Easter Dessert & Lacto Intolerance

[NancyR]

My dilemma is what to serve for Easter dinner dessert when two guests are lactose intolerant and two are on low fat diets. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[Suzanne]

Sorbet! You can make a beautiful mold -- egg-shaped, lamb, whatever -- with different colors of fresh fruit- and herb-flavored sorbets, and garnish with fruit and more of the same herbs. No lactose, no fat. And you can always have whipped cream on the side for those who can.

And the best thing is that you can make it ahead of time, in fact you have to, so you won't be fussing, away from your guests. You can either make the sorbets yourself, or buy good ones. Either way, it will work.

[Breton Beats]

Merinques are any variation on that them. Or combine both suggesition and have a baked Alaska with sorbet. Also check some vegan restaurant (Millenium Restaurant) cookbooks for some good ideas.

Keep in mind that usually lactose intolorance (a lack of the amino acid needed to break down the sugars in dairy) is usually worse in low fat dairy products (because there is more water and lactose) and less in high fat products. Most don' have a problem with butter, or sourcream if it is cooked into something. (As cooking breaks down the sugars)

[greyeaglem]

This won't help with the low fat problem, but I make coconut cream pie using coconut milk in place of the milk or 1/2 and 1/2 the recipe calls for (in the same amount). This works very well and was much appreciated by my lactose intolerant customers who thougt they could never eat a cream pie again. Cooking times and everything else are the same using coconut milk.

[NancyR]

Thank you for the coconut cream pie idea. What would you use for the whipped cream? Does coconut milk whip? That got me thinking about Raising Pudding but with Coconut milk. What do you think of that?