Egg-Free Cinnamon Spice Chocolate Chip Pancakes

A few years ago, reeling from the realization that Roo could not and likely never will be able to consume eggs, I couldn't help wallowing in a warm bath of self-pity. No more leisurely mornings at our favorite pancake house. No Christmas morning french toast casserole. No summer strawberry cream cheese brioche bake. No farmers market donuts. No crepes, waffles, breakfast burritos, huevos rancheros or egg sandwiches. What were we going to do with ourselves on weekend mornings?!

Practicing their Cups

Bean sports weekend morning hair like nobody's business, am I right?

Thankfully I've gained a little perspective over the years. I've learned that Roo seems to do just fine with eggs at the table as long as he doesn't personally ingest them. We still don't risk cross contamination by going out for breakfast if we don't have to, but Christmas morning french toast casserole has retained its rightful place in the holiday line-up (thank gawd!). Don't worry. Roo always gets extra bacon. And usually chocolate.

As for the weekend staples, we've been able to adapt much more painlessly than I ever could have imagined. Egg-free pancakes? No problem!

Egg-Free Cinnamon Spice Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 & 1/2 tbsp baking powder (yes, tablespoons)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup chocolate chips
butter, maple syrup, whipped cream, powdered sugar, berries, or extra chocolate chips to serve


Start heating a griddle or heavy frying pan over medium heat. Whisk together first 6 ingredients (flour-salt) in a large bowl. Pour the milk and oil into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. A few lumps are fine.

Use a ladle or measuring cup to spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto the griddle (or use a tablespoon to make super-mini pancakes like Mufasa). Scatter a few chocolate chips on top of the wet better. When the surface is dotted with tiny air bubbles, flip the pancakes and cook the other side until golden brown. Serve with butter, syrup, whipped cream, powdered sugar, berries, extra chocolate chips or my favorite - plain.

Churros with Chocolate Sauce

Somebody start building the ark.

Thunder. Lightning. Floods. School cancelled. Bombs, shooting, and lock down all over the television. Sometimes you just have to bury your head in cinnamon sugar and whip up the churros. File this one under #distractionbydeepfrying.

Churros with Chocolate Sauce
adapted from Yum Food and Fun for Kids

For the churros
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 & 1/3 cups granulated sugar, divided
4 tbsp canola oil plus 2 quarts for frying
2 tsp ground cinnamon

For the chocolate sauce
4 ounces high quality chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

Combine 2 cups of water, salt, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 4 tbsp oil in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the mixture boils, pull it off the heat. Stir in the flour until the dough pulls together and cools slightly. 

Scoop the dough into a pastry bag. If you have a lovely star shaped tip, this is the time to use it. Your churros will be extra lovely and have that characteristic striated look. If you don't have a star tip, or like me, you do have a star tip but can't seem to find it amidst the kitchen drawer chaos, just go ahead and snip the tip off the bag. Round churros taste super too, trust me.

 Pour 2 quarts of canola oil into a deep pot and heat to 375 degrees.

Carefully pipe strips of dough into the hot oil. Turn and fry until golden brown, about one minute. Drain on paper towels.

In a bowl or zip top plastic bag, combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon. While the churros are still warm, add them to the cinnamon sugar mixture and toss or shake to coat.

 Serve with chocolate sauce (below).

To make the chocolate sauce, combine the chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted and pliable. Whisk the chocolate into the cream until thick and delicious. Serve alongside hot churros.

What chocolate?

Spiced Lentils and Rice with Crispy Fried Onions

My love affair with Jerusalem: A Cookbook has yet to wane. 

I have two words for you. Two golden brown, balmy, scrumptious little words: Fried onions.

If I'm being honest, you could skip over the entire second half of the recipe, pausing after the onions are golden brown and draining in a paper towel-lined colander. If I'm being completely honest, you could just plunk that colander down on the counter, pull up a stool and have at it, just you and your hot, crisp, salty, sweet bucket of onions.

It's not that the lentils and rice aren't fragrantly warm and deeply satisfying, both exotic and homey at the same time, because they are. But oh, those onions!

The original recipe calls for 4 medium onions. The original recipe obviously does not account for the cup and a half of fried onions that will surely never make it to the finished dish because you can't possibly stop shoving them into your mouth. Lucky for you, I account for this certainty below. Use 6 big onions. Heck, use a whole bag if you've got them. They won't go to waste, trust me.

Spiced Lentils and Rice with Crispy Fried Onions
adapted from Jerusalem a Cookbook

1 & 1/4 cups dried lentils (green or brown)
6 large onions
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 tsp salt plus more to taste
1 & 1/2 cups sunflower oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ground coriander
1 cup long grain brown rice
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 & 1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp sugar
1 & 3/4 cups water
black pepper

Put the lentils and enough water to cover them by several inches in a large pot. Bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes, until the lentils are soft but not mushy. Drain and set aside.

