Crema catalana
Catalan custard with a crackable burnt-sugar crust, flavoured with cinnamon and lemon. Not a crème brûlée.
Crema catalana is a chilled custard set with egg yolks and a little cornstarch, infused with cinnamon stick and lemon peel. Just before serving, sugar goes on top and a hot iron or torch turns it into a thin, crackable caramel crust. It's almost always confused with crème brûlée, but the two differ: crème brûlée uses cream and bakes in a water bath; crema catalana uses milk and sets on the stovetop. Catalans eat it year-round, with a hard peak on 19 March, the feast of Sant Josep, which gives the dessert its other name, crema de Sant Josep.
How it's served
Cold, in a wide shallow earthenware dish (the cassola holds heat better than a ramekin), with the sugar crust torched seconds before it leaves the kitchen. Most diners crack it with the back of a spoon and eat from the centre outward.
Regional variation
The Catalan version is the original; the French crème brûlée shows up about a century later in cookbooks. Inside Catalonia, the cinnamon-and-lemon profile is standard, but some restaurants infuse with orange peel or vanilla.
- Origin
- Catalonia, Spain
- Etymology
- Catalan for 'Catalan cream'.
- Also called
- crema de Sant Josep
Frequently asked
Is crema catalana the same as crème brûlée?
No. Crema catalana uses milk and is set on the stovetop with cornstarch and egg yolks; crème brûlée uses cream and bakes in a water bath. Crema catalana also leans on cinnamon and lemon, where crème brûlée is vanilla-led.
When is crema catalana eaten?
Year-round, but the traditional date is 19 March, the feast of Sant Josep (Saint Joseph's Day) and Catalan Father's Day. Bakeries in Barcelona sell it by the slab in the week leading up. The alternative name, crema de Sant Josep, comes from this.
How is the burnt-sugar crust made?
Sugar gets sprinkled across the chilled custard and burned with a flat iron heated red-hot, or more often these days a butane torch. The sugar caramelizes into a thin, glassy layer in seconds. Done well, it cracks under spoon pressure like a sheet of toffee.