Sunnut Butter Buttons

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Holiday cookie season. Before we had food allergic-children, any day leading up to the holidays were easily among our most favorite times of the year, along with any one of the other 364 days on the calendar. 

Things are necessarily different now, but there's no need to despair. On a recent trip down the candy aisle at our local grocery store, as we were walking by the Hershey's Kisses, we were met by a recipe card for Peanut Butter Blossoms, starring melt-in-your-mouth but very much off limits Hershey's Kisses, and sometimes toxic and highly offensive peanut butter.

Our recent discovery (thank you Ms Lauren!) of sunflower seed butter, aka sunnut butter, has made these cookies much easier to replicate in a food allergy-safe way. Straight out of the jar, our kids want nothing to do with sunnut butter, but baked into a cookie, the taste is somewhat mild and very well tolerated by our otherwise sunnut butter-hating children. It's very bewildering, why they don't like sunnut butter. Except for the finish, it is very very very close in taste to peanut butter.

We considered making our own version of Hershey's Kisses, but opted against it. After all, that would have entailed a LOT of effort, and we go for easy whenever we can. Instead of melting safe chocolate and solidifying it into coins to later press into the cookie tops, when the time came we just pressed three or four chocolate chips where one much larger Hershey's Kiss would have gone. Worked like a charm.

We're providing the recipe as written by Hershey's, and noting the changes we made where appropriate.

Ingredients

• 48 Hershey's Kisses (we used about 200 dairy-free/nut-free chocolate chips)
  
• 1/2 cup shortening
  
• 3/4 cup Reese's Creamy Peanut Butter (we used 3/4 cup creamy sunnut butter)
  
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  
• 1 egg (we used one egg worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer)
  
• 2 tablespoons milk (we used soymilk)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (we used this, even though our soymilk is vanilla flavored; you could omit it)
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• granulated sugar, for rolling the dough in
  

Steps

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove wrappers from chocolates. 
   
2. Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended. Add the 1/3 cup granulated sugar and the 1/3 cup brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.
   
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
   
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate kiss into center of each cookie; cookie will crack around edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.  About 4 dozen cookies.
   

Notes

• Egg Replacer works best if you prepare it with water before adding it to your other ingredients, so be sure to do that for optimal results.
  
• Our recipe made nearly 6 dozen cookies, so maybe they were a little on the small side, but the baking time didn't change. The three or four chocolate chips we added created the exactly right ratio of chocolate to cookie, so consider this when rolling balls of your cookie dough. Adjust the size of your cookie dough balls to suit your taste. 
  
• When the cookies came out of the oven, we enlisted adult help in the kitchen to get the chips on the cookies before the cookies got too hard and crumbly. The edges are supposed to crack, but we did have to act fast to get the chips to stick.
• After a day or two on the counter, store these in the refrigerator. There was some weird ingredient reaction as they sat out, and the center of the cookie had a funky green tinge. We tested multiple cookies and they all had it. Since mold doesn't grow in such a uniform fashion, and since the cookies smelled and tasted fine, we moved them to the fridge, and the green business cleared up. Anyone know an Alton Brown we can ask about that?

Boot Scootin' Biscotti

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Boot scootin'. As in, scoot your boot back to the kitchen to have another, and another, and likely yet another, of these really yummy, pretty, marbled biscotti.

Remember a few posts back, in our Bella Biscotti post for cranberry and chocolate chip biscotti, we said to stay tuned while we perfected our method? 

Well, bake baby bake!  

This recipe from Eating Well circa early 1990s (before they came off the shelves and then came back to life), has to be our all time favorite biscotti. And then we veganized it. And it is still our all time favorite biscotti. Vegan biscotti. Who knew egg-free biscotti could have the right mouth feel, texture, and crunchiness? We did, and now you do, too! 

As always, we've offered up the recipe exactly the way it was originally written, and we've noted our modifications where necessary. If your food allergy situation doesn't match up with ours, feel free to alter the recipe to suit your dietary needs/preferences.

As written by Eating Well, the recipe is pretty much fool proof. But with the modifications we have to make so these are safe to eat, well, let's just say it helps to have some idea what the dough is supposed to look like. If it won't send anyone in your household into anaphylactic shock, you might want to make up a batch of these as written, scrub and sanitize your kitchen, and bring the biscotti to work, game night, whatever you have to do to keep the offending cookies out of the wrong mouth. If that's problematic or just too much trouble for you (as it would be for us), give it a shot as we've modified it, take notes, and make additional changes to your recipe in the future. We don't mean to make it complicated, we just really want you to enjoy these.

Oh, one more thing. Our kids aren't into mocha, so we omitted the coffee. But it gives these biscotti their biscottiness, so if you can, leave it in.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup whole unblanched almonds (we omitted these)
  
• 2 cups all-purpose white flour
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 large eggs (we omitted these)
  
• 2 large egg whites (and we omitted these too - all of the eggs in the original recipe were replaced with: 1/2 cup whizzed up tofu - the shelf stable kind in the box,  1/4 cup drained applesauce, 1 egg-worth of Ener-G egg replacer, plus 2 to 3 teaspoons of canola oil to replace some of the fat in the whole eggs)
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder (we omit this)
  
• 4 teaspoons water
  
• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, melted (or make your own from cocoa powder and oil)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract (we replaced this with an additional 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)
  

Method

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 
  
• Spread almonds on a baking sheet and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside.
  
• Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
  
• Whisk together eggs, egg whites (or alternatives) and vanilla, and add to the dry ingredients; mix just until smooth.
  
• In a small bowl, combine cocoa, instant coffee and 4 teaspoons water.
  
• Divide the dough in half. To one half, add the cocoa mixture and melted chocolate. Mix just until incorporated.
  
• To the other half, stir in almond extract and almonds. (If you're using the almonds, you probably want to cut them up a bit first.) Assuming you're not using the almonds, do what we did and replace the almond extract with a little more vanilla extract, so you get the right consistency. 
  

**We're going to continue with the original recipe as written, but have a look at our notes at the bottom to see how we make this next part easier.**

• *Place half of the almond dough on a well-floured work surface. Pat into a 4-by-8-inch rectangle. Top with half of the chocolate dough. roll up into a cylinder, then roll the cylinder back and forth to forma 14-inch long, 1 1/2 inches thick. Repeat with the remaining doughs. Place the logs on a prepared baking sheet.*
  
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until firm to the touch.
  
