Monkey Face

Even though I said I was going to post weekly, I let the holiday and time with family prevail. Not a bad thing but I did not follow through with my word. For anyone out there who actually pays attention to this blog, I apologize. I intent to do better.

We are starting again. This time with Monkey Faces. Sort of. These cookies taste amazing but don't actually look anything like I was expecting from the recipe description. We'll start at the beginning.

http://community.tasteofhome.com/community_forums/f/30/t/342014.aspx

This was the link to the original recipe I used. If you look at that recipe and remember anything about our food situation, you know that I did not follow the recipe to a T. Perhaps that is why my monkey faces turned out looking like this...

Little aliens, if you ask me. Still, they tasted good. So good that I am fending off the children as we speak.

Here's the recipe:

Mix together:

1/2 C shortening

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C molasses (I used cane syrup since that is what I had and the taste is similar. Another plus, it is cheaper than molasses.)

Add:

1/2 C almond milk (Probably any milk will do but this is what we keep for the allergenic child around here.)

1 tsp vinegar (I just used plain old white vinegar.)

Mix in:

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Drop by rounded tsp. 2-12" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Place 3 raisins on each for eyes and mouth. Bake @375º 10-12 min. or until set. Remove from sheet in 1 min. Faces take on droll expressions in baking. Makes 4 doz. 2-1/2" cookies.                     

I made half of the cookies with raisins and half without. Here's the picture of the others.

I don't know why exactly, but the ones with the raisins are slightly more chewy and soft. The others still taste wonderful but I think I will use the raisins all the time now.

Happy baking and happy blessings. May all your experiences be full of YES.







Cupcake Failure

After I posted about the egg substitutes, I had to make cupcakes. Well, I think I used the wrong substitute. Or it could have been that I used the wrong two substitutes, since I had to substitute for milk as well. Whatever it was, they were weird!

I made the cupcakes following a recipe out of the red and white cookbook for a one layer chocolate cake. I substituted water for the milk; probably, this was the first bad substitute making it too liquid. The other substitute I made was for the egg and I used the 1 T water + 1 T vinegar + 1 tsp baking powder. Oh, and I only had wheat flour (but I have done that before and it wasn't a problem.)

At any rate, they tasted good, though with a grainy texture due to the wheat flour. They not only rose and then sunk, leaving a hollow like a volcano cone, but they spread out over the top edge of the muffin tin. Oh, and they were really crumbly. However, they were eaten and approved of, even if I couldn't ice them and pass them out like cupcakes.

Lesson learned, though. I remember reading in one of the vegetarian cookbooks I have borrowed from the library that some egg substitutes are heat activated and work better for baking. That was probably the biggest problem; I should probably have used the arrowroot sub. I will have to go through and see if I can find a good website that has a list of the best application for each sub. If not, I will try to contact the author of that cookbook and see if I can reproduce it because it is gonna be useful!!

Happy baking.

Snickerdoodles

Cookies are always a hit. One of my favorite things to make in the kitchen has always been cookies. I love cookies.

 

However, if you have food allergies in your family, you know just how few recipes are out there without something that your child is allergic to. Well, here is a good one that does not have milk or eggs. It comes from my childhood and my mother, who taught me so much. Actually, I modified the one from my mom so that it does not include eggs but she won't mind. So here we go.

SNICKERDOODLE COOKIES

• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 1/2 C margarine, softened
• 1/2 C vegetable shortening
• 4 T arrowroot flour
• 4 T water
• 2 3/4 C flour
• 2 t cream of tartar
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 3 T sugar
• 3 T ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400. Mix sugar, margarine, shortening, arrowroot flour, and water. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Shape dough into walnut sized balls.

Mix 3 T sugar and 3 T ground cinnamon. Roll balls in mixture. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 - 10 minutes. Cook on rack. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

Enjoy this treat.

Egg Substitutes

Did you ever get up and decide to work on a recipe only to read eggs in the list and know you didn't have any? Used to be that I would put that recipe aside. Now, I know better. Since DD number 2 has been diagnosed with an egg allergy, I have found out that there are actually a huge number of possible substitutes.

These Snickerdoodles were made with arrowroot flour.

I have used several of them. In fact, the cookies in the oven right now used the arrowroot flour substitute. You will do better if you have an idea of the taste of what you are making is like - mainly sweet or savory. I am going to be making cupcakes tomorrow using an egg substitute. I will let you know how that turns out.

For now, here is the list that I have compiled of possible substitutes for eggs.

Use one of the following bullets  for each egg, up to 3 eggs, paying attention to the type of dish you are making and the flavors that will compliment it.

