Vegan Creme Brulee! ^^

Last Saturday, I learned how to make vegan creme brulee using coconut milk and cornstarch. It was nice, but it didn't really taste like creme brulee. 

I wanted to make a vegan creme brulee with a texture and taste that is even more similar to the real thing, so this is the result of my experiment!

From my past experiments, I found out that cashew nuts are really creamy when blended into a paste or milk. They are really rich. And their taste is mostly neutral. I guess that is why they are often used in making vegan frosting, butter or cheese! 

 The cashew nut milk will substitute heavy cream in this creme brulee. It's easy to make a thick cashew nut milk! 

Thick cashew nut milk

Blend 250g of blanched (that is, after immersing in hot water. *please dispose the water you've used for blanching and use new clean water to blend.) cashew nuts with 300ml of water until smooth.

In case you are wondering what on earth is vanilla sugar and what if you don't have it? 

I just wanted a vanilla taste in my cream pudding, but I didn't have vanilla paste, and I don't like the taste of vanilla extract, so I use the vanilla sugar that was given as a gift from the teacher. ^^ She uses real vanilla in her sugar, so the fragrance is unbeatable. And it's nice to see vanilla specks in the pudding. Haha!

If you don't have vanilla sugar, you can just use normal raw sugar. Any kind of sugar is fine actually. And if you really want a vanilla taste, you can add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (which I assume more of us can find at home). Or you can simply use Vanilla-flavoured soymilk.

Tapioca flour is in the recipe to further thicken the pudding. 

Putting in instant jelly powder (made from carrageenan, obtained from red seaweed) makes its texture similar to an egg pudding. If you're staying in Singapore, you can get this easily from Phoon Huat.

I suppose agar powder can be used instead...but agar agar's texture tends to be harder and more rubbery, so if you can find jelly powder, please use that! 

Now, just follow the recipe! ^^

Ingredients (Makes 6):  

Pudding

- 700ml soy milk (sweetened or unsweetened is fine)

- 300ml cashew nut milk (read above how to make it)

- 30g vanilla sugar

- 2 teaspoons arrowroot(tapioca) flour

- 12g jelly powder (carrageenan powder)

Caramelised sugar 

- 3 tablespoons brown sugar

Toppings(optional)

- Strawberries/ Raspberries/ Blueberries

1) Blend all the pudding ingredients until smooth.

2) Pour the mixture into a pot through a sieve so that the mixture in your bowl will be a smooth one.

3) Let your mixture sit for 10 minutes.

4) Next, bring this mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.

5) Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat and keep stirring for a few more minutes until it's thick and creamy. Total cooking time should be about 8 minutes. Turn off the heat. 

6) Allow the mixture to set at room temperature. It will take about 40 mins.

7) Top the pudding with brown sugar. Make it a thin layer, covering the top of the pudding.

8) If you have a chef's torch, that'd be great. Gently caramelise the creme in a circle, working on the outside into the center. The sugar should be slightly caramelised. Be careful not to burn your sugar! 

Alternatively, if you have an oven, turn it to the highest setting. Lay your bowls of creme brulee on a tray, and place this tray as near to the heating element in the top of your oven as possible. It should be ready in about a minute. Just keep a close eye on them while they are in the oven. Don't let it burn!

9) Wait a few minutes for the caramel to harden and serve immediately. Now, the fun part is cracking the caramelised sugar crust and digging into your delicious cream pudding! ^^ 

Update: I've experimented again, and you can just use any nut butter(organic ones will be better. check the ingredients. Make sure their ingredients are just nuts and nothing else, or at most oil or water. If there is oil in your butter, please pour it away. Don't mix it into this pudding mixture.) instead of nut milk. 2 tablespoons (about 30g) is all you need. Slightly more of it is okay too if you want your pudding to be as rich as this original recipe. Try 3 tablespoons. :)  Decrease your jelly powder to 10g. The rest of the quantity of ingredients needed stay the same. :)