-Free Recipe Friday: Dairy-Free Waffles

It is Friday: time for a -free recipe!

Something we make fairly often around here, now that I've found that it's actually easier to do than pancakes, is waffles.

At first, I found a super easy recipe and it worked well despite not using cow's milk. Then I kept reading other recipes that had some extra steps, but there were some common extra steps: separate the white from the yolk, put the yolk in first, mix it up, beat the egg white on the side until it becomes stiff and then fold it in. I don't understand the chemistry behind it, but both of my kids have said that waffles taste better when I do this.

And with that, here is my recipe for

Dairy-Free Waffles

Mix together in a large bowl:
1 3/4 all-purpose flour
2 tbps sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

In a medium bowl, beat:
2 egg yolks (set aside the egg whites in a separate bowl)
1 3/4 cup of your choice of non-dairy milk
1/2 cup of cooking oil or dairy-free margarine (warning: I tried coconut oil once; 1/2 proved to be too much)
1 tsp vanilla (I let it overflow just a tad)

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix just until moistened.

In your separate egg-white bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold them into the batter.

Pour a cup or so into your preheated and lightly greased waffle maker and cook according to your maker's instructions.

I have a waffle maker that makes 4 waffles at a time and this makes 12-16 waffles, depending on how much batter I actually put each time.

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If you like little kitchen gadget things, to separate the egg white from the yolk can be done with a separator. You can check some out at Amazon.com. I have one that's similar to this one that works well--and prevents me from inadvertently piercing the yolk with a jagged eggshell edge:

-Free Recipe Friday: Dairy-Free (Vegan) Chocolate Frosted Doughnuts

My family decided they wanted some Tim Horton's doughnuts this week. (Or, as we say up here in English, they wanted some Timmie's. ;) ) I checked the allergy guide to see if just in case there was a doughnut I could eat. Alas, there wasn't. But my craving was triggered and I decided to make myself doughnuts. Other than the gluten-free doughnuts from Cooking for Your Gluten-Free Teen: Everyday Foods the Whole Family Will Love, I have never made doughnuts at home. (Well, there's a little memory coming up that my mom and I may have once tried a big pot and oil with some dough...) To the internet I went to find this recipe.
 

They are delicious! I do have to add something here though: They did not satisfy my doughnut craving. They are essentially a vegan cupcake in doughnut form, including the icing. They are delicious--the frosting is AMAZING, best chocolate frosting I've perhaps EVER had--but they don't really taste like doughnuts to me. It could be using Canadian flour changed it or who knows what, but my doughnuts didn't even look like hers, especially not the frosting. Admittedly, I didn't melt the vegan margarine... Anyhow, it doesn't change it's delicious. And dairy-free. And egg-free. Could even be nut-free if you used something other than almond milk for the frosting.

-Free Recipe Friday: Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Ice Cream

I have a delicious dairy-free/vegan/gluten-free recipe for you today! One of the many things people miss when going dairy-free for whatever reason is ice cream. I'm one of those people. I know people who have said they could never go dairy-free because they wouldn't be able to give up ice cream. Let's face it: ice cream is important to many people. There are some delicious non-dairy ice creams available but the better ones come in tiny containers tend to cost more than a typical 3-scoop ice cream cone! Making it yourself cuts back on costs and lets you make exactly what you want with the ingredients you want.

Today's recipe, Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl comes from The Vegan Scoop

1 cup soymilk, divided
2 tbsp arrowroot powder
1 cup soy creamer (my note: Silk makes original and French vanilla; both taste very good in this recipe)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
1 tbsp vanilla extract (yes, even if you use the French vanilla creamer)
3/4 cup peanut butter (I use regular, store-bought peanut butter with sugar in it)

In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup of the soymilk with arrowroot and set aside.

Mix soy creamer, remaining 3/4 cup soymilk, sugar, cocoa powder and chocolate chips in a saucepan and cook over low heat. (Not too low or it'll take forever!) Once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. This will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably. Add vanilla extract.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled, approximately 2 to 3 hours. (Elsewhere in the book, he recommends letting it chill overnight.) Freeze according to ytes of freezing, swirl in peanut butter.

