Today I am doing a recipe post using the fabulous recipe cards from Canvas Corp/7gypsies. They have quite a few to choose from which you can find here. Here is my card...
I clipped a photo along with a cut out from Canvas Corp Jolly Christmas Sayings Paper. My recipe card is sitting on 7gypsies Santa's Journey paper. This is a beautiful line of papers which you can see here.
A year ago I was diagnosed with food allergies. I had gotten to the point where my stuffy, sinus jammed nose & seasonal allergies, was a year round saga. Popping allergy meds around the clock was making me jumpy and mentally speedy. Not to mention my kleenex bill was astounding.
Tired of my ears crackling 1000 times a day I took the plunge, allergy testing. 70 needle pricks in my arm later, I found the cause of my misery was not just the flora & fauna. I was allergic to horses, dogs, cats and sensitive to wheat, dairy & gasp, chocolate, among other things. Within 3 weeks of giving up my favorite foods in the world, staying clear of my cat or washing my hands after touching her & learning to rotate food every 4 days to prevent further allergies, I was med free. The difference has been amazing, in unexpected ways. I have energy all day long, no more tired at 1pm, 4pm, 8pm...wheat really acts like sugar in our bodies. My head is clear not just of mucus but my thoughts too. I have had minor depression issues, bam gone. The best part is no more crackling/popping ears.
The downside is missing food that I love. The biggest challenge, I have learned gluten makes everything taste good. Gluten Free means losing that soft delicious french bread texture. Also gluten is in everything even Twizzlers! It is used as a binder in a lot of sauces, candies etc and because...it makes everything taste good! Due to all of the above of course my Christmas Cookie recipe had to be GF! Adding to that challenge is I have to be dairy free too. I have made quite a few fails testing out other recipes as the substitutions end up tanking the result. It really is food engineering!
With this cookie challenge looming, I found this recipe from Pinterest, to the Beard + Bonnet 12 days of Christmas Cookies 2014. I decided to go with Gluten Free Pistachio Logs.
I made these with my son Mac, Christmas music going, eggnog sipping, King Arthur Gluten Free flour flying.
The result I am thrilled to say is awesome! Even my husband who has to suffer my allergy quite often with me is surprised to taste how good these are. One of the things I miss most is shortbread cookies-these taste very shortbread like!!!!! Without the butter!!!!! The substitution I made was instead of 1 cup butter I used 1 cup Crisco butter flavor shortening + 2tbsps water.
These are light and super flavorful plus they do have that buttery flavor. They have a fabulous texture which is huge! The one downside is they are a tad crumbly. I assume from my Crisco sub or because as you see in the photo I have chunky pistachio pieces. If anyone has advice on firming these up please comment! However if that is the only downside I am in!!! I will definitely make these again. They are also very simple to make which is another challenge of allergy free baking- the recipes can be either too complicated or cost a fortune to try out. I will definitely be trying some of these 10GF no bake cookies as well as Beard + Bonnet Christmas Cookies for 2015!