• Transfer logs to a rack to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 F.
  
• cut the logs diagonally into 1/2-inch thick slices. Stand the slices upright on the baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Let cool before storing.
  

Makes about 4 dozen biscotti.

Notes

We don't go through the patting rolling thing. Here's what we do instead:

• Position a non-stick sprayed baking sheet on your counter so it is wider than it is tall, when you're looking at it.
  
• Put half of the almond dough on one half of the baking sheet, and the other half on the other half. The dough is going to spread just a bit, so don't put the two logs so close together that they may end up touching.
  
• Use a spatula to make a long, thin, relatively flat (maybe 1 1/2 to 2 inch thick) log out of it.
  
• Put half of the chocolate dough on top of one of the logs, and the other half on the other log.
  
• Use your spatula to mildly marble the dough. Do your best, it'll be okay no matter what.
  

At this point, get back on the recipe train and pop the baking sheet in the oven. See above to finish off the biscotti.

These are awesome on their own, dunked in a cup of coffee, or dipped in a glass of non-dairy beverage alternative.

P-Yumpkin Cookies

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

What's scarier for you on Halloween?

A) Your food-allergic kid getting un-safe Halloween candy from your otherwise well-intentioned neighbors. 

B) Not having something safe at the ready to trade for the 90% of Junior's Halloween booty you had to confiscate because it's not safe to eat. 

C) Having that confiscated candy tucked away in your house, just begging for you to eat it after the kids go to bed because, let's face it, the kids can't have it and you don't want it going to waste, after all...

D) The weight you'll gain from eating all of that damned Halloween candy by yourself, because all your spouse likes is candy corn.

The answer is E) All of the above. So, to help allay your Halloween worries this year, we've got a really yummy dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free pumpkin cookie recipe. This recipe is ALL OVER the Internet, so there's not really any one to credit for it. But how dumb are we that we've never thought to do a search on egg-free pumpkin cookies? And really good ones at that.

If anyone deserves credit for this recipe, it's our prima preschool teacher, Ms Lauren. We love Ms Lauren, who herself has a food allergic child, and who introduced us to this recipe. She did a simple Google search and voila, there it was. She made a few adjustments to the recipe - not sure why, but it worked out great - and we copied.

And how exactly does this tie in with the scary Halloween question above? Make these cookies and neither you nor your kids will care about that stuff they can't eat, and you won't be tempted to eat the contraband. Until the pumpkin cookies are gone, that is. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar (or 1 cup white plus 1 cup brown, unpacked)
  
• 1 cup shortening (we used 1/2 cup Crisco plus 1/2 cup Earth Balance)
  
• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 4 cups all-purpose flour (or 3 cups ap flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon (or 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice) (but we used apple pie spice because we didn't have pumpkin pie spice)
  
• 12 ounces dairy-free, nut-free chocolate chips (optional) (we used Trader Joe's brand, and we used between 1/2 and 3/4 cup - just pulled a Rachel Ray and eyeballed it)
  

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
   
2. Cream the sugar(s), shortening, pumpkin, and vanilla until light and well combined.
   
3. Mix the flour, baking soda and cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice. 
   
4. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture.
   
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
   
6. Drop by teaspoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until set.
   
7. Let cookies cool on a rack.
   

They apparently freeze well, but if you want them fresh, you'll have to eat them within a day or two.

PeaNOT Butter Cookies

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

PeaNOT. Get it? Like Peanut, but NOT, because it's sunnut butter (or sunflower seed butter, if you're inclined to speak that many syllables, which we're not), so they're peaNOT butter cookies. Ah, life is one hilarious moment after the next.

Truth be told, we made these cookies so long ago (four months!) that we can't remember much about them other than that they tasted good. Really good. As in, flew out of the cookie jar good. And right into the mouths of our children who will not normally entertain the idea of eating sunnut butter. Honestly, these kids absolutely refuse to go near a sunnut butter and jelly sandwich, no matter how empty the refrig is. But let me tell you something, they had no problem going near these cookies.

If memory serves us, the cookies spread out A LOT. In fact... (rummaging through iPhoto) ... Yes! we have a photo or two. And they really did spread out a lot. When you keep an open mind, they look like those lace cookies whose name escapes us right now. Ours turned out crispy and crunchy, and next time we will modify the recipe at will to bring them back to the cookie side. 

The original recipe, from the 2008 late-Spring Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, didn't call for chocolate chips, though that would have been a brilliant upsell for them. Aren't these marketing people ever thinking? It also wasn't allergy safe, so we turned to the usual suspects to substitute for the allergy offenders.

Oh wait a minute, chocolate chips. Maybe that's why the kids liked them so much...

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, room temperature (we used Earth Balance)

3/4 cup sunflower seed butter, chilled

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed 

2 eggs (we used 1/4 cup plain soy yogurt plus one egg worth of Ener G egg replacer, but didn't "mix" the Ener G egg before adding it)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips (Trader Joe's brand, because they're dairy-free/egg-free/nut-free)

Hey,  no one said this recipe was good for you.

Steps

1. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
   
2. In a separate bowl, beat together butter, sunflower seed butter and both sugars until fluffy. 
3. Beat in eggs and vanilla. 
4. Gradually beat in flour mixture. 
5. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until well chilled, about 2 to 4 hours.
6. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls with your hands. 
7. Place about three inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. 
8. Dip a fork in flour and press onto tops of cookies, making a criss-cross pattern on each cookie.
9. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. 
10. Be careful not to burn the bottoms. 
11. Cool on baking sheets for a minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely before eating.
    

Makes about 2 to 3 dozen sunflower seed butter cookies. Enjoy with a tall glass of dairy-free milk, and then go running for an hour.

Bella Biscotti

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Have you ever done an internet search for "vegan biscotti"? Not at lot out there, is there? We've searched six ways to Sunday to find a recipe, but mostly we find a lot of people lamenting that there are no good vegan biscotti recipes.

We've been experimenting a bit, trying recipes for biscotti from a variety of vegan cookbooks, plus we've tried applying the techniques we found in those cookbooks as a means of veganizing our favorite biscotti recipes. Those recipes involved substituting most or all of the egg with applesauce, but none of them resulted in a biscotti recipe we felt good about posting.

