Crème Brûlée

I used to make a baby crème brûlée for Big S when she was a toddler by caramelising sugar over yogurt. Sadly my cook’s blowtorch decided to stop working and I stopped making them. It hasn’t stopped Big S remembering though and she has regularly asked for a ‘yogi brûlée’ ever since!

I found a little blow torch for sale last week and just had to buy it to recreate an old favourite for Big S. Here’s the resulting crème brûlée which has a more traditional thick custard centre, flavoured with decent quality vanilla. Sadly my band new, cute purple blow torch failed to work (they tend to be rubbish), so these little beauties were finished off under the grill, hence the less uniform top and unfortunate super caramelised bits! Oh well, brûlée does translate as “burnt” and it still tasted good. Just goes to show that it is possible to make a crème brûlée under the grill.

Crème Brûlée (dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan)

serves 4

• 250ml oat cream (or use soya cream)
• 3 tbsps caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1- 1 1/2 tbsps cornflour mixed with 1 1/2 tbps oat milk
• 1-2 tbsps granulated sugar

– Mix the cornflour and oat milk together to form a smooth liquid, set aside

– Heat the oat cream with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved

– Stir in the vanilla

– Stir in the cornflour mix and whisk until the cream has thickened to thick yogurt consistency

– Pour into 4 ramekins and place in a fridge to set

– Once set, sprinkle an even layer of granulated sugar over the top and caramelise with a blow torch or under the grill.

– Eat within an hour to make sure the caramel remains crispy