It’s Friday which means celebrations are in order. I had a pretty busy week. I released TWO new videos (have you seen them yet?? Click HEREto watch:)) I’m having an absolute blast creating video.

If I’m being perfectly honest, I’ve been feeling a little bit stagnant with my blog the past couple months. I have still been enjoying it but I haven’t had that same zeal and excitement about creating content as I usually do. Thankfully, shooting and editing these videos has 100% renewed all of that for me. I have watched HOURS and hours of food videos (which is genuinely saying something considering each video is only about 1-2 minutes each) to watch and learn what other people are doing and which different styles I like.

I’ve also been getting a FLOOD of nice comments, shares, and questions about how my videos are made. Luckily, I’m so obsessed with the whole video process that I could talk about it ALL day long. I wonder what it is about a video that only completely engages people’s attention and makes them want to comment and share 1000000% more than a handsome food photo?

As I mentioned in my “Am I going vegan?” video, I’m sharing this Dairy Free Crème Brulee with you today! I’m in love with this creation SO much and am so pleased with how well it turned out. I had to try it out a few times at varying temperatures and times in the oven but I perfected!

If you’ve never made crème brulee at home, you’re missing out! It’s surprisingly unfussy. And, don’t let the kitchen torch dissuade you either….they’re especially inexpensive and unfussy to use! I got mine as a gift but you can get them on Amazon for less than $20. And truly, it’s simply especially fun:) You’d be surprised the random uses you’ll find for it (like making s’mores inside because you’re too lazy to start an actual fire outside).

We start by warming the coconut cream together with the vanilla bean. Now, FULL disclosure here, I usually simply use vanilla extract because…come on, vanilla beans are SO freakin’ expensive. I reserve vanilla beans for special occasions and simply use extract the rest of the time.

While that’s doing its thing, the sugar and eggs are being creamed together.

The egg/ sugar mixture is then combined with the cream and vanilla mixture and then GUESS WHAT? The hard part is already done:)

Now all you need to do is pour the crème brulee mixture into 4 ramekins (you could also make one large crème brulee if you don’t have the ramekins but you’ll want to be more mindful of the cooking time as it may take longer).

And finally pour hot water into the pan so that it comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins like so:

In case you’re wondering, the paper towel is in the bottom of the dish to prevent the ramekins from slipping around while I’m moving the pan in and out of the oven. I’ve tried it before without the paper towel thinking that I could handle it, and I was wrong.

Now we bake it for a bit. The key here (and the thing that messes up many novice crème brulee makers) is that we don’t want the mixture to completely solidify in the oven. You want it to still have a little bit of a jiggle to it when you take it out of the oven. ****From my experiences: Regular crème brulee (made with actual dairy cream) will harden some around the edges of the ramekin while the center will be jiggly. HOWEVER, this coconut cream crème brulee will have a slight jiggle all the way around it.

Once out of the oven, simply let the ramekins cool simply enough that you’re able to handle them. And now, the waiting part. Place the ramekins in the fridge for AT LEAST 3 hours. I have made this enough to know that it’s much better if you make it the night before and let them sit in the fridge overnight. You can even make them a whole day before if you want. <<<<<<a huge reason that these are great for parties!

After their long rest in the fridge, we’re going to cover the tops with a nice layer of sugar. I typically simply pour the sugar in and then tilt the ramekin around to ensure that the sugar is even. You can also use a pastry brush to brush it around and make sure that it gets in all the corners (but, are there corners in a circular dish!?).

Now the FUN PART! Whipping out the kitchen torch:)

If you’ve never used a kitchen torch, it may take some getting used to. It seems to work dependable if you move the torch around a lot as opposed to focusing it in one area for a long time. I genuinely like when parts of the sugar are almost burnt but you can also only give it a nice even brownness. You’ll want the torch on the medium-low setting.

AND that’s pretty much it. **These can last in the fridge for a couple days but once you’ve torched them, the tops won’t stay nice and hard and crispy if you try and save them for later. So, don’t torch the tops until you’re ready to eat them!

If you try this dish, PLEASE let me know how you like it by sending me a pic or message on facebook, snapchat, twitter, or Instagram. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see people cooking my recipes:D

Happy weekend-ing, dear friends! I hope it’s a good one!