Dairy Free Tapioca Pudding

I might be imagining things but I think full fat coconut milk has an after taste. It's not the watered down taste that you might get from buying a can of Trader Joe's version of coconut milk. But there's definitely an after taste, like how game meat has a twinge of extra flavor with every bite. On buying coconut milk or coconut cream, there really should only be one ingredient on the label besides water. In today's modern age of food preservation via canning, preservatives and color additives aren't necessary. Also look for BPA-free cans or cartons. Savoy and Aroy-D are both Thailand products; and Trader Joe's comes from Sri Lanka. For this recipe, I used Savoy coconut cream. These all cost about the same, roughly $2/can, in the Pacific Northwest.

The Foodening Blog: Dairy Free Tapioca Pudding

In my pantry, I have three varieties of coconut milk/cream:

• Trader Joe's organic coconut milk, 110 calories per 1/4 c serving (660 total calories for 13.5 fl oz with 48% coconut extract)
• Savoy coconut cream, 200 calories per 1/2 c serving (900 total calories for 14 fl oz with 70% coconut extract)
• Aroy-D coconut milk, 170 calories per 1/2 c serving (765 total calories for 14 fl oz with 60% extract)

Onto the recipe...

Makes: 3-4 servings

Ingredients

1 c non-dairy milk (e.g., unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/3 c dry tapioca pearls
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp liquid sweetener (honey, golden syrup), or sweeter to taste
14 oz full fat coconut milk

Directions

1. In a 2-cup measuring cup or bowl, soak tapioca pearls in non-dairy milk for an hour.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Let simmer over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent the starch from burning. It will thicken considerably as the tapioca cooks.

3. Remove from heat and pour into small bowls. Let cool before eating.

Watermelon Coconut Ice Cream

I'm not sure this even qualifies to be an ice cream since it lacks dairy as a main ingredient. This is something else to do with the watermelon that is ultra-low in calories and high in awesome. I could easily polish off a watermelon by myself. Watermelon granita is how I enjoyed it last year. This summer, I think I can start to experiment a little more.

Makes: 1 quart

4 c seedless watermelon, cubed
1 can full-fat coconut milk (at least 70%), shaken, not stirred
1/4 c raw honey
juice of 1 lemon

Blend everything together in a food processor. Pour into a 9" x 13" baking dish. Place in freezer until set. Scrape everything out and place frozen bits into the food processor. Purée until smooth. Scoop into a freezer-safe container and chill until set, about 3-4 hours.

Almond Milk Chia Beverage

I got tired of buying cans of 60% coconut cream. There are a few still in the pantry, but I thought I should try to make my afternoon chia beverage out of something other than coconut milk. This is what I did with the quart of almond milk I just made.

Per half-pint mason jar:

1 tbsp organic chia seeds
1 tsp raw honey
1 c fresh almond milk

Stir it together, then lid and band the jar. Put in fridge until later. Give it another stir or shake the jar before drinking.

If you want to make "pudding" out of this, simply double the amount of chia seeds.

How to Make Vanilla Almond Milk from Scratch

My biggest gripe about the rising trend in alternative "milk" beverages are all the fillers that are in an 8 oz glass of it. Take a look at the fillers in these almond milk brands:

Silk: Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Sunflower Lecithin, Gellan Gum. Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Acetate, Zinc Gluconate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D2

What the hell is "natural flavor" as its own ingredient??

Blue Diamond: Evaporated Cane Juice, Calcium Carbonate, Sea Salt, Potassium Citrate, Carrageenan, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, D-Alpha-Tocopherol (Natural Vitamin E)

So Delicious: Dried Cane Syrup, Pea Protein, Rice Protein, Calcium Phosphate, Magnesium Phosphate, Carrageenan, Natural Flavor, Locust Bean Gum, Kosher Sea Salt, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D-2, L-Selenomethionine (Selenium), Zinc Oxide, Folic Acid, Vitamin B-12

Protein powder?? WTF!

Pacific Almond: Dried Cane Syrup, Potassium Citrate, Sea Salt, Carrageenan, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2

Trader Joe's: Tricalcium Phosphate, Sea Salt, Gellan Gum, Dipotassium Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavors, Sunflower Lecithin, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E)

Hands down, if you can handle cow's milk, it is the only way to go for ice cream, milk shakes, pudding, cheese, etc. When you look at the packing for organic milk, it has one ingredient: organic milk. No fillers, nada. Just juice squeezed out of cow udders. Anyhow, I think I'm going to post a homemade almond milk recipe now. 

Vinegar Pie

Happy Pi Day!

This recipe hit my radar when I was reading up on pies that people make for Pi Day (March 14). I really didn't know what I wanted to make; but I did know I wanted to make something I hadn't made before. This recipe originates from the mid-19th century and counts as a pioneer style of baking (think Little House on the Prairie). The recipe ratio comes from Michigan's MLive article on the same topic.

