Egg-Free, Milk-Free, Nut-Free Jell-O Cookies

By Kelley Lindberg


Looking for something new to put into your kid’s lunchbox? I tried making Jell-O cookies to take to a multi-family camping trip this weekend, and they seemed to be a big hit with the kids! (And the adults.)

The original recipe can be found on KraftRecipes.com here: Jello-O Pastel Cookies. However, I had to replace the egg with an egg substitute (I used Ener-G egg replacemer), and the butter with safe margarine. The official Kraft recipe calls for mixing a 3-ounce box of Jell-O into the batter, then sprinkling another 3-ounce box of Jell-O powder on top of the cookies before baking. But the recipe I was following (from a friend) said to add an entire 6-ounce box of Jell-O to the flour mixture, and it said nothing about sprinkling any on top. Adding the whole box to the batter instead of sprinkling half on top made the cookies a much brighter color (and it was less fussy). So do it either way!

I’m assuming that you could use your favorite gluten-free flour mix instead of the wheat flour. If you try it that way, let us know how it works.

Jell-O Cookies (Egg-Free, Milk-Free, Nut-Free)

(Original recipe from Kraft Foods. Allergy-friendly version by Kelley J. P. Lindberg)

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups softened safe margarine
1 cup sugar
1 6-oz box of Jell-O gelatin, any flavor
1 egg or equivalent egg substitute*
1 tsp safe vanilla

*To replace one egg, I used 1 1/2 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 2 Tbs warm water. Or you can use 1 tsp baking powder mixed with 1 Tbs water and 1 Tbs white vinegar. Or you could try using 1/4 cup applesauce.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. (The original recipe says 400 degrees, but mine worked great at 350.) Mix flour and baking powder. Beat butter in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar and Jell-O. Beat until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in egg substitute and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place them 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. (I like to line my cookie sheets with parchment paper so that the cookies slide right off.) You can flatten the cookies with the bottom of a glass if you want, or leave them as balls and they will retain a slightly rounded shape.

Bake 8-10 minutes (slightly longer in high altitudes), until edges are just barely beginning to turn light brown. Cool on wire racks. Makes about 4 dozen.

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!

Allergy-Free Cookies for National Cookie Day!

by Kelley Lindberg


Good news! This week we get to celebrate National Cookie Day! That’s right, December 4 is National Cookie Day, a time when we come together to remember all those cookies that have made a difference in our life. After all, where would we be without them?

In honor of this most venerable of holidays, I blew the dust off my recipe box and went on a treasure hunt for one of my son’s favorite cookie recipes. I got this recipe for Cherry Cookies from the Salt Lake Tribune several years ago, and it’s credited to Pam Pettigrew. Of course, I had to make a few alterations to make it allergy-friendly. It does contain coconut and wheat flour (although you can probably substitute your favorite gluten-free flour), and there’s corn syrup in the maraschino cherries (maybe you could try a safe cherry preserves if you're avoiding corn?). My son and his friends love them.

Do you have a favorite allergy-friendly cookie recipe you’d be willing to share? Post it in the comments (or post a link to its website if your favorite recipe is online) and please give credit to the source where you found it, or tell us if you invented it yourself!

Remember, as you’re baking cookies for National Cookie Day, bake up an extra batch or two (or three!) and put them in the freezer for all those holiday parties, co-worker gifts, and neighbor gifts that are coming up. Cookies freeze really well, assuming you have any left over to freeze. That doesn’t happen often in my house.

And one more tip: Don’t have time to bake? There are allergy-friendly cookies on the market now, like those from Enjoy Life Foods (available at Whole Foods and other markets). If you have a favorite allergy-friendly store-bought cookie, share that with us, too!

Thanks for sharing your favorite recipes. Hope you enjoy this one, and have a happy National Cookie Day!

Cherry Cookies

(source: Pam Pettigrew, with modifications by Kelley Lindberg)

• 2 c. flour
• 1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 c safe shortening
• 1 egg substitute *(see below)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 T rice milk
• 1/2 c. maraschino cherries, chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 c. shredded, sweetened coconut

*(For an egg substitute, I like to use Ener-G egg replacer, but I’ve also used 1 tsp baking powder mixed with 1 T white vinegar and 1 T water, and that works great, too. I haven’t tried using 1/4 c. applesauce, but that might work, also. Use whichever egg substitute you prefer when baking.)

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add shortening, egg substitute, vanilla, and rice milk and mix well. Stir in cherries and coconut. Drop by spoonful on cookie sheet. (I like to line a cookie sheet with parchment paper so the cookies slide right off.) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Gingerbread Men, Women, Houses, and Other Gingery Sorts of Things

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 did a little sleuthing to find some 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.)

So 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 sites 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.

And, if you are infected with the gingerbread house fever, but you REALLY don’t have the time or patience to bake all the components yourself (and let’s be honest here, doesn’t this really describe most of us?), A and J Bakery has an “Allergen Friendly House Kit” that is free from peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, egg, dairy, and sesame seeds. Cool, hunh?

Happy Gingerbreading!

Girl Scout Cookies and Food Allergies

by Kelley Lindberg


If you are related to a Girl Scout, know a Girl Scout, work with someone who has a Girl Scout, or find yourself anywhere within a half-mile radius of a Girl Scout, chances are good you know what time of year it is – Girl Scout Cookie time.

