Allergy Free Boston Cream Pie
I’m baking up a special dessert that one would never imagine could be made Allergy-Free. Boston Cream Pie! That’s right, allergy free, gluten free, vegan Boston Cream Pie!
I’m from Boston, where this dreamy creation is our favorite traditional dessert. Boston Cream Pie is actually a cake; two layers of tasty yellow cake, filled with a fluffy pastry cream, and topped with a luscious chocolate glaze. But it’s usually heavily dependant on such top allergens as wheat, dairy, eggs, and sometimes soy. So as a tribute to all of us out there living with food allergies, I’ve come up with a version of this special treat that is free of all top allergens. Bake it and celebrate how delicious allergen-free can be! (more…)
Zeppole Style Gluten Free Vegan Donuts
My last allergy-free donuts, “Gluten Free Vegan Baked Cake Donuts“, really pleased my kids. This new recipe for Gluten-Free Vegan Yeast Donuts, really pleased my husband, Adam, who grew up working at flea markets every weekend in New York.
Adam took a bite and said they tasted just like Zeppole, the Italian-American ricotta cheese-based donuts. Luckily, my husband loves Zeppole, and thinks it’s pretty cool that I’ve replicated the flavor with absolutely no eggs, gluten (which he is intolerant to), or dairy (which he is allergic to). So let’s just call these Zeppole-Style Gluten-Free Vegan Yeast Donuts. Whoa, that’s a mouthful. Forget about saying it; just pop a donut hole in your mouth instead. Enjoy, and pretend you’re at a street fair, or flea market, or perhaps even an amusement park somewhere on a hot summer night.
Allergy Free Chicken Tenders
I’ve often said “you can work without eggs if you have wheat, you can work without wheat if you have eggs, but what do you do if you can’t have either?”. I spend my days finding ways to bake and cook without wheat (gluten) AND eggs. (and also without dairy, soy, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, and shellfish, but that’s not really relevant here!). I’ve gotten pretty adept at baking without these two mainstays of western baking, and actually delight in baking allergy-free, and vegan. But what about breading for our favorite entree comfort foods? Again, reliant on the wheat/egg duo of binding, and breading for the resultant crunchiness. Well, many years ago, when I was writing my first cookbook, The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook, I discovered that I could make a “mock egg” for breading purposes, by emulsifying olive oil and rice milk. It worked like a charm, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Read on to find out how to make homemade allergy free, gluten-free chicken tenders, the ultimate in kid-friendly finger food. Enjoy!
How to make Sunflower Yogurt
I learned more working on this allergy-friendly Sunflower Yogurt recipe than any other recipe so far. It’s been kind of thrilling working through the obstacles (see last post ), and I’m so happy to have learned a new skill. I’m a perpetual student (I spent 22 years in school), and the kitchen continues to be my learning ground. In fact, I call it my chemistry lab.
Making homemade Dairy-free, Soy-free, Nut-free yogurt was no simple task (particularly since I don’t own a yogurt maker, but I figured, “Who does?” and forged ahead.) This recipe took no less than 10 attempts to get right. It challenged me to think in new ways, and the end result is a new concept in yogurt. Seed Milk Yogurt! Packed with protein, vitamin E, and good-for-you bacteria, all without any common allergens — this might just be a new superfood!
How to make Sunflower Milk
This recipe for Sunflower Milk is the first installment in my homemade Sunflower Yogurt recipe, which will be up next. Gotta make the milk first, to get to the yogurt! These recipes were developed in response to a reader request for a homemade dairy-free, soy-free, nut-free yogurt recipe.
I first tried making rice milk yogurt with store-bought rice milk. No go. I tried store-bought rice milk with hemp seeds added (yogurt seems to need protein and carbohydrates to grow). That worked a tiny bit, but tasted gross. Then I tried rice milk with a little rice protein powder added. It tasted like, well… like protein powder, and it didn’t really thicken. I tried using coconut milk. Again it didn’t work. I tried using hemp milk. Nope. And then, I finally realized that most of the vegan yogurt recipes out there rely on homemade cashew milk. Great… except, I can’t use nuts. This is an allergy-friendly recipe.
So this left me back at the drawing board. Until I realized, I could make my own seed milk. Sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds are both mild, and protein rich. One of the two just might work. So, I set about making homemade seed milk. Read on below to learn how to make your own Sunflower Seed Milk and come back next week to get the recipe for yogurt!
Allergy Free Crumb Cake
In honor of Food Allergy Awareness Week, I thought it only fitting that I should post one of my favorite allergen-free recipes which I shared last year on the MARTHA show. I’m posting the recipe here for the first time, and also the link to the video, so you can follow along if you like. This “buttery” moist gluten-free, vegan coffee cake is the perfect treat for any weekend brunch, or bake it up and eat yourself this week along with your family, in honor of all those we love living with Food Allergies.
