Allergy-Free Gingerbread Houses and Cookies

by Kelley Lindberg


It’s rapidly becoming the time of year when gingerbread houses and gingerbread men (and their assorted wives, children, neighbors, dogs, and lawn furnishings) make their appearance. Traditional gingerbread recipes are full of common allergens, so I updated my list from last year of allergy-safe recipes for those days when you have entirely way too much creative energy and time on your hands. (Yeah, right. We can all hope.)

Allergy-Free Gingerbread House Kit from Sensitve Sweets

If you’re in the mood to go all Habitat for Gingerbread Humanity on your family, here are a few places to jumpstart your allergy-free baking frenzy:

• Gingerbread Cookies from Kids with Food Allergies
• Gingerbread Cookies from Eating with Food Allergies
• Gingerbread Cookies from Allergy Free Mom
• Gingerbread House Frosting from Kids with Food Allergies
• Links to several site with instructions for Gluten-free Gingerbread Houses at About.com
• Need inspiration? Check out the story of how Izzi B’s Allergen-Free Cupcakes entered a gingerbread house contest, on Julie Anne Rhodes’s website.
• Kim M. just posted a comment that Sam's Club has a gingerbread train station kit that is free from milk, egg, and nuts, for about $10. I wanted to add it here, for those who don't check the comments. Thanks Kim! That's exciting!

And if you don’t have time for baking, but still feel compelled to glue candy to a house (and who doesn’t?), here are a couple of fantastic no-bake options:

• The Candy Cottage has a snap-together plastic gingerbread house that lets you add your favorite icing and candy without the time-consuming baking. Nice! You can even wash off the decorations and use it again next year. Many thanks to Michelle Fogg (UFAN’s fearless president) for finding this one.
• Sensitive Sweets has an Allergy-free Gingerbread House Kit that uses pre-baked gingerbread pieces, and you can order it with or without allergy-free candy from Surf Sweets. The kit is free from nuts, gluten, soy, egg, and dairy. Cool, hunh?

Looking for safe candy to use for decorations? Depending on your allergens (check all labels for ingredients), try Necco wafers, Chex cereal or Frosted mini-wheats for roofing, Smarties (I like to stack them, wrappers and all, to look like firewood or logs on a gingerbread train car), Dum-Dums, Spangler’s candy canes, Bob’s Sweet Stripes Soft Mint Candies (red & white peppermints), Bakers & Chefs Starlight Mints, Skittles, Starburst, your favorite safe fruit snacks and fruit roll-ups, Haribo gummy bears, Jolly Ranchers, Hot Tamales, Mike & Ikes, Dots, Life Savers, rock candy, candy sticks (those swirly candy sticks that they used to sell in general stores – maybe the ones at Cracker Barrel are safe?), or sticks of safe chewing gum.

 

Enjoy your new Home Sweet Gingerbread Home!