This Chocolate Peppermint Creme Brûlée is a rich, creamy chocolate-peppermint custard topped with caramelized candy cane sugar. It’s gorgeous, it’s festive, and it’s delicious. Creme brûlée is one of my favorite fancy desserts to make because, despite the high-brow reputation, creme brûlée is deceptively simple to make. One of my favorite tricks for holiday baking is to make candy cane sugar- which is exactly what it sounds like- ground candy canes crushed into sugar and used in your holiday recipes. (Pulverize them even MORE and you get candy cane powdered sugar, also useful.) As I was putting some extra candy cane sugar away recently I had a thought that it would be so great on top of creme brûlée. And not just any creme brûlée, chocolate creme brûlée. Give this one a try; you will not be disappointed!
Ingredients and Equipment Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Ingredients
- Heavy cream
- Bittersweet chocolate
- Egg yolks
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Peppermint extract
- Candy canes
Equipment
- Kitchen torch – The most useful tool for caramelizing sugar in recipes like this is a kitchen torch! Rest assured, if you don’t have one you could very carefully put these under a broiler. A kitchen torch is super fun though, and not super expensive so it’s a really fun gift for any food-loving people on your gift list this year!
- Thin flour sack dish towel – Laying a thin dish towel on the bottom of a baking sheet helps your ramekins stay put while moving your pan in and out of the oven. You’ll cover this with hot water to create a water bath.
How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Creme Brûlée
Step 1: Mix Up Your Batter
- To start, you’ll heat some cream on the stovetop and then add in bittersweet chocolate to melt. You can chop up your favorite bar, or do as I do and just grab a bag of bittersweet chips.
- After you’ve whisked up your chocolate and cream, you’ll add it to your egg mixture. Very similar to ice cream batter here, only we’re baking instead of chilling! After it’s all mixed up, along with some vanilla and peppermint, you’ll fill up some ramekins.
Step 2: Bake and Chill
- You’ll notice (just barely) in this photo below that these are sitting in a roasting pan, on top of a flour sack dish towel, which helps keep them from sliding around. I’ve also filled the pan with hot water so it reaches about half way up the ramekins.
- When they’re done baking, allow to cool to room temp and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours.
Step 3: Make Your Candy Cane Sugar and Caramelize the Tops
- As your ramekins are baking, or when you’re about ready to serve, you can pulverize your candy canes to make this gorgeous candy cane sugar. I popped mine in my Blendtec and just pulsed a couple times, but you could also use a food processor, or place them in a zip top bag and smash with a mallet.
- If you have a kitchen torch then you probably already know how to do this, but just gently run it over the sugar and it will melt and turn into a crisp crackly sugar. You can see how some of mine have larger chunks of candy cane. It ends up chewier, but I love how it looks and how you can tell it’s candy canes! The absolute BEST part of eating creme brûlée is cracking your spoon through that sugar for the first time. This is a fun, elegant (yet easy!) dessert to make this holiday season.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store baked, cooled creme brûlée, tightly covered, in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days. For best results, caramelize the tops immediately before serving.
- I really like shallow brûlée dishes for creme brûlée, mostly because I like having a bite of caramelized sugar with every bite, but most people don’t own those so deeper ramekins are more practical! This recipe will fill up 4 6-oz ramekins, but honestly these are so rich, I would suggest filling them only half to 2/3 full and making more like 6 from this same recipe. If you need to double like I’ve done in these photographs, this recipe doubles just fine.
- Super fine sugar like the photo below will caramelize the best, but I really like how slightly larger chunks look. The fine sugar disappears on the dark chocolate, while little bits of candy canes stay in tact after caramelizing as you can see in my photos. Totally personal preference. It is a little harder to caramelize the larger chunks and you have to be careful about burning them, but it can be done!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make these ahead of time?
Yes, these are great made ahead of time! Bake them up a day in advance, cover tightly and store in the fridge, then caramelize the tops right before serving.
Can I caramelize them and then store in the fridge?
This isn’t recommended, as the caramelized tops will tend to melt and get gooey. It’s best to caramelize immediately before serving!
Can I make this without the peppermint?
Sure! Just leave out the peppermint extract and use regular granulated sugar to caramelize the tops.
Chocolate Peppermint Creme Brûlée
Creamy, decadent chocolate peppermint creme with caramelized crushed candy cane sugar on top. The perfect holiday dessert!
Servings
Equipment
- Kitchen Torch
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped bar or chips
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1-2 candy canes
Instructions
- Place oven rack in the center of oven and preheat to 325℉. Place a dish towel in a shallow baking pan and set aside. Boil a kettle of water and have on hand.
- Heat the cream in a medium sauce pan on the stove until hot and just barely bubbling (don’t boil). Turn heat off and add chocolate. Let it rest so chocolate can melt.
- Place eggs and sugar in a medium-large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 3-4 minutes until mixture is pale yellow in color and thick and fluffy.
- Whisk the chocolate and cream until smooth and melted and then slowly drizzle the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture while whisking constantly. Stir until completely smooth and whisk in vanilla and peppermint.
- Place ramekins in the pan lined with the dish cloth (see note below about how many ramekins and how full to pour.) Place pan in oven and carefully pour your hot water into the baking pan until it reaches half way up the outside of the ramekins. Gently tent the pan with foil.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes, slightly more if your ramekins are filled quite full (like mine in these photos!) . They should be just set around the edges and still jiggle when you gently shake the pan.
- Remove ramekins from water bath and place on a cooling rack to cool to room temperature. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days.
- When ready to serve, crush candy canes by pulsing them in a high powered blender, food processor, or a mallet (using a plastic bag). They should be mostly a fine powder, like granulated sugar, with some larger chunks if you prefer.
- Use a torch to caramelize the sugar and serve immediately.
Notes
This recipe will fill 4 6-oz ramekins, however it is quite rich and can easily make 6 servings not filled quite so full. It also doubles just fine so feel free to make a large batch if desired!
Nutrition
Calories: 613kcal, Carbohydrates: 21g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 56g, Saturated Fat: 34g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 15g, Trans Fat: 0.02g, Cholesterol: 330mg, Sodium: 43mg, Potassium: 256mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 18g, Vitamin A: 2019IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 115mg, Iron: 2mg
Calories: 613kcal
Cost: $5
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Questions & Reviews
The creme brulee looks so good! Thank you for sharing the recipe!