Will is currently at an amazing Preschool that practices a nut-free environment. We are extremely grateful that we don’t have to worry about his exposure to peanuts or tree-nuts, but that only covers two of Will’s six food allergies. And since we are understanding and aware that we cannot ask an entire community to discount cow’s milk, eggs, bananas and strawberries so as to accommodate one child, we have become more involved with the activities in the classroom. Today the class was baking white bread.

When I saw the activity on the calendar, I requested a copy of the bread recipe a few days before they were scheduled to bake. In this case, the white bread recipe was extremely simple and therefore not hard at all to modify so that Will could participate in the project. I then stayed up late last night to bake and make sure that the result was edible — Will has had a cold these past few days and wasn’t really up for baking, not to mention that he is not a bread fan and so I doubted his interest to do this at home… At school, however, I didn’t want him to be left out or set aside to avoid exposure to the dairy products.To my surprise, the bread was delicious, and the replacement items were so easy that I decided to send him into school with the alternate ingredients.

Makes 2 Loaves of White Bread

Active Yeast Packets – 2
Warm Water – 1/4 Cup
White Flour – 4-5 Cups
Sugar – 2 Tablespoons
Salt – 2 Teaspoons
Baking Powder – 2 Teaspoons
TO REPLACE BUTTERMILK: Soy Milk – 2 Cups + Apple Cider Vinegar – 2 Tablespoons Combined
TO REPLACE BUTTER OR MARGARINE: 4 Tablespoons Soy Margarine
Non-Dairy Cooking Spray to Grease your pans

You will need: measuring tools; 2 small mixing bowls; 1 large mixing bowl; wire whisk; rubber spatula; 2 bread pans

In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the active yeast in the warm water and then whisk 4 1/2 cups of flour plus the rest of the dried ingredients together in your large mixing bowl. In another bowl, combine the soy milk and apple cider vinegar. Add the yeast and soy mixtures to the flour and then knead while adding more flour as needed until you can form two loaves. Grease your pans, add the dough and then set in a warm place for 45 minutes to rise.

Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes.

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? No. He didn’t eat it here at home and he told his teacher that we is waiting until he’s a grownup before he ever eats bread. Because, you know, eating bread is so mature, right?

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• Will’s Kitchen Blog (rysalcreative.com)

And I can hear the song playing off of my parent’s record player as my Mom, sisters and I made sugar cookies every Christmas — ending with Goodie, Goodie, Yum, Yum, Yum… A not so typical holiday song from the 1950s — and ever so eclectic when being played on vinyl.

Will’s class at preschool is having a holiday party on Friday and is also baking for the holidays tomorrow as a ‘Tastes of Christmas’ theme, so we had to pull ourselves together to try to find the perfect, non-allergen sugar cookie recipe. Unfortunately, we aren’t quite there yet — although this attempt did leave us with some very yummy cookies, the dough is hard to work with.  So, here’s what where we are now with plans to be perfected by Valentine’s Day! Enjoy!

Please note that this is a 2 day project and will leave you at least 3 cookie sheets of cookies — the exact number depends on the cookies cutters that you decide to use.

Earth Balance Shortening – 1 Cup
Sugar – 2 Cups
Unsweetened Applesauce – 1 Cup
Vanilla Extract – 1 1/2 Teaspoons
Flour – 3 Cups + More for rolling out the dough.
Baking Powder – 1Teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 Teaspoon
Sprinkles or colored sugar for decorating

You will need: 2 mixing bowls; mixer; wire whisk; plastic wrap; rolling pin; parchment paper; cookie sheets; cookie cutters — get creative!

Using your mixer, combine the Earth Balance, Sugar, Applesauce and Vanilla until smooth. In the 2nd bowl, combine the Flour, Baking Powder and Salt and stir with the wire whisk. Add the flour mixture to the shortening combo and then mix on low until the dough is combined and somewhat solid — not too sticky. If you find that it is too sticky, start to add in a little more flour until the consistency allows you to make a dough ball.

