Crème brûlée (crème brulée in L'Orthographie 1990) (French for "burnt cream"; pronounced /ˌkrɛm bruːˈleɪ/ in English, [kʁɛm bʁyˈle] in French), burnt cream, crema catalana, or Trinity cream is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by caramelizing sugar under a broiler, with a butane torch or other intense heat source, or by pouring sugar on top of the custard. It is usually served cold in individual ramekins. The custard base is normally flavoured with just vanilla, but it can be enhanced with chocolate, a liqueur, fruit, etc.

Sometimes the hardened sugar on top will be caramelized, by igniting a thin layer of liqueur sprinkled over the top (illustration). The exact origins of this dish are unknown, though the earliest known reference to it is in François Massialot's 1691 cookbook, and the French name was used in the English translation of this book, but the 1731 edition of Massialot's Cuisinier roial et bourgeois changed the name of the same recipe from "crème brûlée" to "crème anglaise". In the early eighteenth century, the dessert was called "burnt cream" in English.

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