Is Crème Brûlée Gluten-Free?

Is crème brûlée gluten free? Crème brûlée is gluten-free, containing cream, vanilla, sugar, eggs, and water. To be safe, always check ingredient labels for gluten if you're eating ready-made crème brûlée. Although gluten-free, crème brûlée is high in fat and sugar, so it should only be a rare, not daily, treat in a healthy diet.

Creme brulee in a ramekin on a white plate.

Creme brûlée is the ultimate dessert for special occasions. With its rich, creamy vanilla custard base and caramelized sugar topping, crème brûlée is decadent and luxurious. But how healthy is this delectable dessert? And is crème brûlée gluten-free?

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Is Crème Brûlée Gluten-Free?
What is Creme Brûlée?
Is Creme Brûlée Healthy?
Popular Brands Of Creme Brûlée
Alternatives To Creme Brûlée
Creme Brûlée FAQs
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If you struggle with gluten intolerance, allergy, or celiac disease, it can be frustrating to pass up dessert after dessert, pastry after pie. Crème brûlée is an exception – this gorgeous creamy concoction is gluten-free. Does that make it healthy, though? Let’s investigate crème brûlée.

Crème brûlée is gluten-free as the only ingredients are cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and water, none of which contain gluten. You can therefore eat this lovely dish as part of a gluten-free diet.

You can also use any crème brûlée recipes and don't need to search for gluten-free recipes.

Most ready-made crème brûlée is gluten-free, but manufacturers may include additives like thickeners and stabilizers containing gluten. For this reason, check ingredient labels for items like starch, modified starch, dextrin, malt extract, or hydrogenized wheat protein, as these all contain gluten.

What is Creme Brûlée?

Crème brûlée is a delicious dessert that combines a silky-smooth custard base with a bronzed layer of caramel topping. It is usually served in individual ramekins.

The first recipe for crème brûlée is from a 1691 cookbook written by Francois Massialot, a chef at the French king's palace at Versailles. The dessert's name is French, meaning "burnt cream" in English.

While traditional French versions of crème brûlée are vanilla-flavored, Spanish varieties, known as crema catalana have delicate orange, lemon, and cinnamon undertones. Italians call the dish cream caramella, and the English version was called Trinity Cream, after Trinity College at Cambridge University, where the college crest was burnt into the sugar on top of the custard.

All crème brûlée starts with a custard made from heavy cream, egg yolks, vanilla extract, paste, or beans, and more than one cup of sugar cooked over low heat.

Pour the egg mixture into the individual ramekins, and carefully place the ramekins in a water bath (use hot tap water). Ensure that the baking dish has high sides to prevent spillage. Bake the custard until barely set and allow them to cool at room temperature.

Once the creamy custards have been refrigerated – covered with plastic wrap – they get a sugar topping which is either placed under the broiler to caramelize or browned with a blow torch. The topping turns dark brown, hard, and glassy and can be shattered with a teaspoon.

Crème brûlée, flavored with chocolate and fruit, is also popular.

Is Creme Brûlée Healthy?

Delicious as it is, crème brûlée cannot be regarded as a healthy dish.

Because crème brûlée contains both heavy cream and egg yolks, it is high in saturated fat. It also has plenty of sugar. Both fat and sugar are unhealthy if eaten in large quantities.

High levels of saturated fats can raise cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The sugar content of crème brûlée is associated with obesity, tooth decay, chronic lifestyle diseases, diabetes, and cancer.

On the other hand, crème brûlée is a source of protein, phosphorus, iron, and vitamins A and B.

Eaten to excess, crème brûlée is unhealthy. However, if you generally follow a healthy diet, enjoy crème brûlée as a rare treat.

3 ramekins with creme brulee on a white plate.

Popular Brands Of Creme Brûlée

Fiddling with separating eggs, vanilla pods, hot water, and kitchen blow torches may seem like an awful effort for a dessert, however tasty.

Fortunately, you can purchase prepackaged, ready-made crème brûlée and ready mixes that you can whip up quickly – and that are gluten-free.

Here are some favorite brands that are in stores now:

Favorite Day Creme Brûlée

Available at Target and other stores, Favorite Day Crème brûlée is a ready-made, frozen dessert that you heat and serve. Sugar comes separately to create the caramelized topping in your oven broiler.

Favorite Day's crème brûlée is gluten-free, containing cream, eggs, sugar, rice starch, vanilla flavor, carrageenan, and xanthan gum.

As with homemade crème brûlée, you're not choosing the healthiest dessert: this brand contains 32g of fat and 29g of sugar per serving.

Costco Marie Moirin Crème Brulee

One of Costco's best-priced and most popular ready-made crème brûlée desserts is the Marie Moirin brand.

You get eight portions of crème brûlée with accompanying sugar topping to add and broil and eight cute glass jars or individual ramekins.

The ingredients of this creamy vanilla custard are cream, skim milk, buttermilk, eggs, sugar, glucose syrup, and vanilla flavoring.

