
Recipe: Dairy-free crema volteada
Another dairy-free version of another Peruvian classic dessert: crema volteada (our take on crème caramel). This is my mother-in-law’s and my sister Gloria’s favourite dessert. The original version uses evaporated and condensed milk, and is served with caramelised sugar on top. Yes, it is very sweet. I used coconut milk and cream and just enough honey to make it slightly sweet. The texture was very similar to the original version but was paler in colour because there were less protein and sugar to react with the heat.

Dairy-free crema volteada
This is a dairy-free version of the Peruvian classic dessert crema volteada.
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1 cup coconut cream
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence
To serve
- honey or maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170°C.
- Get a small square or rectangular oven-safe dish (I use a 20cm x 20cm Pyrex) and a larger baking tray with high rims. Line the oven-safe dish with baking (wax) paper. Line the baking tray with paper and place the oven-safe dish on top.
- Boil a kettle of water.
- Crack eggs in a medium-sized bowl and whisk with an electric mixer.
- Add coconut milk and cream, honey and vanilla essence and whisk until frothy.
- Pour mixture into oven-safe dish. Place in oven and carefully pour the boiling water in the baking tray, until the water has reached at half of the oven-safe dish height.
- Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, until set.
- Let cool down and chill in the fridge.
- When ready to serve, place a platter on top of the dish and invert carefully.
- Cut in portions and serve topped with honey or maple syrup.
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4 Comments
Christine (@cookingcrusade)
Ohhh yum! I have a favourite Filipino dessert that sounds pretty much the same – leche flan – but unfortunately I haven’t been able to indulge since going dairy free.. this looks like the perfect fix 🙂
muppy
i made a sri lankan dessert which was very similar but steamed on stove top, so yummy 🙂
Erin@TheFoodMentalist
This is my kinda dessert. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Sara (Belly Rumbles) (@bellyrumbles)
I love how you have used coconut milk, would add such a lovely twist to a classic.