Comfort Food: Dairy Free Pumpkin Cupcakes

So it's officially fall, the weather is getting cooler, the leaves are changing, everything is "pumpkin spiced" {not complaining here} and I start to think COMFORT FOOD. Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, lasagna, pizza, cookies, cakes.... nom nom nom.

There's just one problem: how in the heck am I going to cook and bake all of my favorite cool-weather comfort foods without milk?! I guess there's only one way to soothe the pumpkin spiced monkey on my back. Bake it out. 

I left the grocery store with canned pumpkin in my cart and a twinkle in my eye. My quest: pumpkin cupcakes with "cream cheese" frosting. 

It took a little searching, but I was able to find an amazing pumpkin cupcake recipe by Ina Garten (love, love, love her) that was already dairy free (love her more), so I didn't worry too much about the actual "cupcake" part.  

INA GARTEN'S PUMPKIN CUPCAKES 

Makes 12

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeat
• 2 extra large eggs, at room temp
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree, not pie filling
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners

Into a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Divide the batter among the prepared tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.

The frosting was another story. You see, I've had an 8oz tub of vegetable based "cream cheese" in my fridge just waiting for a project, but I've been apprehensive. This would be just the time to break that sucker out. 

After tasting the "cream cheese" I realized my apprehension was valid. Disgusting. It was disgusting. I didn't even want to waste my powdered sugar trying to turn it into frosting. It was salty and the texture was like pureed cottage cheese. I'm not sure who these people were trying to fool, but anyone who's had real cream cheese is not falling for this mess. 

Down the garbage disposal it went. I kind of felt bad even sending it into our national water-ways but I wasn't brave enough to put it in my compost bin. 

Now what? Well, here's what I came up with: 

CINNAMON FROSTING

• 4 oz of shortening
• 4 oz of coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of powdered sugar 
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

Aw, so pretty, so pumpkiny, so "comfort foody" and they were DELICIOUS!! Mission accomplished! However, next time I'll certainly double the frosting recipe! 

Now here's where it gets silly; as I was Googling "dairy free" frosting recipes I discovered that most commercially produced frostings are dairy free. It just figures that I never considered the most obvious source. 

Peace,
-Laura 

Welcome Recovering Milk-aholics: Lemon Zucchini Loaf

Hi, I'm Laura and I'm a milk-aholic. No really, I honestly had some sort of "end of days" reaction to my doctor's advice to omit cow's milk from my diet permanently.

"No more milk" says my awesome doc, "Try it for a week, you'll feel so much better, I promise." Outwardly I proclaim, "Got it, no milk." Inwardly, I die a little inside.

But I LOVE milk! What am I going to do without milk?!!? I cook, I bake, I avidly entertain. I never show up ANYWHERE without a baked good.

I only cried for like a couple hours.

Wouldn't you know it though, my doc was right. I feel amazing.

I'm forever "experimenting" (Hubby prefers the term "messing with") recipes to suit my own tastes. So why not adapt them to be milk free and share the results? Hopefully I can learn from my "experiments" and so can you. 

Let's do this. 

Today I experimented with Lemon-Zucchini Loaf as discovered on Pinterest via "NancyCreative". Here's her original recipe. My adaptations are noted.  

LEMON-ZUCCHINI LOAF WITH LEMON GLAZE by NancyCreative

Makes one 9×5″ loaf

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup unbleached and 1 cup whole wheat)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canola oil (I used 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used 1/2 cup Silk Coconut Milk + 1 tbs vinegar)
• Juice of 1 lemon/or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 cup grated zucchini 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×5″ loaf pan; set aside.

In large bowl, blend flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In medium bowl, beat 2 eggs well, then add canola oil and sugar, and blend well. Then add the buttermilk, lemon juice, and lemon zest and blend everything well. Fold in zucchini and stir until evenly distributed in mixture.

Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the large bowl and blend everything together, but don’t overmix.

Pour batter into prepared 9×5″ loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (if your oven tends to run hot, check the loaf after 40 minutes; also, if you make this in an 8×4″ loaf pan, your baking time may be a little longer…about 5 to 10 minutes more). Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely. 

LEMON GLAZE

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon/or 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• (Also I added the zest, waste not, want not, right?)

Here are my results: Oh, and don't expect any step-by-step pics, I'm a loose cannon in the kitchen and adding cameras to the mix could be a hot mess. 

This bad-boy was a moist, dense, mildly flavored loaf.  The glaze was delicious, the rest... not so much.

With my substitutions of the flour and oil and the switch from buttermilk to my faux coconut milk "buttermilk" I really think it was the zucchini ratio that made this cake too moist. It's also possible that the buttermilk substitution didn't have the right chemical reaction to create enough lift and lighten up this bread. 

I'm still thankful that I didn't go for the oil and used the applesauce instead, I can't imagine this thing being more moist than it already was. 

All in all, not a terrible adaptation but I'm doubtful I'll be making this again. 

Peace,

-Laura