Dairy Free Chocolate Covered Eggs - Cabdury Style

Hubby and I are huge Cadbury Egg fans. We would gain about 5 pounds every year around Easter just eating these things and then we cut High Fructose Corn Syrup out of our lives. I may have shed a tear when I realized that meant no more Cadbury Eggs. Hubby no longer being able to have dairy has sealed the casket on this past love affair.

One thing I've learned being GF is that I can make almost anything at home. Just because I can buy it packaged at the store doesn't mean I can't do it myself. Finding the time and energy to try things at home is what I battle the most but I finally gave Cadbury Eggs a try and I was happy to find out that they didn't take that much work.

I was really happy with this recipe and they didn't last long. I should have shared more with the kids but there's always next year.

Chocolate Covered (Cadbury) Eggs - Dairy Free

Adapated from Taste of Home

1/4 C DF butter substitute, Earth Balance works well

7 oz marshmallow creme
1 t vanilla extract

3 C powdered sugar

Yellow food coloring

2 C DF chocolate chips

2 T shortening

In a mixing bowl beat the butter substitute, marshmallow creme, and vanilla until smooth. Add the powdered sugar 1 C at a time until well blended.

Take a quarter of the marshmallow mixture and add some yellow food coloring. Knead until it's an even color then roll into 24 small balls. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 30 min. Cover the remaining marshmallow mixture with plastic wrap and also chill for 30 min.

Divide the white mixture into 24 pieces then wrap around a yellow marshmallow ball. Press into an egg shape with your hands (or you can use an egg mould) then place on wax paper. Continue with the remaining 23 pieces of yellow and white marshmallow mixture. Cover the 24 eggs with plastic wrap and freeze for 15 min.

Melt the chocolate chips and shortening either over a double boiler or in the microwave. If you use the microwave stir every 30 seconds to keep it from nuking in spots. Dip the eggs into the chocolate and place on wax paper until set. Enjoy as they are or you can decorate them like they did at the Taste of Home link above.

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Sugar Cookie Cutouts

To celebrate Valentine's Day I opted for some sugar cookie cutouts and since my life is so exciting I spent Saturday night decorating them. As Hubby said what else would I be doing. He had a good point.

I topped these with a thin layer of my creamy white frosting and decorated them with what I had on hand. Since they're going to day care with the kids I figured I better make them look good. I thought they would be really sweet but they're not, it was a perfect crisp cookie that doesn't over do it on the taste buds.

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

1/3 C DF margarine (butter works if you can have it)

1/3 C shortening

3/4 C granulated sugar

1 t baking powder

Dash of salt

1 egg

1 t vanilla

2 C GF flour, I used Gluten Free Mama's Almond Blend

1 t xanthan gum

Preheat your oven to 375 F.

Beat the margarine and shortening until combined then add the sugar, baking powder and salt. Once this is combined beat in the egg and vanilla then add the flour and xanthan gum. This dough was really dry and I had to knead it a bit with my hands to get it to come together. If the dough isn't easy to handle you can chill it for a few hours, I didn't have any problems working with it right away.

Take half of the dough and roll it out to about an 1/8" thick on a lightly floured surface. Use your desired cookie cutter and cut out shapes then place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes or just until the edges set and the bottoms are lightly browned. I got about 46 cookies out of this.

Gluten Free Gingerbread House Kit

This weekend I'm gearing up to do some baking and I hope it turns out so I can post some dairy free options for my fudge and sugar plum cookies. It's going to be time consuming but I hope worth every minute.

I'm also going to make our gingerbread house so the kids can decorate it on Sunday but I saw on Gluten Free Mom's blog this alternative to baking it all myself. A & J Bakery sells allergen friendly gingerbread house kits you can order online. They are free of peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, gluten, soy, egg, dairy, and sesame. Check them out, it can be the perfect way to save some time during the busy season but also still get in those fun times and happy memories with the kids.

Gluten Free & Dairy Free Kringla

My husband's family has Norweigan roots and kringla is a treat I never had until my mother in law introduced me to it. It's also a treat that Hubby loves and last year I had every intention to make it for him but never found the time. Well I finally found the time. I took my MIL's recipe and tweaked it to make it gluten and dairy free. The results were fantastic! My kids had their first tast of kringla and it was hard to get them to stop

For anyone that doesn't know what kringla is, it's a Norweigan sweet bread that is baked into a little pretzel cookie. It has a nice sweetness to it and is fantastic when served warm with butter.

