Delicious Dairy free Creme Brulee

My OH did something amazing a while ago. He made some delicious dairy free creme’ brulee. YUM.

We were having some friends over for dinner and watching the Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (yes, we are that cool. it’s an great movie, as long as you fast forward through the spider part. yeck) And we always like to make a yummy dessert as a treat after dinner, since it is something we don’t really splurge on when it’s just the two of us. While I was thinking of something uninspiring like – cookies – he came up with making creme’ brulee.

Now, you’ve got to understand that this was a love of mine after Culinary school. I adored creme brulee. But with this lifestyle change, it no longer fit in any way what I could eat. So, I was all for giving up the thought of making cookies to let him experiment away. After a quick stop at the grocery store to grab the required items, we came home and this is what he came up with.

There are several notes throughout and at the end of the recipe, so please, please read all of this before starting your creme brulee! Take the time, it’s worth it. Trust me.

He printed off Alton Brown’s recipe for Creme’ brulee (which, if you know anything of alton brown, his recipes are fantastic!) that was on foodtv.com . Here is our version of the recipe:

1 qt goat milk

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (yes, take the extra time to do this! the flavor is so much better)

1 cup coconut sugar (ours was coarse, so he tossed it in the blender to decimate it)

8 duck egg yolks (the original recipe called for 6 yolks)*

2 qts hot water (for the baking of it)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Place the goat milk, vanilla bean and its pulp into a medium saucepan, set over med-high heat and bring to boil. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean and reserve for another use. *He put it in our tea ball to be able to easily remove it.*

In a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 c coconut sugar and the egg yolks until well blended and just starts to lighten in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stir constantly. Pour the liquid into 6 (7 to 8 oz) ramekins. Place the ramekins into a large cake pan or roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the ramekins.

*All my ramekins are in storage right now, so we borrowed a rectangle casserole dish (i think it’s 9 by 13) from my mom instead and put that inside a roasting pan. We didn’t measure how much water, just poured some in til it was halfway up the sides of the casserole dish. *

Bake just until the creme brulee is set, but still trembling in the center. Approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.

Remove the creme brulee from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes prior to browning the sugar on top. Divide the remaining 1/2 c vanilla sugar (*mix some vanilla extract in with your sugar) equally among the 6 dishes and spread evenly on top. Using a torch, mlet the sugar and form a crispy top. Allow to sit for at least 5 min before serving.

*As my torch is also packed away, we spread the sugar on top, put the oven on broil and put the dish on the top shelf of the oven to crisp-ify the sugar. The door was left open to ensure that it didn’t burn.

Notes :

OH says he would buy the thicker goat milk from Trader Joe’s instead of the canned goat milk we used. That way it would have less of a goat-y flavor. (but, out of the 5 of us, he’s the only one who really minded it)

OH doesn’t follow recipes exact (which is upsetting to my recipe-loving self) so this recipe ended up being sort of doubled in the end, that’s why we were able to fill a casserole dish. Not that i ever complained, mind you.

Also, feel free to taste test along the way and add more sugar – since coconut sugar is not near as sweet as regular, we typically double whatever is called for.

We cannot eat chicken eggs, that is why i specifically say ‘duck eggs’. but if you’re lucky enough to get your eggs cheaper than $6.99 a dozen, feel free and use chicken. He also used more eggs to make sure it would hold together since our goat’s milk was thinner than heavy cream would be.

Happy baking! Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out if you try it!

I think I’m going to go try my new bread recipe… it feels like a day for baking.

~Laura