Guilt Free Soy Lavender Creme Brulee

I've written on my blog before about my disdain for milk.  The added hormones, antibiotics, and the cruelty of the meat industry really takes and enjoyment out of eating creamy dairy filled foods.  

One of foods I miss the most since i've steered clear of milk products is dessert, in particular creme brulee.  So, the other night I decided to give SOY creme brulee a try.   To my surprise, my recipe turned out DELICIOUS & guilt free.  Not only are you cutting out the hormones & antibiotics from this yummy dessert, you're cutting out almost 400 calories per serving, just by switching a creme brulee recipe from heavy cream to light vanilla soy milk!  WOW. 

I also added culinary lavender to the recipe to give it a little something extra & because I LOVE the taste of lavender, but this is completely optional.  You can order culinary lavender here.  

Here's the recipe:  

• 2 cups light vanilla soy milk
• 3 tablespoons dried lavender intended for cooking
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar ("sugar in the raw")

In a small saucepan, soy milk to a boil, monitoring it closely so it doesn't boil over. Remove from the heat. Add lavender, and allow lavender to infuse the soy milk for 30 min to one hour at room temperature. Strain mixture into a clean saucepan. Bring to a boil again and remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 300°F. In a mixing bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar until just combined. Temper the egg mixture by very slowly whisking a small amount of warm lavender soy milk into the eggs. Take your time with this step so that the yolks don't scramble. Once the egg mixture and soy are roughly the same temperature, whisk the remaining egg mixture into the soy milk.

Divide custard among four 4-ounce ramekins. Place ramekins in a baking dish or roasting pan. Fill dish or pan with water so that water comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins and transfer to the oven rack. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, check frequently for doneness: when fully baked, the crème brûlées will be firm and will wiggle just slightly when shaken. Remove ramekins from water bath and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours.

* I noticed that the soy milk (because it's not as thick as cream) took a little longer than traditional creme brulees to harden.  Usually creme brulees only take about 25-35 minutes, to closely monitor your creme brulees but don't worry if you feel like it's taking a bit longer for them to firm.  

Before serving, sprinkle each dessert with 1 1/2 tablespoons turbinado sugar. If you own a propane torch, hold the torch about 8 inches from the custard's surface and flame the sugar into a golden brown, brittle curst. Alternatively, place ramekins under a preheated broiler and broil until sugar has caramelized, 1 to 3 minutes. Watch carefully: sugar turns from light brown to black quickly. Serve immediately.

While baking, I also made myself some lavender tea by seeping dried lavender in hot water & adding a teaspoon of honey.  YUM.  

Happy & Healthy Eats!

xoxo Shauna 

Milk is Evil

Milk campaigns targeted at children & athletes spew out this FALSE information & it really fires me up!  

So, yesterday I got in a semi-heated debate with a friend of mine who is convinced that milk is some sort of life source.  He asked me why I considered milk the "devil's drink" & there we so many points I wanted to make, I didn't know where to begin…

Think about it for a second… 

What other animal on earth drinks milk from another species, besides human beings?  
What other animal on earth drinks milk after maturity has been reached, besides human beings?
Cows weigh THOUSANDS of pounds & calves drink fat filled milk to reach this weight… why are we drinking something that is intended to make you gain weight RAPIDLY?  

There is an amazing blog called eatingforenergy.com that talks about pasteurization, growth hormones, antibiotics & other disgusting problems with milk.  Some of my favorite points:

The Unnatural “Beefing Up” of Dairy Cows – Hormones and Antibiotics

"Fifty years ago an average cow produced 2,000 pounds of milk per year. Today the top producers produce about 50,000 pounds! How is this accomplished? Drugs, antibiotics, growth hormones, forced feeding plans and specialized breeding – that’s how."
"The most recent unnatural addition to dairy cows is bovine growth hormone or BGH. This genetically engineered drug is supposed to stimulate milk production without “supposedly” affecting the quality of the milk itself! Rrright….(in the voice of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers)"
"Many countries have banned BGH because of safety concerns. Any substance added to a dairy cow’s body comes out in the milk. I don’t know how you feel, but I don’t want genetically engineered hormones coming into my body!"
"BGH causes a dramatic increase (50 to 70 %) in mastitis (udder infections) in the dairy cows’ udders, because of the constant production of milk. This in turn requires antibiotic therapy to cure the mastitis, and then the residues of the antibiotics appear in the milk we drink."
"Over 50 % of all the antibiotics produced in North America are mixed directly into animal feed. Ideally, antibiotics should be used in farming only when necessary to treat infections."
"However, due to the unhealthy conditions of factory-farmed animals, and the poor, dirty conditions they are raised under, they are fed a constant supply of antibiotics from birth until death."
"We then, are unknowingly consuming far more antibiotics than we intend to, by drinking commercial milk. This fact may be part of the reasons that more and more people are becoming resistant to prescribed antibiotics."
"Milk alone contains traces of up to 80 different antibiotics! Since lactating mammals excrete toxins through the milk, this would include antibiotics, pesticides, chemicals, and growth hormones.?

The Problem with Pasteurization

"Raw milk sours naturally, but pasteurized milk turns putrid and thus manufactueres must remove the slime and pus from pasteurized milk through centrifugal clarification." 
"Furthermore, inspection of dairy herds for disease is not even required for pasteurized milk."
"To hit home the problem with pasteurization, calves (baby cows) fed pasteurized milk die before maturity!"

http://eatingforenergy.ca/blog/143/milk-dairy-products-pasteurization/