Matcha Crème Brûlée

Velvety custard and matcha were meant to be together in this green tea dessert. This matcha creme brulee uses 5 simple ingredients and is the best prep-ahead dessert.

What You’ll Find in This Post

• What flavors go well with matcha?
• What can you make with matcha?
• How do I make a cup of matcha tea?
• Step by Step Recipe
• Recipe Card

What Flavors Go Well with Matcha?

I love using matcha in dessert recipes because matcha goes so well with sweet flavors and can almost always successfully be added to vanilla-flavored desserts. It pairs really nicely with chocolate, vanilla, and berries like with this layered matcha and chocolate French silk pie. It also pairs great with aromatics like mint, lavender, rose, and citrus like with this matcha lemonade.

What Can you Make with Matcha?

The volume of recipes using matcha green tea has increased tenfold in the past few years as people are experimenting more and more with matcha. Matcha can be enjoyed in it’s simplest form as a tea, but the powder is also being used to make delicious recipes.

You can use matcha for sweet recipes like cakes, pastries, crepes, brownies, dessert bars etc. Matcha ice cream and frozen yogurt or semifreddo are all amazing along with matcha peanut butter cups, shortbread, cookies, and muffins. Some savory uses of matcha include soups, rubs for meat and butter-based sauces.

How Do I Make a Cup of Matcha Tea?

To make a delicious traditional cup of matcha green tea, I like to keep it simple with just matcha powder and water. Blend or whisk a few tablespoons of cold or hot water with the matcha powder until all clumps are removed. Then I add more water until I have reached about 1 cup. Finally, I froth until bubbly.

See my full guide to making traditional matcha tea or check out my recipe for a matcha latte you can make using 5 different methods, depending on what you have in your kitchen.

Step by Step Recipe

For Matcha Crème Brûlée, you will need these ingredients: vanilla pod (or extract), culinary grade matcha, heavy cream, egg yolks, and caster sugar.

Start with your vanilla pod. Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise, and use your blade or a spoon to scrape out the seeds. Put both the seeds and the remaining vanilla bean in a saucepan with the heavy cream (photo 1). Bring the cream and vanilla to a simmer on a medium heat. Be very careful not to boil.

Once simmered, remove the cream from the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Now, whisk together about 1/4 cup of the cream with the matcha powder to remove all the clumps (photos 2 & 3). Then, whisk the matcha mixture into the rest of the cream to combine (photo 4). Note: This can also be done in a blender if you have one, but isn’t necessary if you are first following photos 2 & 3.

Heat your oven to 320F. Then, beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until they are light, fluffy, and pale yellow (photos 5 & 6). Make sure your bowl is suitable to be used in a bain-marie (i.e a glass bowl that fits over a saucepan filled with simmering water).

Stir in your warmed matcha cream with the eggs and sugar. Make sure to mix well (photo 7).

Over the bain-marie, heat the matcha cream mixture while stirring constantly until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. This should take ~8 minutes (photo 8).

Strain the matcha cream mixture to make sure it is smooth throughout. Divide the mixture evenly between 4 ramekins (Amazon link opens in new tab). Place the ramekins into a deep roasting pan. Fill the pan with halfway with boiling water, so that the water covers the ramekins about halfway up their sides. Place the roasting pan in the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Once cooked, remove the matcha crème brûlée pan from the oven. Remove each ramekin from the water immediately and place aside so they stop cooking. Let them cool to room temperature, and then transfer them to the refrigerator and allow them to cool overnight.

When ready to serve the matcha crème brûlées, take them out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving so they come to room temperature. you have two options for how to handle the sugar crust. If you have a brûlée torch (Amazon link opens in new tab), you can add a covered layer of fine caster sugar. Shake off the excess sugar onto the next ramekin. Brûlée with the torch until the characteristic sugar crust has formed.

Note: Caster sugar is the sugar of choice for crème brûlée because it is fine and will melt more evenly than coarse sugar. If you do not have caster sugar, you can run granulated sugar in a food processor to break it down.

If you don’t have a torch, heat the broiler in your oven to high. Add a layer of icing sugar to each crème brûlée, and shake off excess into the next ramekin. Then, place under the grill. WATCH THEM CAREFULLY! Otherwise, they will burn very quickly. Let them cool before serving… melted sugar will burn! And don’t forget to have fun cracking the tasty sugar crust!

If You Love This Matcha Recipe...

Then you will love some of these other matcha dessert favorites:

• Strawberry Matcha Semifreddo
• Krumkake with Matcha Filling
• Matcha Mascarpone Cream Puffs

Author: Candice Walker

Matcha Crème Brûlée

4.83 from 23 votes

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Velvety custard and green tea were meant to be together. This matcha creme brulee uses 5 simple ingredients and is the best prep-ahead dessert.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, French, Japanese

Servings: 4

Calories: 429kcal

Equipment

• ▢
  Torch or Broiler
• ▢
  Whisk
• ▢
  Ramekins
• ▢
  Deep sided roasting pan

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 tsp culinary grade matcha powder use up to 3 tsp for added matcha flavor
• ▢ 375 mL heavy cream
• ▢ 5 room temperature egg yolks
• ▢ 25 g caster sugar plus more for the brulee top

Instructions

• Slice the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and put the seeds and bean in a saucepan with the cream.
• Bring to a simmer. DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat and remove the vanilla pod.
• Whisk together about 1/4 cup of the cream with the matcha powder to remove all the clumps. Then, whisk the matcha mixture into the rest of the cream to combine.*
• Heat the oven to 320F.
• Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy in a bowl you can use in a bain-marie (glass bowl that fits over a sauce pan filled with simmering water). Stir in the warmed cream. Make sure to mix well.
• Over the bain-marie heat the cream mixture stirring constantly until it coats the back of a spoon, ~8 minutes.
• Strain the mixture to make sure it is smooth.
• Divide the mixture between 4 ramekins.
• Place the ramekins in a deep roasting tin. Fill the tin half-full with boiling water. Place it in the oven and cook 20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven. Remove from the water to stop them from continuing to cook. Let cool to room temperature, then transfer to the refrigerator and cool overnight.
• When ready to serve, take them out of the refrigerator 20 minutes before serving so they come to room temperature.
• BRULEE: If you have a brûlée torch, add a covered layer of fine caster sugar and shake off the excess into the next ramekin. Gently move the flame around to evenly melt the sugar. If you do not have a torch, heat the broiler to high. Add a covered layer of icing sugar and shake off the excess into the next ramekin. Then, place under the grill. WATCH CAREFULLY! Let cool before serving.

Notes

* This can also be done in a blender if you have one, but isn’t necessary if you are first whisking together the 1/4 cup of cream and matcha powder to remove the clumps.

Before serving allow the crème to come to room temperature before you brûlée the tops. This helps the sugar melt evenly as you torch the tops. 

Caster sugar is the sugar of choice for crème brûlée because it is fine and will melt more evenly than coarse sugar. If you do not have caster sugar, you can run granulated sugar in a food processor to break it down.

Nutrition

Calories: 429kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 41g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Cholesterol: 373mg | Sodium: 46mg | Potassium: 95mg | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1803IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 90mg | Iron: 1mg

Did you try this recipe?I’d love to hear what you think! Leave a Review to let us know how it came out, if you have a successful substitution or variation, or anything else.

This post was originally published in October of 2017, but was republished with new photos, step by step instructions, and tips August of 2020.