Peel and thinly slice the onions. Separate the onion slices into rings and spread out on a few baking sheets. Sprinkle with the flour and 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Heat the sunflower oil in a wide, heavy saucepan over high heat. Once the oil is hot enough that a single onion thrown in starts to sizzle and dance, turn the heat down slightly to medium-high. Add the onion slices in several small batches frying each batch for about 6-7 minutes until the onions are golden brown and crisp, taking care not to burn yourself with the splattering oil. Line a colander with paper towels. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the crispy onions to the colander to drain while you fry the remaining batches, adding more sunflower oil to the pot if needed. Sprinkle the crisp onions with more salt to taste. Try not to eat them all before the lentils are finished, I dare you.

Discard the leftover oil and wipe the pot clean with a paper towel. Toast the cumin seeds in that very same pot over medium heat for a minute then add rice, olive oil, remaining spices, and sugar to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and stir to coat the rice with the oil-spice mixture. Add the lentils and water. Bring to a boil, cover the pot, and simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed. Remove from heat. Open the lid and cover the pot quickly with a clean dish cloth. Secure the lid on top of the towel, and set the pot aside for 10-15 minutes.

Stir about half of the fried onions into the lentil mixture. Reserve the rest of the onions and use them to top individual servings. Steal the onions off other people's bowls while they're not looking. Go ahead. Tell them I said you could.

Looly's Solo Apple Crisp

No doubt about it. Looly's growing up. With a visit from the tooth fairy under her belt, it's time to start pulling her weight in the kitchen.

Last spring when she was a mere babe of 5, not the worldly, gap-toothed 6-and-a-half-year-old you see here, we took a field trip to Penzeys Spices, where Looly chose a jar of Vietnamese Extra Fancy Cinnamon. She's been waiting to make her own apple crisp ever since and apparently I've been neither accommodating nor timely in making it happen. So she did what any gap-toothed, worldly 6-and-a-half-year-old would do. She went online and printed out a recipe herself.

Look at her, hands washed, hair back, apron on, ingredients assembled, reading through the whole recipe before she starts. She's already a way better cook than her mother who has an embarrassing habit of needing to run to the store for a roll of parchment paper or a bunch of cilantro because I swear it said nothing about that a minute ago.

 And check out those knife skills. I was 25 before I knew to curl the fingers on my left hand.

Mixing the "crisp".

Watch out, Martha. Looly's in the kitchen.

Looly's Solo Apple Crisp
adapted from Simply Recipes

5-6 medium apples (preferably Granny Smiths)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats (old fashioned or quick-cooking)
1/2 cup butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

Peel, core, and chop the apples into 1-inch chunks. Place them in the prepared pan. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the top.

In a bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and oats. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the oat mixture. Sprinkle the oat mixture on top of the apples. Bake 35-45 minutes until the apples are soft and the topping is golden brown and crisp.

Easy Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips

My chip fixation continues.

I know what a process it can be to make exciting, tasty, remotely nutritious party food for one kid with food allergies, but with an entire classroom of allergies to contend with, it can be next to impossible. Just try to come up with a safe, healthful "treat" that a bunch of 6-year-olds with candy and costumes on the brain will actually want to eat. I don't want to pull a muscle patting myself on the back but I contend these baked apple chips do the trick.

I made these for Looly's first grade class Halloween party a couple of weeks ago. The kids took them down and came back for more, which considering we were less than 3 hours away from official trick-or-treating time, was freaking amazing.

Better yet these are so easy to make they're really more of a non-recipe. In fact, it didn't even occur to me to post them here until a few adults at Looly's party were stunned that I had made them, automatically assuming that I must have used a food dehydrator or some other obscure gadget. No, friends. Assuming you have an apple, a mandoline, and an oven at your disposal, the process is embarrassingly simple. 

Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips

4 apples, sliced thin on a mandoline, or if your knife skills are that good, have at it that way.*
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the apple slices in a single layer on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar.
2. Bake for about 2 hours, turning apples over after the first hour. After 2 hours, turn the oven off but leave the apples to continue to crisp up until the oven is cool.

*Leave the skin and core intact. It's just prettier that way. Choose any apple variety you like just keep in mind that the juicier the apple the longer it will take to dry out. For reference, I used Granny Smiths and Honey Crisps.

There you have it - allergy-friendly, kid-approved, healthful, seasonally appropriate baked cinnamon apple chips. They'll keep for several days in an airtight container, but my advice is make them on the day of your shindig. Your house will smell amazing and everyone will assume you're a domestic goddess. Save your leftovers for lunchboxes!

