Restrictions don’t have to crumble your cookie game

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This article was published 14/12/2020 (2147 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dietary restrictions can take much of the comfort and joy out of the holidays.

For those who live with celiac disease and its symptoms, all sorts of Christmas goodies, whether sweet or savoury, are out of the question. So many recipes, whether they are main courses or, especially, desserts, are flour-based.

For those who decide to choose vegan or vegetarian diets, ensuring a dish’s ingredients do not include animal byproducts is no simple matter either. It’s easy to avoid turkey but many dishes that have a large number of ingredients, such as desserts, are often set aside. The use of butter and eggs, for instance, is commonplace.

Most people on gluten-free diets find out the hard way their bodies are intolerant to the protein found in wheat, barley, rye and other grains.

“I’ve been off of gluten for about 15 years because my doctor did suggest that I was likely glucose intolerant, and in fact it has made all the difference for me,” says Janine LeGal, a writer, English teacher and tutor who began following a gluten-free diet about 15 years ago.

She began following a vegan lifestyle shortly thereafter.

“I was going through a lot of health issues at the time, and as soon as I made the change, everything improved. It made a huge difference in my life. I was kind of miserable for quite some time and I didn’t realize what was happening to me.”

LeGal says she has since taken many food and nutrition classes, not only to eat healthier, but to make her meals more flavourful.

“Just going vegan was challenging because you can be an unhealthy vegan and I was initially that, so I decided to learn,” she says. “I love cooking for people all the time. During the pandemic, my way of cheering people up is to bring them some homemade soup.”

Peer pressure is another factor those with dietary restrictions must confront. There may be less of that this year, with COVID-19 restrictions against gatherings in December, but during a regular holiday season interactions with family, friends or co-workers can add more stress for people who need to avoid products with gluten or those that come from animals.

“That happens a lot at Christmastime and weddings as well. I’ve been to a few weddings where I’ve literally eaten nothing while others around me hoovered down large amounts of food,” LeGal says.

With that in mind, LeGal has shared today’s recipe for the Free Press’s 12 Days of Christmas Cookies, which began Dec. 10 and runs daily in the paper, excluding Sundays, until Dec. 23. It comes from the Delicious Everyday website, which offers readers’ vegan and vegetarian recipes for visitors to try.

This recipe may make among the most standard of cookies — oatmeal chocolate chip — but it uses gluten-free baking flour instead of all-purpose flour and coconut oil instead of butter. But not all recipes can be so easily converted, she says.

“I do find ways of adjusting things, and veganizing things. I do a lot of experimenting, because if a regular recipe isn’t gluten-free and you try to make it such it doesn’t always turn out so well.”

So here is the recipe, which LeGal likes because it is simple and inexpensive. She often adds crushed walnuts, pecans and hemp seeds to boost the cookies’ crunch.

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies

 

• 250 ml (1 cup) melted coconut oil
• 375 ml (11/2 cups) quick oats
• 500 ml (2 cups) gluten free baking flour
• 180 ml (3/4 cup) brown sugar
• 5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract
• 2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
• 5 ml (1 tsp) baking soda
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) boiling water
• 250 ml (1 cup) dark chocolate chips

 

Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F).

Melt the coconut oil. Mix in sugar, vanilla and boiling water.

Fold in oats, flour, salt and baking soda.

Mix in chocolate chips.

Using a 1-inch cookie-dough scoop, form balls of dough and place on baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.