Sugar Cookies: dairy free and nut free

I got a frantic voice message from my friend today, asking how she could make dairy free sugar cookies. Her son is allergic to cow's milk and she's been tasked with baking sugar cookies for his class Halloween party! She said, "I can, and still want to use wheat and eggs though."

Sugar cookies are a great thing to bring to a class party. The kids can decorate them and eat them too. The rough part is that there are so many kids with food allergies or sensitivies these days. In some areas, you can find stores that offer baked goods to accomidate special needs.

Last year, in my son's Kindergarten class, every common allergy was represented. This is when I experiemented many hours to come up with a Sugar Cookie Recipe that was gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and nut free out of necessity. If you are choosing to take matters into your own hands, be sure your kitchen is super clean of any of the offending ingredients before baking.

This year I'm baking dairy free and nut free sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins for my daughter's class. There are just dairy and nut issues in her class, she being one with a dairy issue. This recipe was inspired by a Better Crocker recipe. What's great about sugar cookies is that the treat is also the activity. The kids love to make their own tasty creations.

Sugar Cookies: dairy free and nut free

(does contains wheat, gluten, eggs, and soy)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks

1 tbsp vanilla

1 large organic egg

3 cups all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur Organic All Purpose Flour)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

Mix powdered sugar, Earth Balance, vanilla and egg in your mixer bowl.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheet with cooking spray, Earth Balance or use a Silpat.http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=silpat&x=0&y=0

Divide dough in half and form into balls. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

On a lightly floured cutting board type surface, roll out one of the dough balls to 1/4 inch thick. I often like to "flour" with part flour and part powdered sugar. Using powdered sugar helps you not to over flour your dough. You may mind your dough needs more flour too.

Cut your rolled out dough into desired shapes. I got a great Wilton pumpkin shaped cookie cutter from Amazon.com. I've linked to it here and you can see a picture of it below. I love their comfort grip cookie cutters. I also have one in the shape of a heart for Valentines Day.

Sprinkle with granulated sugar or you can leave it off if you plan to decorate the cookies later.

Bake 7 - 8 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool on wire rack.

Enjoy as is or decorate with frosting.

Frosting: dairy free and nut free

2 - 4 cups
powdered sugar
2 tbsp clear vanilla extract (Using clear vanilla keeps your frosting white, if desired. Regular
vanilla extract will turn your frosting a bit off white. You can add food coloring or fruit juice to add color.)
1/4 - 1/2 cup Earth Balance (sticks or spread works)

Mix the above ingredients in you favorite mixer. I use the Kitchenaid for this with the paddle attachment.

Enjoy!

The kids seemed to have a great time at their class Halloween party. We had parents send in items to decorate the cookies with.

Check out this creation! She only took a bite or two and saved it for later.

Valentines Day Cupcakes and Heart Sugar Cookies: gluten free, egg free, dairy free, nut free

I can definately call Valentines Day a success! The Kindergarten class, with every allergy known to us, were able to enjoy a special treat. Check out the gluten, dairy, soy, nut, citrus free cupcakes and frosting that I made. I used Gluten Free Pantry's Chocolate Cake Mix simply because I found it on sale for $1 box and I couldn't make my regular recipe for that price. I used 3 tbsp apple sauce plus one tsp baking powder per egg, to replace each egg. I made frosting myself.

Frosting: Gluten, dairy, egg, soy free

Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 tbsp earth balance

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup of a liquid such as rice milk, coffee, lemon or orange juice (if citrus is tolerated), apple juice, or tea.

You can add food coloring if you wish. I recommend a natural coloring like India Tree Natural Coloring.

Directions:

Start with Earth Balance and vanilla in the mixer and combine. Add in powdered sugar. Then add the liquid as needed until you are at your desired consistency.

After a few failures, I figured out that putting the frosting into a baggie, cutting of a tip and pipping the frosting on the cupcake in a swirl and then dipping it into the various sprinkles did the trick and it did it quite nicely I must say! Take a look!

The Kindergarteners were so sweet, as I walked around refilling waters, many of them said, unprompted by their teacher, "Thank you so much, these are so good, or these are the best cupcakes ever." One of the parents thought I bought them at the store because I brought them in a plastic container. I went to the bakery at Safeway and asked to buy two of the cupcake containers. They sold them to me for .50 cents each. That sure make it easier to carry them to class.

