Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Cupcakes

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I am sure if you have egg and milk allergies in your house, you already have your favorite goody recipes. I recently needed an egg-free recipe to take to a friend's house and had nothing in my recipe box to make. Though the frosting on these cupcakes is my standard Buttercream Recipe and has milk and butter (you could surely sub with an alternate soy or almond milk, and shortening or margarine), the cupcakes are really what I remember being so good. Maybe I was partly surprised that they were so good, but they were really good, all on their own, allergy-free notwithstanding.

If you need a cucpake recipe, don't feel the slightest bit shy about serving these -- even to folks who are perfectly happy eating eggs and dairy. They rose to a nice dome, not spilling over the sides of the tins (although I did leave a little batter in the bowl to not overfill). I found the recipe here, and I made them just the way the recipe is written.

Egg-Free and Dairy-Free Cupcakes

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vinegar
1 t. vanilla
1/3 c. oil
1 c. cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients (I beat briefly with mixer) and pour into muffin tin (use papers) filling just a little over halfway, maybe 2/3. Bake until done, when cake springs back to the touch or a toothpick comes out clean. Mine baked about 15 minutes. Frost with any frosting, I used Buttercream and sugar sprinkles.

In the Cookie Jar -- Sunbutter Oatmeal Cookies

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Guess what I had for lunch today? Yup. They are a little high in fat, but between the Sunbutter and the oatmeal, I convinced myself that they were actually healthy. I should have had a glass of milk to round it out.

Both of my big boys are not big breakfast eaters and would actually rather go without. But, since they don't eat lunch until 11:30 or 12:30, I'd rather they ate a cookie for breakfast than nothing. Last week, I bought a box of Quaker peanut butter oatmeal breakfast cookies. They liked the little cookies, so I thought I'd try to improve on them (although, I must say the ingredient list on the package wasn't too bad).

The recipe I started with came from allrecipes.com and I altered it to use Sunbutter instead of peanut butter because of our one peanut allergy. I mentioned in my Sunbutter cookie post a few weeks ago, that you have to add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the batter when using sunflower butter to prevent the color from being off. The color looks good to me, and the taste and texture are awesome. They have the light crunchiness of a peanut butter cookie and the slightly heavier texture of an oatmeal cookie. Really yummy. Guess what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow?

Sunbutter Oatmeal Cookies*
makes about 48

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup sunflower butter
1 t. lemon juice
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together shortening, butter,
brown sugar, white sugar, and sunflower butter until smooth.
Add lemon juice.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended.
Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt;
stir into the creamed mixture.
Mix in the oats until just combined.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 11 minutes in the preheated oven, or until just light brown.
Cool for several minutes before removing from baking sheet.
Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

* If you would like to alter these back to peanut butter cookies, replace Sunbutter with peanut butter and omit the lemon juice.

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Sunbutter Cookies

If you've stopped by here before you know that I cook for several special food needs (besides general pickiness). I have one child with reflux and one with nickel allergies, who also has live-threatening peanut and tree nut allergies. For the most part, it's not difficult to work around the peanut and tree nut allergies, but there are certain foods that I really miss having -- like Peanut Butter Cookies.

Before our peanut/tree nut allergies were discovered, I made peanut butter cookies quite a bit. And while I do still allow peanut butter in the house (unlike many families who can't have any nut products around), I have not made peanut butter cookies once since our youngest son's allergies were diagnosed almost 10 years ago. I have occasionally treated myself at bakeries or coffee shops, but those cookies usually pale in comparison to a homemade peanut butter cookies.

Well, the other day I got a bee in my bonnet and the kids and I headed off to Trader Joe's to pick up some Sunbutter. If you've never used this product, it is very peanut butter-like, but made with sunflowers instead of peanuts. And unlike most peanut butter-like products, it is completely and totally peanut free. No "made in a facility that processes peanuts and tree nuts" -- this product is made for people with allergies. We've bought it before, but it's fairly expensive compared to peanut butter and my peanut/tree nut allergy kid doesn't like it (which is fairly common among kids who have never experienced the texture of peanut butter), so I don't go out of my way to buy it very often. But, I wanted cookies.

So, I bought two jars and yesterday I made Sunbutter Cookies. They were wonderful. If I didn't know, I don't think I would be able to tell that they were made with sunflower butter -- and they had the exact same texture as a good, homemade peanut butter cookie. So, if you cook for someone with peanut allergies, and you can get your hands on some Sunbutter, try these for a real treat. My allergy kid would not try them -- he is completely convinced he will not like Sunbutter, but at least I knew that he could try them, and I could eat them without the guilt of excluding anyone.

I used a combination of several recipes, all of which are similar to a standard peanut butter cookie. You use the Sunbutter the same as peanut butter, except that you have to add lemon juice. Apparently sunflower seeds are rich in Cholorgenic acid which discolors baked goods. I read that adding a teaspoon of lemon juice keeps that from happening. My cookies looked just like peanut butter cookies, so I suppose that the trick works.

Sunbutter Cookies

1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. shortening
2/3 c. Sunbutter
2 eggs
1 t. lemon juice
2-1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. soda
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Cream sugar, shortening and Sunbutter.
Add eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice.
Add soda and flour and mix until blended.
Roll dough in 1-inch balls and
flatten with a sugar-dipped fork
in the characteristic peanut butter cookie style
(you can just flatten with a glass, if desired).
Bake 8 to 10 minutes.
Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and remove to a cooling rack.

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