VEGAN Nut-FREE Pastry Cream! | Interview and Cooking with Fran Costigan
1975 DELICIOUS DINNER RECIPES to support your weight loss:
https://www.chefaj.com/5-delicious-low-fat-dinner-recipes
Fran Costigan, chef, cookbook author and director of Vegan Baking and Pastry at Rouxbe cooking school, is internationally renowned as the authority on vegan desserts. Professionally trained, Fran was a chef in both traditional and vegan pastry kitchens before moving into teaching 25 years ago at the time she embraced the vegan lifestyle. Her unapologetically luscious confections lack nothing — except dairy, eggs, white sugar, and cholesterol. Fran’s vegan desserts are appropriate for everyone who loves dessert, whether or not dietary restrictions are an issue. The 90-day Essential Vegan Desserts Course that Fran developed and leads at Rouxbe, the world’s leading online cooking school, is based on her wildly popular Vegan Baking Boot Camp Intensive. She is thrilled to welcome students of all skill levels, beginners to professionals, from around the globe to this unique in the world course.
Fran’s cookbook, Vegan Chocolate Dessert: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts, is available in German, French and Italian editions, and follows the classic, More Great Good Dairy Free Desserts.
A native New Yorker, Fran moved recently to Philadelphia, and is enthusiastically trying the many veg-forward restaurants. You can find Fran sharing her passion across North America and Europe, at schools, conferences, festivals, and corporations such as Google, at resorts and on cruise ships too, and in 2020 2021, online.
A professional member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Les Dames d’ Escoffier, American Culinary Federation, Fran is a proud to be an advisory board member of the New York Coalition for Healthy School Foods, Vegan Trade Council and Main Street Vegan Academy. Fran wants everyone to know that she eats big plates of beans and greens and grains before she enjoys her daily small sweet treat!
For more information, visit www.francostigan.com.
Follow @GoodCakesFran on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
Fran Costigan Vegan Pastry Chef on Facebook.
VEGAN NUT-FREE PASTRY CREAM
Dessert Date, Hemp and Oat Cream
I created this nut free recipe for a WFPB Cream especially for Chef AJ’s followers, using dates, heart healthy hemp seed, and oats. Dollop a tablespoon or two over seasonal berries or a fruit salad and enjoy. It tastes good frozen too! Originally, I had revised the recipe for Vanilla Pastry Cream, which is found in my Vegan Chocolate cookbook, using dates to sweeten the cream, and it worked a charm. Many WFPB followers know one or more of the cashew-date creams, which are very good, but I wanted to create a cream without cashews. After a few tries, I got one I really like. I think you will too. I like it frozen!
Makes ½ cup, doubles easily
Tips:
Rinse the dates and pit them, making sure to look at the inside of each one. Very occasionally, a bad one shows up, with a black inside. Discard.
Soak the dates until they are very soft, in just enough water to cover, or to speed the process, start them on boiling water. Do not discard the soaking liquid. It is ‘gold’.
When the oats are added, allow them to soak in the cream for about 10 minutes before blending.A high speed blender is best. Always start the blender on low and then increase to high speed.
Variations:
For a thicker cream, add 1 ounce of soaked and drained cashews or 1/8 tsp guar gum.
Change up the spices, use finely minced lemon or orange zest, or add some 1/8 tsp almond extract.
Freeze the cream in a shallow dish for a granita-like treat.
Ingredients
5 pitted and soaked Medjool dates or similar
¼ cup hemp seeds
½ cup plant milk, soy, oat, almond
¼ tsp cinnamon powder, more to taste
¼ tsp ginger powder, more to taste
2 tbsp rolled oats
3 tbsp date soaking liquid, more as needed
¾ tsp pure vanilla extract
As needed: Date soaking liquid.
Blend the dates, hemp seeds, plant milk, and the cinnamon until creamy, starting on low and increasing the speed to high. Stop the blender a few times to clean the sides.
Add the oats. Wait 5 minutes for the oats to soften a bit and blend, starting on low and increasing the speed to high. Let the blender run until no traces of date, hemp or oats are visible. Add the vanilla and blend. Taste and add more cinnamon, and ginger if desired. Add more of the soaking liquid to adjust the consistency. The cream will thicken slightly when refrigerated.
Let’s build a fruit dessert together.
Seasonal fruit
Nuts, Seeds, Cacao Nibs, Cream
Enjoy