Gluten-free soy-free egg-free dairy-free chocolate tart

Ah, Christmas.

This was my first Christmas with food allergies, but I found it a lot less stressful than Thanksgiving. First, I had some experience in making a food-centric holiday work for me and my family, and second, the menu for Christmas is not as rigid as for Thanksgiving. I don't understand when people basically have Thanksgiving dinner again on Christmas day: you had turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie month ago, why do you want it again?

I had some mixed success with short ribs bourguinon. I think the short ribs I used were too fatty - there didn't seem to be much meat on a lot of them. The meal was a stupendous amount of work for an average result, leaving me exhausted and a little dissatisfied.

Dessert, however, included this intense chocolate tart. My stepdad always requests a chocolate pie for holidays, and my mum usually obliges with the Jello pudding + Keebler crust deal. I wanted to prove that I could remake this classic dessert with better ingredients that also just happen to be safe for me to consume. The great thing about remaking this tart egg and dairy-free is that the chocolate provides a lot of the structure, so you don't have to worry so much about what you lose when you swap out ingredients.

It's just a big pile of chocolate. Its hard to mess up.

Gluten-free soy-free egg-free dairy-free Chocolate Tart (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

This recipe will make enough for a 9-inch tart pan

Sweet tart dough (Pate Sucree):

3 tablespoons unsalted margarine or butter, softened but not melted

3 tablespoons trans-fat free vegetable shortening such as Spectrum Organic, at room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar), sifted

3 tablespoons almond meal or ground blanched almonds

Pinch of salt (omit if your margarine/butter is salted)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs or equivalent amount of egg replacer

1/3 cup + 3 tablespoons sorghum flour

1/3 cup tapioca starch

1/3 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

You can use either a stand mixer or a food processor to make this dough, and I'm sure you can do it by hand as well. I used the stand mixer, so here are the directions for that method:

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the sorghum flour, tapioca and potato starches, and xanthan gum. Set aside.

Using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until well combined, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the almond meal, the salt (if using), and the vanilla one at a time, combining each ingredient into the dough before adding the next one. Add in the flour mixture, stirring only just until combined. Do not over mix!

With clean hands, gather the dough into a ball and press into a rough disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least four hours or up to two days.

When you are ready to use the dough, grease a 9-inch tart pan with butter or neutral oil.

Take the dough out of the fridge, unwrap it, and sandwich the disk between two large pieces of plastic wrap. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin on the counter or on a large cutting board. You will need to lift up the sheets of plastic periodically so that they don't get rolled into crevices in the dough. Also, you will need to flip the dough over periodically so you can roll out the other side. If the dough gets too soft and sticky, pop it back in the fridge on top of the cutting board or a baking sheet.

When the dough has been rolled out large enough to cover the bottom and sides of your tart pan, peel off the top layer of plastic and carefully flip the dough over and lay the exposed side down in the tart pan, centering it. Peel off the other sheet of plastic, which should now be on top, and press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan. It will probably crack and break, but you can repair by patching up the cracks with excess dough, moistened with water.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 and line the unbaked tart shell with parchment paper, then weigh down with dry rice or beans or pie weights. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil to prevent burning, and bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Remove the parchment paper, weights, and foil, and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Chocolate Filling:

12 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup unsweetened MimicCream or heavy cream

1 packet (2 1/2 teaspoons) gelatin or agar-agar (to make this vegan)

1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer

3 tbsp cold water

1 tbsp boiling water

(if you can eat eggs, use 3 egg yolks instead of the gelatin, Ener-G and waters)

3 tablespoons margarine or butter, softened but not melted

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1 baked 9-inch tart shell (see above)

Put the finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside.

Put 2 tablespoons of cold water in a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, and sprinkle the gelatin or agar agar over it. Let soften for 2 minutes. In the meantime, mix the Ener-G egg replacer and the remaining 1 tablespoon of cold water in a separate small bowl. Add the 1 tablespoon boiling water to the gelatin mixture, stir to combine, then add the Ener-G mixture. Beat with a stand mixer, handheld mixer, or whisk until frothy. Add 1 tablespoon of the MimicCream and briefly beat.

Put the rest of the MimicCream in a saucepan with the vanilla bean. Bring to a full boil, then turn off the heat. Pull out the vanilla bean (not with your fingers!) and pour the cream over the chocolate in the bowl. Give the hot cream about 30 seconds to melt the chocolate, then whisk gently, combining the cream and chocolate. Add in the gelatin-egg replacer mix (or yolks), still whisking gently, then add the butter. Now you will have a beautiful, dark, shiny ganache.

Gently pour the ganache into the tart crust, making sure the surface is smooth. Leave the tart out on the counter and keep an eye on it to see if it sets. Depending on the various egg, cream, etc substitutes you used, and the temperature of your kitchen, the ganache may or may not set at room temperature. If it will not set, pop it (covered) in the fridge for an hour.

This tart is best served at room temperature, so if you refrigerate it, remove and let sit at room temperature at least half an hour before eating.