Once you have your dough ball complete, wrap it in plastic wrap or place in a covered bowl and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.

12 hours later…. Preheat your oven to 375°. Take the chilled dough ball and start to roll it out on a floured surface. Again, if the dough starts to become sticky as it warms up, throw a little more flour on it to prevent it from sticking. Roll out the dough to approximately 1/4″ thickness and then start to cut out your cookies. Place each cookie onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and decorate as you see fit. Of course, you don’t have to garnish if you don’t want, but COME ON, what fun is that?

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until the are a little golden — not too dark though as they become very hard when baked too long.

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? But of COURSE! AND he’s super excited to bring some dough in to his class so that he can participate in making cookies with his friends…. We’ll supply him with some extra cookies too, just in case the dough finds its way into his tummy before the oven…..

In other news, Will’s Kitchen has added another site to our list of advertisers, A Vapid Blonde!! She’s a dear friend that write with hilarity and choice vocabulary… We wish she wrote more — maybe if everyone goes to her site, she’ll be inspired! GO THERE NOW! And for the repetition, we are also running ads over at http://sprocketink.com/ and http://www.minimunchers.com/ — if you have a website that you would like for us to advertise on, please let us know!

We went back and modified the recipe that we originally found from Vegan Yum•Yum so that an egg substitute, such as Energ-G Egg Replacer, is not necessary. Instead we used apple sauce, which is usually our go-to replacement for the all-mighty egg…. The result is actually a much lighter, fluffier dough… Yum.

Flour – 1 Cup
Sugar – 1/2 Cup
Baking Powder – 1 1/2 Teaspoons
Salt – 1/4 Teaspoon
Nutmeg – Just a dash
Cinnamon – Just a dash
Soymilk – 1/2 Cup
Apple Cider Vinegar – 1/2 Teaspoon
Vanilla Extract – 1/2 Teaspoon
Applesauce – 1/4 Cup
Earth Balance (or non-dairy margarine) – 4 Tablespoons

Dairy Free Chocolate Chips or Chucks for melting — we used Enjoy Life Chocolate Chunks (try not to eat them all before melting!)

You will need: 2 mixing bowls + one glass bowl for melting chocolate & one sauce pot that is equal in size; wire whisk; spoon for mixing; donut maker;

Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another and set your chocolate chunks (or chips) to melt. In order to melt without burning, fill the pot with about an inch of water and then place a glass bowl that just fits in, but does not touch the water, into the pot — add the chocolate and then turn on the burner. Once the water starts to steam, you can turn off the burner — the chocolate should melt accordingly, and remove from the heat once it is all melted. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and then set the donut maker to heat — as mentioned in a previous post, our donut maker is by babycakes, which makes mini donuts.

Once the donut maker is ready, spoon in about a tablespoon of the batter per donut mold and cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the donuts and let them cool until warm — not hot or cold, but warm. Carefully dip each donut into the melted chocolate and then try not to eat them until they have cooled… The longer the donuts cool, the harder the chocolate will become.

Whatever you do, do NOT forget to lick your fingers.

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? YES! Although he really loved the chocolate before it was melted because it wasn’t as messy. Such a PERFECTIONIST!

In other news, Will’s Kitchen is now running advertising over at http://sprocketink.com/ and http://www.minimunchers.com/ — if you have a website that you would like for us to advertise on, please let us know!

The decision to purchase the Donut Maker required very little thought… Will has been asking to try donuts for a while and none of our local bakers seem to fly without eggs. We also checked the shelves at our grocery stores, but the ingredients were all over the place — cow’s milk, milk fats, eggs, peanut facilities. I investigated recipes for making donuts — all requiring frying, which is delicious, but not really fun for Will when it comes to participating. Buying the appliance was a must — And our first attempt to bake was FUN, the donuts come out mini, perfect for Will sized hands. Not to mention, they were yummy and only took 15 minutes as baking time with the Donut Maker is only 3-5 minutes! Winners, ALL AROUND!

