egg and dairy free

January 9, 2012 5 Comments

chocolate chip cookie bars

Many of you know my youngest has severe food allergies. He’s allergic to all dairy products and nuts. Needless to say, it’s challenging. Every school snack, every birthday party, every sports snack… he always looks to me with that face and those big blue eyes… “Can I have it mommy?” It’s heart breaking because 90% of the time I have to say “I’m sorry baby!”

I of course carry snacks with me, but it’s just not the same when he can’t have what all the other kids are having, especially when it’s something chocolate. That’s just a treat he doesn’t get very often.

So I’ve been working on some recipes that I can make for him and that other moms who have little ones suffering from food allergies can eat too! And with that in mind, if you know of a great website, resource, recipe, etc. I’d love to hear about it. My biggest challenge is finding dairy-free chocolate easily. The chocolate featured in this post is from a local bakery, but it only comes in small chips. I want large blocks and chips for melting and baking.

So this weekend I whipped up dairy-free chocolate chip cookie bars. Both of my boys loved them and my oldest does’t have food allergies. Here’s what you’ll need:

2 1/4 cup self-rising flour
1 cup softened butter (I use Smart Balance Light, make sure you look for the “vegan” language on the front as there are a few ”light” versions)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
tsp. vanilla
1 12 0z package semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips (as I mentioned above, these are from a local bakery, but I’d love a resource for large chips and blocks if you know one)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs

Preheat to 375 and in small bowl combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla, beat until creamy. Beat in eggs and then gradually add flour, mixing well. Finally stir/fold in the chocolate chips. Bake in a 8″ pan for 16 min and cut into 2″ squares.

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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cherry chocolate cake cobbler

I was recently asked to come up with a fun dessert for the holidays using my favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock fruit fillings. This was such an easy yes! I use Duncan Hines all the time because most of their mixes are dairy-free and as you know, I have a little one with severe dairy allergies.

This recipe is so easy. I call it a cherry cake cobbler, but it tastes a bit like a cherry cordial brownie. No matter what you call it, you’ll say BAKE ON!

You’ll need three things: Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix, Comstock Country Cherry filling and butter. (I used vegan butter for my little guy.)

Grease the bottom of the pan with butter and spread 3/4 of the can of cherries on the bottom.

Crush up (or sift) 1/3 of the Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge cake mix in the bag and spread over the cherries. (Save the rest for cupcakes or your next cobbler.)

Put pats of butter all over the top of your cobbler and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The cherries will bubble up and the butter will melt cooking the cake mix.

Dish the cobbler, topped with the remaining cherries, AND maybe a scoop of ice cream. My family loved it!

You can visit Duncan Hines’ website www.duncanhines.com to find other great recipes for your holiday get-together! You can also find Duncan Hines on facebook and twitter. As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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pirate treasure map cookies

I recently hosted a pirate party for my youngest son’s fifth birthday. It was so much fun and I have tons of DIY, along with a new pirate party printables collection (available in the shoppe soon), that I can’t wait to share with you over the next few weeks. To start off I thought I would share a super simple cookie idea.

I baked round gingerbread cookies (if you’re in a hurry pick up a bag of Kellogg’s Shortbread Cookies or sugar cookies from the bakery), and flooded them with white icing. It’s actually much easier than it sounds. Here are some tips on flooding from my contributor at Sweet Sugar Belle.

I just let the icing dry overnight and then took a black food coloring pen (I picked mine up in a pack of five colors at JoAnn Fabric and Craft Stores) and drew on an X and dash marks. Just make sure you don’t press down too hard on the icing and remember to make each one a bit different. Oh, and if you want them to be dairy free, and I did of course, use Pillsbury white icing and Pillsbury gingerbread cookie dough.

I have to tell you, these were the first things to disappear off my dessert table! As always, I hope you’re inspired!

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Easter cross krispies

I was in charge of the Easter celebration ”sweet” snack for my son’s preschool class yesterday (there were also healthy snacks… but for some reason I’m never asked to bring those… hmm… ) and I chose to make these fun cross krispie treats.

I was going to pipe a purple ribbon of icing, but then decided that I would be nice to his teacher and not add another shot of pure sugar to each child just before circle time. I should get a gold star or something for being so considerate! {grin}

You can whip these, or any other shape, up with a bit of butter (since my guy has food allergies we used Kellogg’s Rice Krispie cereal and Smart Balance Light Butter to make these dairy free) on your cookie cutter and maybe a touch on your hands.

As always, I hope you’re inspired and HAPPY EASTER!

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Easter chick cookie pops for Parents magazine

I’ve shared on numerous occasions that my youngest has severe food allergies. Well as you can imagine it breaks my heart when he can’t have something pretty and yummy like the other kids. With that in mind, I made these fun dairy and nut free Easter chick cookie pops for my article with Parents magazine.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Sandwich cookies (I used Oreos because they have no milk, egg or nut products), two per chick
Icing (I used Pillsbury white icing because it has no milk, egg or nut products)
Yellow and orange gel food coloring (liquid thins the icing)
Lollipop sticks
Orange non-perils
Resealable bag, icing connector and #2 and #46 tips

Easy steps:

Open your sandwich cookies and lay a lollipop stick inside, pressing it into the filling
Tint ¾ of your yellow icing in a microwaveable bowl
Spoon out ¼ of the yellow icing, set rest aside, and microwave it for 8 seconds
Spoon melted icing over lollipop stick, replace cookie top and allow them to cool for 5 minutes
Melt remaining icing and spoon over each cookie pop; allow them to cool for a minute and then add eyes and beak
After cookie pop is completely dry, pipe on wings (icing tip #46) and feet (icing tip #2)

As always, I hope you’re inspired!

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cherry chocolate cake cobbler

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pirate treasure map cookies

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Easter cross krispies

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