Today we took matters into our own hands and came up with a vegan biscotti that is awfully damned good. The original recipe is Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Biscotti, which comes from the Cooking Light Complete Cookbook. We substituted two eggs' worth of whizzed up tofu plus one egg equivalent of strained applesauce for the three eggs called for in the original. Plus, we added a bit of water and one tablespoon of oil to make up for the fat and moisture lost by the omission of the eggs. This method is certainly the best we've tried so far, and we'll be applying it to our favorite biscotti recipe of all time, so stay tuned. We'll post that recipe once we have fine tuned it. 

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
  
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (the original recipe calls for one teaspoon vanilla plus one teaspoon almond extract, but we went with straight vanilla in the extract department)
  
• 1/2 cup silken tofu, whizzed up in a food processor (use the shelf-stable, boxed tofu you find on the grocery shelves, usually near the Asian foods)
  
• 1/4 cup strained unsweetened applesauce (use a fine mesh strainer - we didn't bother with a paper towel or cheesecloth, just the strainer was fine)
  
• 4 tablespoons water, or enough to give your dough the proper consistency
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350.
  
• Lightly spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray.
  
• Combine flour, sugar, cranberries, chocolate chips, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
  
• In a food processor, process tofu, applesauce, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth and combined. Add to dry ingredients.
  
• Stir until well blended; dough will be dry and crumbly. 
  
• Turn dough onto a lightly floured board and knead lightly seven or eight times. (This is the point at which we added the extra water because we couldn't get the dough to come together. We didn't knead the dough on the board, we just kind of mushed it together in the bowl)
  
• Divide the dough in half, and place on the prepared baking sheet. Form the dough into a log about eight-inches long, and leave a decent amount of space between the two logs. Pat the dough down to about one-inch thickness.
  
• Bake at 350 for 35 minutes (this was too long for us - next time we'll bake them for only 30 minutes). Remove baking sheet from oven, reduce oven to 325. Remove logs to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes.
  
• Cut each log on the diagonal into 15 or so 1/2 inch slices. Put the biscotti back in the oven, cut side down, for 10 minutes. Take the sheet out, flip the biscotti onto the other cut side, and return to the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Cookies will be slightly soft in the center but will harden as they cool.
  
• After the second baking (or third, depending on how you look at it), remove the cookies to a wire rack until completely cool. 
  
• These will last a good long time on the kitchen counter in an air-tight container, but you probably won't be able to resist them, and you'll be brewing up a pot of hot coffee or tea just to have one, or ten. They're also really good dipped into your milk beverage of choice. 
  

 

Barkers

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

As in "Meet the..."? No. The full name of this recipe is Matzah Bark, and it's something that we make annually at Passover (it's a Jewish holiday in the spring and for eight days, everybody gives up flour, bread, yeast, and pretty much anything that rises or expands). 

We made this again this year, and ate almost all of it before the kids got anywhere close to having a nibble. Which made us think of a radical concept. Maybe you've heard of it? It's called PORTION CONTROL. 

For Passover, we make this on sheets of matzah, an unleavened bread resembling a really large cracker. But for year-round enjoyment, you could easily make this on Saltines. (No trademark offense intended, we just don't know what else to call those square salted crackers that you eat when you have morning sickness. If we called them Morning Sickness Crackers, that would just be gross.) The added bonus: built-in PORTION CONTROL.

Since you can make this on either matzah or crackers, we're not calling it Matzah Bark. From now on, it's just Barkers.

Ingredients

• Four to six sheets of matzah, or as many as needed to completely cover your baking sheet OR
  
• Enough Saltines to cover a baking sheet
  
• 1 cup butter or margarine (Earth Balance, natch!)
  
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed (one of us likes it as is, the other would prefer a little less sugar, like maybe as little as 3/4 cup)
  
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, or whatever sort of chocolate you like that suits your allergy situation
  
• Salt, to taste
  

Steps

• Line a cookie sheet completely with parchment or waxed paper.
  
• Fill the lined cookie sheet with matzah or Saltines.
  
• Combine the butter/margarine and brown sugar in a 3-quart, heavy bottomed sauce pan. 
  
• Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. 
  
• Continue cooking for three more minutes, stirring constantly. 
  
• Remove from heat and pour over matzah/crackers.
  
• If you're using matzah, this is a good time to put just a bit of salt over the sugar/butter. You don't want a lot, just a bit to offset the sweetness of the sugar/butter and chocolate.
  
• Meanwhile, melt chocolate in the microwave, in a double boiler, or just with direct heat (just make sure it doesn't burn!).
  
• Once the matzah/crackers have been coated with the sugar/butter combo, pour the melted chocolate on top and spread it around to cover all of the pieces as best as you can. This can get a little tricky if you're using crackers because they're small and may jump around a bit.
  
• Put the entire tray in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets up again.
  
• If you're using matzah, once the chocolate has hardened, break the matzahs up into bite sized pieces. Crackers shouldn't have to be broken up anymore as they're already somewhat small.
  

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Try to control yourself.

Rolling Scones

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Yes, we are the first to admit that our blog has gotten, ahem, stale. Very stale. Nasty-old-bread-that-you-don't-even-want-to-turn-into-French-Toast (if you don't have an egg allergy, and in which case you would use nutritional yeast) stale. In other words, it's been awhile.

But, like our waistlines, it's back. Yes, the interminable time on the treadmill and fierce calorie counting has been paying off, and at long last we can fit into last summer's shorts. 

In celebration of this feat, we're back in the kitchen to bring you more egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free goodies, like this awesome scone recipe we got from HungryGirl.com. The author, Lisa, is not allergy prone, but she is hungry, and like us, seems to have a problem controlling her mouth. So she turned to Weight Watchers, and started blogging what she ate and how she converted fat-laden recipes to figure friendly ones. She didn't set out to make this recipe friendly for folks like us, but yea for us (!), it is.

