For me it worked to use:
spark.conf.set("spark.sql.session.timeZone", "UTC")
It tells the spark SQL to use UTC as a default timezone for timestamps. I used it in spark SQL for example:
select *, cast('2017-01-01 10:10:10' as timestamp) from someTable
I know it does not work in 2.0.1. but works in Spark 2.2. I used in SQLTransformer
also and it worked.
I am not sure about streaming though.