Crème Brûlée {Dairy Free, Refined Sugar Free, Paleo}

Crème brûlée is my most absolute favorite dessert. If it is on a menu, I will order it. If they sell it at Costco in a 16 pack as a Christmas special you're supposed to share with people, I will buy that and eat one a night for two weeks straight. There is just nothing like a creamy custard, and a crunchy burnt sugar topping. Like a burned marshmallow with the best custard you've ever tasted. Simply divine.

However, dairy makes me feel like garbage when I either: 1) eat too much of it, or 2) eat it in combination with refined sugar. My whole life it has been this way, and it's just not a way you wanna live when you're crème brûlée's biggest fan.

I figured it was high time I tried to recreate my favorite dessert to be dairy-free and free of refined sugar! I made this recipe five times before I was confident about the dairy-free creams and the sugar toppings.

About the sugar toppings. If you can tolerate a little bit of organic cane sugar, it will have the best results for that crackly top you can break with a spoon. If you want to use a whole food sugar, my best result was with maple sugar (essentially crystalized maple syrup). The cane sugar stays more of a golden brown color under the kitchen torch, rather than a dark black (too burned); but, the maple sugar definitely approaches too dark/burned-black under the kitchen torch.

From top left to right, then bottom left to right: Coconut sugar top, maple sugar top, maple sugar top with short shots of the kitchen torch, and then finally organic cane sugar top.

Coconut sugar just got way too burned, and it was impossible to torch all the sugar without burning the majority of it; or, if you were light on the torching you left bits of sugar untouched. Date sugar was just a doomed choice from the start, haha. Newsflash: powdered dates will not melt.

You will want to use 1/2 teaspoon of chosen sugar on each ramekin. You can use a kitchen torch, like I did and mention in the recipe, but you can also use your oven broiler!

I hope you like this recipe!

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