chocolate chip cookie bars

Many of you know my youngest has severe food allergies. He’s allergic to all dairy products and nuts. Needless to say, it’s challenging. Every school snack, every birthday party, every sports snack… he always looks to me with that face and those big blue eyes… “Can I have it mommy?” It’s heart breaking because 90% of the time I have to say “I’m sorry baby!”

I of course carry snacks with me, but it’s just not the same when he can’t have what all the other kids are having, especially when it’s something chocolate. That’s just a treat he doesn’t get very often.

So I’ve been working on some recipes that I can make for him and that other moms who have little ones suffering from food allergies can eat too! And with that in mind, if you know of a great website, resource, recipe, etc. I’d love to hear about it. My biggest challenge is finding dairy-free chocolate easily. The chocolate featured in this post is from a local bakery, but it only comes in small chips. I want large blocks and chips for melting and baking.

So this weekend I whipped up dairy-free chocolate chip cookie bars. Both of my boys loved them and my oldest does’t have food allergies. Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 1/4 cup self-rising flour
• 1 cup softened butter (I use Smart Balance Light, make sure you look for the “vegan” language on the front as there are a few “light” versions)
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• tsp. vanilla
• 1 12 0z package semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips (as I mentioned above, these are from a local bakery, but I’d love a resource for large chips and blocks if you know one)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

Preheat to 375 and in small bowl combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla, beat until creamy. Beat in eggs and then gradually add flour, mixing well. Finally stir/fold in the chocolate chips. Bake in a 8″ pan for 16 min and cut into 2″ squares.

As always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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