Gluten Free Greek Yogurt Brûlée

As you may or may not know, I’m against ugly baking. Shall we just extend the ban on ugliness to all desserts (“barf” cookies notwithstanding)?

This dessert is a real beauty. Strawberry Yogurt Brûlée takes three of my absolute favorite things: crème brûlée, Greek yogurt and strawberries and makes for a lovely sweet. You’ll have kids and adults alike thinking you are a real wiz in the kitchen. The reality? You had 5 minutes and a blowtorch. If you don’t have a blowtorch already, go get one! If you aren’t convinced at how easily you can throw this together and how amazing you will appear, you can borrow mine to test it out.

I came across this recipe in Fine Cooking Magazine and within 24 hours I was the proud owner of a blowtorch. A couple of weeks later, I’ve “recipe tested” this about 40 times. Now I’m making individual servings for myself after the kids go to bed.

Send help.

OK. I know. White sugar = death. But this is a treat and we aren’t making traditional crème brûlée with all that cream so, let’s not beat ourselves up for the sugary caramelized topping.

Here’s what I did. At first, I made the brûlée with 0% fat plain Greek yoghurt and rather than using sugar to sweeten the yogurt, I used maple syrup. (1 Tablespoon) I also used about 1/2 a TBSP of sugar to dust the top, while not a failure, you won’t get a nice thick topping that you have to tap to crack through and isn’t that the best part? It was still delicious. The kids gobbled it up. And why wouldn’t they?

Then, I remembered the Liberty Greek Lemon Yogurt. I picked up the full fat version (7%). There’s also 2% version of the lemon, which I will use next time as the full fat is a bit of overkill and the 2% is lovely and rich.

You know who Strawberry Shortcake’s best friend is? A little girl called Lemon.

2% or 7% the yogurt is already sweetened, so there’s no need to add additional sugar. On the contrary, because of the caramelized topping I thought to add a little lemon zest in order to add tartness and provide a little balance to the sweet. To. Die. For. (2 – 3 tsp zest per 2 cups of yoghurt)

The Fine Cooking recipe also suggests you garnish with strawberries and then dust with sugar. I prefer to garnish on top of the of the crust.

There’s no shortage of ways to imagine this dessert:  Plain yogurt with peaches, plums or cherries. Maybe add a sprig of mint to the original strawberry version? You get the idea; now go for it!

Let me know if you want to borrow my torch.