My sweet celiac and youngest, Izzy

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Funny things happen, sometimes they end up good! Dessert's

So, I've been baking away and something hilarious and comical happened tonight that I had to share with you all.  I have a Martha Stewart recipe for a sweet potato pit with a gingersnap pie shell.  Well, obviously you have to have gluten free gingersnaps but I sorta figured Izzy probably wouldn't be eating it so I wasn't going to concentrate so much on being dairy free.  In the end I ended up with an amazing sweet potato pie that is accidentally gluten AND dairy free and I want to share this tip for those who are daity free!  I was half way through making the pie and realized that the recipe called for sweetened condensed milk and I had bought evaporated milk.  Uh OH!  Well, I thought, they had to make condensed milk in some way shape or form to create the cans, maybe there's a recipe.  I googled how to make condensed milk....to my surprise there is not only a recipe but it was SUPER EASY!  Here comes the funny part.....the first ingredient in the recipe was powdered milk.  I knew I didn't have that on hand so I'm searching through the pantry and found that I had a box of powdered coconut milk.  The EXACT amount I needed for the recipe.  So, I decided, what the heck let's give it a try!  SURE enough, it came out perfectly!  Here's the recipe for homemade condensed milk, just substitute your powdered milk of choice, for us it was coconut which I think is more readily available: http://www.ehow.com/how_4903555_make-condensed-milk.html

The sweet potato pie recipe is:
http://www.marthastewart.com/314807/sweet-potato-pie-with-gingersnap-crust

I used Mi-Del all natural ginger snaps that are gluten and dairy free, butter substitute (Earth Balance baking sticks), C4C gluten free flour blend (but any Gfree flour blend should work since it's only 2 1/2 TBSP) and the coconut milk condensed milk.  I will serve with the rice or soy whip for whipped cream but I wanted to tell you about another product I found today while at our natural food store.  For those who need dairy free heavy whipping cream and are not tree nut allergic there is a almond and cashew whipping cream called Healthy Top by Mimiccreme, dairy/soy and gluten free!  If anyone out there has tried this please post a comment so I know how it is!

Next up is Pumpkin pie:
I make the traditional Libby's pumpkin pie: I am lazy when it comes to pie crusts because they have to have alot of love and patience and usually since dessert is the last part of the meal, I run out of patience.  You can ask anyone....I would rather have a glass of wine or prosecco than a slice of pie.  BUT Whole Foods bakehouse makes one heck of an already done frozen pie shell, you can get it just like the regular frozen pie shells and you thaw and bake just like any other pie.  It HAS to be one of the best things ever invented for a gfree chef.  So, last time I was in Little Rock, I picked up two packs and have been hording them for just this moment...the star of Thanksgiving cannot have an icky or soso crust!  Prepare the pie according to directions on the back of Libby's canned pumpkin.  For a dairy free option evaporated milk can be substituted several ways, boiling your milk sub by 50% or 1 C soy, rice or coconut powedered milk with 1 C boiling water and combine in a blender.  http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18470/LIBBYS-Famous-Pumpkin-Pie/detail.aspx

I also made Paula Deen's (I rarely use one of her recipes due to the amount of butter, lard or other fat added but this one is a great one) Fresh apple cake with honey glaze
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/uncle-bobs-fresh-apple-cake-recipe/index.html

I subbed the milk for coconut milk, vegetable oil for olive oil and I made this cake with two flours to see what worked best, they both ended up very nice...I used Pamela's baking mix first and then the C4C flour blend second.   It's a really nice cake that can sub as a breakfast type cake as well. 

and the final dessert at this year's big even will be a  chocolate ganache cake:
Barefoot Contessa and Ina make me happy, I love to entertain and man does that lady know how to do it right.  This is her recipe and I sub for my gfree flour blend: http://www.food.com/recipe/chocolate-ganache-cake-81807
Full fat coconut milk can be substituted for heavy cream. A coconut milk substitute will impart a coconut flavor to a recipe, so it will work for some recipes, but not all.  Here is another recipe for subbing heavy cream: http://www.sweettaterblog.com/2010/12/10/vegan-heavy-cream/

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