Instant Pot Carrot Cake Crème Brûlée

Instant Pot Carrot Cake Crème Brûlée is delicious, impressive, yet easy dessert. Make it for Easter or any time of the year. It’s convenient and easy to make just one serving if desired.

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Crème brûlée is one of those super fancy desserts that is served in many fine fining restaurants. It’s a delicious and silky smooth custard with a crackly layer of caramelized sugar.

It looks complicated but it actually is a pretty easy dessert to make. Most recipes require an extra step of heating up the cream and carefully mixing it with the egg yolks. My particular recipe, however, omits this step.

Making crème brûlée in Instant Pot is yet another way of simplifying this delicious dessert. Traditional way means cooking it in a water bath, whereas in this recipe I utilize the steamy heat of pressure cooker to cook crème brûlée.

I love making this dessert in Instant Pot because it is super easy and I can actually make just one serving at a time if I want. Yes, of course, you can make just one serving in the oven also but I personally don’t like heating up the oven just for one little ramekin.

How to make Crème brûlée in Instant Pot

1. Mix the egg yolks with sugar and all the flavourings. In this particular recipe I use cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and carrots to mimic the flavours of Carrot Cake.
2. Add the heavy cream and whisk well to combine.
3. Pour into oven-safe ramekins and cover with foil.
4. Add 1 cup cold water to Instant Pot, place the ramekins onto a rack. Cook for 7-8 minutes on High Pressure and do a minimum of 5 minutes Natural Pressure Release. You can do longer.
5. Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours or preferably overnight.
6. Sprinkle with a thin layer of sugar and burn it using a cooking torch. Enjoy!

Questions and answers about Instant Pot Carrot Cake Crème brûlée

What kind of carrot purée to use?

I’ve been cooking a lot of carrot purée over the past few years and I found the kind I like. I usually use carrot purée baby food and I like using pouches instead of little jars for this particular recipe.

I find that pouches of carrot purée are thicker than the jars. You want the purée to be similar to canned pumpkin purée or to very thick yogurt. Not thin like soup and jars are usually pretty thin.

You can also make your own carrot purée by steaming carrots until very soft and then pureeing them in a food processor with a touch of water.

Can you omit carrot purée?

Sure, you can. The colour and flavour will be slightly different.

Can you change the spices?

Of course. If you prefer to make classic crème brûlée, then omit the carrot purée and all the spices. Add vanilla extract instead.

Can you halve the recipe?

Amounts in this recipe are great as they are super easy to adjust. You can make 1, 2, 3, or 4 servings easily.

What if cooking time isn’t enough?

This recipe is considered to be Pot in Pot. I find that Pot in Pot recipe techniques really vary in time depending on the material of the container used and Instant Pot model.

This particular recipe I made in my DUO Plus Instant Pot. I know that my other model Smart Wifi will not cook crème brûlée in 7 minutes. That model will need at a minimum 14 minutes of cooking time or even more.

I suggest trying one serving at first to figure out the timing in your particular Instant Pot model. Cook for 7 minutes as recommended in the instructions, then check for doneness. Add a few more minutes if not cooked properly.

When cooked properly, it’ll be jiggly but not soupy. Edges will be firmer and centre will be softer but still not soupy.

How long will it last?

Crème brûlée will easily last a week in the fridge. I haven’t tried keeping it for longer.

Do not keep in the fridge with the sugar crust, as it’ll just melt. Keep without the sugar crust and torch the sugar just before serving.

Tip for making Crème brûlée

It is really important to use egg yolks without any egg whites. Sometimes when I separate the eggs for cakes, I don’t fully remove the egg white from the yolk and there’s a thin layer of egg white left.

You should not do it for this recipe! It is imperative to have no egg white left around the yolk.

Since there’s no tempering of the eggs with hot cream in the recipe, if there are a little bits of egg white left, they’ll cook in Instant Pot and the custard will not be silky smooth.

What to do with leftover egg whites?

Since this recipe uses egg yolks only, you’ll end up with some egg whites after. You can use egg whites to make Instant Pot Almond Cherry Cake or Instant Pot Ham and Cheese Egg White Bites.

More Instant Pot Carrot Recipes

• Instant Pot Carrot Cake Jam
• Instant Pot Carrot Cake Bread Pudding
• Instant Pot No Knead Carrot Bread Rolls

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