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Emily Stokes
I'm a lady who loves cheese, sour cream, & ice cream, but I recently became lactose intolerant. My key focus in recreating dairy recipes is taste, but I try to be as health conscious as possible. Some of my recipes are low lactose rather than dairy free. I'm also a writer, teacher, nanny, dog mom, housewife, native Yinzer, current Californian, and social organizer extraordinaire.

Chocolate

Nutella Brownies

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I first saw the idea for Nutella brownies on Pinterest, although, when I went to click on the link to the post it was marked as spam. I looked up another recipe for proper cooking time. It was a bit more complicated, so, filtering out the extras, I was able to decipher the very simple way of baking Nutella brownies.

I made these for my best friend Alicia for her bridal shower, since one of her favorite foods is Nutella! She spent some time in Italy studying abroad and she would bring Nutella to our dormitory, where we would eat it out of the jar with pretzels and spread it on croissants.I wrapped the brownies in blue wrappers to match her wedding colors. They were a big hit: chewy, soft, melt in your mouth chocolately hazelnut goodness.

The brownies will look too soft and not quite done–don’t panic! This is how they are supposed to be. Don’t cook them too long!

P.S. These are not dairy free. Nutella is made with skim milk. However, I ate one at a time with no lactose intolerance problems. These are extremely rich, so I recommend eating one at a time anyway! My ultimate goal is to create dairy free chocolate hazelnut brownies. Will start working on that asap.

Ingredients:
1 cup Nutella
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs

Directions:
Using a rubber spatula, mix 1/2 cup + 2 level tablespoons of flour with 2 eggs and 1 cup of Nutella until just combined. Divide batter equally into a 12 cup muffin pan. Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 12 minutes. Centers will be soft. Allow to cool before eating and store in refrigerator.

    

Easy Dairy Free Hot Chocolate

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Hot chocolate

I can’t think of anything much better than hot chocolate on a cold winter day, especially a snow day! We were recently in Pittsburgh, PA visiting our family, and while we there a ton of snow came down. There’s even more there now! I don’t willingly go out in the snow, but when I was little there wasn’t a better treat than going sled riding or making a snowman with my brothers and coming back inside to my mom’s stovetop hot chocolate. I skipped the stove and just used the microwave here, but if you have a whole family of soy milk drinkers, the stovetop method is for you.

The trick to imitating the best dairy based hot chocolate is using the right milk. Silk’s Very Vanilla Soymilk is the perfect alternative. It makes a thick and creamy hot chocolate that tastes just as good, if not better, than the real thing. If you try to make this recipe with regular soy milk, you won’t get a great result unless you add thickeners, sweeteners, and flavors. So just buy the Silk Very Vanilla if you can drink it. Everything is already added to make it thick and delicious. I know some people don’t like Silk Soymilk because it contains carrageenan. If this is you feel free to use your favorite non dairy milk. I bet this would taste great with coconut milk or vanilla almond milk as well.

An amazing thing about cocoa powder is that it’s natural, pure, soft as a whisper ground cocoa. No dairy, sugar, or anything added. It’s completely vegan. The only difference between hot cocoa mix and cocoa powder is the milk powder and sugar. Add sweetener to the cocoa powder and you have an instant dairy free hot cocoa mix.

Ingredients:

1 cup Silk Very Vanilla Soymilk
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of Truvia (two packets), or your preferred sweetener to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the soy milk in the microwave for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Stir in cocoa powder immediately after heating. If you’d like it hotter, microwave in 15 second intervals until desired temperature.

Very Vanilla Soy Milk

2. Stir in vanilla and your choice of sweetener to taste. Add mini marshmallows to the top. Marshmallows are dairy free!

Triple Chocolate Dairy Free "Cheese"cake

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Since it’s not cheese, it’s more like chocolate pie, but the texture is like cheesecake and it’s delicious! Who cares if it’s not the real thing? All I can think of while eating this is: mmmm chocolatey goodness!

This recipe uses the brand Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese and Toffuti Better Than Sour Cream. It’s name is up to its product that’s for sure. It has no cholesterol and no lactose, so it’s better for you, and it tastes great, too. I used full fat coconut milk for the chocolate topping–this is not a low fat dessert!

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 package Annie’s Chocolate Graham Bunnies, crushed to crumbs
1/4 cup Smart Balance Light Buttery Spread, softened

Filling:1/4 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup full fat coconut milk
2 tubs Toffuti Better Than Cream Cheese
1 tub Toffuti Better Than Sour Cream
3/4 cup white sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup full fat coconut milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium bowl, mix crushed cookies and butter alternative together until well combined. Press firmly into a nonstick, greased pie dish or springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes then allow to cool while reducing oven temperature to 325.

2. For filling, warm coconut milk in the microwave. Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips and stir until melted. Reheat in 10 second increments to fully melt if needed.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sour cream, and sugar in a large bowl until blended. Add cocoa powder and mix.

4. Mix in the eggs until just blended, do not overbeat. Then with a spoon or spatula stir in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla. Pour mixture into the baked cookie crust and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until center has set and cheesecake is level.

                         

                         

5. Remove cheesecake from oven and allow it to cool. Meanwhile, prepare your chocolate topping. Melt the rest of the chocolate chips in the coconut milk as directed in step two. Pour the chocolate mixture overtop of the cheesecake, covering evenly. Put in the refrigerator to set and cool. Once the chocolate topping is hardened, it is ready to serve! It will melt in your mouth!