Dairy-Free Living: Day 6

Quitting dairy has honestly been a lot easier than I expected.

When the nutritionist first announced that it was time for me, like my mother and younger brother, to quit dairy, my brain went insane. What about cheese? Ice cream? Yogurt?

Luckily, baking was not an issue. My mother and brother have been dairy-free for the past couple months, so I have grown accustomed to baking without dairy. Two of my favorite milk and butter substitutes, as you may have noticed in the past few recipes, are coconut milk and Earth Balance, respectively. You can also substitute almond milk for cow's milk in recipes where you want a blander, less sweet, taste.

What brand of coconut milk you buy doesn't really matter, but make sure you buy unsweetened coconut milk to use in baking. Sweetened coconut milk will cause your cakes, brownies, etc, to be far sweeter than most can tolerate.

Many people substitute soy milk for cow's milk, but my mother and brother are also soy intolerant, and so it's coconut milk all the way. Personally, I think coconut milk tastes better anyway.

What about eating? Well, you can put coconut or almond milk in your cereal, you can bake with it, that's great. Milk problem solved. What about yogurt?

My nutritionist showed me a product called Amande, a cultured almond milk yogurt I was rather skeptical about.

Post work-out the next day, I had a staring match with my cherry amande. It looked like yogurt. It smelled like yogurt. But would it taste like yogurt?

"Okay, almond milk yogurt," I said. "You and I better get along real well." Mom looked up from her book, and smiled bemusedly. I took a small bite of the yogurt. "Wow. I actually like it better than regular yogurt," I told Mom, who nodded but refused to taste.

Amande comes in a variety of flavors, and so far, all of them have been yogurt-y and tasteful. I strongly recommend it.

Another dairy-free substitute my nutritionist pointed out was Daiya, a vegan, soy-free cheese that theoretically melts. I haven't tried it yet, but the nutritionist assured me that it tastes like cheese. We'll see.

So I conclude my first Dairy-Free Living blog post. I'll be back - I can't leave you hanging on the meltability (I know that's not a word, but it should be) of Daiya cheese.

Happy Dairy-Free Living!

Dairy-Free Basic Butter Frosting

That's right - dairy-free basic BUTTER frosting!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Earth Balance

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 1/2 cups (1 pound) sifted confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 to 4 tablespoons coconut milk, to make smooth

Directions:

Blend together Earth Balance, salt, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla extract. Add appx. 3 to 4 tablespoons coconut milk, or until smooth.

Spread on your desired desert and enjoy!

Carrot Cake

Ingredients*:

4 eggs

1 1/14 cups vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds

Frosting:

The traditional frosting for carrot cake is cream cheese frosting. However, in the interest of being dairy-free, follow my version of Dairy-free Basic Butter Frosting.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into pan.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for at least 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

*Altered version of All Recipe's Carrot Cake III Recipe.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (vegan)

Ingredients*:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

6 tablespoons coconut milk

5 medium stalks rhubarb, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

1 1/2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3 1/2 tablespoons tapioca

1 pinch salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

Directions:

To make crust**: In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Place the 1/2 cup oil in a 1 cup sized measuring cup and top with the 6 tablespoons of coconut milk. DO NOT MIX! Pour oil and coconut milk over flour and blend with a fork or by hand until it forms a ball of dough. Divide dough into 2 balls and place one ball on a sheet of waxed paper. Top with another sheet of waxed paper and roll out to fit your pie plate. Repeat with remaining ball of dough. Peel top paper off of one crust and flip fought into pie plate. Peel off paper and press dough in. Save remaining dough for top crust.

Preheat oven to 425 F (22o C).

To make filling: Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, tapioca, salt, and nutmeg until the fruit is well-coated. Pour filling into the crust and dot with butter. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut three 1-inch slits in top of crust.

Bake pie at 425 F (220 C) for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375 F (190 C) and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven when crust is cooked through, with a golden glint. Allow pie to cool before cutting.

*Altered version of All Recipe's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

**I recommend multiplying crust ingredients by 1.5 to truly have enough for a crust.

Simple Matcha (Green Tea) Chiffon Cake

Ingredients*:

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp

baking powder

2/3 tsp salt

4 tsp matcha

1 cup caster sugar (or finely ground white sugar)

6 egg yolks

8 Tbls vegetable oil

2/3 cups orange juice (or water)

8 egg whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 170 C (or 340 F).

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and matcha.

Add 1/2 cup of the sugar to the egg yolks and beat until the mixture turns pale in color. Add oil and orange juice and mix.

Gradually add the sifted flour to the mixture and lightly mix.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and slowly add remaining sugar. Continue beating until peaks form.

Mix 1/3 off the egg whites into the batter.

Fold the rest of the egg whites in, stirring carefully.

Pour batter into an angle cake tin (or bundt cake, if you don't have an angel cake tin).

Bake for 35 - 40minutes.

Place pan upside down and let cool completely.

Frosting:

You have two options when it comes to frosting:

1) Mix whipped cream with 1/3 package of koshi an (azuki pack), which you can buy at Japanese supermarkets such as Mitsuwa, or make it yourself.

2) Stir in 1 package of tsubu an with Basic Frosting. For a dairy-free option, substitute coconut milk for cow's milk and Earth Balance, "a naturally buttery spread", for butter.**

*Altered version of Group Recipe's Green Tea Chiffon Cake.
**This frosting option is also vegan.

Note: This is what the Koshi an package from Mitsuwa looks like.

Allergy-free Brownies (gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan)

This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free, AND vegan.

Recipe*:

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup water

1 cup potato starch

1 cup rice flour (brown or white)

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

5/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.

Mix potato starch, rice flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in large bowl. Blend bananas, oil, and water in a separate bowl. Stir the dry mixture into the banana mixture until blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely and cut into squares.

*Altered version of All Recipe's "Brownies-Allergy Free!"

Basic Sugar Cookies

Recipe*:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (or Earth Balance)

3/4 cups granulated sugar

1.2 cup confectioners' sugar

2 large eggs

1 1.2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl.

Beat the butter and both sugars in another medium-sized bowl with an electric mixer (or use a Kitchen Aid) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy (appx. 30 seconds). Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until fully incorporated. Slowly add the flour mixture and continue beating until dough comes together, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Divide dough in half, pat into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours).

Generously flour a clean work surface. Gently roll chilled dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters, working as quickly as possible so that the dough remains chilled. If dough gets too soft, refrigerate on a lined baking sheet until firm again (appx. 30 mins).

Transfer cut cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet, leaving appx. 1 inch between cookies. Refrigerate the formed cookies for at least 30 minutes. (Excess dough can be pressed into a disk, chilled, and rerolled.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake the cookies until the bottoms are golden, appx. 12 - 15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets until firm enough to transfer to rack. Cool completely on rack. Cover with Basic Frosting as seen in the Lemon-Raspberry Cake or Cupcakes recipe (I recommend not adding any of the optional additions seen in the recipe, but rather sticking to just the frosting) or Dairy-Free Basic Butter Frosting.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

*This recipe is from Food Network.