We really enjoyed this with the blueberries called for in the original recipe, but then branched out and tried it with Craisins and orange zest. I think we liked the second edition a little better, but try it both ways, so you can decide for yourself.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup uncooked oatmeal (not instant)
  
• 1/3 cup Bisquick Heart Smart Baking Mix (Did you know this is egg- and dairy-free? It does contain wheat and soy, though, so beware if you avoid these, and always read the label in case they change up their ingredients)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons Smart Balance 37% Light Buttery Spread (of course, we used Earth Balance because it's dairy-free, but if dairy doesn't offend you, use what you have)
  
• 1/3 cup light vanilla soymilk
  
• 3/4 cup blueberries
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  
• Mix first six ingredients (everything but the berries) in a bowl.
  
• Fold in the blueberries.
  
• Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and form four mounds of batter on the sheet. (Leave room in between the mounds - they expand.)
  
• Bake for 10 minutes.
  

Notes:

• Our scones didn't really expand the first time we made these, but did the second time. Go figure. 
  
• When we substituted dried cranberries for the blueberries, we were calorie conscious (did we mention how much time we've been spending on the treadmill?) and calculated how many calories were in 3/4 cup of blueberries (answer: 62) and substituted a calorically equal amount of cranberries. Since there were so few, we chopped them up before folding them in to the recipe.
  
• If you go the zest route, zest to taste. Too much orange zest makes our mouths feel numb. 
  

Incredible Vegan Carrot Cake

Dairy-free/Egg-free

Our good friend and neighbor Darcie shared this recipe with us. She made it for her family at Easter; we're about to make it for one of our hubby's birthday. (Before you go thinking we've got more than one husband, remember that "we" isn't the royal "We" - there are two of us, and we've each got one husband. Still with us?) 

We confess that we haven't tried it, but she said it was really, really good, and Darcie has great taste, so for now, we're going to take her word for it. Whether it totally flops or is a huge hit at the birthday party, we'll update this post, so check back with us. Darcie found the recipe at VegWeb online, submitted by someone named Tate, where it earned rave reviews. And we're guessing our results will be equally rave-worthy.

  

We saw Darcie's cake, which she embellished with the cutest marzipan carrots (she used parsely for the carrot tops - how cute is that?) but of course we can't do that because marzipan is definitively NOT nut-free. If you have a nut-free marzipan recipe, send it along to allergyfoodies(at)gmail(dot)com.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or allspice
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 3/4 cup light brown cane sugar
  
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
  
• 3 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2 cups finely grated carrots
  
• 1 can (about 14 ounces) crushed pineapple, drained
  
• 1 cup shredded coconut (if you have a coconut allergy, or aren't sure if you have a coconut allergy, omit this ingredient)
  
• raisins optional 
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  
• In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, spice, baking powder, and salt.
  
• In a large bowl, mix sugar and egg replacer until creamy (works best with an electric mixer), next add vanilla, then add vegetable oil.
  
• Mix the wet and dry ingredients together and add the carrots, pineapple and coconut, if using.
  
• Depending on whether you prefer a thicker or thinner carrot cake, grease a 9 x 9 inch or 9 x 13 inch pan. Smooth the batter into the pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting with faux cream cheese frosting.
  

Faux Cream Cheese frosting

 

Ingredients

• 1 package vegan cream cheese (Darcie used Tofutti)
  
• 1/3 cup vegan soy margarine, softened (Darcie used Earth Balance)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
  

Steps

• With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and margarine. Next add the vanilla, then the confectioner's sugar.

4/26/2008 Update:

As promised, we made this cake for the birthday party, and it was a huge success. We baked our cake in a stoneware pan, so it took the full time to bake, but turned up moist and delicious. If you make this cake in a metal or glass pan, check the time a little early. With all of the fruit in there (we deleted the coconut, skipped the raisins and upped the pineapple to the 20 ounce can we had on hand) you probably couldn't go wrong even if you do forget about it in the oven and overbake it a bit, but let's not even go there.

One of the biggest bonuses was that the kids ate it, and since they're the ones we're baking for, that is a very good thing. Doesn't it just stink when you put all of this huge effort in and they act like they could take it or leave it? Argh. Well, not in this case. We ate it all before we could take any pictures. When we bake it up again, as we are sure to do, we'll have to snap a few pics then.

Also, in reading the recipe we thought the frosting was going to be WAAAAAY (yes, that's five As) too sweet with two cups of sugar. We were wrong. It needed it. And it was good.

Finally, have a look at this recipe's first comment - the one from Speedbump Kitchen. Not only do we love her site (and if you also love her site please let her know) but she's got a link to a recipe for marshmallow fondant, so you, too, could actually embellish your cake with little carrots like true bakeries, and our friend Darcie, do.   

Chocolicious Mocha Muffins

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Dear Diary,

I know it's been a long time since my last entry, but SOO much has been happening! Today I wore my pink capris with the white vee-neck sweater, and yesterday I got a note from that cute boy in my biology class - oh wait. Wrong blog. 

Just kidding.  It has been a while since we last posted any recipes, but to be truthful we're trying to lay off the baked goods for a while. Swimsuit season is fast approaching and we've been spending loads o time on the treadmill trying to get as swimsuit ready as possible. Diets be damned, we're back and ready to rock you with these delish chocolate muffins.

The original recipe came from theppk.com, and later became a recipe in Isa's book Vegan with a Vengance. (Don't you love how we say "Isa," without her last name, like we she's one of our pals?)

The original recipe calls for instant coffee, and we're posting it as written.  However, we've made a few modifications to it to suit our taste (and also because we were out of an ingredient or two) and the results were great. 

Both times we've made these, we've omitted the instant coffee. One, we're not crazy about coffee flavored items, unless it is actually coffee. And then, we're pretty much purists. Sweetener and creamer (soy creamer if necessary) are the only things that should alter the taste of a coffee bean. But, we digress. Two, our kids would almost certainly not eat anything mocha flavored because, well, they're kids, and mocha tends to be a grown-up flavor.

Okay, so the other thing we've done to change it up is use a couple of extra tablespoons of soy milk when we didn't have soy yogurt on hand. Both with and without the soy yogurt, the results were yummy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 3/4 cups sugar
  
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
  
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee (remember, we left this out)
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 cup soy milk (see above - we used a bit extra when we didn't have soy yogurt)
  
• 2 tablespoons soy yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (if your soy milk is vanilla flavored, like ours, you could probably leave this out if you had to/wanted to)
  
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free/egg-free/nut-free, of course - check your brand's label for details)
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffins tins with paper liners.
  
• In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips.
  
• In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients until they come together.
  
