Okay, so Thanksgiving is coming up, and you know what that means? Dessert time! But this year, I decided to go dairy-free. I’ve been trying to cut back on dairy, and I thought, why not give it a shot for the biggest food holiday of the year? Let me tell you, it was a bit of an adventure.
The First Step: Finding Recipes
First things first, I needed recipes. I scoured the internet, looking for anything that sounded good and didn’t have any milk, butter, or cream. I found a few promising ones – a pumpkin pie with a coconut milk base, some apple crisp with an almond flour topping, and even a chocolate avocado mousse (sounds weird, I know, but stick with me!).
The Shopping Spree
Next up, the grocery store. This was a whole new world. I spent ages reading labels, making sure everything was truly dairy-free. Coconut milk, almond milk, dairy-free chocolate chips… my cart was overflowing with substitutes. I even found some vegan butter that I was curious to try.
The Baking Begins!
The real fun started when I got home. I started with the pumpkin pie. Mixing the coconut milk with the pumpkin puree and spices was easy enough. I used the store-bought crust. I cheated a bit, and pour into crust-already made. It baked up nicely, though the texture was a little different than I was used to.
Next, the apple crisp. I chopped up a mountain of apples, tossed them with cinnamon and sugar, and then made the topping. I don’t know how to make topping. I mixed the almond flour, oats, and that vegan butter, and it actually came together pretty well! I sprinkled it over the apples and popped it in the oven.
Finally, the chocolate avocado mousse. This one I was nervous about. I blended up the avocado with cocoa powder, maple syrup, and a bit of almond milk. It looked… interesting. Very thick and green-ish at first. I kept blending, adding a bit more cocoa and sweetener until the color and taste were right.
The Taste Test
- Pumpkin Pie: Not bad! The coconut flavor was definitely there, but it worked with the pumpkin. The texture was a bit softer than a traditional pie, but overall, a success.
- Apple Crisp: Delicious! The topping was nice and crispy, and the apples were perfectly cooked. This one was a real winner.
- Chocolate Avocado Mousse: Surprisingly good! You couldn’t really taste the avocado, it just gave the mousse a really creamy texture. It was rich and chocolatey, and definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.
So, there you have it. My dairy-free Thanksgiving dessert experiment. It was a bit of work, but totally worth it. I proved to myself that you can still enjoy delicious treats without any dairy. And who knows, maybe this will become a new tradition!
