Coconut Crème Brûlée (Dairy-Free)

A table filled with dairy-free coconut crème brûlées

4.70 from 10 votes

Coconut Crème Brûlée (Dairy-Free)

An easy dairy-free coconut crème brûlée you'll instantly fall in love with. It's got the perfect silky custard base and caramelized maple sugar topping.

Prep Time20

Cook Time40

Chill Time4

Total Time5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, French

Keyword: Coconut Creme Brulee, Creme Brulee Recipe, dairy-free creme brulee, paleo creme brulee

Servings: servings

Author: Lisa Bryan

Ingredients

1 (13.5 ounce /398ml) can full-fat coconut milk
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
4 teaspoons coconut sugar or maple sugar (see notes above)

US - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325ºF (165°C). Place 4 ramekins on a rimmed baking tray.
Make coconut milk mixture. In a pot over medium heat, add the coconut milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Whisk everything together just until the milk begins to simmer, then remove from heat.
Temper the eggs into a custard. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Add a small amount of the coconut mixture to the egg yolks while whisking vigorously. Continue slowly adding the coconut milk mixture to the mixing bowl until all the coconut milk is incorporated. This process should take two minutes or so.
Make a hot water bath. Transfer the custard into the 4 ramekins (6-ounce capacity) and carefully pour hot water into the baking dish until it reaches halfway up the side of the ramekins.
Bake the custards. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the outside of the custard is just set and the middle is slightly wobbly.
Let them chill. Remove from the oven and allow custard to cool. Cover and transfer to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 4 hours.
Create caramelized sugar. When ready to serve, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of maple sugar or coconut sugar over the surface of each custard. Using a kitchen torch melt the sugar until caramelized. Then serve immediately.

Notes

If you'd like it a little bit sweeter, you can add one more tablespoon of maple syrup or honey in the custard base, but don't add more than that otherwise it will change the texture.
When you torch the chilled custard to caramelize the sugar topping it will start to melt the custard underneath, so try to work quickly. You can also place the ramekin in the freezer for 5 minutes after torching to chill and firm up the custard again.
This is a great culinary torch if you need one!
While some recipes say that you can use a top broiler to caramelize the sugar, I find that it melts the custard too much, almost back to a thin pudding consistency. So I'd avoid that if possible.
You can caramelize the sugar topping in advance as well, but just be aware that it will soften over time and not be as crunchy and crackly as immediately caramelized and served.

Nutrition