Sugar Free & Keto Classic Crème Caramel. 2.5g net carbs and 131 calories. Without sacrificing flavour or texture.
I have a few possible variations in the recipe too. Including a ‘cheat’ option for the caramel. So if you want to turn this into a 1g net carbs dessert – you can. And you can even make it dairy-free if that’s your choice.
It tastes so authentic it is literally impossible to guess that it’s low-carb and sugar-less. When a much loved dessert becomes super-healthy too, how can anyone resist?
I must point out that this is my keto take on the classic French Crème au Caramel, which has a light, delicate texture. Not to be confused with baked custard or modern flan, which are much more dense and creamy.
How To Make Sugar Free & Keto Classic Crème Caramel
Firstly, you need to make the classic caramel, which is usually just sugar and water. My first attempt was with erythritol. But, as expected, it crystallised and left that familiar ‘fresh’ sensation in my mouth. Not great.
The second attempt was with a new sweetener that had just arrived all the way from the U.S.
It looked very promising indeed. Until I turned out the crème pots. A very watery caramel gushed out, and there was a thin, very hard disc of caramel stuck to the bottom of the ramekins. No idea why this separation had occurred, but I wasn’t happy! On the plus side, there was no grittiness from crystallisation and the taste was spot on. So I decided to remake the caramel, this time adding a bit of butter and a little cream to increase its viscosity, hoping for a better result.
Bingo! Beautiful deep colour, sugar-like flavour, silky smooth, and ZERO after-taste or odd mouth sensation. This one was pretty special. So special, in fact, that I made another identical batch. Left it to solidify. Re-heated it. And it was good to go again. Wow. That had never happened with other keto-friendly sweeteners.
The new sweetener is an allulose blend (link in recipe).
I know many people like xylitol, but it isn’t something I bake with because I tried it a few times and on each occasion it gave me horrific gastric distress, so I wouldn’t know how it might behave when making caramel. I suppose you could try and see how it goes. Not everyone reacts the same to sugar alcohols.
If you’re feeling a bit lazy, or you want to save time, or you can’t get allulose and you don’t fancy the erythritol compromise, I have a great hack for you. Check out the recipe and you’ll find out what it is.
For the crème of my Sugar Free & Keto Classic Crème Caramel, you need 2 large eggs, milk, sweetener and vanilla extract. That’s pretty much it. I used Arla Lactose-Free Whole Milk (available in all UK supermarkets) as I didn’t want nut flavours to spoil the authenticity of my Sugar Free & Keto Classic Crème Caramel. Because it has no lactose, this milk is very low carb, so it’s absolutely fine as a keto and low-carb option. But if you wish to reduce carbohydrates further, you can use a nut milk, coconut milk (the drinking type from a carton – not the canned variety). Or, you can use double cream + water, although this will add a truck load of calories to what is otherwise a fairly low calorie treat.
Enjoy!
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Sugar Free & Keto Classic Crème Caramel
Ingredients
For the Crème:
- 400 g Arla lactose-free whole milk or 250g double cream + 150g water
- 2 large eggs
- 30 g allulose (UK option HERE) or 20g icing ‘sugar’ (U.S. option HERE)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (U.S. option HERE)
Instructions
Make the Caramel first:
- lightly grease the sides of 5 dariole pudding moulds (U.S. option HERE) and place them in a deep baking pan (best if it's just big enough to accommodate them snuggly).
- simmer allulose and water over medium heat (induction 8) for about 6 minutes or until then liquid turns from clear to a light amber colour; then stir in butter and cream and simmer for another minute until silky and thickened; pour into the pudding moulds.
- pre-heat oven to 150°C static.
Then make the Crème:
- boil a pot of water and keep hot on very low heat (or use the kettle if you have one).
- meanwhile, in a separate pot, bring milk to just below simmering point (when tiny bubbles begin to form around the perimeter) and turn the heat off.
- while you wait, whisk eggs with sweetener and vanilla extract.
- drizzle the hot milk into the egg mix while whisking vigorously and continuously with a manual balloon whisk.
To finish:
- pour the mixture into your crème caramel moulds, then fill the baking pan with enough hot water to reach half way up your moulds; bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.
- once baked, take the individual moulds out of the baking pan and set them aside to cool down.
- when completely cooled, they can go in the fridge to chill for several hours (best overnight).
- un-mould when you’re ready to serve: run a knife around the edge to loosen, then invert onto serving plates - a gentle tap should do the trick.
Notes
Nutrition
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Perfect
This recipe is great. Thank you so much for posting, it fit my dessert “need” perfectly.
Admittedly, I made a few adjustments, based on ingredients I had on hand. I only had the Lakanto Monkfruit/Erythritol sweetener, I cut 25% of it from each portion of the recipe, adding 1/2 teaspoon honey to both filling and caramel..hoping to eliminate the cooling effect. for me, it was still a bit much, but no where near the effect ive gotten in the past using straight erythritol. I will make this again using even less Lakanto.
Also, I had three yolks from a keto bread recipe that only used whites…I mixed them in with an additional egg., and then added a sprinkle of allspice, pumpkin pie spice, and ground ginger to the filling. that all made it more egg nog like.
I realize these are somewhat significant changes, but I still credit how well it came out to your description and the actual posting, so, again I thank you!
Woah! Sounds like you’re a true experimenter, Warren. Love your ideas. Thank you so much for sharing!
I just found out that I have diabetes and I can’t have sugar. That’s killing me. I was a chef for 18 years. I cooked and bake. So I went on google and searched for sugar free deserts I found this website. I’m so happy.
I wonder whether the Lakanto Monkfruit/sweeteners would work for the caramel in the absence of allulose? They don’t apparently have the same crystallising behaviour and definitely not the cooling sensation of erythritol
I don’t know, Cathy, as I’ve never used Lakanto. All sweeteners behave slightly differently, for example allulose browns and burns much more quickly compared to erythritol, so it’s not ideal for meringues. I guess the only way to find out is to try it. Monkfruit sweetener isn’t available here in the UK just yet, so I can’t experiment with it.
Too bad you only post in metric. I guess I won’t be back.
Thank you 😀
These look great, I can’t wait to try them. Good news about the allulose coming to the UK – I’ve been wanting to try it.
Thanks Jenn, allulose is so good… I really hope they market it over here soon.