Eliminating eggs---while still trying to make homemade baked goods---might be our biggest food allergy kitchen challenge. We could certainly just buy allergy-safe specialty products, and we do that sometimes. We could buy vegan options at grocery stores and restaurants, and we do that sometimes too. But there is nothing like heating up the kitchen on a wintry day with cookies baking in your own oven! A lot of web sites and cookbooks are available for people who don't or can't eat eggs, whether from allergies, an ethical stance, or another type of health problem, like high cholesterol. Egg replacement recommendations from these sources include boxed specialty powders, mashed up raw fruits, and an amazing array of suggestions in between. I love it when a fruit like pineapple or a vegetable like pumpkin adds enough moisture and bulk to make a favorite recipe by just eliminating the eggs. Usually, though---especially when eggs are used to leaven, or rise, the cookie or bread---we have to get creative with the recipe, and that's where kitchen science comes in. Combining an acidic ingredient with a base, like baking soda, adds those crucial bubbles to the dough before and during baking. This works like those volcano experiments in science class and adds air into the treat so the bread doesn't come out like a brick or the cookie doesn't flatten across the baking sheet. The acidity can come from a fruit, like pineapple, or from just a teaspoon of added lemon juice or vinegar---not enough to affect the taste, but enough to start that kitchen science reaction. Cooks in the Depression era relied on this trick for all sorts of adapted recipes, in fact!
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Hi, I'm Nicole. ABOUT THE BLOG An apothecary is a person or a place. Either one implies healing and relates to pharmacy in its truest sense, as a source of treatment and advice. This blog is my way of uniting my pharmacy training with my efforts to provide a healthy and safe lifestyle for my family. In true apothecary form, I research and prescribe alternative ingredients that work just right in each specific recipe, and I would like to share the results with anyone who needs help making their own family’s kitchen allergy safe and heart healthy. Categories
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I made the 2017 Top-40 Food Allergy blogs!
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