How to Make Dinner

Come home from class at 5:30 on a dark October evening. Lock up your bike and climb the stairs to your third-floor apartment. Change into sweatpants because your jeans are soaked from from the heavy drizzle. Make a cup of tea.

Cut two strips of bacon into lardons, and cook in the bottom of a medium-size saucepan until you have a nice slick of fat in the pan and the bacon has started to brown. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon.



Cut up half of a yellow onion and a clove of garlic. Saute in the bacon grease until soft and starting to brown.



Deglaze the pan with about 1/3 cup of red wine. Deglaze yourself with a nice big sip. The wine and onions and bacon fat are sputtering together. Stir briskly to combine, making sure you don't let anything burn. Add about 1.5 cups of beef stock and stir together. Add a bay leaf or two. Add the bacon lardons back in. Turn down the heat to a gentle simmer, put the ill-fitting lid on the pot, and go sort laundry for about 20 minutes.

Come back to the kitchen. Taste the broth. Is it pleasing to you? Add salt, pepper, more red wine, whatever, as you see fit. Add two big handfuls of egg-noodle-like quinoa-corn pasta. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the noddles. Add some more beef broth if you need to. Turn up the heat to a low boil, cover the pot, and cook until the noddles are at your preferred consistency. Turn off the heat. Wash a bowl. Feel warm for the first time all day.

In search of pumpkin pie

This will be my first Thanksgiving with food allergies. I'm sure that those of you who have been through this already remember the uncertainty. The funny thing is, I don't feel very worried about dinner this year, myself. I've been cooking gluten-free ever since I've been back from study abroad, and for the last 2 months I've been skipping the eggs, soy, and dairy as well. And I know that I can make tasty food - cookies and pies that non-allergic people swoon over. It's my family thats having a little trouble.

My brother, who is a freshman at the same college I attend, went home a few weekends ago. My mum was talking to him about the upcoming holiday and the accommodations that may be necessary for my allergies, and apparently by the end of the discussion, both my brother and step-dad were staring her with their noses wrinkled, asking "But how is it going to taste?" Apparently alternatives grains and soy-free margarine just don't get their juices flowing. My mum is a lot less picky and a lot more open-minded, but I can tell she's a little intimidated by the seeming enormity of the task.

I ended up sending a long email to my mum, step-dad, and dad (who will be joining us for dinner, with his mom. Yes, I have an unusual divorced family) explaining some options for producing the familiar dishes of Thanksgiving in a form that won't make me sick for three days. And I added a little plaintiveness, meekly saying that I like food and I like sharing food with people I love, and I hope it isn't too much trouble to make things safe for me, and I firmly believe that everything will be just as delicious as what they're used to.

But now I have to prove it. Pretty words will only go so far if the pie ain't good. And so, the 2009 Pumpkin Pie Project. I looked at this recipe and several that I found in a Google search for "vegan pumpkin pie." I ended up combining some elements of all. I made a crust out of almond meal, sugar, and butter. I used egg replacer and rice milk. I used two small fresh pumpkins.. I roasted...


...blended...


...and strained...


... all through the night. The result wasn't quite what I was looking for, but hopefully, by the time big Turkey Day rolls around, it will be.

And you know what? It really wasn't half bad.

Welcome

I am a 21-year-old college senior living in Pittsburgh, PA.

I started this blog because I wanted to share my cooking with others. That is, people other than my boyfriend. I wanted to share the process, the ideas, the problem-solving. The tension of a skillet of olive oil just before the smoke point. The triumph of sliding a full pan into the preheated oven. The hesitation of my fingers above jars of spices and bags of flour. And the sweet catharsis of a mouthful of perfection. Or, more often in my case, the lessons learned from my missteps.

In January 2009, I was diagnosed with a gluten allergy; this was supposed to fix the horrible stomach pain I had been experiencing for months. In August, it was back to the doctor, and I came away with more diagnosed allergies: soy and sesame. Recently, I have been tentatively diagnosed with allergies to milk and eggs, and I will be trying to eliminate these from my diet in the coming months. I will be posting recipes that are gluten, soy, egg, sesame, and cows milk free, though I will occasionally use goat/sheepsmilk products.

I have always enjoyed cooking, but as my allergies removed, one by one, the foods I could safely enjoy outside of the home, it has become somewhat of an obsession. I am guided by the conviction that people with food allergies should be able to eat delicious, satisfying food. I strive to make my allergy-friendly meals truly outstanding. My travel (and my list of future travel locations) has influenced my cooking extensively, and I love to combine different “ethnic” flavors in unexpected ways. You will see many recipes that borrow elements of authentic international cuisines, my favorite regions to pilfer being India, Mexico, and Southeast Asia.

I am a college student, with limited kitchen space, cooking implements, money, and time. As such, I will try to post recipes that are easy and require few specialty ingredients or equipment. If procedures can be made simpler, they will be. This is the origin of the title of this blog. I really do have only two saucepans.