Dairy-free batter bread?

[brooksmoses]

I've got a recipe for a batter-based bread, which (for inscrutable reasons) I'm wondering about modifying so that it's dairy-free. The bits to deal with are (a) a half-cup of butter, which gets creamed with sugar at the start of the recipe, and (b) a quarter cup of sour cream.

Any suggestions for the standard dairy-free substitutions for these?

Meanwhile, on a related note -- I vaguely seem to remember that pine nuts are often okay for people with nut allergies. Is this actually the case, or no?

Comments

[julesjones]

I use a kosher cooking margarine for dairy-free, on the advice of a Jewish friend who went seriously dairy-intolerant at the same time that I had trouble with temporary lactose intolerance. If it's labelled parve, it's dairy-free. There are several brands available around here; the one in my fridge right now is Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, from Wholefood, but there are a couple of others in Safeway, one of which is an excellent cooking butter substitute as it has little or no added water. I'm blanking on the name though.

He uses soy replacements for milk, cream and yoghurt.

[julesjones]

Oh, and check the ingredients label carefully for any other intolerance triggers that might be relevant -- e.g. some of the stick margarines use flour as a stiffening agent, which is bad news for the gluten-intolerant.