Creme Caramel Dessert

We celebrated Christmas 2011 at four different family gatherings. Luckily, each one was a different day, especially considering the spread-out locations—Grayslake, Marengo, Bolingbrook, and Hoffman Estates. The day after Christmas, Mike, Mike's cousin Karyn, and I put together a few different Thai-influenced dishes for dinner with Mike's and Karyn's families. (Earlier this month, I posted the Thai spring roll recipe we used for appetizers that day.) We rounded out the meal with this Thai-style creme caramel dessert. It was very simple to put together, but it was yummy, and it looked all fancy.

This recipe is based on a Thai-style creme caramel recipe from About.com.

Ingredients

• 2 cups canned coconut milk
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup maple syrup

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°, and spray the inside of 8 ramekins with cooking spray.
2. Beat the eggs in a medium-size bowl with a fork for 1 minute. Stir in the sugar, vanilla extract, and coconut milk.
3. Pour about 1 or 2 tablespoons maple syrup into the bottom of each ramekin, making sure to fully coat the bottom.
4. Divide the coconut mixture among the 8 ramekins. The maple syrup will stay at the bottom, so don't bother stirring it.
5. Transfer the ramekins to one or two glass baking dishes, depending on how many you can fit, and pour some water into the bottom of the baking dishes—until the water reaches 1/4 up the sides of the ramekins.
6. Bake 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Once the creme caramels have cooled a bit, refrigerate them for an hour or so.
8. To serve, run a knife around the inside of each ramekin to loosen the dessert. Put a serving dish on top of the ramekin, and then flip it over, tapping the ramekin slightly if necessary, so that the dessert falls into the serving dish.

She said

I definitely want to make this dessert again sometime. It's tasty and creamy, and the maple syrup gave it the perfect sort of sweetness. I think next time I'll want to try sprinking a bit of cinnamon or maybe a few flakes of toasted coconut on the desserts just before serving.

I don't know what it is about ramekins, but they are so much fun to use. They are cute, little dishes so perfect for single-serving foods.

He said

I loved this little dessert. The sweetness of the maple syrup accented the coconut flavors of this no-milk custard perfectly. Even knowing the ingredients, you can still pretend it's good for you...or at least not bad. My one regret is that we didn't try to find the nifty pandan paste from the original recipe, because ever since a certain serving of Dr. Seuss, I've loved eating anything green that didn't start that way.