For our trial run, we borrowed a donut recipe from Vegan Yum•Yum. If you haven’t been to this blog, you must go there immediately…. Or in a few minutes when we’re finished with our donuts. The recipe calls for:

Dry Ingredients:
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp (scant) Nutmeg
1 tiny pinch or shake Cinnamon

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Soymilk
1/2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Egg Replacer for 1 Egg
4 Tbs Earth Balance

We plan to move on from here — chocolate donuts, jelly… And I’d like to find an egg substitute that doesn’t require an egg replacer… WHO KNOWS, we may just be onto something here!

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? YES! He loved them. The only thing was that he saw the recipe at Vegan Yum•Yum with sprinkles and he then required them… Not really what we had planned in the health foods department, but it’s all a work in progress!

PS. Many thanks to babycakes for a stellar appliance!!

This is a simple Focaccia Bread combined with almost overly ripe tomatoes and shredded basil. The result is a very sweet bread that takes almost no time to make.

Rapid Rise Highly Active Yeast – 1 package
Warm Water – 1 1/2 Cups
Olive Oil – 4 Tablespoons divided
Basil leaves – 1/2 Cup
Kosher Salt – 1 Tablespoon
Flour – 1 1/4 Cups
Black Pepper – To Taste
Ripe Tomatoes – several

You will need: Measuring Cups & Spoons; 2 small to medium mixing bowls; Wire Whisk; Rubber Spatula; Plastic Wrap; Pizza Pan

Start by emptying the Yeast package into the warm water, whisk and then add in 2 Tablespoons of the Olive Oil — save the other two for later and then set the liquid mixture aside.

Start shredding up the basil — This is where Will comes in with his very dull knife and begins the shredding process. Once the basil is cutup, he starts cutting and mashing the ripe tomatoes…. Since the tomato juices tend to make the Focaccia Bread a little soggy, it is OK for him to crush the fruit… The end result, although not concentric, will have a very rustic look.

While your son and/or daughter is busy with tomatoes, mix together the shredded basil, salt and flour and stir with the wire whisk. Once the dried ingredients are combined, add in the liquid mixture and stir the dough until it forms a ball in the mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (about 45 minutes — a good amount of time to clean up the tomato mess).

After the dough has risen, preheat your oven to 425° and brush one tablespoon of the olive oil onto your pizza pan, and then smooth the dough out onto the pan. Sprinkle a little more salt and the black pepper over the dough and then let it rise again, this time for about 20 minutes. After it has reached a reasonable height (we prefer about 1 1/2 inches) lay out the tomatoes and any extra basil that you may have and then bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges are a golden brown.

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? No… no he didn’t. But he did say he would try some later… we still seem to be waiting for that.

At the end of April we were blessed and overjoyed to welcome Will’s baby sister Josephine into our family. So, while not everything has changed, we had to take a break from Will’s Kitchen for a while, but we are happy to say that we are back on our game — the allergen free game, of course. And while we hope that you didn’t miss us too much, we have still been cooking egg, dairy and nut free while following our routines of keeping up with all things allergic…. we just haven’t had the time to share. Moving forward, we hope to be checking in more frequently, but may not be able to on a weekly basis.. Here’s what’s been going on lately:

• Right before Josephine was born (and I mean like the day before) Will and I did take the time to make Sweet Potato Biscuits from The Kitchn, pictured above (sans Maple Butter)… Although the biscuits were tasty, they were rather heavy so we are working on changing the recipe to be a little less filling… And The NOSH – Did Will Eat It? Yes!

