Yes, my grocery bill is on the higher end for a single person, but personally I would rather spend money on food over stuff -- unless it's a new kitchen toy…mmm, Vitamix Blender, Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, dehydrator…oh wait, budget…new cookie scoops and large glass storage jars…maybe. Anyways, over this past week I have been experimenting with different kinds of milk alternatives in light of my dairy allergy returning. (Last time my sugar intolerance and dairy allergy did not overlap, so some aspects of it are of new territory.) Unfortunately I can't do almond milk due to my nut allergy coming back. Soy milk I won't use if I can help it. Hemp milk was good, but still really thin -- like rice milk, of which I have unaffectionally deemed as flavored water -- and not really a good match for me. Somewhere I read that silken tofu works as creamer so I was interested since I always drink my coffee with cream or milk. Do not try this! For one, the flavor of the coffee wasn't transformed into awesomeness and when I accidentally spilled it, little white curd things splattered all over the porch -- they reminded me of that puss when you have strep throat :-& . Nasty and so never doing that again -- and not just because it was soy. But then I found the chosen one!
Because I favored whole milk I needed something with a thicker texture and coconut milk was suggested. I used to be hesitant because I tried it by itself once several years ago and it was so disgusting. I could not bring myself to go beyond two small sips. It was that bad. Maybe it was that one kind, who knows, but I tried it straight this week and it's not bad. And for cooking, it has been awesome! My first test was with smoothies. All the other milk alternatives failed to give the right consistency. Just to give you a picture of the desired consistency, I used to use whole milk and yogurt and a banana as a base thickener and add the desired berries/fruit and supplements. I tried hemp milk and silken tofu, but it was too runny and the flavor was not right. Yet, when I used the coconut milk the texture was really thick and smooth. So now my base is unsweetened coconut milk and a banana (the banana helps make it thicker). The smoothie mixture that is my favorite so far is half mango (which may be acting as a thickener), half raspberries, one banana, about a tablespoon of chia seeds (to balance my blood sugar and for other health benefits), a splash of lemon juice, along with coconut milk filling up the space in the blender. (I never measure for smoothies, I just dump it all in.)
I continued on in my journey to make chocolate sauce (basically my version of Hershey syrup), which was: 2/3c unsweetened cocoa, 3/4c pure maple syrup, 3/4c whole milk. Whisk all ingredients together before heating up on stove. Place on high, bring to a full boil for one minute. Stir! Stir! Stir with a wooden spoon! You do not want burned chocolate pieces in your mix. When done, stir 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Pour immediately into storage bottle of choice (I always use glass because I do not trust any form of plastic with high heat). Let it cool completely before capping and refrigerating.
I did a straight exchange in the milk amount. The sauce worked great at first. The only difference was that it tasted more like dark chocolate due to the fact that coconut milk is not as sweet. I made chocolate coconut milk with it (you know, chocolate syrup and coconut milk mixed together) and even though it wasn't the same as traditional chocolate milk, it was good. The next evening I pulled it out of the fridge and turned the bottle upside down to find that the mixture had become super thick! I used one of my long, small spatulas to stir it up and realized it had the consistency of pudding. This was awesome because I've been trying to figure out a sugar free pudding for over a year and have not had a success. The answer, you guessed it, is in the coconut milk. On my next round with making chocolate sauce I am going to start by increasing the maple syrup to 1 cup and the coconut milk to 1 cup and see where that gets me.
Coconut milk also went well with the blueberry muffins I am currently obsessed with (recipe in Green Market Baking Book), so there you have it. Long live the coconuts! Thank you Lord for that creation!
Oh, and if anyone knows if a coconut creamer exists that does not contain added sugar and does not come in a can please let me know! I have yet to find such a creation.