Yield: 1 quart

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My one piece of advice when making this is to not let the ice cream mix too long after you've added the peanut butter. While you can still taste the peanut butter and the combination of the chocolate and peanut butter is amazing, the peanut butter can end up mixing in very quickly and you lose the swirl. As you can see here:

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Don't have an ice cream maker? Check these out. I have the second one and am very pleased with it.

                    

-Free Recipe Friday: Amazing Oven-Fried French Fries

French fries are gluten-free and dairy-free and if you make them yourself at home rather than buying the frozen kind, you can be sure of the ingredients and no contamination!

They do take some extra time, especially if you don't have a French fry cutter. If you are cutting by hand as I do, just a word of warning: don't make the fries too thin. They will get too crispy. Also, despite the recipe instructions, the lowest position in my oven is actually too low, as I discovered yesterday when I put it to the lowest position for the first time. I also used olive oil and they are just fine with olive oil instead of vegetable oil.

This week's recipe is off-site, so you'll need to visit http://www.instructables.com/id/Crispy-Oven-Baked-French-Fries/ to check it out. These fries are absolutely worth the trouble to make!

It's Friday! -Free Recipe Friday!

I have been wanting chocolate chip cookies all week long, so I decided that would be the -free recipe I would share: my chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is a slightly modified recipe from a cookbook my mom had when I was a kid/teenager. The recipe called for butter or vegetable shortening and we always used butter. But one time we didn't have butter or enough butter so I used Crisco shortening. They turned out better than they had with the butter! I've been making them with Crisco ever since although did try dairy-free margarine. It works, just not as good. My mom always used to mix the dough in a food processor and I didn't feel like having to clean the food processor afterwards one day, so I just did it by hand. Again, they turned out even better!

The tricky part to make these cookies dairy-free could be to find dairy-free chocolate chips. Most of the ones I've found in stores have milk in the ingredients, and unfortunately, my favourite ones, the President's Choice chocolate chips, now have "May contain milk" on the label. (I still eat them even though I really should avoid all potential traces.) I believe Camino is completely dairy-free, but don't quote me on that, as is Enjoy Life.

One more thing about this recipe: Pretty much everybody LOVES this recipe--when I make it. I have tried my best below to put in the details that I might be following that others don't when making the recipe, but that's still no guarantee. I once supervised my niece making them and they did not turn out the same.

So, here we go, today's Dairy-Free Recipe:

Dairy-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350F-375F--the exact temperature will depend on your oven and elevation

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, very well packed (I normally use golden brown, but did use the darker stuff in the past and they were just as good)
1 cup of Crisco shortening
(just a note here: you want the sugars to be a little more rather than a little less than the full measure, and the shortening a little less rather than a little more; it can make a big difference!)

2 large eggs
2 (overflowing) tsp vanilla

2 cups flour (I use Canadian all-purpose flour; you may need to use something other than all-purpose or adjust your amount if you are not in Canada)
1.5 tsp salt (original recipe called for 2 tsp, if you like them saltier)
1 tsp baking soda

1+ cups chocolate chips (original recipe calls for 2 cups)

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In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugars and shortening VERY well. I use a fork for this until it is as blended as it can be.

Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix with the fork until creamy. And then mix a little more.

Sprinkle over top the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix with a mixing spoon until well blended.

Add the chocolate chips and mix again.

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. I make them large, about 2". The recipe usually makes about 25 cookies for me (well, it would be a couple more if dough didn't get eaten...).

Bake for 7-8 minutes. (You may need to play around with this. With one of my ovens, I baked them at 350 for 10 minutes and they were perfect. With my current oven, 8 minutes at 375 seems to work well, but I still have to play around a bit to get it just right. With the second batch, 8 minutes is actually too long for this oven.) I take them out when the edges are just starting to get golden and some peaks are showing signs of browning. They are, for all intents and purposes, undercooked, but not so undercooked that they will be gross. They will still continue cooking a bit as they sit on the cookie sheet.

 They look browner in this picture than I think they look in real life.

Let them cool completely on the cookie sheets. Do not remove to a wire rack. Because they are already a tad undercooked, let them keep cooking a bit without the browning!

