Receta Dairy Free S’mores Martinis from David Venable’s Back Around the Table cookbook
Are you on the lookout for a terrific cookbook to give as presents to the cooks on your holiday list? Then check out Back Around the Table: An “In the Kitchen with David” Cookbook from QVC’s Resident Foodie, David Venable. The cookbook features 156 recipes, many with gorgeous color photos. My only complaint is that I wish there were more photos!
Back Around the Table has something that will appeal to everyone! First, it’s all about comfort foods, which if you’re familiar with David, you know that’s his favorite food to cook. But don’t worry about your waistline, there’s a chapter where he lightens up his favorite comfort foods, too!
There’s also a slow cooker chapter, one on pressure cookers, another on barbecuing, and one on brunch dishes – recipes for just about every occasion. David’s recipes are fun and even if they’re a little too indulgent, you can truly appreciate his use of cheese, cream and decadent liquors. It’s food porn at it’s best!
If you order the Back Around the Table: An “In the Kitchen with David” Cookbook directly through this link, you get a bonus holiday chapter. This is exclusive to QVC and worth getting just for the rib roast and Chocolate-Champagne Truffles recipes!
As a reader of This Mama Cooks! On a Diet, you’re probably wondering if this cookbook will work with your gluten free or dairy free diet. Luckily, there are many recipes that could work with a gluten free diet, for example the Beef and Been Tostados and Chicken Quinoa Soup. Still the majority of the recipes that don’t work with food sensitivities have what I call, “good bones.” They’re well written and well tested enough that you could easily made substitutions.
Some substitutions to David’s recipes in Back Around the Table could be simple like using a vegan sour cream instead of the real thing. But others could be more complicated. For example, like with the Smoked Gouda, Bacon and Pea Risotto recipe, you could substitute rice or coconut milk for the whole milk and use a vegan soy or almond cheese for the Gouda and use a vegan “sprinkle cheese” for the Parmigiano-Reggiano. You could even go one step farther and make the recipe vegan by using a vegetable broth and a soy bacon. Good recipes stand up to substitutions, as David’s should.
Healthing up David Venable’s S’mores Martinis
In Back Around the Table, David features a cocktail recipe for S’mores Martinis that’s supposed to remind you of toasting marshmallows and making s’mores over summer campfires. These would be perfect for Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve. S’mores Martinis are made with a chocolate liquor called Adult Chocolate Milk, a blend of shelf stable chocolate milk and vodka. It’s quite delicious, but unfortunately it’s pricey – $20 at my local wine and spirits store. You may have a tough time finding it unless you have a good liquor store with a wide variety of liquors, too. In addition, it’s not dairy free. Neither is David’s recipe since it contains heavy cream.
So I decided to make my S’mores Martinis dairy free and a little more affordable. I’ve also made it gluten free by using gluten animals crackers instead of graham crackers. If you can find gluten free graham crackers, even better! (My grocery store didn’t have any and the animals crackers were the closest tasting and most affordable.)
Finally, I reduced the calories a bit by using a lite chocolate syrup. Hopefully, this balances out having to increase the amount of marshmallow vodka since I’ve reduced the amount of spirits. If you want to reduce the amount of alcohol to 1/4 cup, that should taste fine and lower the calories a little bit, too!
Remember S’mores Martinis are an indulgence! I just hope by taking David’s fun recipe from Back Around the Table and making it dairy free and gluten free, you won’t have a tummy ache afterwards and ruin all the fun on your special night.
Dairy Free S’mores Martinis
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup lite chocolate syrup
- 6 animal crackers
- 4 marshmallows
- 1/3 cup marshmallow vodka
- 1/4 cup chocolate coconut milk
- 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
Directions
Place the crackers in a ziplock baggie and crush with a rolling pin until crushed fine. (You could also do this in a mini-food processor.) Place crushed crackers on a small plate. Put 3 tablespoons of the chocolate syrup on another small plate. (Plates should be large enough to fit the rim of your martini glasses!)
Dip the rims of the martini glasses in the chocolate syrup. Then dip the rims into the cracker crumbs. Quickly turn the martini glasses right side up and drizzle the remaining 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup into a spiral design on the insides of the glasses. (This is a bit tricky. Just twirl and try to make any sort of design you can. If you want, practice first on another glass.) Put the glasses in the freezer for 1 hour to let the chocolate harden.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice cubes, the marshmallow vodka, the chocolate coconut milk, and the unsweetened coconut milk. Shake well. Remove the glasses from the freezer. Strain half the mixture into one of the glasses and half into the other.
Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Put a marshmallow on the end of a skewer or fondue fork. Place the marshmallow facing down on the skillet until it turns golden, about 20-30 seconds. The top will melt a bit and the marshmallow will be shaped a bit like a mushroom. Remove the skewered marshmallows from the pan and, using the tines of a fork, push the marshmallow into the martini glass. Repeat so there are two marshmallows per glass. If you find that the top of the marshmallow is sticking to the skillet when you remove it, your skillet isn’t hot enough!
Serve and enjoy!
Prep Time: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Minute
Total Time: 1 Hour 21 Minutes
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of QVC. The opinions and text are all mine.