Pie!

I never thought I would be able to eat a pie with my Vegan Carnivore until he outgrew his allergy, but Egg- and Dairy-free Dad and Omnivore Girl made egg- and dairy-free pastry!! I am still so thrilled about this, even though the pie was made almost a week ago.

Since I didn't make it, I can't tell you how to make the pork & mushroom filling, but I can give you Egg- and Dairy-free Dad's description. As you can tell, he's not really very fond of Nuttelex.

I used this pie recipe as a basis

http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/desserts/vegan-pie-crust.htm

but there's not that much to it. what I really did was mix 3 cups of flour, about half a container of nuttelex <yecch> and a teaspoon or so of salt in the food processor. I added a tiny bit of cold water, but then it instantly felt like just a bit too much. It needs more salt.

 

Omnivore Girl helped to roll it out and prick the base, she just loves to cook. And then she loves to eat! As did her little brother and the rest of the family. There's nothing better than lovely crisp pastry. :o)

Egg- and Dairy-free Chocolate Cupcakes

Time for a family celebration, so I made some chocolate cupcakes for the vegan carnivore with the help of the carnivore's big sister. It rated pretty highly on bestrecipes so I thought it would be a safe enough experiment. And sure enough, it worked! I made half the recipe and made 20 small cupcakes.

Got to love recipes that work first time and don't need an egg beater! A nice one to cook with kids.

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Egg-and-Dairy-Free-Chocolate-Cake-L6971.html

Ingredients (half-batch)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Line cupcake tin with patty pans and pre-heat oven to 160° Celsius fan force (or 180°C bake)
2. Sift flour, cocoa, caster sugar and salt into a large bowl.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix well (a spoon will do).
4. Pour mixture into a prepared patty pans.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

To start... Apple and Strawberry Friands!

Well this is my very first post. My infant son is allergic to eggs and cow's milk. Since I am have to experiment with egg- and dairy-free recipes, I thought I might as well share my successes and failures. Hope it helps other people cooking for kids with allergies!

My first experiment that I'm sharing with you is a friand recipe. I've had a friand pan for a long time, but I've never got around to using it. With the little Vegan Carnivore (aka my little boy) asleep, I thought I'd try out a recipe I saw in a magazine, but modifying it so it's egg-free. The original recipe calls for 5 egg whites!

Apple and Strawberry Friands
Adapted from Apple & Blueberry Friands recipe, Winter Coles magazine

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup self-raising flour
• 4 heaped tsp "No Egg" with 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp baking powder (approximately)
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 100g almond meal
• 1/3 cup oat milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup pie apple (no sugar), roughly chopped
• 1 cup strawberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (fan-forced). Lightly grease 10 holes of non-stick friand mould pan.
2. Combine flours, icing sugar, almond meal and cinnamon. Add oat milk, oil, apple and strawberries and stir until just combined
3. Mix No Egg with water until fairly stiff paste is formed. Add to mixture and add baking powder. Carefully fold into mixture.
4. Spoon into prepared moulds and bake in oven for 25-30 minutes
5. Sit friands for 10 mins before turning out onto a cooling tray and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Notes

1. I used oat milk, but you can use soy milk.
2. I used my stewed apples and fresh berries, but (defrosted) frozen berries would also work, you don't have to stick to these quantities, just make up a cup and a half of whatever fruit you like and it should be ok. (I certainly didn't stick to the original recipe!)

Hope you enjoy this recipe, it's always a nice surprise when an experiment turns out!

Edit: 26/6/11 - No Egg is used in a heaped measure; it's the equivalent of 6 egg whites.