• Add the wet to the dry and combine until the flour mixture is moistened, then fold in the chocolate chips.
  
• Fill the muffin tins almost to the top. 
  
• Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  

Happy Hamentaschen

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Why are the hamentaschen so happy, you may be asking? Or you may be asking: what exactly is a hamentaschen? In reverse order, a hamentaschen is a triangle-shaped cookie with an exposed fruit filling, traditionally eaten during the Jewish holiday Purim - think Mardi Gras without the parades, liquor, beads, or boobs. 

Now to the first question: the reason that these hamentaschen are happy is because they are dairy-free, egg-free and nut-free! Can you say "hurray"?! We can't hear you! Now, you, in the back row! Alright! All together now!

These cookies totally rock - no kidding! If you like yours a little crisper, roll them just a bit thinner than 1/4", and if you want them a little crumblier (crumblier?) stick with rolling them out to the recommended thickness.  Someone we know and love called the crisper ones "cookietashen," but what does he know? A beloved member of the older generation (read: our Mom) thought the crisper ones were better, and everybody knows Mom knows best. The dough ingredients are from the Fig Not-Ins cookies, in the Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook, but the method is ours.

Dough Ingredients

• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
  
• 1/4 cup shortening
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  
• 1/4 cup soy milk
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or to taste, depending on whether or not your soy milk is vanilla flavored like ours is)
  
• 2 cups flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  

Filling Ingredients

• Jam or spreadable fruit of your choice. Try to find one that seems pretty thick but won't lose too much moisture when baked. Traditional fillings are poppy seed, prune, apricot, but we've also seen strawberry and blackberry, so knock yourself out. You could probably also try apple (or apple pie filling - nice!) with great success. We think.
  

Steps

• In a mixing bowl, cream together the margarine, shortening, and sugar. 
  
• Add the cornstarch and mix well. 
  
• Beat in the soy milk and vanilla. 
  
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix well. 
  
• Refrigerate the dough, covered, until it's chilled but still malleable enough to be rolled out, probably around an hour in the refrigerator.
  
• Roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness, maybe just a little less.
  
• Using a round cookie cutter (with a decorative edge, if you have one) with about a 3-inch diameter, cut circles out of the dough. 
  
• Put a small dollop (around a teaspoon) of fruit in the center of the circle, then the tricky part: you want your circle to become a triangle. So, mentally divide the circle into three equal pieces.  Create a pinch in the dough (creating one corner of the triangle) at the "top", repeat it to create a second corner, and do it once more for a third corner. Note: You don't want to mangle your dough, but you don't want the cookie to open up in the oven and your filling to run out all over the place, either. Leave a good portion of the filling exposed. Look at the photo for tips on this.
  
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are as crispy as you'd like. The thinner you roll your dough, the less time it will take to bake to your preferred degree of doneness. 
• After 3 to 4 minutes on the baking sheet, remove to a wire rack to fully cool.

Chocolate-covered Just About Anything

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

You can embellish just about any dry good with chocolate and rainbow or holiday-themed sprinkles, nonpareiles, colored sugar, cupcake decorations, you name it. We recently made chocolate-covered, rainbow-sprinkled pretzel sticks for a Chinese New Year celebration, and they looked like little firecrackers! So cute. We've also covered pretzel mini twists (well, pretzels of just about every shape and size), graham cracker sticks and squares and animal crackers, and embellished them or not to suit our mood.

Ingredients

• Chocolate chips (we like the semi-sweet chips we can get at Trader Joes - if you don't have a TJs near you, read the labels to make sure the chips meet your food allergy requirements)
  
• Something to cover (like pretzels, crackers, etc.)
  
• Something to embellish with, or not
  

Steps

• Place a piece of waxed or parchment paper on a cookie sheet or two (depending on how much you'll be chocolate-covering). If you run into a bind, you can double the amount on one cookie sheet by using a piece of waxed/parchment paper in between each layer.
  
• Set out the embellishments you'll be using on flat plates covered with wax paper. We like to put a piece of waxed paper on the plate, because it helps us to get the embellishment onto the dipped piece of whatever.  We use a little sling action to move the sprinkles etc. around. If you'd rather just roll the chocolate-covered item around on the plate, that works, too.
• Melt the chocolate chips using the double boiler or microwave method. The amount you choose to melt will depend on how many goodies you want to make, but keep in mind that there's a little bit of trial and error here to get the quantity right. You may end up with too much or too little melted chocolate.
• Dip your dipping choice into the chocolate.
• Dip the chocolate-dipped deliciousness into the embellishment, if you're using one.
• Set it on the waxed paper and move onto the next.
• Put the cookie sheet into the refrigerator for the chocolate to set up and harden.
• Enjoy at will.  

Double boiler method

• Set yourself up with a double boiler, stirring an amount of chocolate frequently-to-constantly to ensure even melting. Be careful not to get even a droplet of water into the chocolate or it will seize up and you'll have to start over again.

Microwave method

• Pour an amount of the chocolate chips into a microwave safe container. 
  
• Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on reduced power for about 30 seconds. If the chips haven't melted at all, put them back in at the same power for more time, or a slightly higher power for the same time, then check them again. Stir the chips every time you open the mic because you don't want the chocolate to burn. It'll stink up your house, believe us.
  
• Once the chips have almost completely melted, take them out of the mic and give them a good stir. The heat from the melted chocolate will take care of the remaining chips.

Notes

• Untempered chocolate will "bloom" (turn greyish-whitish) if it sits out too long at room temperature. You can take care of this problem by tempering your chocolate (this can be a complicated process), by making it shortly before you plan to serve it, or by storing it in the refrigerator.
  
• Adding an embellishment will affect how sweet the snack turns out, so keep that in mind.
• Consider too the chocolate-dry good ration. We love the sweet/salty/pretzel taste, and have found that the mini-pretzels almost are too small for the amount of enrobing chocolate. Use your discretion and consider your audience.

Red Carpet Cake

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

This recipe couldn't be simpler and is a variation on one that we've made loads of times before. The original actually started out as a Weight Watchers cake, but once we saw that it suited our food allergy requirements, we immediately turned it into an Allergy Foodies cake, and we've rarely gone back to old-fashioned (but food allergy fangled) baking. This particular variation was a compilation of two or three recipes that we found online, so trust us when we say that no copyrights were harmed in the posting of this recipe.

