Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Bite-Sized Desserts with Big Appeal

Bite-Sized Desserts with Big Appeal

Fran Costigan - Bite-Sized Desserts with Big Appeal

This event was on Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern

Indulge your senses in a delightful experience as the renowned pastry chef Fran Costigan takes center stage at her 8th Annual Essential Vegan Desserts Valentine’s Day Live Event.

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Recorded

Question:

What's a good subsitute for coconut, when trying to avoid/minimize saturated fat? I've used cashews, but find more and more patients allergic to them.

— Lilly Tryon

Answer:

Well, definitely there are a lot of people who are allergic to nuts or for real or think they are allergic to nuts. Um, you don't wanna mess around with food allergies. You may have seen in the news not too long ago, um, a dancer died eating a mislabeled cookie. She knew she couldn't have peanuts. I think it was peanuts even was checking the label and Googling ingredients. But the label wa hadn't been updated and she died. The her EpiPen wasn't enough. So we wanna take this seriously. So there are a couple things you can try to do. One is not use it, just leave it out and um, if it's a coconut flour for example, you're gonna need something else to gather up the moisture. But as you noted, shredded coconut coarsely ground or chopped nuts can be used for texture but not if you have a nut allergy. Um, you can try dried fruits or a combination of dried fruits and oats that could work. And if it's a matter of flavor, I know Chef Char really likes using coconut extract, so you can try that.
Fran Costigan

Fran Costigan

Director of Vegan Pastry

FranCostigan.com