Food Cooking for Special Diets

One of my friends in class has a lot of allergies. She is gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, and she is seriously allergic to bananas. I made it my goal for finals to make her some cookies that she could actually eat with her dietary restrictions - I tried these for the first attempt:

Triple Ginger Cookies

Oven - 325 degrees

3 cups GF flour (I used 1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill GF All-purpose and 1.5 cups quinoa flour)
1 1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (to be reduced next time)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup earth balance sticks, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 eggs (I used Ener-G egg replacer)

3 Tbsp chopped candied ginger (approximate)
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

Mix dry ingredients with a whisk, set aside.
Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg replacer. Slowly add dry ingredients until dough forms. Stir in chopped candied and fresh ginger. Form into small balls and press into approximately 2" discs. Bake approximately 15-20 minutes.
The bottoms of my cookies brown pretty well, but the tops barely get a little tinge of golden brown when they're about cooked all the way through.

I'm pretty happy with these considering it's my first attempt at replacing all 3 troublesome ingredients for my friend, but I will probably make the same dough with vanilla extract and carob chips for her next time, with less salt. Perhaps the egg replacer added to the saltiness?

 

You don't need to substitute the eggs do you?

I have a similar friend who is allergic to dairy and has a gluten intolerance - it is always difficult to 'think outside the square' when she comes for dinner. Good on you for trying to hand make something your friend can eat.

 

Well, for it to be vegan (and some of my friends are vegan; said friend used to be) you can't use eggs. So I didn't.

 

another useful option is Spelt flour - it has less gluten than normal wheat - and has similar properties for baking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt

 

Unfortunately, applesauce was not a viable egg replacer for these cookies, since applesauce really works as an egg/oil replacer if you have wheat gluten to also act as a binder in the recipe. Also, this friend is extremely allergic to flax, so that was not an option (and it is my normal go-to to replace eggs in vegan recipes).

I have a handful of vegan recipes that I can find and pull out for you. It really is interesting to cook and eat vegan - I did it for a few months my last summer in Virginia. Quinoa and chickpeas were my go-to a lot of the time.

And Spindles - said friend is very allergic to gluten, so "less gluten" isn't an option either. Thanks, though.

 

You're pretty special PonyPotato to do this for a friend.

 

Wow, that's a very restricted diet. My younger daughter is highly allergic to peanuts, and I've been put on a low-fat/low-sodium regeme. Our meals are pretty bland, at least until Mrs. Coaster decides she needs a break from the blandness.

There are a lot of vegan goodies out there - "Uncle Eddie's" and "Isabella's" brands of cookies jump to mind. It's shocking how good those are, and they are vegan.

 

The cookies were a success! She told me she can't stop eating them, and the professor I have who is also gluten free enjoyed them a lot as well. Next on the list will be using gluten-free vanilla extract and carob chips in the same dough to make them a decent chocolate chip cookie alternative.

 

ThyCa, a group for the support of thyroid cancer patients, has a great iodine-free cookbook (free on their website), as you have to be on a two week iodine-free diet prior to receiving radioactive iodine as part of your treatment. My sister was a godsend and mailed a bunch of pre-prepared meals to me, which my college's dining hall was nice enough to store for me in their freezer. Some of the recipes in there become some of my favorites including their mini meatloaves and their honey-garlic dressing/dipping sauce. I was addicted to that shit for months!

 

My 4-year-old son has similar food allergies; gluten, dairy, tree nuts. We've found that more and more restaurants are becoming aware and able to work with allergies; and we've become very adept at cooking around his special needs. Bob's Red Mill offers lots of gluten-free flours and mixes. And for store-bought sweets, nothing beats Enjoy Life. They offer a wide variety of cookies, as well as chocolate chips. Everything they make is free of the Top 8 allergens.