Lactose-Free Crème Brûlée

It seems my expat sister has taken quite a liking to dairy free dessert baking.  It figures she’d develop this hobby after moving to Australia, so I can’t even sample her delicious products.  But at least I get some great recipes out of it.  Here’s the latest one, from Laura:

One of the most devastating things to give up when I became
lactose-intolerant several years ago (other than nachos) was crème
brûlée.  Every time I saw it on a desert menu at a restaurant, I would
cry a little inside .  It never occurred to me to try to bake it
because, honestly it seemed a little too gourmet for me.  It wasn’t
until a recent episode of Masterchef Australia (my new favorite show)
when they made it that I was inspired to give it a whirl.

Step 1: Google search to find a recipe.

Coconut Milk Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:
– 5 large egg yolks
– 2 large eggs
– 1/2 cup white sugar (plus more for top)
– 1 cup coconut milk (full-fat)
– 1 vanilla bean, scraped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degreed Fahrenheit.  Set kettle full of water to boil
2. In medium bowl, whisk eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and vanilla until
creamy and smooth
3. Add coconut milk and blend until smooth
4. Pour into ramekins
5. Place in ceramic baking dish and pour hot water until it comes
about halfway up the ramekins
6. Bake for about 40 mins, until just slightly jiggly in middle
7. Cool until ready to serve or chill until cold.
8. When ready, sprinkle with about 2 tsp white sugar and torch with
brûlée torch until crispy and brown.

Step 2: Get a brûlée torch…and butane gas.

On my lunch break at work, I ventured to a kitchen store in search for
a torch.  I found a kit that included not only the torch, but also a
set of 4 ramekins!  Perfect!  The butane gas was slightly trickier as
I had to venture to a hardware store for that – but still not too much
of an effort.

Step 3: Bake away!

I could not believe how easy it was!!  Not only was it relatively
inexpensive because there are so few ingredients, but it was pretty
simple.  The highlights for me were definitely scraping the vanilla
out of the vanilla bean and torching the sugar on top.  I have only
ever used vanilla extract for vanilla flavoring, but (again, after
seeing it on Masterchef) I felt inspired to actually use a vanilla
bean and it was SO deliciously flavorful!  Torching the sugar was
definitely the most fun because not only did I get to play with fire,
but it felt like I was using a new toy.

Notes:
-for small ramekins, they really only need to be in the oven for about
30 minutes, until its just starting to rise around the outside
-practice using your torch to test flame size before applying to the
desert (I may or may not have had a situation where sugar when flying
all over the kitchen)

I highly recommend this recipe because not only is it incredibly easy,
its SOO delicious.  I can’t believe I missed out on it for this long!

Oh. My. Gosh.  I can’t believe how crazy (fun) torching sugar looks!  I’m seriously heading to the hardware store as soon as possible to make this.  And by the way, Laura and I are serious pyros (we get it from my dad), but since this blog is read by a larger audience I feel compelled to add some kind of warning.  So don’t try this without supervision and a fire extinguisher near by, in case things get out of hand…  now what other things can I torch?