• Will had a visit with a new Allergist that offered us some alternative thoughts on our situation. I wrote a silly blog post over at For the Birds, from a parental perspective… We are still discussing where we go from here in terms of the new advice…
• Since April, we have continued making several of our favorite recipes — Corn Bread, Chocolate Chip Cookies, AND – with the garden fresh basil – lots and lots of PESTO…
• We are super excited about trying out this Cinnamon Sugar Radish Chip recipe [the kitchn] and really appreciated the idea of Avocado and Olives Bruschetta from A Scientist in the Kitchen (who knew!)…
• AND, Will’s Dad and I made these Pork Chops with Magic Dust [Serious Eats] last night — YUMMY, although I do recommend cutting the recipe in half even for 4 chops as there was a lot of spice wasted… although Will would never try this at 3 years of age, it still counts as dairy, egg and nut free!

AND because the internet is all knowing, a few other links on allergies include:

• Allergy Girl comes out of her shell [Wall Street Journal]
• Another Nut-Free Mom has some advice on traveling with allergies [The Nut-Free Mom Blog]
• Introducing Milk through baked goods may help fight the milk allergy [Private MD Labs]

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• Outgrowing Allergies (everydayhealth.com)
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And Blueberry Cake just sounded like a good idea! We originally found this recipe over at Shutterbean (one of our new favorite sites), where it reigns as a Blueberry Yogurt Cake… Unfortunately, we have tried just about every soy or non-dairy yogurt that we can get our hands on and nothing seems to work as a good replacement. So for the sake of turning this yummy treat into a dairy, egg and nut free recipe we had to make some alterations that took the yogurt out of the mix.

Shutterbean’s Blueberry Yogurt Cake (please visit Shutterbean for detailed instructions):

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter (at room temp)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
• 1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1  cup chopped walnuts

Will’s Kitchen Blueberry Cake:

Dairy Free Margarine – 1/2 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons (at room temp)
Sugar – 1/2 Cup
Ener-G Egg Replacer – Equivalent of 2 eggs
Vanilla Extract – 2 Teaspoons
Flour – 1 1/2 Cup
Baking Powder – 1 Teaspoon
Baking Soda – 1 Teaspoon
Salt – 1/4 Teaspoon
Soy Milk – 1/4 Cup
Apple Sauce – 1/4 Cup
Frozen Blueberries – 1 Cup
Light Brown Sugar – 1/2 Cup
Cinnamon – 1 Teaspoon
Nutmeg – 1/2 Teaspoon

**We did not replace the chopped walnuts, but eliminated them from the recipe instead — Will didn’t want anything “crunchy” in the mixture… Other good substitutes are unsalted sunflower seeds or nut-free granola…

You will need: Mixing Bowls; Measuring tools; 8×8″ baking pan (or similar); Spatula

Preheat your oven to 350° and mix 1/2 cup butter with the granulated sugar until smooth — add in the mixed Egg Replacer and vanilla. In another bowl,  stir together together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add in the soy milk, apple sauce and gently stir in the blueberries.

In a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour half the cake batter into a buttered and floured 8-inch square baking pan. Sprinkle with half the brown sugar mixture and top with the remaining batter.

Combine the remaining brown sugar mixture with 2 tablespoons butter and sprinkle over the top of the batter. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? YES! It was absolutely delicious — gone in one day. We are definitely making this again… SOON!

Unfortunately (or fortunately — depends on your poison) for us, we haven’t learned our lesson yet and continue to attempt to make egg recipes with the major and minor replacements.  In this case — Ener-G Egg Replacer was our victim of choice and Popovers were the target.

Ener-G Egg Replacer – Equivalent of 2 eggs
FLOUR – 1 Cup
BAKING POWDER – 2 Teaspoons
KOSHER SALT – 1 Teaspoon
SOY MILK – 1 Cup
CANOLA OIL – 1 Tablespoon

You will need: Measuring tools; 2 Mixing Bowls (one small & one medium); Wire Whisk; Spatula; Popover or Muffin Tin

