I think the cookbook Small Plates and Sweet Treats: My Family’s Journey to Gluten-Free Cooking is beautiful. It’s the first book from Aran Goyoaga, creator of the food and photography blog Cannelle et Vanille. The photos in this book are bright, happy and delicious; they put me in the mood to cook, which is always a good thing. The book is divided into seasons (pictured, below), which makes sense, but, to be honest, I’m kind of bored by this organization. It seems like every cookbook I look at these days (which is admittedly a lot of cookbooks) is organized the same … I guess I’m just starved for a more creative approach. What about organizing by technique or ingredient or course – like she does on her site?

I chose to make Goyoaga’s Meyer Lemon Custard Pots made with almond flour and Greek yogurt. The flavor was spot on – bright with delicate sweetness. The recipe was a cinch too. My only misstep was that I used light coconut milk in the custards. I’m guessing that might be the reason why the texture of the custards wasn’t as smooth as in the photo.

Goyoaga suggests using farm-fresh eggs because they make the custard a sunnier color. So, I picked up some eggs from Township Grocer that came from Looking Glass Prairie in Illinois.

I would have loved more tips like this throughout the recipe … like what brand of almond flour she prefers or what exactly she means by, “Bake 30 minutes or until the custard is set.” There wasn’t a description as to what set means. I ended up baking the ramekins for 45 minutes and have no idea if that was unnecessary. Maybe that’s why mine didn’t look as smooth?

She suggests serving the dish with almonds and sugar, but I chose to serve mine with whipped cream because I think whipped cream makes all desserts taste better.

Meyer Lemon, Almond & Yogurt Custard Pots
Serves 6

1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. finely grated lemon zest
4 eggs
½ cup almond flour
1 cup whole-milk yogurt
1 cup coconut milk
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup chopped almond or pistachios
Powdered sugar for garnish

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Pinch together the sugar and zest to release the zest’s oils. Whisk in the eggs, almond flour, yogurt, coconut milk and lemon juice.
• Pour the mixture into 6 ramekins and place the ramekins in the baking dish. Place the baking dish in the oven. Fill the dish with hot water so that it reaches halfway up the ramekins. Bake for about 30 minutes or until set.
• Remove the ramekins from the water bath and cool on a wire rack. Allow the custards to come to room temperature and then chill in the fridge. Serve with almonds and a dusting of powdered sugar.

Reprinted with permission from Little Brown and Company.

We love ramekins! What’s your favorite dish that goes in a ramekin? Tell us about it in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy of Small Plates and Sweet Treats: My Family’s Journey to Gluten-Free Cooking. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s By the Book column.

And now, we’d like to congratulate Cherie, whose comment on last week’s By the Book has won her a copy of Rhulman’s Twenty. Cherie, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew. 

By Meera Nagarajan

Tags: Almond & Yogurt Custard Pots, Aran Goyoaga, Cannelle et Vanille, cookbook, Meyer Lemon, Small Plates and Sweet Treats: My Family’s Journey to Gluten-Free Cooking

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013 at 4:12 pm and is filed under By the Book, The Scoop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.