Allergy Free Mac n’ Cheese
After a whirlwind weekend in Chicago, I’m back from a super fun time at the Gluten and Allergen-Free Expo, where I met up with many of my favorite colleagues in the world of Allergen-Free and Gluten-Free Cooking. It was fabulous to hang out with the talented Elana Amsterdam of Elana’s Pantry, (come back next week to enter for the giveaway of her brand-spanking-new book Gluten-Free Cupcakes). Also thrilled to meet the lovely Amy Green of Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free, the dynamo, Silvana Nardone, author of Cooking for Isaiah, Alisa Fleming of Go Dairy Free, Kelly Brozyna of The Spunky Coconut, Shirley Braden of GFE, Carol Kicinski of Simply Gluten-Free, the Living Without crew of sweet Alicia Woodward, Beth Hilson, and the sublime Sueson Vess (also of Special Eats), the legendary Carol Fenster of The Savory Palate, Kim Maes of Cook It Allergy Free (the app!), the Welcoming Kitchen ladies, Megan Hart and Kim Lutz, and many many more (if I keep going this will read like a verbose Academy Awards acceptance speech, let the cue music begin!)
This weekend I taught a class in which I demoed my Allergy-Free Red Velvet Cake and my Allergy-Friendly Old-Fashioned Mac n’ Cheese. Many of you who couldn’t be there this past weekend have asked me to post the recipe. I’ve done one better and am posting both the recipe, and the video, so you can follow along if you like. Enjoy!
Allergy Free Easter Cupcakes
Hard to believe these colorful beauties are gluten-free, allergy-free, and vegan, as well as free of any artificial color. Don’t they look like they must be bad for you? Nope, 100% natural, GF, and free of all top food allergens. I was inspired to make them after finding that India Tree has a line of all-natural food coloring. This was an exciting find, indeed, since I’ve never been very happy with the line of natural colors from Seelect, and I really don’t like feeding my children artificial dye. Particularly my multi-food-allergic son, Lennon, who seems overly reactive these days. Just last week he broke out in total body hives after I gave him liquid Ibuprofen, and frankly, I don’t know if it was a medication allergy, or if he was having an allergic reaction to the red dye in the Children’s Advil. Better safe than sorry, so I think we’ll avoid both for now.
These India Tree Natural Decorating Sugars make very pretty pastels, or jewel tones. Add the coloring a drop at a time, until desired shade has been reached. The Jelly Beans I used to accessorize are also all-natural and allergy-friendly from Surf Sweets. And the cute little chicks and bunnies are from Williams Sonoma.
Allergy Free Roasted Asparagus Soup
Today’s recipe for Allergy-Free Roasted Asparagus Soup marks the beginning of a series of recipes I’ll be posting over the next several weeks, to help make it easier to celebrate an allergy-free Easter and Passover.
Springtime to me means merging the best of my varying culinary background. With a mother of Roman Catholic and Protestant decent and a Jewish father, I grew up celebrating both Christian and Jewish holidays. To complicate matters further, my father is half Ashkenazi (Jews of Central, Northwestern and/or Eastern European descent) and half Sephardic (Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent). This hybridized childhood strongly influences my cooking today. You will find that the following series of recipes are suitable for either Easter or Passover dinner. Plus, they take advantage of seasonal farm-fresh ingredients to guarantee a healthy, wholesome allergy-free spin on your favorite old-fashioned standards.
Allergy Free Creme Brulee
You people have been asking for a pudding or custard recipe long enough. I’ve had requests for dairy-free, egg-free crème caramel, flan, allergy-free creme brulee, pudding, and custard.  And then Flo Makanai at Makanai, Bio, Bon, Simple requested a vanilla pudding or vanilla custard, free not only of the top 8 most common allergens, but also that it be rice-free, potato-free, and corn-free too. This was a challenge, Flo, thanks for making me sweat! Additionally, Flo lives in France, where I don’t believe she can purchase my go-to: Ener-G Egg Replacer. I really had to put on my thinking cap for this one. Allergen-free, vegan, no rice, potato, or corn, international shopping restrictions I didn’t have a clue.
What I did have, however, was a kitchen blow torch. So I decided to commit myself to a Crème Brulee, and figure it out as I went along.
The trick, I discovered, to creating an allergen-free vegan, internationally-friendly Crème Brulee? Coconut milk for the cream, tapioca starch for the eggs, light brown sugar, vanilla extract, and a few ramekins. This recipe got a lot of love from my son Lennon, but I may attempt to further perfect the concept in coming blogs perhaps with Flan, so check back to see it in a new incarnation. Read on to make your free-of-almost-everything custard!