Coconut Ginger Crème Brûlée

Tropical Flavors with a Luxurious Finish

Last week I made those incredible Toasted Marshmallow Sweet Potato Blondies that everyone loved so much. They seriously disappeared fast. That was also my first time using my new food torch. This weekend, I had a small dinner party and I was thinking how I could use my torch again. It’s such a cool kitchen gadget. I mean, why should it sit in the drawer like that just waiting to be used? Nobody puts Baby in the corner! Or the drawer. Or whatever.

Anyway, I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond where I fell into the Beyond section and came back out with 8-ounce ramekins for Crème Brulee. I figured that’s what I’d make for my guests, but I started second guessing myself. I mean, Crème Brulee is a perfectly lovely dessert. It’s creamy, sweet, and sensual plus the caramelized sugar on top adds that textural crispness to it that kicks this notorious dessert up a notch. But I wanted to kick it up 2 notches. Or 10. How could I make my Crème Brulee next-level?

Then it hit me. My husband just loves my Coconut Ginger Ice Cream that I make, so why not find a way to incorporate that into Crème Brulee form? And that’s exactly what I did.

And you know what? It’s flawless. Seriously. The tropical flavors really added that extra element I was going for. Everyone at the table kept raving about it, so much so that I decided to share my special recipe with you.

So get your kitchen torch and your ramekins ready because we’re going to make the most delightful Crème Brulee you’ve ever had outside of a ritzy restaurant!

Coconut Ginger Crème Brulee

Makes six 8oz ramekins or ten 4oz ramekins
Ingredients

1  1/2 cup heavy cream
1  1/2 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp ground ginger

Directions     

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees 
2. Make sure your oven rack is positioned in the lower middle of your oven.  
3. In a sauce pan combine 1/2 cup heavy cream and a 1/2 cup of coconut milk, sugar, ginger, and nutmeg. Bring cream mixture to a boil over medium heat. Stir occasionally to make sure sugar dissolves. 
4. Meanwhile bring a kettle of water to boil over high heat. 
5. Once sugar dissolves remove the pan from the heat.  
6. Temper the eggs with the cream mixture. (Add 1 ladle of the cream mixture to the eggs, to bring the eggs to the temperatureof the cream mixture) Slowly add the rest of the warm cream to the egg mixture.  
7. Add reserved 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of coconut milk to the cream and egg mixture.  
8. Whisk in vanilla, and coconut extract.  
9. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a 4 cup measuring cup.  (Discard any solids the strainer catches). 
10. Place ramekins in a shallow roasting pan.  
11. Pour or ladle crème brulee mixture into ramekins.  
12. Carefully place roasting pan with ramekins on the oven rack; pour boiling water into pan, making sure not to splash water into ramekins.  Pour the water until it’s about two-thirds the height of the ramekins. Bake until centers of custards are no longer sloshy and an instant-read thermometer reads 170 to 175 degrees, 35 to 40 minutes 
13. Remove ramekins from the pan, and place on a wire cooling rack.  Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Set ramekins on rimmed baking sheet, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cold, at least 4 hours.
14. Uncover ramekins. Sprinkle each with about 1 teaspoon  sugar, tilt the ramekins to ensure an even coverage of sugar.  Ignite torch and caramelize sugar. 
15. Serve 

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