Tag: Living

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles: No Eggs, No Worries, and So Much Fun!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough TrufflesThis is what happens when a foodie realizes some of the benefits of allergen-free cooking and baking. The pleasure of eating raw cookie dough. And I will admit that this recipe was a happy accident.

Two weekends ago, I picked up a bag of Bob’s Red Mill Shortbread Cookie Mix because I needed a shortcut. The last cake order was an ambitious and time-consuming project and I needed to make cookies shaped like firewood for the campfire cake – stat! I was already getting behind with three failed attempts on allergen-free strawberry cake. So, to experiment with an egg-free, dairy-free, gluten-free cookie dough that would hold it’s shape? No way.  Go for the sure thing. That’s what baking-mix-friends are for.

I had noticed the Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookie Dough Mix on the shelves nearly every time I’ve gone into the store. Until this great hour of need, I have avoided the gluten-free shortbread mix. This might be surprising to some, as my pantry is stocked with just about every gluten-free product produced by Bob’s Red Mill. But not the shortbread one. Why? For some reason I felt that since most shortbread cookies were pretty dry, I could only imagine how dry a gluten-free version would be.

Well, I was wrong. The Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Shortbread Cookie Mix was so soft and pliable and perfect.

When I made the cookies, I had some dough leftover. Since I had substituted the egg with 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, there was no worry of salmonella. What a great feeling to just be carefree about cookie dough! I brought my guys into the kitchen and we had little bits of delicious shortbread cookie dough. The taste was similar to chocolate chip cookie dough, though less intense. So, I decided to see if we could turn it into that.

I added some dairy-free chocolate chips, a little bit of brown sugar, a little bit of vanilla extract and touch more salt. Did it work? Oh my yum… did it ever.

The other night, I made some again without any intention of baking them. I didn’t add the brown sugar and salt like I did before because I was in a hurry. It was still pretty good, but  I finally had a chance to add the brown sugar, vanilla and salt, and it just makes it so… “choco chippy cookie doughy.”  Yes, I said it. And even though Valentine’s Day isn’t here yet, these treats absolutely deserve to be surrounded by hearts. They are so wonderful.

Best of all, they are free of many common food allergens. They are dairy-free, gluten-free, egg-free and I think they might be soy-free but please double check on that. I do not know about the nuts either. I was so much enjoying this that I got distracted. Shame on me – lost in treat land. But, I will make this again and amend this post with that information.

Make and Merrily Eat!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

1 bag of Bob’s Red Mill GLUTEN-FREE Shortbread Cookie Dough Mix

1 bag of Enjoy Life Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free Chocolate Chips (use only 1/2 cup for the cookie dough)

3/4 cup of your favorite solid fat (Spectrum Shortening, Earth Balance or Coconut Oil. Do not use coconut oil if avoiding nut allergies).

1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil (to replace the egg)

1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/4 tsp salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

About 1/4 cup of water (just enough to get the dough to stick together)

Directions:

Prepare the Shortbread Mix with the ingredients listed above. Reserve the remaining chocolate chips.

Roll into bite size truffles and set on a sheet of waxed paper.

Melt the remaining chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until the chips are melted. Note: do not add liquid to these chocolate chips, they don’t behave like the dairy ones. If you add liquid, it will actually turn hard and form into a clay-like texture. (I don’t know why – yet. It is pure cocoa butter and seems to behave differently than cocoa butter that has been cooked and blended with milk or cream.)

Once the chocolate is melted, pour gently over all of the cookie dough truffles. Roll them around to make sure they are fully covered in chocolate. You can also add some Sunbutter to the mix if you like that flavor.

Transfer the truffles to a baking sheet or container lined with waxed paper and put them in the refrigerator so that the chocolate will set.

 

 

French Fries From Scratch – Much Easier Than I Thought

Collage part 2Most food-allergy sufferers cannot order french fries, even if they can eat potatoes.  Why is this? While they sit and watch their friends and family enjoy heavenly crispy morsel after another (french fries are very popular for a reason), the food-allergy sufferer must think of all of the allergens that have been in the frying oil such as breaded chicken, dropped bits of beef, cheese and (for people who suffer from nut allergies) the oil itself is in question. Many restaurants cook french fries and other things in peanut oil. For peanut-allergy sufferers, they can’t even walk into a restaurant using the oil because it gets everywhere. Soy oil is also problematic.

And even if one could go into the restaurant and be okay, how horrible is it to sit there and take in the intense and tempting aroma of golden fries right out of the cooker? I am no psychology expert, but I can say first hand that it is a special kind of torture. And the longer it goes on, the more intense it is. For this reason, food-allergy sufferers have altogether stopped going into fast food chains and restaurants because it’s just too depressing not to be able to order the fries. Lucky for my family, my strong cravings for these things became a bit overwhelming , resulting in a strong intent to learn how to make them once and for all.

