Christmas Baking

Perhaps one of the hardest areas to adapt to a dairy and egg free diet is baking. Eggs are pretty important and most butter and margarine is, obviously, dairy. Luckily I was able to find one kind of margarine that was dairy free and available year round. Fleischmanns unsalted margarine. You have to make sure you are getting the unsalted variety. It isn't widely available, but I have found it at a local grocery store. It is not a store I regularly shop at because of location, but when I am in need I pop in and stock up. It freezes well. I have heard rumors that there is another brand called Mother's Margarine that is available around passover, but I have never seen it.

Eggs. I have found the best replacement for eggs to be Ener-G egg replacer. I will also occasionally use flax seed, but I don't care for the texture it adds some baked goods. Applesauce and mashed banana are okay replacements in muffins or pancakes, but not so much in cookies or cake unless you want an apple or banana flavored cookie or cake.

I normally don't do a whole lot of holiday baking. My grandmother bakes oodles of tasty cookies and my mother in law has a delicious pressed butter cookie family recipe and usually gives us 3 or 4 dozen. This year, neither my daughter or I will be able to sample those goodies so I thought I would test out some new cookies to take with us to our various Christmas parties. Some turned out better then others. All 3 of these recipes are adapted from Betty Crocker's Cookie Book.

The Cookies!



The first and best recipe I tried was for Maple Sandies. Because the recipe does not call for egg there was little adaption to be made.

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup dairy free margarine -- softened
1/2 teaspoon maple extract or 1 teaspoon Maple flavoring
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans

Beat brown sugar, butter and maple extract in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in pecans. Shape into roll, 12 inches long. Wrap and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.

Heat oven to 375º. Cut roll into 1/4-inch slices. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Verdict: These turned out really well. Take them out when they are still puffy to the touch. They will harden upon cooling. No one will know they are for a specialty diet. I promise.

Next up we have Sunflower Cookies. I know. Not very Christmasy. But my kids love them some sunflower seeds so I thought these might be interesting.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dairy free margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 2 1/2 tbsp warm water
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted sunflower nuts
1/4 teaspoon yellow food color

Mix egg replacer and water in a cup and froth with a fork.

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla and Ener-G mixture in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, oats, baking powder and salt. Divide dough into one-third and two-thirds portions. Stir sunflower nuts into one-third dough. Stir food color into two-thirds dough.

Shape sunflower dough into two 3/4-inch rolls, 8 inches long. Divide yellow dough in half. Pat each half into rectangle, 8 × 4 inches, on lightly floured surface. Top each rectangle with roll of sunflower dough. Wrap yellow dough around roll of sunflower dough. Press edges together.
Wrap and refrigerate about 2 hours or until firm.

Heat oven to 350º. Grease cookie sheet. Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Cut slits in outer yellow edge about every 1/2 inch to shape tips of petals. Bake 8 to 10 minutes

Verdict: Not bad. As my husband put it, they are different. The flavor is not bad, but you could almost cut the sunflower seed addition in half and have it turn out with a nicer texture. My kids liked them.

Lastly we have Cinnamon Twists.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dairy free margarine -- softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 2 1/2 tbsp warm water
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375º.

Mix egg replacer and water in a cup and froth with a fork.

Beat sugar, butter, vanilla and egg replacer in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Divide dough in half. Stir cinnamon into one half.

Shape 1 level teaspoonful each, plain and cinnamon dough, into 3-inch rope. Place ropes side by side; twist gently. Repeat with remaining dough. Place twists about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until very light brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. While still warm, dredge in powered sugar.

Verdict: Very good when fresh out of the oven. After about a half hour, however they took on the texture of biscotti. Nothing wrong with biscotti, but that just wasn't what I thought these were suppose to feel like. We are not taking these to any parties. We are, however, not throwing them away either. Anything dredged in powdered sugar is bound to be edible. I wouldn't go through the trouble of making twists should I ever make these again. I would just make little balls and be done with it.