Dairy-Free Recipes

I make muffins a lot.  They are a fantastic snack and a great use for all my vegan chocolate chips 😉  Here are two of my favorite recipes, both are modified from a coffee cake or a quick bread recipe so each makes over a dozen muffins.

Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 C oil
• 1 15 oz can pumpkin
• 1 C brown Sugar
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 3 egg, beaten
• 2 1/2 C flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 (I think… I forgot to mark this down but that’s what I do for the other recipe)
2. Mix oil, sugars, eggs, pumpkin and vanilla in a large bowl
3. Mix flour, spices, salt, and soda in a medium bowl
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until smooth
5. Bake 12-17 minutes until a tester inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

All Purpose Muffin Recipe
This one is adapted from a recipe for the Blueberry Buckle Coffeecake  in King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking Book.  The muffin recipe isn’t super sweet because the recipe for the coffee cake has one of those super duper sweet streusels that go on top which I never make. 

Ingredients

•  2 1/2 C white whole wheat flour (or a combination of whole wheat and white flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbs Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (you may be able to substitute just oil but I haven’t tried)
• 1 C sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C milk (I use almond)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Cups additional ingredients: blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts, craisins, frozen diced peaches, strawberries (let your imagination run wild)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Cream together Earth Balance and sugar in a large mixing bown until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs.
5. Stir in half the dry ingredients, then the milk and vanilla.
6. Sir in remaining dry ingredients.
7. Gradually fold in any additional ingredients.
8. Bake 12-17 minutes until a tester comes clean.

In a dairy free diet we’re able to eat a fair amount of chips as long as they are plain.  I’m regularly enjoying tortilla chips and Sunchips Original, but I get tired of salsa or hummus and long for real chip dip.  So last week I decided I would do something I vowed never to do.  I tried Tofu and I turned it into a pretty tasty (and healthy) chip dip!

Silken Tofu Chip Dip
Ingredients

• 10oz Package of Silken Tofu
• a squirt of lemon juice
• a packet of Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix (or other dairy-free mix)
• 1/4 cup (or to taste) Red Wine Vinegar
• a splash of ‘milk’

Instructions 

1. Dump the first 3 ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.
2. Add Vinegar to taste and ‘milk’ to refine the texture.
3. Dip in chips or veggies and enjoy!
   

I loved the Purely Decadent Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream when I tried it back at Christmas time.  My husband bought it for me as a gift and I was drooling over the stuff.  Later I went to the store to get it and it was $5.25 for a pint. YIKES!  That’s serious treat money!  I mean I could buy three whole bags of vegan chocolate chips for that amount and those would last me longer. While walking around Publix alone to get some “me time” last week, I suddenly remembered that I own an ice cream maker.  The same ice cream maker responsible for Halloween Ice Cream and Amaretto Ice Cream from the pregnancy and pre-dairy free days of early babyhood.  Surely I could make my own coconut ice cream and for less money.  So I grabbed four 14 oz cans of coconut milk at the astonishing price of $4 and made a gallon of ice cream. You do have to like the flavor of coconut, but this treat certainly doesn’t taste like a health food dessert 😉

Coconut Milk Ice Cream ***
Ingredients

• four 14oz  cans of Coconut Milk (I used two regular and two ‘lite’)
• 1 cup sugar

Instructions

1. Warm coconut milk in a saucepan with the sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. Cool for 4 hours in the refridgerator.
3. Dump in ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers directions.

Possible Variations 
I haven’t tried any of these variations, but I’m sure they’d be tasty.  If you try one, let me know how it goes.

• Pina Colada: Add a can of crushed pineapple
• Chocolate: Put 1 Cup Dutch Process Cocoa in the saucepan and then gently whisk in the coconut milk.  Add coconut flakes for an almond joy delight!
• Berry: Puree 2 Cups of fresh or frozen berries. Strain the puree in a cheesecloth if the seeds of your chosen berrry bother you
• Tropical: Puree 2 Mangos and 1 small Papaya and add to the mix

***WARNING: This stuff may be quite addictive.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

This recipe is found over at Wholesome Homemade Baby Food if you scroll down on the papaya page.  I’ve started freezing some food cubes for the girls and thought this would be a fun way for me to try papaya.  We had Tropical Chicken tonight and it was pretty tasty and something that will easily transition into summer unlike all the soups I’ve been making.  Here’s the recipe copied from that site: Enjoy!

Tropical Chicken and Brown Rice (8months+)