Allergy-Friendly Apple Marmalade Cake

Can you smell that cinnamon wafting through your screen? The crust crackles under your teeth and just wait until those warm, gooey apples start melting on your tongue. Grab a cup of tea and a fork. Fall gets no cozier. Trust me on this.

Cupcakes and cake pops are great but when the occasion calls for something slightly more elegant yet still unfussy, this apple marmalade cake is the way to go. It's incredibly allergy-friendly with no nuts, no eggs, no dairy, and no soy but don't worry. You'll never miss them.

I've given this cake as a gift, made it for birthday parties, potlucks, brunches, dessert, Thanksgiving, and yes, we've eaten it for breakfast. Versatility is key. 

To date I've not met a cynic who after trying a single bite, hasn't bought in to my personal philosophy that nut-free, egg-free, dairy-free, whatever-free can't be incredibly, decadently, soul-achingly delicious.

Allergy-Friendly Apple Marmalade Cake
adapted from The Divvies Bakery Cookbook

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 & 1/2 cups canola oil
1 & 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup pear puree or applesauce (jarred baby food works)
1/3 cup orange marmalade
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced small
1 tbsp powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a separate large mixing bowl, beat the oil and sugar, starting at low speed and slowly increasing to high speed for a total time of about 3 minutes. Add the applesauce and marmalade. Beat one minute more.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well combined. You'll notice the batter start to clump together, almost like dough. Fold in the diced apples.
5. Pour batter into the sprayed bundt pan and bake for 60-75 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cake to sit for 5-10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack. When cool, dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Serves 12. Or 3 if I'm invited.

Intro to Fried Dough

 Ever wonder what to do with leftover pizza dough?

We had make-you-own pizza night not so long ago. As usual the kids had fun beating dough into submission with their fists, popping air bubbles, spreading sauce, picking toppings and throwing mozzarella around the kitchen. Looly, our resident artist, made this cute owl out of black olive rings and fresh basil.

All in all a good night, but in the morning we were left with a puffy ball of unused pizza dough in the fridge. Sure we could have made calzones for lunch or baked it into bread or crackers, but I had a better idea. I wanted to show to the kids how food can transform drastically depending on how you prepare it, thus illustrating my point that they shouldn't say they don't like a food after trying it prepared any single way. Fried dough, anyone?

Easy Fried Dough (from pizza dough)

1 pound pizza dough
Enough canola or vegetable oil to fill a large heavy bottomed pot about 1-2 inches (about 2 cups, depending on the size of your pot)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon

1. Heat the oil to 350 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Cut pizza dough into desired shapes. We made little doughnut holes and I rolled out some longer strips and fused the ends together to make mini doughnuts.
2. Drop dough (fry same size pieces together) in batches into the hot oil. Fry, turning occasionally until all sides are golden brown and the dough floats to the top of the oil. Remove fried dough from the oil and drain on several layers of paper towels.
3. Place powdered sugar in bowl. Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Toss the warm fried dough in desired toppings, which is the perfect job for helpful, hungry kids.

So, it's fried dough. It's warm and crispy and gooey and sweet and delicious. And my kids didn't like it. Well, most of them didn't like it. Looly deemed it too sweet and asked for a banana instead, though she did enjoy licking powdered sugar straight out of the bowl. Roo was not a fan. He is typically more of a salty kind of guy. Bean though, was nearly as big a fan as her parents, which is why we ended up throwing away half the batch while we could still save ourselves. Really good stuff. In moderation.

Looly's Extra-Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon Apples

After much anticipation, Looly finally got to put her Extra-Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon to the test. Did I mention this is no ordinary cinnamon. It's extra-fancy. What separates extra-fancy cinnamon from regular cinnamon, you ask? A mini-tuxedo and top hat perhaps? Sadly no. But Penzeys claims their Vietnamese Cinnamon is the strongest, richest, and sweetest cinnamon around, so hold onto your top hats, people. Looly is understandably impressed.

Personally I've been craving rot your teeth, chisel out of the pan cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing, but always the picture of moderation, Looly chose simple warm cinnamon apples instead. She is like her mother in other ways.

Hacking Peeling some apples

Grating the nutmeg

Go time!

Looly's Extra-Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon Apples

6 Granny Smith (or other tart) apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into wedges
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. Penzeys Extra-Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter

1. Combine apple slices, brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Toss to coat.

2. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add apple mixture and cook until soft, about 10-12 minutes.

3. To make them extra-fancy, top with a dollop of whipped cream, sprig of mint and a bit of lemon zest. Dig in!

Pretty fancy, eh?