The beautiful, deep red color fit perfectly for the Chinese New Year-themed party that we made them for, especially when they were topped off with Chinese characters wishing peace, fortune and a good year ahead.

Ingredients

• 1 box white cake mix (we like Duncan Hines because the mix itself is dairy-free/egg-free/nut-free)
  
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (we used Hershey's)
  
• 1 can Sprite Zero (because there are no calories in it - if we're going to have cake around we want to eat it too! If you have another clear soda on hand - calorie-laden or not - it will work just fine)
  
• 1 to 2 teaspooons of vanilla extract
  
• A whole mess of red food coloring
  

Steps

• Empty the cake mix into a medium mixing bowl, add the cocoa powder and combine.
  
• Pour the Sprite Zero into the dry ingredients. When the carbonation has settled down a bit, begin mixing with an electric mixer.
  
• When the ingredients are mostly mixed, add the vanilla (to taste) and red food coloring. We began with about half of a 1 ounce bottle of McCormick food coloring, but the more we mixed, the lighter the batter became, and we added more. Now there's just a drop left in the bottle.
  
• Pour the cake batter into your cooking vessel of choice and bake per the instructions on the box. When there's a range, we tend to bake to the lower end of the range.  Maybe our oven is fast, or maybe the absence of added eggs and oil changes the cooking time. All we know is if you don't want burned up baked goodies, check 'em early.
  

Notes 

• One of the recipes we used in coming up with the one above said to add a teaspoon of distilled white vinegar at the same time as the food coloring and vanilla. Since we're not trained pastry chefs, we didn't understand the value the vinegar was bringing to the table, so we omitted it. Maybe next time we'll give it a shot, just to see what it does, but from where we sit, you don't need it. If you try it, let us know how it turns out. Write to us at allergyfoodies(at)gmail(dot)com.
• Traditional Red Velvet Cake (not as traditionally southern as you might think, by the way) is made with loads of off-limits products. We could have experimented by converting a from-scratch recipe, using soymilk, Ener-G Egg Replacer or another egg replacement concoction, soy sour cream, etc. Clearly, we didn't go that route. Having neither the time nor the inclination to play mad scientist/pastry chef, we went for simple.
  

Devil's Food Fudge Cookies

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Ooowee! We like this cookie - it's fast and fabulous. If you don't have nut allergies, you can add the nuts that the original recipe (courtesy of Duncan Hines) calls for. If you're like us, avoid them like the plague. But, don't avoid this cookie. So, so good. You won't even believe it. And, they taste nothing like cake (which is a good thing).

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Devil's Food Cake Mix
  
• 2 large eggs (we used two eggs' worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer)
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips
  
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (we used extra chocolate chips to make up for some of the volume of the nuts, but not an additional 1/2 cup more)
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350. Grease two baking sheets.
  
• Combine cake mix, eggs and oil in a large bowl. Stir until thoroughly blended.
  
• Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if you're using them). The mixture will be stiff.
  
• Shape dough into 36 1 1/4 inch balls. Place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
  
• Bake at 350 for 10 to 11 minutes. Cookies will look moist. Do not overbake.
  
• Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets, them remove to cooling racks. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

April 2008 Update

We made these recently, and frankly were horrified by the 1/2 cup of oil that the recipe calls for. So, we pulled a foodie and - OMG - modified the recipe all by ourselves! Instead of that 1/2 cup of oil, we used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup applesauce (Did you know that the single serve applesauce cups you can get at the grocery store are 1/4 cup? Now you do.) We also added one to two tablespoons of water to the mix, to get the right consistency. Snaps to us - they were awesome and a little more figure friendly.

Black and White cookie frosting

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Black and White cookie aficionados know that a true Black and White cookie is different from a sugar cookie with black and white frosting. However, we have not yet had luck reproducing the texture of a Black and White cookie in a confection that is safe for our kids. So we make our standard, allergy-safe Sweet as Sugar cookies in a round shape and top them with this frosting. It's a little bit of a cheat, but hey, no harm, no foul.

We found this recipe for cocoa-infused royal icing from celebrity chef extraordinaire (and fellow petite person) Sara Moulton. Our cookies certainly looked like Black and White cookies, even if they weren't an exact replica.

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 4 to 6 tablespoons water
  
• 1/4 cup cocoa
  
• One batch Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Steps

For the white:

• Stir the powdered sugar, corn syrup, lemon juice and vanilla with 2 tablespoons of the water, adding additional water 1 teaspoon at a time until the icing reaches the correct consistency.
  

For the black:

• Remove half of the white frosting to another mixing bowl. Add the cocoa and mix. 
  
• To reach the correct consistency, add water 1 teaspoon at a time.
  

For the cookie:

• After the cookies have baked and cooled, spread half of the cookie with the white frosting and half with the black. 
  
• Depending on how runny you've made your icing, you may need to outline the white half moon and outline the black half moon. Later, when this amount of icing has hardened, you can go back and fill in the blanks.
  

Cookie Concealer, aka Royal Icing

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Let's face it. We all look a little better with some concealer on. A little patch here, a blemish there... Evening out the surface a bit never hurt anyone. And when the cover up is as tasty as this, not too sweet, not too bland, no one really minds the fact that you're simply improving upon nature. Again, this recipe comes from the johnandkristie.com web site. Kudos to them for a yummy posting.

This recipe makes enough to cover about 2 dozen medium cookies.

Ingredients

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
  
• 6 to 8 teaspoons soy milk - vanilla soy milk works just fine
  
• 4 teaspoons light corn syrup
  
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (omit or substitute with vanilla extract to keep this nut free - we omitted it because our soy milk has a vanilla flavor to it)
  
• Food coloring
  

Steps

• In a medium bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and soy milk until smooth. 
  
• Beat in corn syrup and extract (if using) until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
  
• Add food coloring to desired intensity. 
  
• Dip cookies into icing, instead of trying to spread the icing onto the cookie, and allow to dry overnight.
  

Brownies and Applesauce

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

Are we dating ourselves by borrowing that classic line from the Brady Bunch? You know the one, when Peter imitates Humphrey Bogart and says "pork chopsh and appleshaushe" in a very Humphrey Bogart-ish voice. No? Well, then, let's just move on.

