Passion Fruit Coconut Crème Brûlée
Who doesn’t love a decadent crème brûlée? Said no one ever. How about a healthier paleo version with a tropical kick? Even better! You’ll smell the intense passion fruit miles away. But in the best way possible!
The silky smooth texture of the crème contrasts with the crunchy seeds of the passion fruit and the caramelized maple sugar. The sweetness and richness of the coconut and vanilla custard base is balanced by the tangy passion fruit. And the maple sugar lends a deeper flavor to the coconut crème brûlée.
As always, in this recipe we don’t use any dairy or white sugar. Instead we opt for coconut cream, coconut milk, honey and maple sugar. It’s gluten free, dairy free and sugar free. And still a little bit of naughty. Perfect for those sugar cravings!
You need:
- 1/3 cup honey
- 4 yolks
- 1 cups coconut cream*
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp Summer Day Naturals’ Ground Vanilla Bean
- 2-3 passion fruits
- 3 tbsp Maple sugar or freshly grated palm sugar (or as needed)
*If you want to tone down the coconut flavor, you can substitute half or all of the coconut cream with heavy cream.
Instructions:
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Keep warm. Heat up the oven, set the temperature at 325°F.
- Heat up the coconut cream and coconut milk until they start to simmer.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks, honey and Ground Vanilla Bean in a medium bowl until well combined.
- When the coconut milk and cream are hot, pour into the egg yolk mixture in a steady stream, whisking continuously (to avoid scrambling the eggs).*
- Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins or ovenproof mugs.
- Pace the ramekins in a deep baking tray, and fill the tray with the hot water until it reaches halfway up the ramekins. Be careful not to get the water inside the ramekins!
- Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Leave it to cool slightly, then, transfer into the refrigerator. Chill for at least 2 hours.
- To serve: Cut the passion fruit in half, and scoop out the flesh. Equally distribute the flesh among the crème brûlée. Sprinkle each crème brûlée with about 1 tbsp. maple sugar.**
- Using a kitchen torch, torch the crème brûlée until the sugar is caramelized (but not burnt!). Alternatively, you can use the broiler setting in your oven and broil the brûlée on high for about 5 minutes until the top has caramelized and is a beautiful golden color.
- Enjoy!
*We didn’t put any passion fruit (juice, pulp or flesh) into the crème brûlée itself, because it curdled. Either because of the high water content or because of its acidity, or both. There are methods which use the fruit in the brûlée, but it’s a little risky and needs more experimentation!
**Honey doesn’t work for the top layer, unfortunately. It only turns into a gooey mass due to its high water content. Palm sugar is pretty tricky as well, as it starts to burn quickly.
