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Gramercy Tavern’s Chocolate Crème Brûlée

Instagram/​@gramercytavern

BY The Editors

PUBLISHED February 11, 2025

​Karen Demasco​, the Executive Pastry Chef at New York’s ​Gramercy Tavern​, uses coconut milk to make this beautifully creamy—vegan—crème brûlée. She says the dessert can also be served as a pudding—just skip the caramelizing step.

 

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Gramercy Tavern’s Chocolate Crème Brûlée

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Makes about 10 4-ounce portions 1x

Units Scale

Ingredients

  • 640g full fat coconut milk, divided into 140g and 500g
  • 295g vegan cream, such as Violife brand
  • 1g agar agar
  • 100g sugar
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 3g kosher salt
  • 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
  • 18g kuzu, grinded in spice grinder and sifted if it is in pebble form
  • 50g 70% chocolate, such as Valrhona Guanaja, either pistoles or roughly chopped

Instructions

Whisk together ground kuzu and 140g coconut milk and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, agar, and salt.

In a medium sized saucepan, combine 500g coconut milk, vegan cream, and the dry ingredients and whisk well to combine. Bring these to a boil and whisk while boiling for 1 timed minute. Temper in the kuzu mixture and return to a boil and whisk for one more timed minute. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the chocolate. Strain this through a fine mesh sieve and portion immediately into desired serving dishes. Chill for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.

To serve, sprinkle a liberal amount of sugar over the top of the custard and brulee it until the sugar is melted, either with a propane torch or under the broiler.

– Recipe from Gramercy Tavern

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