Dangerously Delicious (And Dairy-Free)

How five influential foodies created awe-inspiring dishes with Magnum Dairy-Free treats.

An elegant take on bread and butter pudding featuring a deconstructed Magnum Dairy-Free Classic has been crowned the winner of a creative challenge put to five influential foodies.

Kelsi Boocock (aka Healthy Kelsi), Aga Oracz (aka Green Kai), MasterChef 2022 winner Sam Low, Rhiannon Baldock (aka In Rhi’s Pantry) and Alex Stone (aka Alex’s Kitchen Story) were all tasked with creating a world-class dish heroing one of the three treats from Magnum’s Dairy-Free range.

Each of the three velvety varieties in the Magnum range are dipped in dairy-free chocolate, including the Classic, with its velvety dairy-free centre; Almond, which comes with crunchy almond pieces; and Sea Salt Caramel, dipped in Dark chocolate and with delicious non-dairy sea salt caramel centre. Since launching its plant-based range in 2019, Magnum Dairy-Free has become popular with vegans, flexitarians and anyone wanting to reduce the dairy in their diets without compromising on flavour or pleasure.

The challenge had a Masterchef-style catch: each contestant was sent a mystery food box filled with an assortment of tasty, dairy-free items, such as coconut milk, nuts, vegan bacon and fruit and vegetables and they had to create a dish using these ingredients heroing the Magnum Dairy-Free.

Competition judge Megan May of Little Bird Organics — one of the country’s first chefs to champion dairy-free ingredients — assessed all five dishes on taste, creativity and presentation, picking Sam Low’s Bread and Butter Pudding as the grand winner, with his modern, fine-dining take on the traditional dessert.

“Sam’s was a very creative use of the Magnum,” says Megan. “There was a skill level in his cooking, a refinement and execution that made it stand out. Bread and butter pudding is not typically the most beautiful dish but the way he put it together was.”

Sam says he knew he wanted to do something special with the Magnum Dairy-Free’s delicious signature cracking dairy-free chocolate, and so took a Classic and removed its dark shell, transforming it into a chocolate sauce. He then used the Magnum’s velvety non-dairy centre to create a custard, thickening it with cornflour, and seasoning it with cinnamon before layering it through slices of ciabatta and dates.

“When we think about ice cream [or its dairy-free equivalent], it’s essentially frozen crème anglaise,” Sam explains. “Already it’s an unset custard, so it made sense to put it all together.”

After baking the pudding in the oven, he presented a slice of the pudding on a clean, white plate, a drizzle of chocolate in the middle. Next to that he plated grilled bananas topped with vegan bacon, and whipped coconut cream piped on top, and dotted the plate with berries, and sprigs of freshly picked lemon balm and mint.

“I left the pudding without any garnishes because I wanted that to be the highlight, and then parallel to it are all the ingredients you would eat with it,” says Sam. “The Magnum Dairy-Free chocolate sauce is like the bridge between those two islands.”

The idea is that it could be served for brunch, he adds.

“What I really like about it is it gives you a bit of everything. It’s texturally interesting because you’ve got spongey, fatty, soft but then you’ve got crispy vegan bacon bits and berries. And in terms of taste you’ve got tart, fatty and savoury.”

While Sam’s was the ultimate winner, he had some stiff competition from his fellow foodies. Kelsi Boocock created cookie dough bars made from a Magnum Dairy-Free and chickpeas, and Aga Oracz created a carrot waffle topped with the treat, Rhiannon made a Magnum Dairy-Free smores brownie and Alex Stone whipped up a decadent plant-based Eton Mess.

As the inventive dishes show, there’s no reason you can’t be indulgent or innovative, just because you’re going dairy-free, says Megan.

“Encouraging people to cook and have fun with food is really important,” she adds. “You can have quality plant-based options that are are just as delicious and easily replace the regular treats you have.”

Try Magnum Dairy-Free range, available in stores now. Multipacks are in supermarkets and Almond Dairy Free singles are in convenience stores and petrol stations nationwide.