Tag Archives: food allergy

Mini Allergy-Friendly Spider Bites

mini allergy friendly spider bites
mini allergy friendly spider bites

Are you looking for a Halloween Treat? I have an easy one that is also allergy friendly. It contains only three ingredients, and I modified it so it doesn’t contain common allergens. Now you have a snack to share with all of your favorite ghoul friends (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

The original recipe I found was from Food Network, but I made a few tweaks. I prepared it on the stove top and used a double boiler so the chocolate doesn’t scorch. Then I used ingredients that are generally safe for those with common food allergies. No changes were needed for baking at high altitude, but I made the goodies bite-sized so kids of all ages can enjoy them. Happy Halloween!

Mini Allergy-Friendly Spider Bites adapted from Spider Bites

12 ounces semisweet morsels or chunks (I used Enjoy Life Foods brand)
1/2 cup sunflower seed butter (I used Once Again brand)
6 cups gluten-free pretzel sticks, broken into 1-inch pieces (I used Fit Joy brand)

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet or two and set aside.

Put a few inches of water in a medium pot and put it on the stove to boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and place a heat-safe bowl on top. Place the chocolate chips in the bowl to melt; be sure that steam doesn’t enter from the pot below or the chocolate will seize. Stir the chips occasionally. When the chips are melted and smooth, turn the heat off and stir in the sunflower seed butter. Remove the bowl from over the pot and stir in the pretzel pieces.

spider bites allergy friendly ingredients
spider bites allergy friendly ingredients

When the pretzels are thoroughly coated with chocolate, pick up a few and place them on the parchment lined sheet. Next, take 8 pretzel pieces from the bowl and arrange them to form spider legs. Take a small amount of chocolate from the bowl and blob it over the top to form the body, and to cement everything together. Repeat with the remaining pretzels. You can get creative and anatomically correct, or you can drop them on the sheet to create haystacks instead of spiders. They won’t be Halloween themed, but they will still taste good. Heck, they taste good right out of the bowl.

Place the sheet of spiders in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden. Remove gently from the parchment paper and remove any drips that don’t look like spider.

Until next time, happy nonbaking!

Is chocolate vegan?

Chocolate Bar

Image courtesy of Lisa Salamida at flickr.com

You’re at the grocery store to purchase goodies for a vegan baking spree. You look at your list and think, “Vegan Chocolate … that’s easy, I’ll get dark chocolate. It’s vegan.” Although that sounds like a no-brainer, unfortunately it is not always the case. It would be nice if it were true, but since it’s not here are some pointers to lead you to the vegan stuff.

You will want to stay away from milk chocolate, as you realized with your initial instinct to buy a dark variety. To find a viable dark version, PETA recommends to “always look for a high percentage of cacao, between 55 and 85 percent—the higher the percentage, the purer the bar. Also, be sure to check the ingredients, as some brands’ dark-chocolate bars still contain dairy products. Avoid chocolate that has a long list of ingredients, because chances are that some of them are fillers.”

While you are looking at the ingredient label, also keep in mind that quality chocolate will have “pure ingredients and no additives. The ingredients will be simple: cocoa, cocoa butter, lecithin, sugar and sometimes vanilla. And that’s it.”

By now you have read the ingredients, checked for the short-list, and deemed your chocolate worthy. But there is one last step – look for food crossover warnings. These might say “Manufactured on the same equipment that also makes products containing milk” or “May contain milk.” If you don’t see these sentences proclaimed in tiny print, you should be safe.

By now you are thinking that chocolate comes from a plant (Theobroma cacao to be precise), so why isn’t it vegan? Good question. It was simpler in the past, but in recent years manufacturers have been adding butterfat for a creamy “mouth feel.” So now some varieties of dark chocolate are no longer non-dairy.

This is making my head spin. Maybe I should just stop baking with chocolate. Hmm, not likely.

Food Allergy Awareness Week

food allergy week

food allergy week

May is Allergy Awareness Month, with this past week being devoted to Food Allergies. It seemed like a good time to examine the humble beginnings of Vegan Baking Up High. I began the blog to work out the kinks of baking dairy-free at high altitude. This reflected my long-standing allergy to dairy. Then, when my husband went vegan a few years later, the blog became vegan. Nowadays I am approached by people with a variety of food allergies and they ask if I have recipes for their dietary needs. For them, I am trying to expand my baking horizons.

I realized I was allergic to dairy in 1995 when food allergies weren’t widely accepted or understood. Back then it was almost impossible to find a baked good that came close to resembling anything I would ever want to eat. I am seeing that same pattern of inadequate baked items offered for people with other allergies, such as those to nuts or gluten. I don’t think that anyone should accept sub-par treats just because they have an allergy, so I have widened my experimental baking realm.

You will note that I am extending my recipes to include other allergies, such as gluten-free, nut-free and soy-free, in an effort to offer tasty treats for a wide range of allergies. The easiest fix is to use the non-dairy milk alternative you prefer in place of the non-dairy milk listed in a recipe. There will be changes in taste and texture but the recipes should still work. Now I am tackling the task of removing gluten and nuts. It is slow going because of the inherent high altitude challenge, but I and my taste buds will persevere.