Knitting, Music, & Family: Cooking with Clare: Vincent-friendly Sugar Cookies

As the mama of a child with a wide variety of food allergies, I am always on the lookout for new recipes that are as close to "normal" as his diet allows. A couple of years ago, I found a pretty decent chocolate chip cookie recipe that has become a standard in our house. But with the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) coming up, I started looking for a Vincent-friendly (read: "dairy-free, egg-free, wheat-free, sesame-free, nut-free") sugar cookie/cut-out-cookie recipe.

If you aren't familiar with allergen-friendly cooking, I want to let you in on a little secret: although there are some great products on the market that can be used to substitute in a "normal" recipe, it often isn't that simple. The chemistry changes when non-wheat/gluten-free flour is used, and although I use a great egg-replacer, it really doesn't cut it in heavily egg-dependent recipes.

Earlier this week, I came across a simple and straight-forward recipe for Cut-Out Sugar Cookies (Allergy-Friendly). They looked great on paper, but, as they say, the proof would be in the pudding (or, in this case, the cookie). Fortunately, they turned out great - Vincent loves them! And, as an added bonus, Paul, Desmond, and I think they are pretty yummy too. If you are used to a wheat flour-based cookie, the texture is a bit different when you bake with gluten-free flour. However, the texture of this cookie isn't too foreign to those of us used to a "main-stream" cut-out cookie.

A couple of notes: I used Nuttelex instead of shortening. I can't seem to find decent shortening here - no Crisco! And I have used Nuttelex in Vincent's favorite chocolate chip cookies, so I knew it would bake up nicely. Also, I used Orgran Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour and Orgran No-Egg. I didn't make any icing for them this time, but I will when we make them again in the next few weeks. I am planning on trying this icing recipe.