• 1 tsp baking powder + 1 T liquid + 1 T vinegar
• 1 tsp yeast dissolved in ¼ C warm water
• 1 ½ T water + 1 ½ T oil + 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pkg gelatin + 2 T warm water; mix just prior to use
• 2 T arrowroot flour
• 2 T applesauce + ¼ tsp baking powder
• ½ banana (medium, mashed) + ¼ tsp baking powder
• 1 T vinegar + 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 T lemon juice + 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 T cornstarch + 3 T water

These have worked really well for me. I hope they work just as well for you. Happy baking.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Who doesn't love a pop tart? But have you looked at that label!? Name an allergen and it is probably in there, not to mention all those non-healthy things.

My kids love pop tarts but we have hardly ever bought them. Add that to the food allergy diagnosis. Result: all of us cannot eat them so we will not buy them. Somewhere along the line, a friend had shared this recipe with me for making our own pop tarts. (If I knew where it came from, I would link to it. That cook deserves credit! I did have to change it for allergy purposes, though.) It is so good! It ranks right up there with homemade donuts. Make these ahead of time and they are better, though right out of the oven is good, too.

HOMEMADE POP TARTS:
2 C flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 C shortening
5-7 T ice cold water
jams or jellies of your choice
1 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
1-2 T water
food coloring of your choice
sprinkles of your choice

Mix the flour, salt, and shortening in a bowl. Add the water and mix until well blended but don't over mix. This will make the dough tough. (Up to this point, this is just your standard pie crust recipe for a double crust pie. So, it is conceivable that you could just buy frozen or refrigerated pie crusts to use. I have not tried this.)

Roll the dough out thin and cut into rectangles that are about 3" x 5". Place about 1 tsp of jam or jelly on one end of each rectangle. Fold it over and seal the edges. (You can either wet the edge with water and press closed or use a fork to crimp the edges closed.) The directions said to place on a cookie sheet covered in foil and sprayed with non-stick spray; I put them on a baking stone. Whatever you have... Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes or until browned. If the edges aren't sealed well, the jelly will drip out so be prepared.

After they are cooled, mix up the powdered sugar, vanilla, food coloring, and water until you have a slightly liquid icing. Lay the pop tarts on a cooling rack and drizzle the icing over them. Add the sprinkles and you are ready to eat.

My only other bit of advice: be prepared to either make them again for the next day or be prepared to say no. These are yummy and addictive. Everyone will love them and want more.

Have a great breakfast, treat, or dessert!

Yummy and Cool: Jello Blocks

With the heat like it is, we have to do something cool. Water play in the backyard only goes so far. To help cool us off, I went for something from my childhood. Jello blocks. Only now, they are officially called jello jigglers or some other name like that. I will call them jello blocks since that is what they have always been to me.

In my memory, my mom made these a lot. Whether that is true or not, I don't know. But I remember them often being in the fridge and they were always yummy. And even better, they are allergen free as far as I can tell. So, here we go...

JELLO BLOCKS:

• 2 small packages or 1 large package any flavor jello (I used sugar-free for this but any would work.)

• 2 C boiling water

• 1 1/2 C cold water or fruit juice (I like the fruit juice. It really adds flavor and makes use of the leftovers from canned fruit.)

Lightly grease a 9x13 pan. In a large heat-proof bowl, mix the jello and the boiling water. Whisk until the jello is dissolved. Add the cold water or juice. Pour into the  pan. Refrigerate over night or until well set. Using your choice of cookie cutters, cut shapes out of the jello. I always put the in-between parts in a bowl and serve like regular jello. If you don't want to do cookie cutters, you could always just use a knife and cut them into, get this, blocks!

FYI - Don't leave these out in the heat; they will melt.

I hope you enjoy this cool treat for this ridiculously hot summer!

Sometimes things just don't work...

but sometimes they do.

Now that regular ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbert, and most frozen treats are not in our diet, we are needing to come up with ideas and recipes for something sweet at the end of dinner.

We tried to make apple pie "ice cream" for dessert the other night. While the taste was really good, the texture just didn't cut it. All of the girls liked it and we even had a guest that night who said she liked it. The texture was not up to par and the next evening, it was just not edible because it had become so icy.

Since this didn't work well, we have researched options and will be trying it again. When it works, I will definitely share apple pie "ice cream" with you all.

We have had something good work and it was super easy! Watermelon. It works so many different ways. We have cut it up and just served it like that. The kids like it but popsicles or snow cones are just so much more fun when it is 105 degrees outside. So, we have done two different things with it that worked well.


First, when I was cutting up the watermelon, I saved the juice and froze it. I used the cute little containers that go with the ice shaver from Pampered Chef. Then after the juice is frozen, we shaved it into snow cones/cups using the Pampered Chef ice shaver. A hit!

Second, we took some of the watermelon and its juice and blended it all up really well. Then we just poured it into popsicle molds and froze it. All done!

Now these won't take the place of ice cream so we'll continue working on that but all in all, success!! I hope you are able to find you own ways to stay cool.