Someone's In the Kitchen with FPIES: Animal Cookies/Crackers

Involving kids in baking safe treats
is a great way to encourage
a positive relationship with food.

One of the things that I find I struggle with as an FPIES mom is making food fun for my kids. My youngest can eat very few packaged foods, and so anything fun he gets has to come from me. I try to find things both he and my oldest (now FPIES free!) can both enjoy while still not spending ALL my time in the kitchen.

I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with rolled and cut out cookies. Normally a (mostly) decent baker, I have always struggled with not ending up with various disasters when trying anything that involves cookie cutters and a rolling pin. However, I saw some plunger-style cookie cutters in the shape of zoo animals and I was smitten. I knew I had to have them, even before I had any idea what I would do for the dough.

 I came up with this recipe, adapted from these: http://www.isachandra.com/2008/11/chocolate-chip-cookies/, and fortunately, the plunger-style cookie cutters were a life saver. I’m never going back.

 Plunger-style cookie cutters are WONDERFUL

These cookies are tasty, fun for my boys, and not entirely unhealthy for a treat. That’s a win in my book!

Animal Cookies:

Ingredients

1/3 cup olive oil

½ cup turbinado sugar

¼ cup rice milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

• In a medium bowl add oil, sugar, milk, and vanilla. Whisk together vigorously until mostly smooth.
• Add flours, salt, and baking soda and mix together.
• Chill dough for an hour.
  
• Preheat oven to 350°. Either grease a cookie sheet (can be done with your safe oil) or cover in parchment paper.
• Working in batches, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about a quarter of an inch thick and cut out shapes, then transfer to prepared cookie sheet.
• For extra definition, place cookie sheet with cookies in the fridge for about ten minutes.
• Bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on how big your cookies are, or until the tops are lightly browned.

A zoo's worth of animal crackers!

Recipe notes:

*You can use any safe oil, sugar, or milk.

*If vanilla isn’t a safe, they’re still ok without it.

*I have not tried this with alternative flours.

*These also make great graham-style crackers, just cut out square or rectangular shapes with a knife, and then prick a couple of times with a fork.

*The dough may be a little difficult to work with. If you're having trouble mixing it all together, use your hands!

This guest blog post written by Janie Dullard. Janie lives in Pearland, Texas with her husband and two children, both diagnosed with FPIES as infants, though her oldest has now outgrown it. She works as a freelance editor and has written a children's book, available here: https://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Tour-Yellow-Umbrella-Company/dp/0990799522/ . Her days are spent chasing after her two preschool-aged children, working, and concocting strange FPIES-friendly foods that her children will sometimes even eat.

Join Us in the Kitchen!

There are a lot of amazing parents out there, cooking up some amazing creations in the kitchen for their little ones affected by FPIES! Are you one of them? We would love to feature you in our monthly segment, “Someone's in the Kitchen with FPIES!” Write an article, about 500 words or less, featuring a special tip, an allergy-friendly cookbook review, and/or anoriginal recipe and submit it to us viacontact@thefpiesfoundation.org. Upon approval, recipes will be published on our website recipe section and your article will be featured here on The FPIES Foundation's blog. For more information and submission guidelines, contacta.lefew@thefpiesfoundation.org today!