Vegan Fruit Crumble - Nut Free!

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

This weekend I am hosting a dinner party. Three of the attendees are vegetarian (possibly with various degrees of vegan/trying-to-be-vegan in there--I'm not 100% certain). A fourth is allergic to just about every vegan source of protein you can imagine.

I will be making multiple different things for the party. Which is perfectly fine. (There will only be six of us in total. Multiple dishes for only 6 people = lots of leftovers for me. Which to me is a good thing!)

The challenge is that my favourite vegan desserts are highly toxic to my friend with the allergies. Toxic in a do not breathe on him if you have recently consumed these items kind of way. (Chickpea banana blondies, for example. These delicious treats contain 3 ingredients, two of which could send my friend into anaphylactic shock. The third ingredient he is allergic to as well.)

I want to try the Stollen Bites. Which might be possible. (My friend is actually not allergic to almonds. But he is highly allergic to other tree nuts and also extremely allergic to all legumes. So whether or not he can eat these will be dependent upon whether or not I can find almond flour, almond butter, and almond milk that are all uncontaminated with soy, other tree nuts, peanuts, or pea protein. It's a big if.)

I am thinking I could make an apple crumble. But what to substitute for the butter? (My normal recipe is equal parts whole wheat flour, oat flakes, and unsalted butter.) The recipes I have found online either use vegan butter (I don't know if this is safe for my friend--I suspect it isn't.) or include nut products (which, again, is only an option if I can guarantee the only nut is almonds). I am wondering if straight up substituting coconut oil for the butter would work. Do any of you lovely Bees have experience making a crumble topping this way?

@neilarey ? I know you like to bake!

 

[neilarey]

I need to think about this I'll get back to you

 

[FlowersandPetals]

Man I could relate to your friend! I don’t have all of the same food issues, but I know how hard it is! Big thumbs up to you for being such a great friend!
I have a recipe, but I’ve never tried it.

Plant based Butter- taken from a website called The Loopy Whisk

1 Cup melted refined coconut oil
1/2 Cup neutral vegetable oil (like sunflower or olive oil- ask your friend what he can handle)
1/4 Cup nondairy milk
Pinch of salt
Pinch of turmeric (optional, for color)

In a bowl, whisk all the ingredients until you get a homogeneous pale mixture.

Refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes until firmer. Then, using a hand mixer with whisk or double beater attachment, whip the slightly firmed up vegan butter for about 2 minutes. It will be pale and fluffy.

Transfer to a fridge safe container of choice; smooth out the top and refrigerate for about 8 hours, or overnight.

Once set, use as regular butter. Keeps up to 2 weeks in fridge, 3 months in the freezer.

I hope you find what you need for your friend.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @FlowersandPetals . That recipe unfortunately has the same issue as the stollen recipe re: can I trust the non-dairy milk?
I did find some almond milk today that claims to be soy free. So that is a start. I know the same company also makes a product with added pea protein though (which is what I usually use when cooking for just myself). So I'm hoping their non-protein-enriched milks aren't contaminated with any of that product.

I may just make the stollen and make a crumble with regular butter. That way there will definitely be one dessert each person can eat. (If the stollen is contaminated with allergens, it won't be so bad that my friend won't be able to handle people eating it at the table with him.)

 

[neilarey]

@Laura Rainbow Dragon what about making your own almond milk? It's super easy, there are lots of tutorials online. You can make your own almond butter, too. You literally just grind the nuts until they turn into paste. That way you will be 100% sure there won't be anything else in there but nuts.

...Coconut oil is not a good substitute for butter, unfortunately, it tends to make everything really runny during baking. It's great if you are making something raw / no-bake like these cupcakes, though. Everyone who ever tried them, loved them! You need to test them in advance, though, just to make sure they turn out well and hold the shape.

I am on the go all day today but I'll keep thinking about this when is your dinner party?

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

@Laura Rainbow Dragon what about making your own almond milk? It's super easy, there are lots of tutorials online. You can make your own almond butter, too. You literally just grind the nuts until they turn into paste. That way you will be 100% sure there won't be anything else in there but nuts.

Ha! I have a masticating juicer that will make nut butters! (One of the things that got hidden away in a top shelf I need my step-ladder to retrieve, because I don't use it all that often. But then: out of sight, out of mind. I have so much kitchen stuff that now must be hidden away in strange places--who could keep track of it all!) I also have a hand blender and a food processor. But I don't know if I could get a nut milk bag in time for this weekend. And I haven't seen any "Christmas nuts" in either of the grocery stores I can get to easily. (Here one generally only sees nuts in the shell at Christmas time. But even then they're a specialty item.) Raw, shelled almonds I can buy. But they come with a "May contain peanuts and other tree nuts" warning. Same deal with the commercially prepared almond butter: it has a big "100% Pure!" bullet on the front of the label, but the "may contain" warning in fine print on the back. The commercial almond milk does not contain the warning. So they must be confident they don't have unintentional production line contamination.

