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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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!

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!!

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.

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!?!?

It’s been too hot to cook or bake these days, which has resulted in a bit of a hiatus for Will’s Kitchen… The fun thing is that when the weather happens to break, we have all these fresh ingredients from our gardens to work with! Here are our “Best Blueberry Muffins Ever” with one cup of Blueberries replaced with one cup of freshly picked raspberries… we were able to whip these up during a thunderstorm. Check back when the summer turns to fall — we have tons of awesome recipes to try!

Canola Oil – 2 Cups
Flour – 1 Cup
Salt – 1/2 Tablespoon
Baking Powder – 1/2 Teaspoon
Sparkling Apple Cider – 1 Cup
Fish — Flounder, Cod or other White Fish – 1 pound
Lemon – 1/2 to squeeze

You will need – Mixing Bowl; Measuring tools; Whisk; Knife for Cutting – watch little fingers!; Rubber Spatula; Deep Pot for Frying; Slotted Spoon

Start by pouring the oil into your pot and heat it over medium/low heat and then whisk together the Flour, Salt and Baking Powder in your mixing bowl. Pat down the fish with a paper towel and then trim while looking for any bones to remove and then cut into strips. Slowly pour the Sparkling Apple Cider into the flour mixture and stir with the spatula until smooth.

Once the batter is combined, use your fingers and dip the fish into the batter piece by piece and add to the hot oil. Only add in a few at a time making sure that they aren’t touching — otherwise they will stick together. Let one side cook for approximately 4 minutes and then use the slotted (or holed in our case) spoon to turn each piece over. Cook both sides until the color is golden brown and then remove to drain. Repeat until all the fish is cooked, give a good lemon squeeze over the whole lot and then GO FOR IT!

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? We are happy to announce that YES, Will ate them! He actually tried a bite of each one to see which was the yummiest! It was only a few months ago that he did an about-face rejecting the frozen fish sticks — needless to say, we are really happy to see fish back in his diet again! Just goes to show how important it is to TRY TRY AGAIN!

Bread is not an easy food to accomplish. Most of our attempts have not only taken too long, trying the 2-year-old’s patience, but in many cases the dough never rose to the occasion — making for hard bricks of flour. This recipe was simple AND we were done with the actual preparation in less than 20 minutes — just enough time to make the experience fun!

Adapted from The Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton, Jr.

For One Loaf:
Whole Wheat Flour – 3 Cups
Sugar – 1/4 Cup
Salt – 1/2 Tablespoon
Dry Wheat Yeast – 2 Packages
Hot Water – 1 1/2 Cups

You will need – Mixing Bowl; Measuring tools; Whisk; Rubber Spatula; 9×5″ Bread Pan, greased; wax paper

In your mixing bowl, whisk together the Wheat Flour, Sugar, Salt and Yeast. Pour in the water and stir 50 Strokes to blend with the spatula and add to the bread pan. Wet your fingers so that the dough doesn’t stick to you and push the batter into the corners and smooth it out. Cover with wax paper and put in a warm place to rise — approximately 30 minutes until the batter has doubled in volume.

Who knew that a few blueberry muffins would push us over the edge!

Flour – 2 Cups
Salt – 1/2 Teaspoon
Baking Powder – 3 Tablespoons
Sugar – 1/2 Cup
Applesauce – 1/2 Cup (good idea to have more on hand for snacking)
Canola Oil – 1/4 Cup
Soy Milk – 3/4 Cup
Apple Cider Vinegar – 1 Teaspoon
Frozen Blueberries – 2 Cups

You will need – 2 Mixing Bowls; Spoon; Rubber Spatula; Muffin Tin

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and combine the Flour, Salt, Baking Powder and Sugar in a mixing bowl. Before combining the rest of the ingredients, you might want to offer your son or daughter some applesauce… you know, just to see what happens… Then mix together the Applesauce, Canola Oil, Soy Milk and Apple Cider Vinegar in the 2nd bowl. Pour the liquid mixture into the dried and stir with your spatula until fluffy — almost marshmellow-like. Please note that we don’t use a mixer to stir this all together because you don’t want to over-mix it. If it becomes to creamy.. the results could be rather heavy.

Carefully fold the Frozen Blueberries into the mix and spoon into the muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Light, sweet and — while we pat ourselves on the back — DELICIOUS!

And the NOSH – Did Will eat it? YES YES YES!!! Not only did he eat the muffins, but he commented that he liked them. BUT THAT’s NOT ALL… Midway through the mixing process he was playing with the applesauce when he asked for a spoon, started eating it and then ASKED FOR MORE! He hasn’t eaten anything with a creamy texture since he was teenie tiny! We are over the top here people… Like spaceship over the top!