Unbaked pie crust, filled pie crust, baked pie, finished pie with cinnamon dusting

Ingredients

1 pre-baked coconut flour pie crust

2 large eggs
1 c organic granulated sugar, divided
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 c cold filtered water
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
ground cinnamon, for dusting
organic whipped cream, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Whisk together eggs and 1/4 c sugar in a bowl.

2. Attach a candy thermometer to the pot. In a heavy pot, sift together tapioca starch and 3/4 c sugar. Add cold water and vinegar. Whisk together and bring boil until the sugar dissolves. While whisking, add egg mixture in a slow stream. Cook over medium heat until the custard registers 175 degrees F on the cooking thermometer.

3. Remove from heat and pour into pie shell. Cover rim with a pie shield or aluminum foil. The hot pie plate was too much for me and I just let the crust get really dark without either method in play. Bake until the pie filling is set, 15-20 minutes.

4. Let cool completely on a rack. Dust evenly with ground cinnamon.

In this case, mine was still wobbly after cooling on a rack; so I let it chill in the refrigerator and then dusted it with ground cinnamon.

[Update: This one of the worst recipes I have ever made. It's too sweet. The filling is like a runny not-quite-soury meringue that sat out for too long on a hot day. This pie ranks up there with tuna casserole. Don't make it. Well, if you do, don't overbake the coconut crust because that thing gets rock hard!]

Coconut Flour Pie Crust

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature and makes it challenging to work with when a recipe calls for more than a tablespoon. I have 16 oz glass jars of organic coconut oil. I suppose that if I ever buy that humongous container from Costco, I would have to move it all into glass containers. I put the jar in a pot of water over medium heat. After a few minutes, enough of the coconut oil liquefied and to pour out what is needed instead of having to guesstimate the solid to liquid ratio. I have gotten many ideas about raw coconuts (like how to make coconut products from scratch with whole coconuts) from the Coconut Mamma blog. This recipe ratio is hers and I like its simplicity.

Unbaked Coconut Flour Pie Crust

Like an almond flour pie crust, this one is hard to gauge how thick it is when you pat it down into a 9" pie plate. Given how it bakes, this pastry is only good for the bottom of the pie.

Ingredients

1/2 c organic coconut oil, melted
2 eggs
1/4 tsp sea salt
3/4 c organic coconut flour
2 tbsp raw honey

Directions

In a large bowl (or food prep), beat together eggs, coconut oil, honey, and salt. Add coconut flour and stir until the dough holds together. Gather into a ball and pat into a 9" pie plate.

Prick the dough with a fork. (Sadly, this does not stop the pastry from rising from steam.)

Bake 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Let cool before using.

Faux "Cheddar" Cheese aka Coconut Cheese

One of the most dangerous things to have in the pantry is all the ingredients for an experiment. Cost-wise, it isn't any cheaper than buying a gallon of milk on sale; but it does make a lot more of that cheesy substance. The coagulation is achieved by using agar agar, a vegetarian gelatin derived from seaweed; and also tapioca starch, which helps with the thickening. Before I added turmeric powder as a colorant, it tasted a tad on the salty side and had the consistency of a molten cheese sauce.

Coconut Cheese Ingredients

Also, the agar agar that I bought from Fubonn came in a two-pack of moulded agar agar bars. I used one and ground it into flakes using a mini food prep.

Coconut cheese in a parchment lined loaf pan,
looks ominous...

Since coconut oil is a solid at room temperature, as the coconut cheese cools, it will firm up. If I stick it into the refrigerator overnight, I might just be able to slice or grate it like a normal block of cheese. 

Ingredients

2 cans (800ml) coconut cream (70% or more coconut milk)
3 tbsp agar flakes
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
4 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sea salt (more than this is too much)
1/4 c nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (optional, for color) doesn't help the taste

Directions

1. In a large pot, bring coconut milk to a boil. Add vinegar, agar flakes, and salt. Boil gently for 15 minutes until the agar dissolves completely.

2. Whisk in the remainder of the ingredients, one at a time, until everything is well combined. I put in the starch all at once and it clumped up immediately. Maybe next time I should just sprinkle and whisk it in. Cook for another 8-10 minutes.

3. Remove from heat and pour into either a greased glass bowl or a parchment paper-lined loaf pan.

4. Let cool for a few hours. It will set at room temperature. If you would like it to be firmer, for grating or slicing, put it into the fridge overnight.

Recipe ratio from All the Cooks.

[update] 2015-01-29: Well, 2 tsp of sea salt was too much. This batch made 1 lb 7 oz of faux cheese. It is so salty, I'm thinking of reheating it with some potatoes. Refrigeration did not help the consistency. It's like cutting through soft tofu. Definitely cannot "shred" it with a grater. Spreads easily.