Dairy-Free whipped topping often includes other common allergens!
Not this one! That’s right we are making a whipped topping without dairy, egg, soy, corn, or nuts! We won’t be using special equipment, or skilled techniques. If you can use a whisk, bring water to a boil, and use an electric mixer, you can make this recipe!!
We are going to whip up some coconut milk–a softer lighter version of whipped coconut cream. If you are watching your fat intake, this recipe is lower in fat, and higher in protein than the standard whipped coconut cream. Our Dairy-Free Whipped Coconut Milk without any of the top allergens will turn our fresh berries into a beautiful parfait!
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When I search for low sugar recipes, it’s “dairy here, dairy there, dairy, dairy everywhere!”
Why is it every low sugar dessert uses dairy? Those of us with dairy allergies are done missing out! That means we’re going to get creative as we seek safe alternatives!
I don’t know about you, but I am done watching other people eat!
These berry parfaits are dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free, soy-free, sesame-free, and nut-free! They are Vegan and delicious! Can you believe they are dairy-free?
Welcome to Break A Recipe! If this is your first time visiting, thank you so much for stopping by to check out these magnificent Berry Parfaits. My name is Nina, I cook and bake without grains, dairy, eggs, corn, soy, and most nuts. It’s an absolute delight to share these recipes with others who can enjoy them. Because everyone deserves to eat delicious food safely!
Welcome to Break A Recipe
My name is Nina, I’m a food nerd who cooks and bakes without gluten, grain, dairy, egg, soy, corn, almond, cashew, or sesame.
If you are a returning reader, newsletter subscriber, or recipe tester, thank you for your support. Your feedback on blog posts and recipes keeps me on my toes, and helps me level up my cooking skills. I’m such a food nerd, I’m glad to have you as my foodie friends.
So let’s talk recipe! Fresh berries are a treat, they’re also loaded with sugar. Adding cream to a recipe high in sugar not only balances the flavor of the berries with the depth and richness of the cream, it adds protein and healthy fat to the recipe. Both protein and fat take longer to digest than sugar. So in terms of taste, adding cream to a recipe provides richness and makes it more nutritious, and it’s healthier for our bodies.
Well, that’s great for the dairy lovers! What about us? Those of us who can’t have dairy often find the dairy free whipped toppings don’t measure up in terms of taste, nutrition, or health. So what can we do?
We Can Break The Recipe For A Dairy-Free Whip That Won’t Wilt!
What do I mean when I say Break The Recipe? I mean we can use non-traditional allergen friendly ingredients to create a delicious whipped coconut milk for our Berry Parfaits!
I mentioned that cream includes fat and protein to balance the flavors and sugar in the berries. Unfortunately coconut milk does not have a lot of protein—but we can add it! A little protein powder and we’ll fix that right up!
I like to use single ingredient protein powder when I cook. It’s important to me I know everything that goes into my food. When I don’t, I often end up getting exposed to an allergen. I’m going to use sunflower protein in this recipe. If you have another protein powder that you enjoy, feel free to use it as long as it is safe for you. As when substituting an ingredient, it will cause variation in the results.
The Berry parfaits we are making today use berries, coconut milk, sunflower protein, sugar —which can be omitted or substituted- and xanthan gum.
That’s it!
I mentioned that I Break Recipes
Sometimes to get the food you want, you have to break all the rules you’ve ever been taught in the kitchen. Let me explain. Every recipe I’ve ever found for whipping cream or topping says to keep the ingredients cold. Since that didn’t work an only led to mushy coconut cream at best, I tried boiling the ingredients! Let me say it again, to make this whipped coconut milk, we are boiling the ingredients.
They’re loaded with sunflower seed protein so they are excellent for breakfast or a wonderful dessert!
Why would we boil the ingredients? We want to emulsify the ingredients to replicate the structure of cream. Once we do this our whipped coconut milk will look and act almost exactly like whipped cream!
Okay, I skipped a few steps, but that’s what recipes are for.
- Heat and emulsify ingredients.
- Chill ingredients.
- Whip and fluff.
- Pipe whip into clear glass containers, layer with berries.
That’s really all there is to it!
Don’t worry, I’ll do my usual food nerd thing and walk you through it step by step. But if you can use a whisk, boil ingredients,
Are you ready to Break a Recipe? Let’s Go Shopping!