Honestly, french fries shouldn’t be unfriendly to the food allergic. When simply prepared in the right oil, they are crispy, salty, delicious hot morsels of heaven that are safe for everyone. And what joy is this? To master the art of preparing french fries?  I really thought it was going to take me several weeks to months (as has the gluten-free baking experiments). Ultimately, it was not as overwhelming of a task as I had thought.

I won’t lie, it isn’t initially easy if you don’t know the art of the fryer. But, aside from my continuing biscuit experimentation, this is a much quicker learning curve. Potatoes are a little finicky. They need time and/or surface area to cook. At first I tried to oven fry them and that took way too long – mostly because I cut them too big. And then I tried a soak and oven bake method, along with a frying method while I was waiting for the oven fries. All of those fries came out with decent results but the process was just too long and time-consuming. I don’t have time to soak and dry and all of that. When you want fries, you want them ASAP. So, I skipped all of the soaking that my tome of cooking wisdom instructed me to do and cut them smaller (which creates more surface area for cooking), and everything came out just the way I wanted.

So, here is how to do it. Remember, it’s an art. So forgive yourself as you learn the nuances of how the oil behaves according to your burner. And don’t walk away from the fries… ever. (Trust me on this).

Directions:

Note:  don’t let the oil get too hot because once it reaches the smoke point, your fries are going to taste burnt. Once your oil reaches the frying temperature of “water test” (when you put a tiny drop of water in the oil and it sizzles), keep it at a medium to med-high.

So, learn that, know it, and fry some heck out of your fries.

You will need

– russet potatoes (a 5 lb bad will do). Figure about 1.5 potatoes for each person.

– canola oil or a vegetable oil that has a high smoke point (do not use olive oil)

– salt

– ketchup (if you like it)

1. Peel, wash and cut your potatoes into french fry shapes (about 1/4 inch thick). If they are too big, they are going to take longer to cook. I cut about 4 russet potatoes for the 3 of us.

2. Warm about 1 inch of oil in a heavy bottom large deep skillet. (Do not use non-stick skillet as it will warp – they are not meant for deep frying).

3. Drop the french fries in the pan, but not too many. Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan as you want all of the fries immersed in the oil.

4. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. Look for a very deep golden brown color. If they are light brown, they might be soggy.

French Fries Ready
This is the color you want before you take them out.

5. Scoop them out and set onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the oil. Salt fairly generously – be careful with the salt. Too much and they’re ruined. You can always add a little more and a little more. Salt while they are hot or the salt won’t stick to the fries. I used the edges of the paper towels to shuffle the fries around in the salt.

There you go! Fries craving = Satisfied. (The boys loved them, too).

Finally! A Super Safe Root Beer Float!

Root Beer Float

Many of us have wondered, “Is Root Beer gluten-free?”

Now, some of you may be wondering why one would even have to ask. It’s a beverage, not bread. However, most dark colas are made to look that way with an ingredient called caramel color.

Caramel color is tricky to know with certainty whether it is processed using wheat or not. Even with the 365 brand, it stated that the caramel color was made from cane sugar. But does that mean it’s only cane sugar? There was no gluten-free indicator on the bottle and I am wary when they don’t label something as gluten-free. So, my fiancee’ (who is quite the thorough food investigator) wrote an email to Whole Foods to ask about the processing of the caramel color from cane sugar in the 365 brand sodas.

I must say that given the bit of push-back that I usually encounter when I am calling or investigating food ingredients, I was quite pleased when he received this initial response:

“Thanks for contacting us.  I have a four year old with life threatening food allergies as well, so I know exactly how hard this can all be, and especially how important it is to us as parents to make sure they can have as inclusive and “normal” a diet as possible.  I will reach out to the soda vendor and see what information I can get about the sugar.  I doubt I hear back from them today, but I will let you know as soon as I do.

Just for the future, if you have any other questions about our private label line, you can email me directly at customer.questions@wholefoods.com.  It’s a little more direct than the web site, if that is easier for you.

I will be in touch as soon as I hear from the vendor on the sugar.”

That was a super friendly and helpful response!!! We were happy to wait a few days. When we heard back from the representative, this is what we received:

“I heard back from our vendor and there is no possibility of gluten in the caramel coloring; they even have a gluten free certification on file.  I hope this helps – please let me know if you need anything else!

If you have any further questions please use our online response form.”

So, with that, we called in my son and told him the exciting news! Today, we paired it with our homemade coconut milk non-dairy ice cream and made a root beer float. He had never had one before. He absolutely loved it.

What a great way to celebrate the joy of safe eating!

Root Beer Float 2