No yeast?

Tried a yeast substitute in a bread recipe the other day. It worked -- about 50%. I used some baking soda and lemon juice in place of a yeast packet. It was the recipe for Tom's Bread, commonly found on the web and in this blog. The bread raised about half of its intended height. Still, it worked and I ended up with a loaf of bread that I could slice for my kids. They loved it. I plan to keep tinkering with yeast subs to see if I can get more raising out of them.

Cactus cookies

You read the headline correctly -- cactus cookies. Actually, I made cookies over the weekend that use cactus nectar as a liquid sweetener. They're awesome and the kids loved them. See my previous post on replacing corn syrup. This stuff really works.

Easter Candy

I must confess that I don't know what to do about Easter, which is coming soon. My kids cannot eat chocolate. So, I use carob powder instead. But, now I'm faced with the king of all chocolate holidays -- Easter. I have promised myself that I will learn how to make one chocolate candy for them by Easter using the carob powder. I'm reading recipes online and in cookbooks and trying to figure out how to convert. Remember, we also can't use milk, butter or corn syrup. Looks impossible, right? I don't think so. We can use palm shorterning and agave nectar -- see the previous post. In fact, a trial run of a taffy-like candy over the weekend didn't turn out too bad. The kids love it. It's a cross between taffy, tootsie roll and hard candy. I want to make mold candies, like an Easter bunny. That's my goal.