Kiwi in the Clouds

Souffle di Budino di Cocco e Vaniglia con Kiwi

Coconut Yogurt Custard Souffle with Kiwi

Sunday afternoon and time for another of my incredible inventions! This is simply a baked fruit- custard that has been "pimped" and fluffed-up into a kind-of souffle... fast, easy, inexpensive and healthy as it contains, yet again, neither fat nor sugar... So what's not to like?

I made this makeshift custard using egg-yolk and yogurt, together with some vanilla custard powder and a little baking soda- added the beaten egg-white and kiwi and in no time had a great individual serving of what was more like a clafoutis than a souffle... but as you can see... this thing fluffed right up, up and away!

You will have seen this kind of dessert on my blog before... but let's face it- most food preparation is repetitive. The basic methods are always the same, it is just details and ingredients that change... so be thankful of the fact!

This time around I decided on lemon and vanilla as the main flavors for the egg "royale" or batter I was making. For this little, individual serving I used 1 egg which I separated. I whisked the white into peaks, adding a half teaspoon of Stevia and a tiny pinch of salt. I whisked the yolk together with 1 tablespoon of vanilla custard powder, 4 tablespoons of plain low-fat yogurt, a little squeeze and the zest of half a lemon, 1 teaspoon of Stevia and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

I carefully folded the egg white into the yolk and then spooned half of the mixture into a ramekin. I then peeled and sliced a kiwi, retained 1 slice for decorative purposes later and diced the other slices. I added half of these, spread evenly, to the top of the first layer of batter. I then covered this with more batter, leaving just a little to make a final layer, but sprinkled again with the kiwi pieces. The last step was to add the last little bit of batter to cover the top surface... ready! Off to the oven with it!

I placed the ramekin into a larger baking form and added a little water, so that it would steam during baking, and set it onto the middle shelf of my pre-heated oven for approx. 20 minutes at 350° F.

After this time I removed it from the oven and pressed the extra slice of kiwi into place as you can see in the pictures... it would obviously have just sunk and disappeared had I done it from the start! A final 3-4 minutes and a little top-heat from the broiler gave it a lovely deep-golden color... and my little fluffy custard was ready to enjoy! Of course the bottom of the custard is still liquid, but it contains the juicy cooked kiwi and is great in combination with the fluffy, golden top layer... and I certainly hope you enjoy it!