Grease your popover or muffin tin and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. In the small bowl, mix together the egg replacer — you will see that it has the same consistency as egg whites. In the medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and then mix in the soy milk, oil and egg replacer. Stir it all together so that there aren’t any flour lumps and then spoon the mixture into the greased tin about half way per cup.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Unfortunately (or fortunately — again, is the glass half full or are you taking this too seriously?) The popovers are not popovers… instead they are more like mini faux egg muffins… Smaller, they barely rise to “popover” the edge of the baking tin AND although they have the light fluffy interior consistency  — they are not hollow, which is a definite quality of the true popover. Also, having once been a regular egg eater, I could taste the egg replacement — which was a little strange. All things aside, however — eaten as a popover, with a little spread of soy butter — they are quite delicious…

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? No. Despite having a good time making them — Absolutely not. In fact, he told us that they were “disgusting” without even attempting to try them… We think we may have hit a wall here in the 3 year old tasting arena… regardless of the proper use of the word, “disgusting”. On the other hand, however, we were quick to finish them off so we aren’t ashamed to steal a few bonus points for the team.

Trust me, if I didn’t tell you carrots were in them, you’d have no idea.

Dairy Free Semi Sweet Chocolate – 1/2 Cup
Carrot Puree – 1/2 Cup
Light Brown Sugar – 1/2 Cup
Soy Buttery Spread – 2 Tablespoons
Cocoa Powder – 1/4 Cup
Vanilla Extract – 2 Teaspoons
Apple Sauce – 1/2 Cup
Flour– 1 Cup
Kosher Salt– 1 Teaspoon

You will need – Mixing Bowl; Measuring tools; Rubber Spatula; Food Processor for Puree; Sauce Pan; Spoon; 9×9″ Baking Dish.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease the baking dish. Over a very low burner, melt the Semi Sweet Chocolate until creamy and remove from heat. Let the chocolate cool a bit while you puree your carrots and then combine the two in a mixing bowl. Add in the brown sugar, buttery spread, cocoa powder and vanilla and mix together until creamy. Will likes to take his time with this by using a potato masher while pretending to be a giant crushing machine… you may do the same should you be so inspired.

Once the batter is creamy, stir in the apple sauce, flour and salt. The batter will seem thick as you spoon it into the baking dish. Try to keep the batter even in the dish by spreading it around before putting the brownies into bake.

Bake the for approximately 30-35 minutes… Please be sure to wait a few minutes before you attempt to eat — I know, the temptation may be too much to handle, but trust me — the wait will be worth it.

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? YES, well… sort of. He’s had a nibble here and there — but I think he might be slightly suspect after seeing the carrots as part of the mix… Just trying to keep the little man honest — although it probably doesn’t help that his parents are polishing them off before he has too much time to think about it.

Rolled Oats – 1 Cup
Sunflower Seeds – 1/2 Cup (unsalted)
Flour – 1 1/4 Cup
Soy Margarine – One Stick or 4 oz., Cubed
Orange Zest – Grated skin of one orange
Orange Juice – 2 Tablespoons
Light Brown Sugar – 1 Cup
Maple Syrup – 1 Tablespoon
Honey – 1 Tablespoon

You will need – Mixing Bowl; Measuring tools; Rubber Spatula; Grater for zesting; Sauce Pan; Spoon; Baking Sheets; Parchment paper.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a couple of baking sheets with Parchment paper. (Side note: I have mentioned our disdain for Parchment paper before.. but until something better is invented, it really is the best way to prevent your cookies from overcooking or melting before they have a chance to cook.) Once your sheets are ready (relax!), place the oats, sunflower seeds and flour into your bowl — mix together until combined and then set aside. Zest the orange directly into your saucepan, and then squeeze as much orange juice out of the fruit as you can. If you need a little more, supplement to make 2 tablespoons with store bought juice. Add the juice, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey and margarine into the saucepan and then heat on low until melted.

Pour the butter mixture over the dried ingredients in the mixing bowl and stir together with your spatula until combined. Place heaping spoonfuls of the mixture onto the baking sheets and then bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown… cool and then taste!

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? YES! We are pleased to announce another success… But then again, when Crispy combines with Chewy, Sweet AND tangy, who can resist!?!?