How to Test Allergens in a Fun Way

It's a while since we've tested grapes. I thought, the more processed, the better. So, we're testing with wine! Now, before you all go call child protection services, hear me out. This is a very typical recipe from Italy, the alcohol burns out while cooking, so no biggie.

Aren't they pretty?

Cookies are a pretty nifty way to test for food allergens. It gets cooked, so any reaction is somewhat lessened compared to sampling a raw product. Also, the amount of potential allergen per cookie is rather small. So, if you manage to limit the amount of cookies consumed (ha ha) it should be a rather safe way to test.

At least, the theory is, that it gets cooked before sampling... Chipmunk disagrees with this point. 

The dough for these cookies is a pretty purple colour, and the consistency is firm enough for a toddler to handle without too much difficulty. It rolls out wonderfully, could probably make brilliant cut form cookies as well. I elected to make the traditional donut shape for two reasons. Firstly, it's easier for Chipmunk to do. Secondly, it's a lot faster to roll out little donuts than cut out cookies.

Without further ado, here's the recipe to traditional Italian wine cookies!

Ciambelline al vino (rosso) 

2/3 cup wine
2/3 cup neutral tasting oil, e.g. sunflower
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
AP GF flour* approximately 3-4 cups 

Note: I will update this to weight measurements eventually! 

Mix the wine, sugar, baking powder and oil together. Add enough all purpose flour until it forms a ball, but isn't too sticky to handle. Better too sticky than too dry.  

Roll out as you wish, decorate with granulated sugar and bake in the oven at 180C for about 15-30 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. They should get a pretty golden colour on top, the sides will probably stay pinkish. 

* All Purpose Gluten Free flour blend. I use this blend for most of my baking when I'm too lazy to mix and match a custom blend. It's neutral in taste and goes great as a substitute 1:1 for regular wheat flour.

650 g rice flour (mostly brown, with some white)
250 potato starch
100 g tapioca starch
1 tbsp xanthan gum

Blasphemous Fresh Pasta for the Eggless and Glutinously Challenged

It works. Hooray! 

Uncooked, dried tagliatelle 

I have successfully made lasagna and tagliatelle from this pasta. It doesn't get gooey, it doesn't smell bad, it has a decent flavour, doesn't feel mushy. It stays firm and separated, if cooked like eggy wheat (aka poisonous) fresh pasta. Even my Italian husband agreed that it's good enough to forego the buying of store-made lasagna sheets. A resounding success, I would say.

Fresh pasta - gluten free and eggless 

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp psyllium husk powder
pinch of salt
pinch of grated nutmeg
water 

Mix dry ingredients, add enough water until it resembles play-dough. It should form a ball without being sticky or crumbly. You can let it rest for about 15 minutes, or start rolling it out right away. Some rice flour may be necessary for the rolling process. 

If you aren't using the pasta right away, I suggest you coat it with some flour, then wiggle off the excess. This way it won't stick to itself while it dries. 

It's great in lasagna too!  

Discontent is the first necessity of progress.

Food is good when food is good.

Unfortunately, food can hurt. My poor little baby (2 years now) has multiple food allergies, which make life a bit of a living hell on earth some days. Other days, it's not so bad. One has to have a lot of motivation to not regress to the terrible twos when the only items allowed on the menu for two weeks are turkey, quinoa, zucchini, coconut oil and sweet potato.

This is two weeks after I realised that Chipmunk here isn't just crying all the time because babies cry, and I cut out dairy, eggs, soy and got a happy baby. For a few days. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite enough.  Had to further eliminate wheat, barley, rye, oats, kamut, spelt, millet, black tea, sage, tree nuts, peanuts, legumes, potato, eggplant, paprikas, chill, cocoa (sniff), carrot, celery, green beans, endives, avocado, banana, citrus fruits, plums, melons, grapes, blueberries (wtf), pear, rose hip, pineapple, potassium sorbate... and a few more that I've since forgotten. Nobody likes having a baby that cries all day because it's stomach is hurting, regurgitating with nasty acid reflux, and having pus leaking out of it's severe eczema. Diet keeps symptoms in check, so it's all good. 

Be advised, my elimination diet was carried out in collaboration with a doctor.

Chipmunk is now two, happily munching on more than just allergen-free-boobmilk. We've re-introduced soy and a few other things, but we've still got about 40-50 items on our NO-list. We can even bake together now! Yay! 

Edit (December '14): The NO-list is now back up to 62 items and rising after our spectacular failure with testing egg, which resulted in a complete loss of any equilibrium we used to have in her diet. Slowly but surely, we're figuring things out again. It's much easier now that we know what symptoms to look for before it gets too bad, and because she's now old enough to tell us when she's getting reflux or a stomach ache or is itching in her mouth.

The hubs takes rubbish pics.

So, because I'm incapable of keeping things short, the point was that I'm trying to save some good recipes that I've found or tweaked so they're good for our weirdo diet.