If you’re looking for equipment or ingredients, here’s what I use in my kitchen.
Ingredients
- Sunflower Protein
- Coconut Milk
- Vanilla Flavoring
- Xanthan Gum
- White Sugar (cane sugar or beet sugar )
- Fresh Berries–I got mine from a kind neighbor. Pretty soon my raspberries will begin their second crop and I’ll be using those.
Equipment
- Medium Sauce Pan
- Stand Mixer / hand mizer
- whisk
- Dry Measuring Cups
- Adjustable Measuring Spoons
- Small mixing bowl
- Decorating Tool/ Decorating Bag
- 8 Small glass bowls for serving parfaits
These ingredients and equipment are what I use in my own kitchen. As an amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase anything through an affiliate link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping to “keep the lights on,” here at Break A Recipe.
Enough With the Words, Let’s Break A Recipe!
Berry Parfaits with Whipped Coconut Milk
Equipment
- 1 Sauce Pan
- 1 Stand Mixer / hand mizer
- 1 whisk
- 1 Dry Measuring Cups
- 1 Adjustable Measuring Spoon
- 1 Small mixing bowl
- 1 Decorating Tool/ Decorating Bag
- 8 small glass bowls for serving parfaits
Ingredients
- 2 13.5 oz cans Coconut Milk (Full Fat)
- ½ Cup Sunflower Protein Powder
- ½ Cup white sugar (I use beet sugar) May be omitted
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Flavoring
- ¼ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 2 Cups Fresh Berries
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, heat coconut milk. Add sugar and whisk until dissolved.
- When sugar is dissolved, whisk in sunflower protein. Sprinkle Xanthan gum over top of liquid. Whisk in xanthan gum and bring to a boil, whisking as it comes to a boil.
- Boil liquid until it reaches a rolling boil –a boil which does not stop even when stirred. Boil at a rolling boil for one minute.
- Remove from heat, and whisk in vanilla.
- Transfer hot liquid to a small mixing bowl. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Milk will set up and become stiff but will not separate!
- Remove cold stiff mixture from fridge. With an electric mixer, whip coconut milk on low speed first, then on medium until fluffy (2-3 minutes)
- Spoon whipped coconut milk into decorating tool. Pipe just enough to cover the bottom of each small bowl. (I like to pipe in a clockwise motion using the medium star tip.)
- Cover first layer of whipped coconut milk with berries (approximately 1 ½ Tablespoons).
- Pipe a second layer of whipped coconut milk on top of first layer of berries. Cover whipped coconut milk with berries (approximately 2 Tablespoons).
- Pipe final layer of whipped coconut milk on top of berries. Decorate parfait with remiaining berries
- Serve immediately or refrigerate until served.
Notes
Let’s Break The Recipe!
It Really Is That Easy!
Maybe you’ve tried making dairy-free whipped cream and like I did, you found as soon as it’s whipped it melts…yeah…I know that story. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried that whipped coconut cream recipe only to have it melt faster than my iced cream…or never whip in the first place!
I promise you this one is different! We are bonding the protein, fat, and milk using the xanthan gum. How is that possible? Have you ever made a roux or a béchamel sauce for mac’n cheese? We are using the same process create a thick coconut milk that will whip and maintain its structure once it’s cooled.
How can you be certain we will get these results?
Have you ever seen a whipped coconut milk or whipped coconut cream recipe use protein powder? Have you have seen a recipe for whipped coconut milk or cream include boiling the ingredients in the instruction? Exactly! We are going to get different results because we are doing things differently. We are Breaking the Recipe!
Let’s Take A Closer Look At Our Ingredients…
Sunflower Protein-
You can also make this recipe with chickpea protein. But whichever you choose the protein makes the magic! By adding protein and binding it to the coconut milk, we replicate the structure of dairy milk. This makes the whipping possible!
Coconut Milk–
Full fat coconut milk is similar to whole milk. It often separates at room temperature and always separates when refrigerated. We are going to emulsify the coconut milk and stop it from separating using xanthan gum. The xanthan gum will also bond the protein powder to the mixture and stop it from dropping to the bottom of the bowl when refrigerated. (Kitchen chemistry at it’s finest!)
White sugar-While you can omit this ingredient, using it will give you optimum results. When sugar and water are brought to a rolling boil, they create a syrup. This syrup will help with the structure of our whipped coconut milk. You can use beet sugar or cane sugar here. Beet sugar is less inflammatory than cane sugar and is a good option for those who are pursing a low inflammatory diet.