If you prefer the harder cookie, by all means, cook longer. :)

Happy Victoria Day long weekend to the Canadians reading!

Free Recipe Friday! GFCF Banana Bread Bars

I have to highly praise this book and recommend it for gluten-free eaters, whether they have teens (kids!) or not:

Cooking for Your Gluten-Free Teen: Everyday Foods the Whole Family Will Love

I'm not entirely sure how many things we've tried, but so far, we've loved it all! The latest is no exception. I made it dairy-free by using vegan margarine. It is not vegan as it uses eggs and dried egg whites, but I could see playing with it to make it vegan.

What is it? Banana bread squares!

I remembered to take a picture before we ate them all up! (Yay, me! :D) Now, my son has said they aren't as good as my usual banana bread recipe, but these bars are actually healthier, not having as much sugar in them and none of the oil my usual recipe has. I would almost not even guess that they are gluten-free, they are so spongy. And clearly, this picture shows they are good as they are being eaten.

I think I'm allowed to share the recipe, so I will! For the full recipe with their gluten-free all-purpose flour blend, you will have to get the book. This recipe is found on p. 67:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened, or nondairy alternative [I used Becel Vegan]
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups smoothly mashed very ripe bananas (about 3) [my note: I don't know if her bananas are huge, but it took me what I considered 4 large bananas]
2 tsp dried egg whites [I used Wilton Meringue Powder]
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground allspice

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray a 9x9" baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. [Okay, I used Crisco rather than a spray.] Line the bottom with parchment paper cut to fit. Spray the parchment with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until very smooth and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and bananas and beat well.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk the flour, dried egg whites, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and allspice to mix.

Add the dry ingredients in batches to the banana mixture, beating well after each addition. The batter will get very thick, so beat only enough to mix well.

Scrape the banana batter into the prepared pan with a silicone spatula. Pat smooth and level with oiled palms or a lightly oiled silicone spatula. [I modified this step, simply used the spatula I was already using to try to level it all.] Bake for 30-35 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the over. Let cool on a rack. When cool, cut 3 by 4 for 12 bars.

Enjoy!

-Free Recipe Friday + Go Dairy-Free!

Inspired by Dreena Burton posting in Facebook about her blog post Reasons to Stop Eating Dairy, I decided I would write very briefly about going dairy-free.

I have been dairy-free for 3.5 years. It took years of illness and finally getting violently ill for me to finally go, "Okay, I get it, I stop." What held me from really stopping was, in part, the idea that it was just too hard.

After 3.5 years of being dairy-free, I can (now) attest to it being a fairly easy lifestyle--once you're used to it. It's hard to let go of certain habits and comforts, but just because something is hard doesn't mean we shouldn't -- or can't -- do it! I do get tempted now and then with something cheesy. Mmmm, the lasagne I used to make does sound delicious. But I know what it will do to me, so I don't give in, no matter how tempting.

If you have some favourite baking recipes that require milk, in many, many cases, you can simply substitute a dairy-free milk and it will work just fine! Case in point: I made these muffins this morning. And I used rice milk instead of cow's milk. (My personal preference would have been to use almond milk; I find it works better in baking than rice milk. But rice milk is the only thing I have on hand, so there we go!) Whenever we make pancakes, we use non-dairy milk and they are absolutely fine. Even extended family couldn't tell the difference. (Which just makes me wonder--why don't they all go dairy-free? ;) At least for pancakes and baked goods?)

Frozen Blueberry Muffins

modified from this http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Frozen-Blueberry-Muffins
Originally published as Frozen Blueberry Muffins in Quick Cooking May/June 1998, p.18
dairy-free (could use egg substitute to make vegan)

• Prep: 15 min. Bake: 25 min. + cooling
• Yield: 24 Servings

15 25 40

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups frozen unsweetened blueberries

TOPPING (I didn't use it)

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs, milk and vanilla; mix well. Stir in dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in frozen blueberries.
• Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Combine sugar and nutmeg; sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Yield: about 2 dozen.

Editor's Note: If using frozen blueberries, use without thawing to avoid discoloring the batter.

