The Food Allergy Baking Book: Great Dairy-, Egg-, and Nut-Free Treats for the Whole Family

By Kelly Woyan

The Food Allergy Baking Book is a one-stop guide to delicious, everyday baked goods free of dairy, eggs, and nuts—the most common food allergens. 

Updated and repackaged from its original publication in 2009 as The Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book, this new edition offers more than 90 timeless, foolproof recipes that are easy to prepare, even for kitchen novices. It is an invaluable resource for home bakers (and their families) who love sweets and treats. 

These recipes are more than delicious enough to be enjoyed by everyone who craves great baked treats, whether they have food allergies or not, but they fill a particular need for families who find baking at home to be the smartest and safest option to avoid exposure to allergens. All the traditional baking favorites are included, with chapters devoted to the best and tastiest muffins and quick breads, cookies and bars, and all manner of cakes, pies, crisps, and cobblers. The book also provides practical advice about dealing with classroom and birthday parties, as well as easy ingredient substitution ideas. 

The Food Allergy Baking Book is the go-to guide for food-allergy conscious bakers everywhere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Agate B2
• Release date: Sep 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781572848665

Book preview

Introduction

When The Food Allergy Mama’s Baking Book was published in 2009, it was one of the most popular special diet cookbooks at a time when there were not many resources or information about food allergies. It was my intention to create an essential resource for families like mine who struggled to find allergy friendly recipes that tasted and looked delicious. My recipes were loved by fans all over the world and featured on shows such as The Martha Stewart Show and The Today Show, as well as other media outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Women’s Day, and more.

This book became a baking bible for thousands of families navigating everyday situations such as parties or holidays while living with life-threatening food allergies. Every recipe was originally inspired by my popular blog The Food Allergy Mama, created in 2003 when my oldest son, John, was diagnosed with severe allergies to dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and legumes. At that time there were only a few authors and advocates in the food allergy blog space—and many of those pioneers have since become life-long inspirations and dear friends. Powerful mom-entrepreneurs and authors such as Cybele Pascal, Robyn O’Brien, Denise Bunning, and countless other women broke barriers and created crucial shifts in food allergy advocacy. Before, it was common to just send your kid to school with a special treat, and leave it at that. There were no safety protocols in schools and restaurants, and ingredients were not always clearly labeled in the grocery store, leaving you to have to learn all the other lesser-known names for many of the common eight allergens. Food allergy policies were just conversation pieces. There were no set guidelines for schools to follow and in most cases, kids with life-threatening food allergies were left to simply wing it when it came to food at events or parties. It was often a lonely and exclusionary road for everyone.

Thanks to the tireless dedication of parents and lawmakers, things started to change in 2011 when President Obama signed into law the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act (FAAMA). It set forth federal guidelines on how to manage and prevent food allergies and anaphylaxis in U.S. schools. As a result, parents of kids with food allergies had a stronger case for advocating for individual Section 504 Plans (under the ADA) in order to keep their school administration accountable in enforcing FAAMA at the local level. It was a game changer for kids of all ages living with food allergies and was a necessary first step in changing the course of food allergy policy and awareness forever.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t hiccups. I remember moving my family in 2012 to a school district in Orange County, California, that had NO food allergy policy—a stark contrast to the school I moved from in the Chicago area where their policy was considered the gold standard in the development of FAAMA. I was so immersed in the forward-thinking and policy-changing culture with FAAN and FAACT (two food allergy advocacy groups) that I didn’t think it was possible other districts across the country were not as compliant. I had to start from scratch in promoting awareness at my son’s school, and I can tell you it was NOT met with open arms. There was resistance, frustration, and many times—anger. But throughout that process I was reminded of an important lesson: everyone is doing the best they can, given the information available to them. I realized that changes in policy had to come from a place of shifting the mindset from a me to a we focus. The less we make these things about my child, the more open others will be to seeing things from another point of view. Change is hard, but always possible, as evidenced by so many of you who have written to me over the years expressing your own victories in your communities.

Everyone has an innate desire to feel seen, heard, and validated. This is human nature, whether you have food allergies or not. It’s about taking care of each other. It’s also about advocating not only for yourself, but more importantly for others. I think that was always the intention behind the Food Allergy Mama blog and brand—to provide a safe and supportive space for parents who had to learn to navigate the uncharted waters of food allergy safety and awareness long before special diets became a more popular and accessible topic. Thankfully, much has changed in all this, and I believe it will continue to evolve as we get closer to someday finding a cure.

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On a personal note, a lot has changed in my own life as well. I now am a single, working mom of five kids (I had only four in the last edition). One is in graduate school, one in college, two in high school, and one in middle school. Shortly before my divorce six years ago, I went back to school and earned my master’s in professional writing at the University of Southern California and now work as a writer and film producer in Los Angeles. Life is very different for me now than the mom that wrote this first edition. But I would not be where I am now were it not for the experience of being a food allergy advocate and author all those years ago. I think that is part of the journey—we learn as we go, take the lessons and apply them as we venture into new territories. My work as an advocate and author prepared me for new seasons of my life that I could not have imagined.

My son John, who still lives with a severe nut allergy (he outgrew the dairy and egg by high school), now attends college in Washington. He shares an apartment with three roommates and cooks nearly all his meals from scratch. He has become an incredible chef and has learned how to meal plan, budget, and create weekly grocery lists. He eats out with friends too and is self-reliant and sensible when it comes to his food allergy safety in social situations, even when traveling out of the country.

You will notice a few other differences with this second edition, such as a new title and last name. I also have taken out sections that are no longer relevant in 2022, such as ingredient suggestions and substitutions. So much has changed with ingredient choices, availability, and even labels that it is so much easier to find substitutes to make any recipe allergy friendly. I think what I always loved about these original baking recipes is that they worked perfectly and used basic ingredients likely already available in your kitchen right now. These recipes are easy, dependable, and have successfully stood the test of time. My own original copy is splattered with stains and ripped pages, which I always think is a true testament to how loved a book is, even after thirteen