Tag Archives: dairy free

Lucy’s Maple Bliss Cookies + Giveaway

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Recently, Lucy’s Cookies emailed me and asked if I wanted to sample their Maple Bliss Cookies in honor of Maple Syrup Month.  I grew up in a house where we ate my father’s from-scratch pancakes every weekend, and one of my favorite things in the world is a warm pancake slathered with butter, covered with real, pure, maple syrup.  So of course, I couldn’t refuse!

Lucy Gibney founded Lucy’s Cookies after discovering her son had severe food allergies.  All of her cookies are gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, tree nut and peanut-free.  They are made in a dedicated bakery where trace amounts of these common allergens are tested for.  Not only is this great for individuals with multiple allergies, but multiple allergies within a household.

I’ve had Lucy’s cookies once before.  This past December, my friend served Lucy’s special holiday Merry Mint Cookies at a book club.  I found them light but with a huge punch of flavor.  Everyone else did too.  These Maple Bliss Cookies are also light and crunchy which is driven by the oat-based ingredients (all gluten-free, of course).  This cookie is sightly sweet and the maple flavor is present but not pronounced.    The cookie actually captures the buttery-sweetness of a properly dressed pancake.   I like this, but if you are looking to indulge at the end of the meal, this is not the cookie for you.  Instead, this cookie is best enjoyed in the afternoon with a glass of milk.

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Luckily, I  am not the only one benefiting from Lucy’s Cookies generosity.  I have an extra box to give away to a reader.  Comment on this post by April 17 with your favorite way to enjoy maple syrup, and I will randomly select a winner!

My Gluten-Free Wedding: Special Diet Conscious Reply Cards

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When I first wrote about food allergy etiquette at Weddings, I talked about how I would make my own wedding food allergy-friendly.  I came up with the idea that I would include an option for people to write down their dietary restrictions on the reply cards that they use to RSVP.

Here is what I came up with:



This is a trick I learned from planning conferences at work, where we allow participants to make their dietary restrictions known through online registration.  While this works pretty well for finding out what dietary restrictions we have to work with: gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, vegetarian, kosher, halal, etc;  making sure the person with the dietary restriction ends up with the right food is another story.  When I was in Hong Kong last year for work, we decided to request that separate menus be created for each diet and then pass out the menu to the person as they entered the restaurant.  The problem was, that people took vegetarian menus or gluten-free menus, even if they hadn’t requested the special meal.  So, those with the real dietary restrictions sometimes ended up sans special menu.

Once I know what dietary needs I’m dealing with when the reply cards come back, how will I make sure these people get the right food?  It may not be the most efficient way, but I think the most effective way will be to tell the caterers that we have a certain number of vegetarians, nut allergies, or kosher folks (to name a few special diets) and then liaise directly with my diet restricted guests to let them know to tell the servers that they have a special dish.  We could even remind people to do this on the menu that will be at each seat.  For example, after listing each dinner option it could say, “please let your server know if you have requested a special meal.”

Does this seem like it could work?

 

 

Chocolate Avocado Mousse Pie

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Chocolate Avocado Mousse Pie

I finally made this interesting recipe from Lillian’s Test Kitchen.  It uses avocados instead of dairy for the chocolate mousse.  Weird, right?  Well, Lillian said this was one of her favorite recipes, so I trusted her judgement and went for it and made it for my friend’s birthday dessert.  Oh, so this recipe is vegan, so I have officially baked my first vegan dessert and guess what, I didn’t miss any of the dairy or eggs.

This is an incredible easy recipe- the food processor does most of the work.  I must mention that I used half almond meal (ground almonds in my coffee bean grinder) and half coconut flour for the crust.  Don’t know why, just wanted to experiment.  It was tasty, but the crust ended up like a graham cracker crumbly crust instead of a crisp, flaky crust.  Maybe all almond flour would have been different. The strawberries were key.  They added the perfect burst of juiciness to a somewhat sticky mouthful.  Lastly, I used half Hershey’s dark cocoa powder and half Equal Exchange regular cocoa powder.  It was a delicious combo. 

The full recipe is here.

Oh BabyCakes

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photo by Molly Moss

 

 

BabyCakes, 248 Broome Street, New York, NY 10010

If you live the gluten free lifestyle, you know BabyCakes.  They are a kosher, vegan bakery that doesn’t only bake gluten-free, but casein-free, (mostly) sugar-free, egg-free, and soy-free.  Wow.  And they’ve just opened up a bakery in Los Angeles!

I’ve been to BabyCakes twice now; once for breakfast and once for an afternoon snack.  For my birthday this year, my friend Sarah took me to babycakes for breakfast.  I had the banana chocolate chip bread, which contains sugar (unrefined), but follows otherwise all the above dietary restrictions.  The bread came in a hearty slice which I had trouble finishing, but did eventually.  It was moist, sweet, and really showcased the banana-chocolate flavor combination.  It most definitely lived up to my expectations. 

I returned two weekends ago with my friend Molly who was visiting from St. Louis.  Molly was my roommate in college and I have wonderful memories of coming back to the room and finding freshly baked coconut cupcakes- BabyCakes seemed like the perfect place to take her for an afternoon treat.  Of course we had to try the cupcakes.  We shared a red velvet and chocolate cupcake and I picked up a cinnamon raisin and chocolate chip cookie for later.  Unlike the banana chocolate chip bread, you could tell that these cupcakes were different from a regular baked good, but not in a bad way.  Molly remarked that the red velvet frosting tasted like the smell of cake scented items.  We both agreed that the chocolate cupcake was better than the red velvet because it was moister and the frosting was richer.  The cookies were sampled later that day and were eaten so fast, I don’t have much of a review, just that they were delicious. 

Both times I’ve visited BabyCakes, I’ve eaten there.  BabyCakes only has one counter and a small table in the front.  Seating isn’t all that comfortable but at the counter you have a great view of the bakers adorned in their adorable matching fifties inspired outfits and aprons. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread = $3.65 slice, $30/loaf

Cookies = $1.50, $22.95/lb

Red Velvet Gluten-Free Cupcake = $4.25

Chocolate Gluten-Free Cupcake = $3.95, $43.45/dozen

If you can’t get to NYC easily to enjoy these delectable treats, they ship!