Best Eggless Thumbprint Cookies

Life is Good: what's cookin'?

We have our mom's group Christmas social tomorrow, so I have pumpkin bread in the oven and now I am moving on to the easiest cookie ever. Ever.

Thumbprint cookies! I grabbed this recipe off the interwebs a couple of years ago. I love it because it has very few ingredients, it's eggless so my kiddos can eat it, and it is so simple to put together that the kids can help me make them. Normally. They are fast asleep right now.

I've adjusted the recipe a tad. Here it is:

Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I use madagascar)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup strawberry preserves*

 

Glaze Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 to 3 teaspoons water

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (I use madagascar)

Directions:

1. Combine softened butter, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy.
2. Add flour and beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.
3. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour or until firm.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
6. Make indentation in center of each cookie with thumb (edges may crack slightly).
7. Fill each indentation with about 1/4 teaspoon preserves.




8. Bake 14-18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to cooling rack. Cool completely. 




9. Combine all glaze ingredients in bowl with whisk until smooth.
10. Drizzle over cookies.

*Substitute 1/2 cup of your favorite flavor jam or preserves.

Eggless Banana Bread Recipe

Life is Good: and yummy!

A few weeks ago, I helped make snacks for the kids with allergies at our church's Vacation Bible School (VBS). The first day, all of the kids had "celebration bread", which was a slice of banana bread topped with craisins, raisins, and whipped cream (frosting for the lactose-intolerant kids) to form a smiling face.
I've made this recipe several times and have altered it a bit. It's super easy and quick to make and simple enough that kids can do most of the prep. Here is my version:

Eggless Banana Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour (I use all-purpose*)
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
3/4 cup sugar
4 large, over-ripe bananas*
3/4 cup applesauce plus 1 heaping tablespoon applesauce (I use organic, no sugar added)
4 T. butter, melted
1/4 t. vanilla extract (I use Madagascar)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix the first five (dry) ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas well.
4. Stir the butter or margarine, vanilla extract and applesauce into the bananas.
5. Add the banana mixture into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
6. Mix gently by hand, just enough to form a thick, clumpy batter. If the mixture seems too dry, add    more mashed banana to adjust the consistency.
7. (Fold in chocolate chips and/or walnuts, if using.)
8. Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the bread is a deep golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

* NOTE: I have used the half all-purpose/half wheat version of this recipe in the past and while I agree that using wheat flour makes it a tad more healthy, I think using entirely all-purpose flour in this recipe makes it taste best. It also tastes MUCH better if you use very ripe bananas and I add one more to this recipe than the original recipe calls for. The applesauce helps create a soft texture and together with the bananas, binds the ingredients together so you'll never miss the eggs. The original recipe suggests that you add walnuts or chocolate chips. But in my opinion, this bread is divine as is.

Eggless Zucchini Bread

Life is good: thank goodness for chocolate! 

This past year, we were so fortunate to enroll our oldest child in a magnificent preschool. All of the staff were joyful, kind, nurturing, and encouraging. To top it off, the school had a carpool lane, which meant that teachers stood out in the rain and snow and everything in between so that parents didn't have to. I felt especially grateful that I didn't have to get our littlest in and out of the car to drop off the big kid during inclement weather. So the last week of school, I made some chocolate chocolate chunk zucchini bread for the teachers at his preschool as a way to say, "Thank you!!!" for weathering the carpool lane (pun intended!) as well as creating an atmosphere of safety and fun for our child.

Eggless Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

2 C flour

2 C sugar

3/4 C cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

mixture of 3/4 applesauce and 1/2 T baking powder (mixed together in a separate bowl until foamy)

3/4 C canola

3/4 C buttermilk (I have often used milk and it has turned out well)

3 C grated zucchini

3/4 C chocolate chips or chunks (My friend Merie used a 1/2 bag rather than measure them)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

3. Mix applesauce and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.

5. Add applesauce mixture plus oil and buttermilk into large bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.

6. Mix in zucchini and then chocolate chips.

7. Pour into pans (half of batter in each) and bake. In my oven, this recipe is done after about 45 minutes. However, all ovens are different, so I suggest that you start checking the middle of the loaf with a toothpick or cake tester after 38-40 minutes.

Notes:

I leave the cocoa powder out of the recipe when I make this bread for my kids since they are allergic to nuts. Most cocoa powders are processed in facilities where nuts are present. The absence of cocoa powder doesn't affect how delicious it is. However, the addition of cocoa powder kind of "takes the flavor over the edge", if you will, and makes the bread much, much more rich. Try it both ways and see what you think!

The original recipe calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, but it makes for a very obvious cinnamon taste and I prefer it more subtle, especially when leaving out the cocoa powder.

This recipe was originally a cake made with eggs that my friend, Merie, who happens to be a marvelous and adventurous cook, posted on Facebook a few years ago. (Thank you, Merie!) I adapted it to be eggless and the result was more of a bread than a cake, so I bake it in loaf pans, but if you want to try it in a cake pan, go for it!

I made two different recipes--one with cocoa powder (for the teachers) and one without (for my kiddos). Here is a pic of both recipes in the dry ingredient stage.

In this pic, the batter is ready to be poured into the loaf pans.

Here is the Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version...

