Fig Leaf Crème Brûlée

Fig Leaf Crème Brûlée is a delicious way to showcase the enchanting flavor of fresh fig leaves. Their subtle tropical notes of vanilla and coconut pair beautifully with rich, creamy custard. I have made thousands of brûlées in my life (no, literally!), and this flavor immediately rose to the top of my favorites list.

Recipe features:

• Unexpected flavor. Impress your guests with the unique flavor of fig leaves. The leaves have flavor notes of coconut, vanilla, fresh figs, herbs, and toasted almonds.
• Texture explosion. Luxuriously silky custard meets crackly sugar crust. It’s a super fun texture party in your mouth. 
• Get more from your fig tree. Fig leaves have often been overlooked in favor of the fruit. Why let all those delicious leaves go to waste?

How to use fig leaves in recipes

If you’re looking for a fun way to use fig leaves, you’ve come to the right place. I love using the fresh leaves to flavor all sorts of delicious things.

Although the fruits of fig trees take a few months to ripen, their leaves are perfectly edible, abundant, and delicious as soon as they sprout from the tree. While you’re waiting to make delicious fig desserts (like fig & brie cinnamon rolls), you might as well put their leaves to good use. Just a handful of leaves will give you plenty of flavor for dessert and drink recipes.

To use fig leaves in recipes, you’ll want to cook them in some way – they’re not exactly pleasant to eat raw. I make fig leaf simple syrup often in the spring and summer for use in things like fig leaf lemonade, cocktails, and mocktails.

Other ways to use fig leaves: 

• Use them to wrap foods before baking or grilling, similar to how you would use banana leaves. (Check out this list of ideas for using banana leaves to get some creative ideas flowing).
• Make an infused sugar or salt with them. Toast the leaves until dry and crumbly, then blitz them up with sugar or salt.
• Infuse their flavor into heavy cream for use in custards (like we’re doing here), whipped cream, and sauces.

Fig leaf crème brûlée tips

Although crème brûlée is a super simple dessert, it can be a bit tricky to get just right. You want to bake the custards with a low, gentle heat so that they cook slowly without curdling the eggs. Then you need to pull them out of the oven at just the right time. Too little time and they’ll be runny in the middle; too much time and they’ll curdle.

Keep these tips in mind when making fig leaf crème brûlée:

When making the custard:

• Heat the cream gently. Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat just until tiny bubbles start to form around the edges, being careful not to boil it.
• Let the fig leaves infuse. Add the fig leaves, tucking them into the cream and swirling the cream to make sure they get submerged. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and allow to infuse for 15-20 minutes. After infusing, you can discard the fig leaves.
• Temper the eggs. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Start by adding about 1/2 cup of warm fig leaf-infused cream into the yolk mixture, whisking together. Then, pour in the remaining cream and whisk to combine well. This tempering step ensures that the eggs don’t curdle.
• Distribute the mixture evenly. Try to distribute the custard mix evenly between the ramekins so that they’re all done at the same time.
• Eliminate air bubbles. You can use a culinary torch to get rid of any air bubbles on the tops of the custards before baking. Wave the flame swiftly and briefly over the tops of the custard until the bubbles are gone. This is optional, but it’s a nice touch!

When baking the brûlées:

• Bake at low heat – 300° F.
• Use a hot water bath. Baking in a water bath distributes the heat evenly and keeps the oven moist, creating a silky-smooth custard texture. To make one, pour hot water into your baking dish until the water comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Be careful not to splash any water into your custards!
• Remove from the oven when they’re still a little jiggly. Bake until crème brûlée is mostly set but the centers still jiggle slightly when you tap the side of the ramekin.
• Chill thoroughly. Allow the custards to completely cool after baking to ensure they set properly.

After the fig leaf custards are cold and set, it’s time to brûlée! Top the custards with a thin, even layer of sugar. Turn a culinary torch to low heat and wave the torch over the sugar until it bubbles and caramelizes.

Make sure the melted sugar has a few minutes to cool down before digging in. That way, the sugar has time to set into a satisfyingly crispy, shatterable crust.

You can serve the custards with crunchy cookies, homemade fig butter, a drizzle of fig leaf syrup, or fresh sliced figs.

If you make this fig leaf crème brûlée, please leave a star rating and let me know what you think in the comments!