Egg Free Cookies

Whitefish bakery goes gluten-free by necessity

Jennelle Cassidy whips together an egg replacement as she works on the baking for the day early on June 23 in Whitefish. In the background her husband Scott checks on a batch of pizza crusts which are nearly ready to come out of the oven. After Scott and Jennelle Cassidy's youngest son, Houston, now 11, was diagnosed with celiac disease at age 8 and also was found to have egg and dairy allergies, the Cassidys began a quest to find foods their son could eat. (AP Photo/Daily Inter Lake, Brenda Ahearn)

WHITEFISH (AP) — It’s taken three years of painstaking trial-and-error research, but Jennelle Cassidy finally has a loaf of bread that tastes like “real” bread. 

The feat moved her to tears. 

This is no ordinary loaf of bread. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free. 

And it’s one of nearly three dozen special products offered at Jennelle and Scott Cassidy’s new Sweet NO Wheat Bakery at Mountain Mall in Whitefish. 

After Scott and Jennelle Cassidy’s youngest son, Houston, now 11, was diagnosed with celiac disease at age 8 and also was found to have egg and dairy allergies, the Cassidys began a quest to find foods their son could eat. 

The entire Cassidy family suffers from food allergies: Jennelle also has celiac disease (a digestive condition triggered by eating gluten), Scott is sensitive to gluten, daughter Lexi has a dairy allergy and son Dawson is sensitive to gluten. 

What they found on the market was gluten-free bread that tasted like cardboard, and no products made without the trio of allergens affecting their family. 

So Jennelle started baking. 

“I love to cook, but I wasn’t a baker,” she said. “I’m not a recipe girl and I was used to throwing in anything to make something. Baking is more precise.” 

It’s chemistry, really, Scott added. 

“I did a lot of research and made loaves of bread every night,” Jennelle said. “Our kids ate a lot of flops.” 

Slowly, but surely, she developed flour mixes from sorghum, millet, potato, sweet brown rice and gluten-free oat flour. Jennelle ruled out bean flour, since she’s also allergic to beans. Many of their products also are yeast-free. 

The Cassidys monitor their baking ingredients with heightened awareness because gluten shows up in so many unsuspecting places. Spice companies must be consulted to make sure there’s no gluten. Even frozen vegetables can be encased in gluten to prevent them from sticking together.

Milk Allergy Mom: Dairy & Egg Free Cookie Cake

I used your recipe for egg-free zucchini bread tonight. Interested, I read your post from today, which led me to the post where you found out about your second son's allergies. In that one, you talk about how your son outgrew his allergies. My son is 18 months and we found out about egg, soy, milk, and peanut allergies at about 13 months. However, we also suspect watermelon and berries now. I am confused about how kids grow out of allergies. My allergist seems to say different things every time we go. Did you just one day give your son some of his allergen and he had no reaction?

Hi Kendall. Great questions. It is normal to get many different answers from your allergist because food allergies are still being studied, are so random and personalized, and there are still lots of theories out about them. My allergist, too, can be all over the place when talking about stuff. But knowing that there's not one right answer helps me keep track of what she is talking about. I ask lots of questions to sort it out in my own mind. For instance, there are different theories on how to outgrow allergies. Some say strict avoidance. Some say small doses if possible. So just keep that in mind and then ask your allergist the best plan for YOUR child and ask WHY they think it's the best plan. There is no black and white to food allergies right now so you have to know that you and your doctor are talking in shades of gray. To answer your other question, we never tested allergen foods on our own that showed up high at the allergist office's testing or that had proven to be anaphylactic (like milk for us). However, we did have some hunches on things that "just" caused Graham diahrea like oats and berries. Even though those ended up negative on testing eventually, we still thought he had problems with them. So those are the kinds of things we would experiment with at home. A little oats in a cookie or a bowl of oats for breakfast...see how the diahrea was. But never test something really serious on your own...that tests positive at the doctor's or that has had a history of being life-threatening. For that matter, even if it was just a hive reaction at home once...it can be worse the next time. So really, really be confident that there won't be big problems if you try it at home. Oats and berries are the top allergens anyways, he tested negative, and his history was just diahrea so that's why we did them at home sometimes. I have been married to my high school sweetheart for 12 years and am a school-at-home mom to our two boys, ages 5 and 3. I manage our son's severe milk allergy, but am thankful we have outgrown egg, peanut, and soy. I have demonstrated for Stampin' Up! nearly 10 years, and I love my girl time! Above all, I am a Christian and thank God for all his blessings. Thanks for visiting, and be sure to comment so I know you were here!

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