Becky's Kringla - Gluten & Dairy Free

1 1/2 C granulated sugar

1 egg, beaten

2 1/2 C dairy free sour cream (I used Tofutti)

4 C gluten free flour (I used Gluten Free Mama Coconut Blend)

1 1/2 t xanthan gum

2 t soda

1/4 t salt

In a mixer combine sugar, egg, and sour cream. In a separate bowl mix the flour, xanthan gum, soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture into the sugar mixture. It will be very sticky but all is well. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Divide the dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Too much flour makes it hard to roll out so don't go too crazy. Roll into a "log" and cut into 1 inch pieces. Take each piece and roll into 7-8 inch pencil-like strips. Form each strip into a pretzel shape, or any other shape you desire, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, 12 minutes was perfect for me.

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Mini Pumpkin Pies

My boy requested a Halloween Party a couple months ago and one of the elements to his request was to have pumpkin pie. I'm not even sure if he's ever had pumpkin pie before but when I saw Bakerella's pumpkin pie bites I knew this was the perfect option.

For the crust I used Gluten Free Mama's pie crust mix and it worked wonders. I was able to make 42 mini pies with the crust. Your favorite pie crust will work here.

Mini Pumpkin Pies - GF/DF

Adapted from Bakerella

Double GF/DF pie crust

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature (I used Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream)

1/2 C granulated sugar

1 C canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling

3 eggs

1 t vanilla

1 t pumpkin pie spice

Pumpkin shaped cookie cutter

1/2 C GF/DF chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Roll out the pie crust between two pieces of wax paper that have been lightly sprayed with oil. Roll to 1/4" thickness, I preferred a thicker crust to work with but play around and see what works best for you. Using a pumpkin cookie cutter (mine is about 3 inches in diameter) cut out pumpkins in the crust and then press into mini muffin tins. It's OK if things tear since you'll press the crust into the tin. Make sure the pumpkin stem won't overlap with any other stems and fill up the tin. Brush the crusts with egg white then fill with pumpkin pie filling. If you don't have a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter use a round cutter and then form stems for the pumpkins on your own.

For the pumpkin pie filling mix the cream cheese, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice until thoroughly combined. Fill the mini pies with filling then bake for 17 minutes or until the crusts just start to brown a little.

Repeat with the remaining crust and filling.

To decorate the pies melt the chocolate at 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval. Put a resealable bag in small glass, corner down, and pour the chocolate into the bag. Snip a small bit off the corner then pipe faces onto the mini pies. Store in the refrigerator.

I had a decent amount of melted chocolate left and since I didn't want to waste it I threw some Glutino pretzels down and drizzled them with chocolate. Now Hubby can enjoy some DF chocolate covered pretzels.

4th of July Treats

We celebrated the 4th of July BBQing with friends and one dish I brought was the dessert. I wanted to do something in a patriotic theme but was frustrated with all of the whipped topping based desserts. I'm not quite sure how to pull that off DF so I just avoided it. When I came upon the idea (it's all over the internet) of cutting rice krispies treats into stars and decorating them I knew I had a winner. Who doesn't love rice krispies treats?

Patriotic Krispies

1/4 C Earth Balance Buttery Sticks (or butter if you can have it)

1 bag mini marshmallows

4 C Koala Krisp cereal (or your favorite GF rice krisp cereal)

Red, White, & Blue gel and sprinkles

Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray (make sure it's GF and DF). Melt the "butter" over medium low heat in a saucepan then add the marshmallows and stir until they are melted and blended with the butter. Stir an additional 2 minutes then remove from heat. Add the Koala Krisp and stir until it's evenly mixed with the marshmallow. I like my krispies to be very marshmallowy but if you prefer more cereal then add an additional cup. Spread evenly into the pan, it helps to spray a metal spoon with cooking spray to keep it from sticking to everything.

Allow the krispies to set then use a cookie cutter to cut out star shapes. Sprinkle with colored sugar and decorate with gel.

This would be a great dessert for Valentine's Day, Halloween, St. Patty's Day, etc.