And the Chocolate Chunk Zucchini bread version (I used Enjoy Life chocolate chunks.)

 

Space Party Cupcakes

Life is Good: We have a five year old!

Recently, our big kid turned five. (*Holds hands to cheeks, shakes head.*) The time has flown by. Indeed, the hubs and I agree that these have been the best five year of our lives!

Since our oldest is silly for space, nutty for Neptune, and mad for the moon, of course, we threw a space-themed party!

I love a party! I mean I lovvvvvvve a party. And the prep is just as much fun as watching our guests enjoy it. This year was especially thrilling because the big kid and I did a lot of the party brainstorming and preparation together.

Baking with my grandmother was a wonderful thrill of mine as a child, so I have been including our big kid in (eggless, due to allergies) baking since he could dump a cup of flour into a bowl. He and I made these blueberry muffin cupcakes for the party. We talked about the different ways that I could decorate the cupcakes---like astronauts faces, maybe with a rocket shooting off of the top, or perhaps an alien? Then I made the mistake of suggesting suggested that it might be fun to let everyone decorate their own cupcake as an activity for the party. The birthday boy jumped at the chance. And as far as party activities go, it was a great idea! (I was just a little bummed that I didn't get to try my hand at decorating them myself...)

The prep was pretty simple. I purchased takeout containers to house all of the decorating supplies. I made different colors of frosting using my Grandma's recipe. Guests could also use chocolate chips (my kids have egg and nut allergies, so these were a blessing to find!), marshmallows, craisins, and fruit snacks that I cut into inch and a half-sized pieces.

The birthday boy thought the fruit snacks looked like alien antennas and asked if we could make the marshmallows look more like eyeballs. That's my kid! So I dipped a toothpick into black food coloring and dotted some marshmallows in the center. Voila!

I threw a plastic tablecloth over the dining room table so that when all of the guests had jumped into their rockets and zoomed home to planet Earth, all I had to do was pull up the sides of the tablecloth and throw it all in the trash!

Eggless Blueberry Muffins

Life is Good: we have sweet treats

We  had a playdate yesterday, so of course we needed a yummy snack! Our family love these eggless blueberry muffins. 

--> Our 5-year old has a severe allergy to eggs (among other food and seasonal allergies) and our littlest is showing signs of an egg allergy, too, albeit much less dangerous than his big brother’s. We discovered the big kid’s allergy when he was nine months old, so as his first birthday approached, what was a mama to do? I couldn’t imagine celebrating without a cake. So I turned to my friend, the internet, and went to work researching eggless cooking and baking. I felt so grateful for all of the mamas and others before me who had offered their thoughts, experiences, and recipes. For our big kid’s first birthday, I adapted my Grandma’s “secret” chocolate cake recipe using tofu instead of eggs. 
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Since then, I’ve (gratefully) discovered a carrot cake cupcake & muffin recipe that I make often. The applesauce/baking powder combo works great as a substitution for beaten eggs.

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I’m equally grateful for the vegan strawberry cupcake recipe I found on egglesscooking.com. It’s a great recipe, although mine never look like the picture that accompanies the recipe on the website.  In this case, vinegar mixed with oil and vanilla replaces the eggs. Be sure to keep your batter firm. Loose batter will make it difficult for the muffins to remain solid after cooling from the oven. (They’ll taste good, but they’ll fall apart.)

I took the strawberry muffin recipe and adapted it for blueberries.  They taste just like any other blueberry muffin…you don’t need to have an egg allergy to enjoy them!

 

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Eggless Blueberry Muffin & Cupcake Recipe

Adapted from a recipe at http://www.egglesscooking.com/2009/02/26/vegan-strawberry-cupcakes/        

Yields: 12 Cupcakes OR Two 8 Inch Loaves

Ingredients:

    1 and 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

    3/4 to 1 cup Sugar (I use less sugar. The fruit makes them sweet enough for us.)

    1 teaspoon Baking Soda

    1 1/3 cup FROZEN blueberries (I use organic.)

    1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (I use Madagascar Vanilla, which is brown in color.)

    1/2 cup Canola Oil

    1 tablespoon White Distilled Vinegar (Any brand is fine.)

    1/3 cup Milk plus another tablespoon or two, if necessary (I use organic whole milk.)

 

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Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Grease/line a muffin tin or grease a 9 inch loaf   pan.

  2. In a large bowl combine together the flour, baking soda and sugar.

  3. In another bowl, mix the oil, vinegar and vanilla.

  4. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together but do not over stir.

  5. Your batter will look a little lumpy at this point.

  6. Now, add the milk and blueberries. Stir together, but do not over stir. If your blueberries have been sitting out for a while and begin to defrost, your batter may turn purplish blue. (My kiddo likes this.) (I use frozen blueberries so that they stay firm while the batter is stirred together as well as while the muffins bake.)

  7. If your batter still seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk. Keep in mind that this is supposed to be a thick batter. There is no egg in it to hold things together, so you don’t want it to be too “loose” or “soupy”.

  8. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tins. I typically get 12 muffins.

  9. Bake for about 22-30 minutes (time varies depending on your oven and also the muffin pan you use) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If baking a loaf bake it for 40-45 minutes and check for the doneness.

  10. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.  

Enjoy!