Easy Caramel Dessert - Salted Caramel Pot de Crème with Tahini
This Caramel Dessert combines salted caramel, custard, pistachios, sesame seeds, cream and homemade praline with tahini and fresh lime zest. The result? An exquisite taste adventure that will surprise and delight your guests.
With ingredients like sesame seeds and tahini, it’s no surprise that the inspiration for this yummy caramel dessert is Middle Eastern in nature. And with its intriguing flavour, it promises to finish any meal on a high note. But if you’re looking for suggestions, Slow Cooked Lamb is always a winner. Or you could also try my Miso Glaze Thai Coconut Salmon or this Air Fried Smoky Citrus Duck.
A Head Start
Aside from the incredible taste, I love this caramel dessert because you can make it ahead of time – up to 3 days in advance. This saves you a lot of time and effort and means you can spend more time on your main on the day of a special get together, or if you’re preparing this dessert for a few more people than usual.
Get the Balance Right
For a dish to really stand out, getting the flavours to balance is important. We try to include sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. This is often what’s lacking when a dessert tastes overly sweet, and more often than not, that imbalance can make it feel ‘heavy’.
Open Sesame
The sesame seeds and the tahini in this caramel dessert offer an earthy, nutty flavour that’s also slightly bitter. In terms of texture, it also brings a distinctive creaminess to the dish.
Sesame seeds happen to be a great source of fibre and contain lignans and phytosterols which are believed to have a cholesterol lowering effect. They’re also high in magnesium and vitamin E and may help reduce inflammation. Bonus feature: they taste great!
Caramel Dessert: A New Take on an Old Favourite
My take on salted caramel pots results in a dessert that is lighter and satisfies your sweet tooth, without it feeling heavy and overly sweet. And for those who are nervous about making custard from scratch, or the decadent praline, the good news is – I’ve totes got your back. We’re going to take it step by step, and it is actually a whole lot easier than it sounds.
You’ve got this!
Putting the Crunch into Caramel Desserts
Ah. The praline.
Now – it’s entirely optional, and if you don’t want to make it yourself, you can replace it with roasted, salted, chopped pistachio nuts or small pieces of chopped Crunchie bar (honeycomb chocolate bar). But the praline really is worth the effort.
The Secret to the Perfect Praline
Many people are put off by the idea of making their own praline because of what could go wrong. And what often goes wrong is that the sugary syrup seizes before it begins to caramelize.
Relax.
Frankly, it’s pretty much a rite of passage to have sugar seize on you.
The good news?
It’s easy to fix and even easier to avoid.
The secret is to diligently ensure that all the granules of sugar have dissolved fully, before increasing the heat to caramelize the syrup.
And if by chance, it does seize on you – simple add more room temperature water, bring it to the boil and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved!
Zest for Life
Like most things in life, it’s the little touches that elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary. And cooking is no different. Now, the secret ingredient in this incredible caramel dessert is lime zest. This is the green outer skin of the lime that contains the natural oils and zesty citrus flavour. It adds a beautiful freshness and really makes this salted caramel tahini pot de crème ‘pop’.
Spread the Love
Did you try out this easy caramel dessert? If so, we’d love to hear about it. Please leave us a comment – tell us what you liked about this salted caramel pot de crème with tahini, and we’d really appreciate it if you could leave us a rating.
Please share the recipe with your friends and followers too!
Remember to tag #theculinarycartel onInstagram so we can see what you come up with.
And check out the recipe video!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this dish gluten-free?
This dish is gluten free! Enjoy!
Is this dish vegan?
No, this recipe contains eggs and dairy. As an alternative dessert option, I suggest giving this chocolate vegan meringue a try.
What does “tempering eggs” mean ?
Tempering eggs is simply the process of slowly adding some hot liquid to the eggs while whisking vigorously so as to combine.
If you don’t temper your eggs, the eggs will cook in the hot liquid, and you’ll end up with scrambled eggs instead of custard.
Not a good look.
So – gradual acclimatisation is the key here.
Eek my sugar seized – what now ?
Simply add some room temperature water to the sugar, bring it to the boil and cook until the sugar is completely dissolved. Then resume making your caramel.
Easy Caramel Dessert – Salted Caramel Pot de Crème with Tahini
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6
Description
This Caramel Dessert combines salted caramel, custard, pistachios, sesame seeds, cream and homemade praline with tahini and fresh lime zest. The result? An exquisite taste adventure that will surprise and delight your guests.
Ingredients
For the Pot de creme
- 450ml single cream
- 150g White sugar
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Essence or 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Paste
- 3 Eggs – 2 Egg Yolks and 1 Whole Egg
- 15g/ 1 Tbsp Tahini Paste
For The Praline
- 5g / 1 1/2 tsp Sesame Seeds (Toasted)
- 20g / small handful pistachios, shelled, roasted and salted
- 1/4 tsp of Maldon or flaked salt
OR
- Replace with roasted chopped pistachios or shop bought Crunchie bar
- Lime zest for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Roughly chop the pistachios. Spread the pistachios and sesame seeds over a silicone mat, or on the base of a silicone cake tin.
- Measure out the cream, and have it ready to use next to the stove.
- Place the white sugar in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, with 100ml of water.
- Cook until the sugar has completely dissolved, then continue to cook the syrup until it turns a dark golden brown.
- Then turn up the heat to cook the syrup to a caramel, swirling the pot so it caramelizes evenly.
- Working quickly, pour ⅓ of the golden-brown caramel over the sesame and pistachios.
- Don’t worry if the caramel doesnt cover all your nut mix, as we will be roughly chopping it once it has set.
- Quickly pour the cream over the remaining caramel to stop the sugar cooking any further. Return the pan to the heat and whisk until all the caramel has dissolved into the cream. Add the vanilla essence and salt.
- In a medium sized bowl, add the 2 egg yolks and whole egg and whisk to combine. While whisking constantly, slowly pour in a thin stream of the hot caramel cream to temper the egg yolks – not too fast or you will get scrambled eggs!
- Once you have poured about half the cream into the yolks tip everything into the saucepan, and return to the heat.
- On your lowest heat setting, cook the custard until thickened, stirring well and scraping the custard from the base of the pan to ensure it doesnt catch and scramble. I like to use a silicone spatula here to get into the nooks for the saucepan. The custard is ready when it coats the back of a spoon, and you can draw a clean line through it on the back of a spoon, using your finger. If the custard runs off easily, continue cooking.
- Remove from the heat.
- Add the tahini and stir through the custard until combined. Taste and add a little more sea salt if you love a salty salted caramel flavour profile.
- Divide the custard between your serving glasses (you can opt for 4 large or 6 small desserts) then place the pot de crème into the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.
- Once ready to serve, roughly chop the praline and any rogue nuts together.
- Spoon this over your set pot de crème, and finish with a little lime zest and a sprinkle of Maldon salt, if you like.
Notes
Preparation takes less than an hour, but they will need to set in the fridge for between 1 and 2 hours.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Category: Sweet Treats
Nutrition
- Calories: 331.43kcal
- Sugar: 35.14g
- Sodium: 346.85mg
- Fat: 18.76g
- Saturated Fat: 9.78g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3.83g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 36.85g
- Fiber: 0.62g
- Protein: 5.35g
- Cholesterol: 81.53mg
