Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links which means I receive a commission if you make a purchase through clicking my link. It has no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more information.
This plant-based crème brûlée is a special treat for those that love the traditional flavors but may no longer be able to consume its traditional ingredients. This recipe is intended to meet the dietary needs of my readers while providing similar flavors and textures.
What Are Traditional Crème Brûlée Ingredients And How This Recipe Is Different
Traditionally, Crème Brûlée is made with dairy-based cream, vanilla, white sugar, and egg yolks. While this plant-based crème brûlée is a bit more complex compared to your traditional one it has better versatility as it’s more allergen-appropriate.
Foods Alive Cacao Butter: Cacao Butter is a wonderful plant-based addition to a plant-based crème brûlée as it creates a subtle “chocolate” flavor when used with the right portions.
Foods Alive Cashews: Cashews are a plant-based chef’s favorite as they are incredibly creamy with a sweetness that contributes to vegan desserts while also providing quality texture. If you are unable to use cashews due to allergy you may also use tofu or almonds. Adjust ingredients to correct any flavor needs.
Foods Alive Himalayan Pink Salt: Himalayan Pink Salt helps to balance this recipe by bringing the main flavors forward. Without it, the recipe would not have as powerful and distinguishable flavors.
Coconut Milk: Coconut milk is a fantastic alternative to regular dairy milk when used in dessert recipes. Combining it with ingredients like cashew and vanilla helps to balance the flavor that may be overpowering in other recipes.
Foods Alive Nutritional Yeast: Nutritional Yeast is a nutrient-dense cultured form of yeast that has many benefits to our diets while also providing a “cheese-like” flavor. This helps to provide further depth in the flavors however can be removed if this is not something that you enjoy.
Vanilla Bean: Traditional Crème Brûlée has vanilla bean in it vs vanilla extract which contains alcohol. I prefer to use vanilla bean in all of my recipes as it creates a strong taste of vanilla which I suggest for this recipe as well.
Foods Alive Agar Agar: This is the plant-based foodie’s favorite ingredient for creating additional texture. It’s the plant-based form of gelatin that helps to give our plant-based crème brûlée additional structure. This recipe does not technically need to have Agar Agar however I wanted to demonstrate the use of it as it is one of Foods Alive’s products for this giveaway!
A Note On Sugar
Foods Alive Coconut Sugar: Coconut Sugar is still sugar which gives us clues that it should be used in moderation, however since it is not a refined sugar it does contain trace amounts of nutrients while also being slightly lower glycemic.
Coconut sugar contains a caramel-like flavor to it while also being more “earthy.” This is a sugar that is fantastic in baked goods however it may be a sugar that is not your first choice in this recipe for the reasons noted above.
What I recommend is that if choosing coconut sugar, give it a taste prior to adding it directly to your Crème Brûlée mixture. If you find that it has too strong of a caramel flavor or is too “earthy” for you use a substitute such as maple syrup, dates, cane sugar, or a sugar of your choice.
I have added a “window” of sugar amounts recommendation as I prefer to have lower amounts of sugar in the actual crème brûlée mixture as sugar will top each of them!
Plant-based Crème Brûlée
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups Foods Alive cashews
- 1/2 tsp Foods Alive Himalayan Pink Salt
- 2 cups Full fat canned coconut milk
- 2 tbsp to ¼ cup Foods Alive coconut sugar OR cane sugar/maple/sugar of choice (read notes below!)
- 1 tbsp Foods Alive nutritional yeast
- ¼ vanilla bean or ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Foods Alive Agar (optional)
- 1-3 tbsp coconut sugar for dusting on top!
- Rose petals for decoration (linked above!)
Instructions
- Soak your cashews overnight in the fridge with filtered water.
- Refrigerate your coconut milk overnight. Do not shake it upon removing.
- Once the cashews have soaked, drain the liquid from them and add the cashews to a high-speed blender. If you do not have a high speed blender such as a vitamix it will be important for you to soak them thoroughly to ensure a creamy texture.
- Using a knife, cut the vanilla bean to follow by opening it up and removing the vanilla bean paste. Add this to your blender with the remaining ingredients except for your coconut milk and your agar agar.
- Next, remove the top of your can to take out the highest fat content of the coconut milk which will be at the top of the can. Remove this and measure it into a cup. Add this to your blender.
- Using the measuring cup, add the lowerfat coconut milk (clear) to a small pan with your agar agar and allow it to disolve. Bring this to a boil and remove it to add it to your blender.
- Blend fully until completely smooth and add to ramekins.
- If you would like a thicker textured creme brulee, add to a taller ramekin while a shorter ramekin will provide more of a pudding-like texture.
- Refrigerate for 5 hours and then add coconut sugar evenly to the top of each crème brûlée and use a baking blow torch to caramelize the top of each!
Notes
More Recipes To Enjoy
Did you try this recipe? Don’t forget to tag me on instagram if you make this recipe! That way you can share with your friends and I can better understand which recipes everyone is loving on the site! If you have a private Instagram account I may not see your tag. Feel free to DM me to let me know! I sincerely appreciate your support <3!
We love your shares! Find out the right way to share: Please click here to see our Photography & Recipe Sharing Policy.
Tag @chefdeeboss
Leave a Reply