Gluten-Free Adventures: Holiday Cookies!
My family has always made holiday cookies--for instance, my sister Dragon made the Spritz Cookie in the icon here.
Also in the icon is just a bit of a Magic Cookie Bar my Aunt made that year, before I realized I have wheat and corn allergies. I can't eat the original recipe or my family's variant recipe any more, but that's a favorite cookie for me, so I set out to modify it.
This started out as an Eagle Brand recipe, modified a bit by my family. Using that brand of milk is important in getting the cookies to form into bars. Other evaporated and condensed milks are not identical, and the time I tried substituting some other brand, I ended up with a soggy mess even though I almost burnt the cookies. Luckily for me, the Eagle milk is safe (so long as they don't alter the ingredient--I've found that one must read all labels if food allergies are an issue, as manufacturers do change recipes from to time without making the packaging obviously different).
So, once I discovered my food allergies, I had to modify it further. I made a couple of batches, and found Puffed Rice is safe, but awfully bland. Rice Chex worked better. I suspect Gluten-Free Rice Krispies will be similar to the puffed rice (i.e. bland), but haven't tried them yet.
Anyway, here's my current recipe:
Deirdre-Safe Magic Cookie Bars
1 1/2 cups Rice Chex or other safe cereal crunched into crumbs (measure after crunching)
3 Tbsp cane sugar
1 stick actual butter (dairy is safe for me; Pat always used Imperial Margarine, but I don't trust margarine any more--however, if you've got a dairy allergy, feel free to revert to margarine)
Mix cereal, sugar and butter thoroughly, melt into 13 x 9 inch pan, press evenly & firmly to make crust.
Then scatter the other ingredients in layers:
1 cup safe chocolate bits (I use Ghiradelli Bittersweet)
1 1/3 c safe sweetened flaked coconut, and
1 c coarsely chopped walnuts,
Finally, drizzle 1 can Bordens Eagle Brand Milk evenly over it all and bake at 350º for 25 min, cool and cut into bars.
Maybe this year I'll try to figure out a Deirdre-safe spritz recipe so I can make Solstice Fairies and other edible holiday art.
Also in the icon is just a bit of a Magic Cookie Bar my Aunt made that year, before I realized I have wheat and corn allergies. I can't eat the original recipe or my family's variant recipe any more, but that's a favorite cookie for me, so I set out to modify it.
This started out as an Eagle Brand recipe, modified a bit by my family. Using that brand of milk is important in getting the cookies to form into bars. Other evaporated and condensed milks are not identical, and the time I tried substituting some other brand, I ended up with a soggy mess even though I almost burnt the cookies. Luckily for me, the Eagle milk is safe (so long as they don't alter the ingredient--I've found that one must read all labels if food allergies are an issue, as manufacturers do change recipes from to time without making the packaging obviously different).
So, once I discovered my food allergies, I had to modify it further. I made a couple of batches, and found Puffed Rice is safe, but awfully bland. Rice Chex worked better. I suspect Gluten-Free Rice Krispies will be similar to the puffed rice (i.e. bland), but haven't tried them yet.
Anyway, here's my current recipe:
Deirdre-Safe Magic Cookie Bars
1 1/2 cups Rice Chex or other safe cereal crunched into crumbs (measure after crunching)
3 Tbsp cane sugar
1 stick actual butter (dairy is safe for me; Pat always used Imperial Margarine, but I don't trust margarine any more--however, if you've got a dairy allergy, feel free to revert to margarine)
Mix cereal, sugar and butter thoroughly, melt into 13 x 9 inch pan, press evenly & firmly to make crust.
Then scatter the other ingredients in layers:
1 cup safe chocolate bits (I use Ghiradelli Bittersweet)
1 1/3 c safe sweetened flaked coconut, and
1 c coarsely chopped walnuts,
Finally, drizzle 1 can Bordens Eagle Brand Milk evenly over it all and bake at 350º for 25 min, cool and cut into bars.
Maybe this year I'll try to figure out a Deirdre-safe spritz recipe so I can make Solstice Fairies and other edible holiday art.