The brownies in the recipe we offered up some time ago are still really good, but they take a lot more effort than this recipe does. And sometimes you just don't feel like pulling all of those ingredients out of the pantry...

Ingredients

• 1 box allergy-safe brownie mix (we used Pillsbury, which said it may contain milk ingredients, but we're still calling this dairy-free because the ingredients listing looked dairy-free to us)
  
• canola oil
  
• unsweetened applesauce
  

Steps

• Follow the steps and ingredient proportions on the box.
  
• In lieu of the eggs that the box calls for, use unsweetened applesauce. For each egg, substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce.
  
• Bake according to the box instructions. We tried this in our test kitchen and found that the brownies had to cook longer than the box said (not a lot like double the time, but an extra six or eight minutes on top of the recommended 35, and then we let them sit in the hot oven for a few minutes with the heat turned off).
  

Note: We were so excited we couldn't wait to cut into them. That produced brownie crumble. We then let them cool down for a bit and they stuck together much better.

 

Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

We had a heck of a time finding a sugar cookie recipe that could be rolled out for use with cookie cutters, didn't bake up too hard but also didn't fall apart as soon as you took a bite. Oh, and it had to taste good, too.  Lucky for us, we found this on the johnandkristie.com web site. One batch bakes up into about 3 dozen medium cookies. Your mileage will vary (depending of course on the size of your cookie cutter).

Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine (we used Earth Balance)
  
• 1 cup white sugar
  
• 2 whole egg replacements (Ener-G) (yup, they used Ener-G Egg Replacer, which is what we would have used had they used eggs)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/4 cup tofu cream cheese (Tofutti) (and again, they used what we would have substituted into the recipe - we must have access to the same stores)
  

Steps

• In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar. 
  
• Stir in the egg replacement and vanilla.
  
• Gradually add the flour, baking powder and tofu cream cheese. You may have to use your hands at this point to finish the mixing. 
  
• Form the dough into a long loaf and wrap in cellophane. Refrigerate for a couple of hours.
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or use a non-stick foil or parchment paper.
  
• On a lightly floured surface (or on more non-stick foil taped to your countertop) roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Transfer to baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch between each cookie.
  
• Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bottoms and edges just start to get light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire rack. Store in an airtight container.
  

Great-with-a-cup-of Coffee Crumb Cake

Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free

We love this cake which we think tastes better than the Entenmann's version. We've made it a dozen times and our unsuspecting testers had no idea they were eating allergy-safe crumb cake. In fact, it's so good we've had to stop making it so often.  If you haven't had store-bought crumb cake in a while you would have a hard time distinguishing between the original and our version.

The crumb topping comes from an archived copy of Eating Well Magazine. 

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 Box of Yellow Cake Mix (We use Duncan Hines)
  
• 1 Can Sprite Zero
  

Crumb Topping

• 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
  
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
  
• 1 tablespoon chilled butter cut into small pieces (we use Earth Balance)
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoon lightly beaten egg (we use 2 eggs worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer)
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
  

Steps

• Using an electric mixer, mix cake mix with soda for 2 minutes. 
  
• Pour into prepared baking pan. (we use 9 x 13).
  
• Follow baking instructions on box.
  
• Set the timer for half the total bake time for your pan type and size.
  
• Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt. Work in oil and butter with your fingers until coarse crumbs form. 
  
• Using a fork, stir eggs (replacer) and corn syrup into flour mixture until moistened. 
  
• When the timer beeps, check your cake for firmness. Your cake needs to be firm enough to hold the weight of the crumb mixture without it sinking. When ready, sprinkle crumb mixture over the cake and continue baking for the remainder of the baking time. 
  

Kettle Pop(corn) Rocks!

Egg-free/Dairy-free/Nut-free

We don't know who the genius is that thought up combining salty and sweet and popcorn in one awesome combination, but whoever they are, we owe this brilliantly wonderful person a debt of gratitude and a big kiss on the lips. 

Not only is this little dish among the best fair fare we have ever tasted, it is totally dairy-free, which is next to impossible to find at your local county-fair type of event. After the standard inquisition (Would you please tell me the ingredients in this? No butter? No eggs? No nuts? Really? Hmmm, well, I guess it will be okay...) turned up the fact that this scrumptious deliciousness was safe for our kids, (and a whole grain to boot! can you say "fiber"?) we bought it up by the bag (no no, the extra-extra-large size, please) full. 

The only problem was recreating it at home. Thanks to the Internet, we found a recipe that works like a charm. And thanks to Al Gore, for creating the Internet!

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup (scant) canola - or your favorite cooking - oil
  
• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels (the white are the best, and are definitely worth the extra money)
  
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  
• A few shakes of salt
  

Steps

• Before you begin, make sure you have some sort of vessel that you can pour the popped corn into when it's done cooking. If you don't, you'll have a burnt-on mess and nasty-tasting popcorn.
  
• Add oil to a large-bottomed stock pot for which you have the cover.
  
• Add three popcorn kernels to the oil.
  
• PUT THE COVER ON THE PAN.
  
• Heat the oil and kernels over just-slightly-higher-than-medium heat.
  
• When you hear that the three kernels have popped, move the pan off the heat, add the sugar and stir like a madwoman so the sugar doesn't burn or crystalize on the bottom of the pan. About 30 seconds ought to do it. We like to use a wooden spoon to stir the sugar, but we're creatures of habit and anything would probably do just fine. Use whatever floats your boat. 
  
• Add the kernels and stir the pan one or two more times, for good measure.
  
• PUT THE COVER BACK ON THE PAN.
  
• Return the pan to the heat.
  
• Alternate letting the pan sit for a few seconds with shaking the pan for a few seconds (around 30 second and 5 second intervals, respectively).
  
• When you hear that the popping has slowed, remove the pan from the heat.
  
• Immediately pour the popcorn into the waiting vessel. Do it in batches so you can evenly salt the popcorn. The popcorn will be sticky and you won't be able to just give the popcorn a salt shower before chowing down. Try not to let the popcorn sit on the bottom of the hot pan. After you've dumped some out, tilt the pan so the popcorn doesn't rest on the bottom. 
  
• Tell your children that you messed up the batch and that you need to try again. If they ask why you're eating if it's no good, tell them you're testing each and every piece to see if any of it is salvageable. 
  