According to the nutritional information, the dessert packs 18g of fat and 16g of sugar, pushing it off the daily treat list and into the unhealthy list.

Dr. Oetker Creme Brûlée

This ready-mix crème brûlée requires minimal preparation – you heat milk and cream, then add the contents of the mix and simmer. Pour the cream mixture into 12 ramekins to set. There is a sugar sprinkle to create the crunchy topping, which you sprinkle over the custard. Put the sugar-topped ramekins on a baking sheet, to broil in the oven.

Tasting as if you made it from scratch, Dr. Oetker's crème brûlée contains sugar, corn starch, whey, egg yolks, non-fat milk, cream, carrageenan, disodium phosphate, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, artificial flavoring, beta carotene coloring, soy lecithin, and preservatives.

Before you add your milk and cream, the mix has only 1g of fat and 17g of sugar, making it a slightly healthier option.

Rians Creme Brûlée

Warning: This dessert's custard base is gluten-free, but the crunchy caramel topping is not. Do not add the topping if you have a gluten intolerance, allergy, or celiac disease.

Rians Crème brûlée has a delightfully creamy texture, with a separate crunchy topping rather than the usual hard sugar shell. You can serve it warm or chilled.

The custard contains milk, cream, eggs, sugar, and vanilla, with no artificial additives such as coloring or preservatives.

However, the separate caramel crumble topping is made from wheat glucose, corn syrup, and sugar, so it is not gluten-free.

Tasty though it may be, this crème brûlée comes in with 26g of fat and 16g of sugar, making it a less healthy option – save this for special occasions.

Alternatives To Creme Brûlée

If you enjoy crème brûlée flavors but not the custardy texture, here are some fantastic gluten-free alternatives.

Wegmans Creme Brûlée Ice Cream

Fans of ice cream will love this caramel and custard-flavored dessert, especially the yummy swirls of caramelized sugar.

Wegmans Crème brûlée ice cream is made from cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter, salt, corn syrup, water, modified corn starch, natural flavoring, and coloring.

This delectable ice cream is not any healthier than crème brûlée, with each portion containing 21g of fat and 36g of sugar.

Jell-O Creme Brûlée Sugar-Free Rice Pudding

For those who find crème brûlée too indulgent to eat often, this sugar-free rice pudding is a tasty alternative.

With a creamy texture and enough sweetness to satisfy a snack craving, Jell-O's offering reminds you of crème brûlée without the fat.

The dessert contains water, rice, cream, milk, maltitol, salt, calcium phosphate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, carrageenan, caramel color, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium.

It is healthy, having no sugar, no egg, no soy, no gluten, and no artificial preservatives.

With only 70 calories and 2g of fat per serving, it's worth trying out this pudding.

Birch Benders Keto Maple Pancake Cup

Although these mug-cake mixes aren't much like crème brûlée, this pancake-like treat will hit the sweet spot when you want something delicious and nourishing.

Each package contains eight servings, to which you add water and then pop in the microwave for a minute. You don't even need your own mug.

Grain-free, gluten-free, and sugar-free, Birch Benders' Pancake Cups are also suitable for those following a keto diet.

The ingredients of these snacks are almond flour, coconut flour, tigernut flour, eggs, sunflower oil, inulin, sodium caseinate, mixed tocopherols, monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, maple flavoring, xanthan gum, and monk fruit.

Typical of keto foods, the cups contain 17g of fat but only 2g of sugar per serving.

Creme brulee in a white bowl with a raspberry on top.

Crème brûlée is the perfect dessert for birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions. The good news for those who can't or don't eat gluten is that crème brûlée does not contain gluten.

Creme Brûlée FAQs

Does Creme Caramel Contain Gluten?

Crème caramel does not contain gluten, as it is similar to crème brûlée. Also made from a custard of eggs, sugar, cream, and vanilla, crème caramel or flan is baked with a caramel lining.
Instead of getting a crackly topping, crème caramel is often turned out of its ramekin so that the golden caramel flows over it. This dessert is lighter and less rich than crème brûlée but equally unhealthy as it is rich in eggs, cream, and sugar.
Check all packaged crème caramel and flan's ingredients lists and nutritional information for hidden gluten in thickeners, stabilizers, flavorings, colorings, and other additives.

Is Costco Crème Brûlée Gluten-Free?

Costco’s Marie Moirin Crème brûlée is gluten-free. The only ingredients are cream, milk, eggs, sugar, glucose syrup, and vanilla flavoring.

Is Crème Brûlée Vegan?

Crème brûlée is not vegan because it contains dairy products, which are of animal origin. Its main ingredients are cream, milk, and eggs.
Vegans, people with dairy allergies and lactose intolerance, and those following dairy-free diets should avoid crème brûlée.
You can find recipes for a vegan and dairy-free version of crème brûlée, using coconut milk or coconut cream.