Coconut Creme Brûlée

Prep Time: 20mins
Cook Time: 5-10mins
Makes: 2

This recipe benefits from the use of coconut, a powerful antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and pain killing food. But that’s not all; a recent study by Tufts researchers found that coconut oil lowers candida levels by up to 90% in animal studies. The coconut water in this recipe is found in the young Thai coconut, if you have purchased it whole. You can save yourself a lot of time and headache if you purchase the Thai coconut meat frozen online and the coconut water from Whole Foods or any other organic foods purveyor. Arrowroot is my personal choice for the starch due to its pleasing texture, but any will do. Japanese kudzu starch is a possibility and is fabulous for any kind of stomach complaint, something that may come in handy the day after Christmas excess. My personal choice is to choose the lowest GI whole unprocessed sugars where possible, but it’s worth using in this recipe for a truly satisfying crunch when first dipping into the brûlée.

Ingredients

• 1 cup young Thai coconut meat
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1 tbsp raw organic vanilla (scraped from a pod)
• 1/4 cup arrowroot/tapioca or any other starch
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 4 tbsp cane sugar
• pinch salt

Preparation

1. Blend the coconut meat, water, vanilla, pinch of salt and coconut sugar till smooth.
2. Pour into a small pot and bring to the boil.
3. Lower to a simmer and then mix in the starch and stir till nice and thick.
4. Pour into ramekins and then place in the fridge for a few hours, ideally eight, or overnight.
5. Remove the ramekins from the fridge and sprinkle each with two tablespoons of the sugar. I prefer to then place the ramekins under the broiler for about five minutes till the surface is nice and brown, but you could carefully use a mini blowtorch to melt the sugar.
6. Place back in the fridge for another 10 minutes or until you are ready to serve it.

Benefits

Anti-inflammatory: arrowroot, coconut.