• Repeat. 
  

I'm a sucker for a Snickerdoodle

Egg-free/Dairy-free/Nut-free

What a bummer these turned out to be. Other recipes we've tried for cake-mixes-turned-cookie-dough have been good, but not so much with these. To us, they tasted like cake mix, not cookies. Stay tuned, though, for a cake-mix-cookie recipe that is super simple (which makes it super brilliant!) that tastes truly terrific.

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix (read the label to be sure that yours meets your food allergy situation)
  
• 2 eggs-worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer (1 tablespoon Ener-G beaten with 4 tablespoons water)
  
• 1/4 cup oil 
  
• 3 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  

Steps

• Spray a cookie sheet with your favorite choice of baking non-stick sprays.
  
• Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
  
• Stir to combine the cake mix, Ener-G, and oil. 
  
• Shape cookie dough into one-inch balls.
  
• Roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar.
  
• Place dough balls on the cookie sheet.
  
• Using the bottom of a drinking glass, press each dough ball into a flat disc.
  
• Bake 8 to 9 minutes.
  
• Look at them on your counter every day and consider whether they're worth the calories. Um, we mean Enjoy!
  

Bake me a boatload of Oatmeal Cookies

Egg-free/Dairy-free/Nut-free

In solidarity with our children, it's been a good, long time since we've had any nuts. So long, in fact, that while sampling one of these cookies today, we could swear we tasted a certain nuttiness to them. Knowing the ingredients that go into making them, and that the list included no nuts of any kind, was a huge comfort. 

These cookies, from the Quaker Oats website, are equally delicious with chocolate chips as they are with raisins, so take your pick, or don't, and use a little bit of both. The original recipe was for chocolate chips, and that's how it's written here. In parentheses, you'll see the substitutions we made for our batch. 

As for the "boatload," this recipe makes a ton of cookies! You can easily get 5 dozen from these proportions, so if you don't want that many lying around the house, reduce the recipe by the proper amount to suit your need for a cookie fix.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound margarine or butter, softened (it's horrifying to think of it as half a pound of butter, but yes, you're reading that right) (and BTW, we used 1/2 of a 16 ounce tub of Earth Balance 100% Vegan margarine)
  
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  
• 2 eggs (we replaced it with 2 eggs' worth of Ener-G Egg Replacer: 1 tablespoon Ener-G beaten with 4 tablespoons water)
  
• 2 tablespoons milk (we used vanilla flavored soymilk)
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla (we used between a splash and 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract)
  
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional) (we used it)
  
• 2 1/2 cups Quaker Oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked) (we used quick)
  
• 2 cups (12 ounces) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (see note above - in previous batches, 1 1/2 cups of regular sized chips was plenty, and we're chocoholics!)
  
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional) (duh, we omitted this, and used an additional 1/2 cup, for a total of 3 cups, of oats to make up for some of the bulk lost to the absent nuts)
  

Steps

• Heat oven to 375 degrees.
  
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well and set aside.
  
• In a large bowl, beat margarine and sugars with an electric mixer until creamy. 
  
• Add eggs, milk and vanilla; beat well.
  
• Add combined dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
  
• Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and nuts (but again, we left those out), mixing well.
  
• Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.
  
• Bake 9 to 10 minutes for a chewy cookie or 12 to 13 minutes for a crisp cookie. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets, remove to wire rack. 
  
• Cool completely, store tightly covered.
  

Update 7/2/08:

I wanted to make a batch of cookies, and these came to mind. If you've been paying attention recently, you know that I'm crazy about calorie burning these days and therefore didn't want too many of these lovelies lying around in the kitchen, beckoning... So, instead of making a full batch, I went for half. I halved all of the ingredients except the flour (because I didn't feel like trying to measure out 7/8 cup of flour) and the chocolate chips. I went with 1 full cup of flour and about 3/4 cup of chocolate chips.

But the important thing here is that instead of egg replacer, I whizzed up some silken extra firm tofu that I had in the fridge from the Bella Biscotti baking. I measured out 1/4 cup to equal one egg, took the electric beater to it (because I didn't want to make the mini-food processor dirty, and although I don't think it made a significant difference, it probably would have been generally better if I had gone to the extra trouble) and proceeded with the recipe as usual. They turned out great (!) and I will be pulling this rabbit out of my hat again and again.

P.S. According to my calculations, the cookies clock in at about 70 calories each. That's less than 10 minutes on the treadmill per cookie.

Soft and chewy (and delicious!) chocolate chip cookies

Egg-free/Dairy-free/Nut-free

These are so good. The recipe comes from the Silk website, and we're giving it to you exactly as it was written by them. But, we used less chocolate chips than they did, with outstanding results. If you're looking for a crunchy cookie, this one isn't for you. It's soft and light, without being crumbly. Yummy.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter or organic shortening (we used Earth Balance 100% Vegan margarine) 
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
  
• 1/4 cup Vanilla Silk Soy Milk (we used another brand)
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (extract? that's what we used)
  
• 2 1/4 cups unbleached flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (we used dairy-free, nut-free chips)
  

Steps

• Preheat oven to 350.
  
• Cream the butter/margarine/shortening until light and fluffy. 
  
• Slowly add Silk, cream well, then add vanilla.
  
• Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
• Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, then fold in the chocolate chips.
• Drop by teaspoons on parchment lined cookie sheets. 
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Better-than-the-average-box Brownies

Egg-free/Dairy-free/Nut-free

The first of many recipes we've found online, printed and tried. Apparently, it came from Theresa Kingma's cookbook - can't verify it because we got it from a bulletin-board post from someone who got it from this cookbook. But we can verify that it was really good! Our food allergy restrictions happen to include nuts, eggs and dairy (among others), so we use nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free products. You should use whatever suits your family's sitch.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups flour
  
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
  
• 1 cup dairy-free, nut-free chocolate chunks or chips
  
• Optional Topping: egg-free mini-marshmallows or confectioner's sugar
  

Steps

• Preheat the oven to 350. 
  
• Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking pan.
  
• Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, and baking soda. Set aside.
  
• In a large bowl, combine the oil, water, corn syrup, vanilla, and vinegar, blending thoroughly.
  
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir well.
  
• Fold in the chocolate chunks or chips.
  
• Spread evenly in the prepared pan.
  
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.