Everyone loves Girl Scout cookies. Or maybe we just love those cute little pig-tailed Warren Buffets trying every trick in the book to convert their mountain of colorful boxes into cold, hard cash. Buying Girl Scout cookies used to be a no-brainer. I’d buy a box or two from every Scout I knew, eat them, and then breathe a sigh of relief that I was safe from big eyes and big calories for another year.

Now, however, it’s not quite as easy, because I have to deal with food allergies. Fortunately, the mother of one of my pint-sized calorie pushers tracks down allergy information for me every year to let me know which cookies I can have in my house. This year, as usual, there are only two types that are safe from nut and peanut contamination: Thin Mints and Samoas. (Note that the Samoas do contain coconut, so if you’re allergic to coconut, avoid them.) Samoas -- yummy cookies topped with caramel and coconut, then drizzled with chocolate -- have always been my favorites, so that’s lucky for me.

Fortunately, the manufacturers the Girl Scouts use comply with federal law to label allergens. Here’s a link to this year’s Girl Scout Cookies ingredients and allergen warnings.

Sadly, all the cookies contain milk, wheat, and soy. None contain egg, though, so if that’s your only allergy, it looks like you can go wild!

It seems like the Girl Scouts add another type of cookie periodically. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if next year, they came up with an allergy-friendly cookie? Especially since this is an organization of, by, and for kids, who have anywhere from 3% to 8% chance of having food allergies themselves, it seems to me that incorporating a food-allergy-friendly cookie would be a big step towards continuing the Girl Scouts’ goal of inclusion.

I’m not the only one thinking along these lines this year. I ran across the High Tech Dad’s blog, where he is also advocating that the Girl Scouts champion allergy-aware cookies in their food drive. Their organization is so big, and their reach is so extensive, they could reach a lot of people and raise a lot of awareness. They might even find that they increase sales by uncovering an entirely new market for their fund-raising efforts. More importantly, they would include those girls in their troops who are allergic and who aren’t comfortable handling all those boxes of cookies they’re supposed to sell. Right now, I imagine a lot of girls have to sit out the cookie sale and miss out on the contests and camaraderie of selling cookies with their friends.

Until that day, however, check the ingredients labels so that you know whether you can order any cookies this year. If you aren’t accosted by a Girl Scout this year but you want to order some, let me know and I’ll hook you up with my cookie connection (who will ship orders of five boxes or more with free shipping!).

I’ve already placed my orders. I can’t wait!

Gluten-Free Resources in Davis County

Yesterday, the Bizarro comic strip in the local newspaper was a cocktail party scene where a bunch of superheroes are standing around with little plates and drinks in hand. Wonder Woman says to Superman, “These are delicious! Have you tried the kryptonite puffs? Oops!... Sorry.”

Superman has a food allergy! Who knew?

For all you Super People in Davis County, Utah, for whom gluten or wheat is your own personal kryptonite, I have good news for you: I’ve found a couple of stores in Layton that stock gluten-free foods and supplies (like flour), as well as a new gluten-free bakery opening next week in Kaysville.

Gluten Free Foods in Layton is a completely gluten-free store! They’re located at 1596 N Hill Field Rd, in Layton, and they’re open Tuesday through Saturday (closed Sunday and Monday). Drop in and talk to the friendly owner about her great selection of gluten-free foods. 801-776-1330.

Harvest Moon Health Foods is a health food store whose owners avoid gluten in their own diets, so they have a good selection of everything from tortillas to bread to pastas, as well as lots of gluten-free protein drinks and supplements. They’re located in Layton at 2146 N Main in Antelope Square (in the strip mall next to Kmart), and they have another store in South Ogden at 1735 E. Skyline Dr. Layton store: 801-825-1389; South Ogden store: 801-479-9474.

Craving gluten-free treats like cookies, cupcakes, mini bundt cakes, or brownies? Your dreams are coming true! At our meeting last Wednesday, Allison Regan, owner of the gluten-free bakery Sweet Cake Bake Shop came to introduce herself and she brought free samples! Trust me, her chocolate chips cookies were unbelievably delicious. Big, soft, chocolaty, and yummy! She’s planning to have her bakery open next week, just in time to fill orders for dried bread cubes (to make gluten-free stuffing, and she’ll provide the recipe!) and gluten-free pie crusts for those holiday pies.

It’s really wonderful to have a resource like hers in this area. She said a grown man actually had tears in his eyes when he tried her chocolate cupcakes, because it had been so long since he’d had a good chocolate cake. When you can bring happiness like that to someone, you know you’re on the right track! Her store is located at 237 W. 200 N., in Kaysville. 801-444-3288.

If you have other food allergies, like nuts, milk, or eggs, note that Allison and other manufacturers often use nut flours in their baked goods, as well as milk and egg products. Allison did talk to us a lot at our meeting about products she could use that would eliminate milk from her baked goods, because so many people who have gluten issues also are allergic to milk. So that may happen in the future, but for now, know that if you have additional food allergies, call ahead to these stores or to Allison to find out if they have any products that are safe for your family.

But for people with celiac disease or wheat allergies, these resources may help bring a little sunshine into their lives! Enjoy!