slice the top off the apple. Hollow it out, leaving walls about 16 to 20 mm thick and reserving the removed apple flesh. Keep the apple intact without piercing the skin.
- Place the hollowed apple in cold water with a small amount of lemon juice for about 10 minutes to slow browning. Remove it, dry thoroughly with paper towel, and refrigerate until needed.
- Weigh 133 g of the reserved apple flesh and place it in a small saucepan with the sugar and lemon juice. Cover and cook gently over low heat until completely soft and translucent.
- Blend until completely smooth.
- Return the purée to the saucepan and cook uncovered over very low heat, stirring continuously, until thick, glossy, and able to coat a spoon.
- Weigh 40 g of the finished apple purée and let it cool completely.
Custard
Ingredients
- 2 egg yolks (64 g)
- 150 g heavy cream
- 30 g granulated sugar
- 40 g apple purée
- ⅓ tsp ground cinnamon (1 g)
- 0.66 g fine sea salt
- ⅓ vanilla bean
Instructions
- Add the heavy cream, cinnamon, vanilla seeds, and vanilla bean to a small saucepan. Heat until steaming but not boiling. Remove from the heat and infuse for about 10 minutes.
- Gently mix the egg yolk, sugar, and salt until evenly combined. Avoid whisking vigorously because excess air creates bubbles and a less even custard.
- Remove the vanilla bean. Slowly pour the warm cream into the yolk mixture while stirring gently.
- Add the completely cooled apple purée and mix until smooth.
- Optionally pass the custard through a fine mesh sieve for an extra smooth texture.
- Preheat the oven to 120 °C / 250 °F.
- Wrap the outside of the hollowed apple with aluminum foil, leaving the opening completely uncovered.
- Stand the apple upright in a small baking dish and fill it almost to the top with the custard.
- Pour hot but not boiling water into the baking dish until it reaches about halfway up the apple.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, until the custard is set around the edges but still has a gentle wobble in the center.
- Remove the apple from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Brûlée
- 10 g granulated sugar
- Sprinkle the chilled custard with a thin, even layer of sugar.
- Caramelize with a kitchen torch until the sugar forms a thin, deep amber crust.
- Serve immediately while the caramel is crisp.
Tips & More Info
Why bake the custard inside a water bath?
The water surrounding the apple keeps the heat gentle and even while the custard cooks. This helps the egg proteins set gradually, giving you a smooth texture instead of a firm or grainy custard.
The center should still wobble
A common mistake with crème brûlée is baking until the center looks completely firm. The custard continues to set as it cools, so taking it too far in the oven can leave it dense instead of creamy.
Why reduce the apple purée?
Apple naturally contains a lot of water. Reducing the purée concentrates its flavor while removing moisture that could otherwise make the custard softer and less creamy.
Keep air out of the custard
Mixing gently matters because trapped air rises during baking and can leave bubbles across the surface. A smooth mixture produces a cleaner, silkier custard.
Why strain the custard?
Straining catches small pieces of cooked egg, vanilla bean, apple fiber, and any other particles that could interrupt the texture. It is a simple step that makes the finished custard noticeably smoother.
Chill thoroughly before caramelizing
A fully chilled custard gives you more time to caramelize the sugar without warming the custard underneath. The goal is a hot, crisp caramel layer sitting over cold, creamy custard.
Use a thin layer of sugar
More sugar does not create a better brûlée crust. A thin, even coating melts quickly and becomes crisp before too much torch heat reaches the custard.
Choose a firm apple
An apple that holds its shape well during cooking makes the best edible container. A very soft or mealy apple can collapse as the custard bakes, especially after the flesh has been hollowed out.