LOL: I just checked my pantry and found I have a bag of almonds in the shell I bought online. And even it has the "may contain" warning--in this case warning of peanuts, other tree nuts, and even soy! Companies on this continent are so afraid of being sued, that warning goes on pretty much anything produced by a company that also produces products with the listed allergens. I'm surprised the almond milk doesn't contain it, given that its manufacturer also produces cashew milk and soy milk.

when is your dinner party?

It's this Saturday (December 7).

I think I will just go with the one dessert I know is safe and one I know is vegan option. If my friend with the allergies wants to try the stollen bites, he can. (He does have an epi pen.) And I'm happy to eat the leftovers of both!

I love the Banana Bread recipe on DAREBEETS which uses only coconut oil for its fat. Often I make this with a coconut oil that is liquid at room temperature. (I assume it's fractioned.) Works great! (I'd make this for this weekend--sans the walnuts, of course--but my friend with the allergies cannot eat bananas either!)

Thank you for the help! I am so looking forward to trying those stollen bites!

 

[Saffity]

Laura are you still in Canada? If you have a Healthy Planet (Ontario only) near you they have at least two brands of Almonds with no peanut/soy warning on them. I go there for my gluten free stuff. A similar health food store might be a good place to check.

They may also have nut milk bags, but if not, I've been able to get decent milk with cheesecloth and a fine sieve.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @Saffity !

I am in London (in Wortley Village). The closest Healthy Planet is almost 7km from me. Totally doable in the spring once I have my bicycle back on the road. Probably not a place I'll have time to hike to in the next two days though, given the weather and how much food prep I need to do for the party. I will make a note to check it out in the spring though, see what they have. (I've never been to a Healthy Planet before. I lived out in Chatham-Kent for the past 15 years. Not a lot of interesting food options out that way.) So thank you for the tip!

I'm actually not so worried about the nut milk. The manufacturer is clearly conscientious about food allergies, and does have allergen warnings on their products. But on the almond milk, the allergen warning says, "Contains almonds." So I suspect it is fine. Also, I really like the ingredients list: no added sweeteners, and lots of vitamins and minerals that are good for me to take since I don't (typically) drink cow's milk.

The almond butter I bought yesterday is probably fine. (It will be up to my friend if he wants to risk it or not.) With nut products though, I need to worry about contamination with other tree nuts as well, not just soy and peanuts. My friend is allergic to most tree nuts. Walnuts, in particular, are pretty much as bad as legumes for him.

 

[Saffity]

Oh hey you're just down the 401 by a couple of hours, I'm in Cambridge. Yeah I get the difficulty of not having transport, I used to be a bus girl and had to do 2 hours each way to Waterloo for work. I wish you luck with your dinner and hope it goes smashingly! I totally understand the allergy issue though, when my family gets together it's: 2 vegan/vegetarians, me with gluten and grapes, hubby with mustard, and a nut allergy, so fun fun!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Oh hey you're just down the 401 by a couple of hours, I'm in Cambridge.

We were almost neighbours! My friend whose sofa Shelby and I almost ended up living on is in Cambridge (in Preston).

Yeah I get the difficulty of not having transport, I used to be a bus girl and had to do 2 hours each way to Waterloo for work. I wish you luck with your dinner and hope it goes smashingly! I totally understand the allergy issue though, when my family gets together it's: 2 vegan/vegetarians, me with gluten and grapes, hubby with mustard, and a nut allergy, so fun fun!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

My friend with the allergies writes:

All those "may contain" warnings just mean "don't sue us, please". I always ignore them.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Well, I ended up not even making the crumble. Because there was too much other food! I ended up making chocolate orange cranberry scones, stollen bites, and banana muffins. Then my one friend (the one with the allergies) brought a Christmas pudding, which was made by a work friend of his. (I think they were supposed to take it to a work function yesterday that got cancelled due to the weather. Anyhow... my friend somehow ended up the owner of the pudding, so he cooked it and brought it to my party.) Everyone loved everything. (Except for my friend with the allergies who couldn't love the banana muffins because he couldn't try them.)

I made the stollen bites (and everything else too) with whole wheat flour instead of AP. I skipped the sugar dusting, but added fresh orange zest to the batter. So yummy! (I will update the DAREBEETS Adventures thread with a proper report soon.)

For savoury food we had roasted parsnip soup, whole wheat baguette with pesto, eggplant tomato pasta, and kale pasta casserole. (Also one day, hopefully soon, I will update my Rainbow's Recipes thread and add the recipe for this, so I don't need to keep searching back an old Discord archive for my notes every time I want to make it again.)