Nutritional Facts (don't apply to dairy-free version)1 muffin equals 238 calories, 9 g fat (5 g saturated fat), 57 mg cholesterol, 209 mg sodium, 36 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 4 g protein.

-Free Recipe Friday - Jan. 18, 2013

I had in my mind for much of the day that I had to figure out what I was going to share for -Free Recipe Friday tomorrow. It hit me at about 2:30 that Friday wasn't tomorrow, but today. Oh. Shoot. What was I going to share?

Since I had on my menu plan to make minestrone, I decided I would just share whatever I ended up finding. Well, I wasn't happy with what I found so... I looked at a couple of recipes and came up with my own minestrone recipe! And you know what? I thought it was DELICIOUS! My son thought otherwise, but he never likes tomato-based soups. *sigh* My daughter didn't say anything but did eat a decent amount and my husband's not yet home, so I don't know. (Oh, before I got the chance to post this, he got home, ate and only said it would make a good lunch for tomorrow. lol)

In any case, here's the recipe!

Marvellous Minestrone

vegan (dairy-free, meat-free, egg-free), soy-free and potentially gluten-free

I remembered the picture this time! ;) Of course, I'd already finished eating...

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small/medium onion, chopped

2 large carrots, diced

2 chopped garlic cloves

2 cups vegetable broth or stock

1 796 mL (28 oz) can tomatoes, blended

2 cups water

1/2 zucchini, chopped

a handful of baby spinach, chopped into largish pieces (could have even had two handfuls)

1 tsp dried oregano (could even have a bit more)

2 tsp basil (could even have a bit more)

1 tsp salt

ground pepper (however much you want)

1 can of red kidney beans, drained

(1 cup chopped green beans, which I didn't put this time because I didn't have them, but they'd be good)

1.5 cups baby shells pasta (this makes it VERY heavy on the pasta! you might want to put less, maybee 3/4 to 1 cup only); I used regular pasta, but one of the recipes I was looking at used gluten-free pasta, so that would definitely work.

Instructions

In large pot, put oil, onion, carrots, garlic on med to med-low heat. Once heated, cook for 4-5 minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes and water. Stir. Bring to a boil.

Add zucchini, spinach, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and kidney beans. Simmer covered 30+ minutes. (The longer you simmer, the more flavourful it will be.)

Add green beans, if using, and pasta.

Cook 6-10 minutes, depending on the pasta being used. Let it be ever so slightly not cooked if it's going to be sitting for even 10 minutes. The pasta really absorbs the liquid!

Makes about 8 servings.

Free Recipe Friday

I had the thought that a good way for me to build up a collection of recipes I like is to have a regular day where I post recipes I've tried and liked. Every Friday, I will try to post a "Free" recipe: not only do you not have to pay for it ;), but it will be free of something, like gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan/animal-product-free, soy-free...

Today's recipe: My daughter had started asking for scalloped potatoes. I've never, ever made them myself. Ate them as a kid and liked them so-so, then developped my dairy allergy as an adult and have not been able to eat them when served by others. Found the following recipe and it was absolutely delicious! I don't remember liking scalloped potatoes as much as a kid. There wasn't even any cheese--not even Daiya cheese--on it but it tasted so creamy and good!

Scalloped Potatoes

vegan, so: dairy-free, meat-free, animal-product-free; could be modified potentially to gluten-free

photo forgotten! :(

Original recipe here. My modified recipe below:

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons vegan margarine
1/4 cup flour (I'm thinking that a gluten-free baking starch could potentially be used or a gluten-free flour blend to make this recipe gluten-free as well)
1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup Veganaise
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
5 large potatoes
1 onion, chopped

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Cook the margarine, flour, broth, Veganaise, salt and pepper on medium heat, whisking constantly until thick and bubbly.

2. Slice the potatoes 1/8" thick or so. A mandoline slicer with adjustable thicknesses works well for this!

3. Mix the potatoes and onions and place in a deep casserole dish.

4. Pour the sauce over the potatoes.

5. Sprinkle with paprika.

6. Bake at 350F for 1.5 hours.

Enjoy!