A dairy free Christmas

[TinyLittleBug]

I have a very recently diagnosed dairy intolerance and will no longer be able to enjoy my usual Christmas cheeseboard and Quality Streets.
I know - devastating!!

I wondered if anyone had any recommendations for some lovely dairy free alternatives to the usual festive treats? I can still have eggs - the supermarkets seem to think if you’re not eating dairy, you’re vegan, but it’s just dairy I can’t have.

If anyone else is in the same boat, Galaxy do a dairy free orange chocolate that tastes just like Terry’s chocolate orange, which I was thrilled to discover. But I’d love to hear of any other lovely treats fellow diary-free people have discovered.
Thanks in advance!

There is a thread on lovely treats, this might help. Not sure if there is much mention of festive treats but it might be a start.

Please share your favourite vegan or dairy free treats http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/foodandd_recipes/4633891-please-share-your-favourite-vegan-or-dairy-free-treats

If you like mint then bendicks and Elizabeth Shaw. Booja booja is brilliant and I really like rhythm 108 too.

Oh god I know the feeling of being put with all the vegans. It infuriates me that Domino’s won’t put vegan cheese on a meat pizza!

I’m sure I saw a big chocolate star dessert somewhere but I can’t for the life of me remember where it was. Anyway, I’m here for ideas and will post again if I find it!

Starting with an essential…

Cheese would be my biggest “problem”

Thank you for the responses and recommendations so far. I will check out that thread too.

I’ve accepted that vegan cheese is awful and will never taste as good as the real thing, so I won’t try and replicate my cheeseboards.

But I’m a big chocolate fan so the hunt for the perfect dairy free chocolate is very much on!

Usually marzipan chocolate is dark chocolate so no milk.

I make rocky road at Christmas, digestives, Marshmallows, glacé cherries, raisins with melted chocolate. Tastes amazing. I sometimes drizzle melted free from white chocolate on top but not necessary!

Dairy free cheese takes some getting used to. My favourites are sheese or violife extra mature block. I quite like the violife soft cheese too. I cant tell you if they are like actual cheese as I've been dairy free for about 16 years now!

The poundland after eights mints (I think they are called after night) are dairy free. Or were last year.

Vegan fudge is really nice made with the vegan carnation milk, plus gives your arm a really good work out 🤣 can also do millionaires shortbread too.

There's loads of vegan ice creams available now. Personally I like the oatly ones.

I had to go dairy free when breastfeeding my son due to cmpa. Lindt have released new vegan chocolate made with oat milk - cookie, hazelnut and caramel. The cookie and hazelnut were particularly good!

The free from ranges have some nice things - the chocolate pudding from Tesco was very nice.

Oatly barista is the best milk imo. Nice and creamy so also tastes good in cooking / coffees etc. If you like baking, there are some "depression era" recipes. Sounds miserable🤣but it was cake made without eggs and butter due to rationing and then using oatly Batista, I swear the cake tasted amazing. I can forward you the recipe if you'd like it. It was made for my son's 1st birthday.

Certain biscuits were still ok like digestives and bourbons...no dairy in them.

I'm afraid to say, I never found a good cheese equivalent ☹️ they all tasted awful. I would make homemade pizza but without cheese. Just tomato then all the toppings with some vegan sour cream.

Hotel Chocolat do a whole range of dairy free chocolate which is excellent. Lots of nut milk choices, which taste really good. And their 90% dark chocolate is dairy free too. Well worth a try

I’ve found it! It does look quite sickly but I might order one just so I get dessert that isn’t fruit or sorbet! food-to-order.sainsburys.co.uk/product/8031493/pp-vegan-chocolate-caramel-panna-450g

Oh and the dairy milk almond plant bar tastes like what I remember Ferrero Roche tasting like. Its by far my favourite dairy free chocolates!

And aldi did strawberry creams last year that were dark chocolate. Which were really nice.

Marks and Spencer vegan truffles are to die for, I got given a box as an end of term gift, I ended up going back for more to have over Christmas!

I have such a sweet tooth. And apologies if they aren't as good replacements. It's hard when you cant have your favourite treats at Christmas. I hope you find some things you love!

Is it the lactose you are intolerant to? Lactose is a sugar, so checking the sugar content on cheese will give you an idea of lactose content (as long as nothing else added). Extra mature cheddar often has 0% sugar..
No use if its something else in dairy that you react to though.

Bisto best gravy is DF.

Abs can second the Elizabeth Shaw after dinner mints.

Usually the cheaper Christmas Puddings and Mince Piez are DF.

You can make custard with Birds Custard Powder and an alternative milk.

Can't help with the cheese sorry. Could never understand why anyone would want to eat the rancid milk of another mammal

Booja booja chocolates are vegan and absolutely stunning (non vegan here).

*and

Booja booja chocolates are vegan and absolutely stunning (non vegan here

Totally agree

@Startuplife not relevant to the thread, but Dominos have changed that now. You can have vegan cheese on a meat pizza, and the meat alternatives on a dairy cheese pizza. I think it was apparently because of cross contamination. But then they couldn’t do half and half pizzas for two years because of Covid, so they probably just couldn’t be arsed to move the dairy free cheese out of the dairy free area. Just created this pizza now to check.

LoveRaw do vegan versions of Ferraro rocher and kinder bueno

Recipe here for Viennese whirl mince pies which I intend to try, I make her vegan Xmas cake every year

I made the Carnation vegan banoffee pie last year and it was a hit with non vegans

M&S are really doing well with the plant kitchen stuff at the mo - the choc cookies are amazing and I saw some PK fudge in store too

That is fab news @toastofthetown thank you!

I wasn’t expecting so many responses - all very helpful, thank you very much! I’m spoilt for choice.
Lots of treats to try here, all in the name of research, obviously!

I'm two years in to dairy free and as a former chocolate lover there is very little I enjoy now. Hotel Chocolate vegan selection is pretty nice. "Enjoy!" has some lovely chocolate buttons. Northern Bloc do a lovely vegan choc and blood orange ice cream. In fact ice creams seem to be the best way to enjoy chocolate for me now.

In general, for Christmas we trail around all the supermarkets and M&S and pick up random dairy free offerings!

Booja booja and Vego chocolates - both amazing

Lots of snacks and Xmassy foods are unexpectedly dairy free - eg lots of shop bought sausage rolls

Tesco has an excellent selection of dairy free Xmas canapés every year (although they are not specifically labelled as dd, you need to read all the ingredients).

Tbh I've never found a good vegan cheese although a lot of people like the new plant based cathedral city and baby bells. Some people who can't tolerate cows milk can manage goat - if that's you goats cheese would be a fab option.

Nomo bars are gorgeous- my favourite vegan chocolate bars ( especially the caramel ones which tastes to me like dairy milk Caramel). They also do festive cookie dough filled Santa’s that are really nice.

cathedral city have also just bought out a plant based cheese which is like a cheddar. I absolutely love it! We also got a dairy free Camembert from Tesco last year which was really nice baked.

I second the love raw wafer bars- you can get them in Holland and Barrett- I love the chocolate and also the salted caramel ones. They have also just bought ones out that are like a Ferrero Roche.

I have a dairy intolerance and I can manage it pretty much myself now so I can have occasional cheese if I really fancy it.

I rigidly cut it out completely for a few months, and then tried small amounts. I now find if I keep to dairy free milk/yoghurts and spreads rather than butter and be aware of how much I’m having I can treat myself to a cheese board now & again :)

I’m not a huge chocolate fan but I guess it’d be the same.

So worth considering OP that once you’ve figured out what triggers you in your own diet it can be managed.