Xanthan Gum–
One of my favorite ingredients that makes my grain-free dairy-free life delicious! Xanthan gum takes the place of gluten in baking, it emulsifies my creamy salad dressings, and in this recipe it stops the coconut milk from separating when chilled! Without the xanthan gum, the coconut milk will separate, and we’ll be left with a bowl of sadness.
Many people ask about the ingredients used in producing xanthan gum. It is often made from corn, soy, dairy, or wheat. That won’t work when we have food allergies. Thanankfully, Authentic Foods makes a Xanthan Gum that does not use corn, soy, dairy, or wheat. They actually use cabbage! So if you are worried about that, Authentic Foods Xanthan Gum is free of those ingredients. It’s my preferred xanthan gum for that reason. It’s also the closest we’re going to get to cooking with Unicorn Farts (Did you really think I could go a whole blog post without mentioning them?)
Vanilla Flavoring–
If you enjoy the flavor of coconut, you can consider omitting this ingredient. For me, I like the feeling of normal. Vanilla flavoring is going to balance the flavor of the coconut and give it a more neutral flavor. As much as like coconut, I feel like I’m eating whipped cream from the can when I add vanilla to this recipe. I often get asked why I prefer vanilla flavoring to vanilla extract. Extracts use alcohol and alcohol is made from grain. Vanilla flavoring is safe for me to use with my grain allergy, vanilla extract is not.
2 Cups Fresh Berries–Use whatever kind of berries you like. My neighbor gave me the berries for this recipe. In a few weeks, my raspberries will produce their second fruiting and I’ll be using them. There’s nothing like fresh berries. They are one of my favorite summer flavors. You know I’m all about breaking recipes so if you decide to use peaches, cherries or other fruits, you won’t catch me complaining! (I would love to see your creations, please post them as a comment or e-mail them to me at breakarecipe@gmail.com)
We Deserve To Eat Safely Without Allergens!
“Why don’t you just learn to live without dairy foods like whipped cream?” Good idea. While I’m at it, I’ll join the convent and renounce all Earthly pleasures!
People mean well, they really do.
I just believe that we can live a life of pleasure and good health simultaneously. I’m not sacrificing one to get the other.
That’s why I get so jazzed when I break a recipe! Recipes like this Berry Parfait with Whipped Coconut Milk give me that feeling of normal. That feeling of decadent culinary pleasure with the sweet berries and smooth creamy whipped coconut milk.
Now that we’ve taken a closer look at our ingredients that’s pretty much it! If I’ve left something out, please let me know. Your feedback and questions are important to me. They help me learn and grow as a chef, and that means I’ll be able to produce even better recipes.
Before You Go…
Thank you for reading, for trying this recipe, and for taking a chance on a recipe made with unique ingredients!
You’ll find it’s easy to make, and your body will feel much better after eating it. You will find your gluten-and grain loving friends going for seconds!
If you’re cooking this for someone with allergies, thank you again for supporting them. You’re an amazing friend. Pin this recipe so you can share it with those who need it, and find it later!
Please tell me how your recipe turned out when you make it. Click here to reach me directly. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest using the links below. I really enjoy your feedback and comments. I can’t wait to hear how your recipe turned out!
Come connect with others who cook without grains. Life’s better with Foodie Friends. We’d love to have you join us in Grain-Free Lifestyle And Support Community.
Can the berry parfaits be made with homemade coconut milk? Or is it only good with the canned coconut milk?
Hi Dawn,
Thank you so much for taking the time to check out the recipe for berry parfaits! I haven’t made coconut milk before, so I’m going to ask some questions before I answer.
How do you make your coconut milk? What ingredients do you use? What machine do you use to make it?
When you make your coconut milk how long does it stay in solution for? When you refrigerate it does it separate into fat and liquid?
How much fat is there in comparison to how much liquid when it separates?
If your coconut milk separates into solid fat and liquid, then it can certainly be emulsified by boiling it with sugar, sunflower protein, and xanthan gum the same way canned coconut milk can.
I hope this helps. I would love to hear more about your homemade coconut milk and how it acts in this recipe. Thank you for reading and following. Life’s better with foodie friends! I’m looking forward to hearing how your parfaits come out!
❤️Nina