Food Allergy Friendly Holiday Cookies

Christmas Cookies

It's that time of year. I've pulled out my allergy friendly go-to holiday cookie recipe cards and I'm heading into the kitchen. I've borrowed recipes from others or adapted old favorites to meet our needs of milk, egg and nut-free. Many of these work well with your favorite gluten-free flour too. No one will ever suspect that these cookies are missing anything. They are all so delicious!

• When a chocolate cookie recipe comes from the Hershey Kitchens, I figure you can't go wrong. This recipe for Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies is easy to adapt. I use dairy-free margarine and I substitute the 2 eggs with a mixture of 3 Tablespoons water, 3 Tablespoons canola oil and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. I use dairy-free chips and eliminate the nuts. Simply divine!
• Food Allergy Mama's Chocolate Crinkles are already dairy, egg, nut free and yummy.
• This classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe by Sunmaid is another staple on my cookie tray. Again, I use a dairy-free margarine and substitute the one egg with a mixture of 1 1/2 Tablespoons water+ 1 1/2 Tablespoons canola oil and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
• Snickerdoodles always remind me of Christmas. Ummmm...that smell of cinnamon sugar baking...Sue W.'s recipe is also easily changed by using dairy-free margarine and substituting the 2 eggs with a mixture of 3 Tablespoons water, 3 Tablespoons canola oil and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
• One of our new favorites is the 2010 FAANtastic Divvies Cookie Contest Winner. Libby, the creator of Double Chocolate Brownie Bites has also provided a gluten-free version of her recipe.

Happy baking...and eating! What cookies will you bake this season?

Best I.M. Healthy Soynut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

Recipe for Soynut Butter Cookies

I used to make soynut butter cookies for my peanut allergic child. He liked them, but this peanut butter lovin' mama wasn't a big fan. When I saw that I.M. Healthy is offering a percentage of their sales to Food Allergy Initiative to celebrate food allergy Awareness Week May 13-19, I knew that I had to try again with these cookies.

I did some recipe searching and some tweaking and I'll tell you, I can't stop eating these cookies.

Seriously, someone needs to stop me!

So if you want a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie that is free of peanuts, milk and eggs that everyone will love, look no further. Buy up some extra jars of IM Healthy soynut butter during food allergy awareness week and get baking. By the way, these freeze well too...and they taste fantastic frozen...

Here's exactly what I did to make the Best Soynut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 stick Fleischmann's Unsalted margarine (only unsalted stick is dairy free)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup IM Healthy soynut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon canola oil ,  1 teaspoon baking powder mixed together until bubbly (this is the substitute for one egg)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup dairy-free semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the soynut butter, vanilla and water, oil baking powder mixture until well blended. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Let me know how much you loved these!