I also made my gluten, dairy, soy, nut free sugar cookies, from a previous post, for a few of the students in my daughter's second grade class. She's dairy free and there were other with gluten and dairy issues.



They were the perfect texture. Many people said they tasted just like sugar cookies. Well, that's what they are!  I hope your Valentines Day was enjoyable!

Sugar Cookies: Gluten, Dairy, Egg, Soy, and Nut Free

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Being a parent means there are class Valentine Day parties to prepare for. When you are a parent of a child who can't have certain foods, you either make something special for them, instead of what the other kids are having, or you volunteer to make the treats for the class yourself. I seem to be doing that a lot these days along with many of my friends, which is how this post was born.

I got a call last night from a friend, urgently looking for a dairy free sugar cookie recipe. Her son is allergic to dairy, so she's making the class cookie. My BFF is also in need of a gluten, dairy egg, soy, nut and citrus free version. I quickly got out my husband's "The New Betty Crocker Cookbook" (yes, it's really his) and took a look at what that recipe looked like to give me a starting point. The recipe called for flour, butter, eggs, and milk, which I had to replace. From there I made several alterations, to every ingredient in the recipe, and this is what I came up with. Betty wouldn't even recognize it.

Sugar Cookies by Kendra Hubbell

No gluten, soy, eggs, dairy, or nuts.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp apple sauce (or other fruit puree) mixed with 1 tbsp baking powder. This replaces the egg.

1 cup Earth Balance (I used the Earth Balance Soy Free in the tub.)

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp vanilla

½ tsp almond extract (Optional)

3 cups Gluten Free All Purpous Baking Flour (I make my own with 1 1/2 cup Gluten Free Oat Flour, 1/2 cup Tapioca Flour, and 1 cup Potato Starch)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 ½ tsp xanthan gum

Granulated sugar (This is for sprinkling on top of the cookie before baking.)

  

Directions:

In your mixer, add apple sauce plus 1 tbsp baking powder and mix until combined. Allow this sit for a minute.

In another large bowl, combine your dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and xanthan gum. You can sift or mix with a whisk to combine.

Back to your mixer, add Earth Balance, powdered sugar, vanilla, almond extract (optional) and mix, creaming the ingredients until well combined, approximately 3 minutes. 

Add in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar and mix until well combined, about 3- 5 minutes.

Cover the dough and refrigerate at least 2 hours. After two hours was up, the dough seemed softer to me than I expected but it baked up great. This is why the 2 hours or longer in the fridge is very important to keep the dough cold. When I was ready to bake the dough, I was thinking that it looked too wet, so I tested it by baking two cookies. When you are baking gluten free, doughs will not look like what you are used to. They will be sticky and more wet than you would expect. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet.

Scoop out a chunk out of the dough with a big spoon and plop it on your rolling surface that has been "floured with powdered sugar and some of the flour you used. You may need to work some of the flour into the dough if it feels too sticky to work with. You will need to return the dough that you aren’t using into the fridge as it will melt quickly. Roll (I find the best success using a kids rolling pin) dough to ¼ inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookies cutters and place on a cookie sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper.

Sprinkle the cookies with granulated sugar even if decorating with icing or frosting.

Bake in 350 oven for 7 minutes. Cool on rack. Serve as is or decorate with icing or frosting and sprinkles.

Here are some options for decorating:

Icing:

Ingredients:

1-2 cup confectioners' sugar

1-2 tablespoon light corn syrup

2-4 tbsp water

Food coloring to desired color is achieved

Mix all ingredients together. You will need to re-mix in between uses so the consistency remains smooth.

Frosting:

Ingredients:

2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp earth balance

1 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup of a liquid such as rice milk, coffee, lemon or orange juice (if citrus is tolerated), apple juice, or tea. If making a simple stiff vanilla frosting, you can add more Earth Balance and leave the liquid out or just use a bit of water until you reach the right consistency. 

Start with Earth Balance and vanilla in the mixer and combine. Add in powdered sugar until combined. Add liquid as needed until it reaches desired consistency. Cover in airtight container until use. I also store some in the freezer.

Enjoy!