When you take the butter, milk, and cream out of many popular desserts, what are you left with? Often, not much. Our hearts go out to all those who can’t stomach dairy, and over time we’ve accumulated a decent buffet from which non dairy-eaters can take all they can. In truth, many of our desserts can be tweaked to eliminate the dairy. In cookies, butter can be replaced with trans fat-free shortening. Crisco makes one, and we have had good results with Spectrum. In quickbreads and muffins, oil is an easy substitute. As for milks, experiment with different kinds of dairy free choices. For example, coconut can be lovely in cakes, since it has a high fat content, but if you don’t want the taste of coconut, it’s out. Almond milk is so low in calories that you’ll have to add an extra tablespoon or so of fat to achieve good results.
These ten dishes require no tweaks; they’re dairy-free and yummy just the way they are.
**Recipes**
1. Banana Chocolate Chip Bread
2. Carrot Cake
8. Orange Olive Oil Pound Cake
10. Peanut Butter Granola Bars
Update!
Because of the popularity of this post, I’ve written and released an eCookbook completely devoted to dairy-free sweets. The recipes are dairy-free originals like Toasted Coconut Custard Pie and Glazed Lemon-Olive Oil Cake, the design is unique, there are smart tips for making dairy-free delicious, and the photos are gorgeous. It’s called A Baker’s Dairy-Free Dozen: Desserts for Every Sweet Day of the Year and you can check it out by clicking here. (And, you’ll be able to buy the book right on the site, if you like.) Thanks for visiting Big Girls, Small Kitchen and for supporting what I do.
