Peanut free braided easter bread

Liam, my anaphylactic son, actually loved the Sarma! He wolfed them down! So, although they didnt meet my standards, they sure met his.

To compensate for my so so Sarma, last night I made them peanut free Braided Easter bread. Its easy to make, and to be honest, I prepared and raised my dough in a bread machine, following the bread machine technique of putting all the liquid ingredients first, and topping off with flour, sugar, salt and yeast.

This recipe is not a traditional Armenian Choreg recipe, and any Armenians or Mediterraneans who taste it say its 'ok' or 'yeannie'. However all Canadians who eat it, LOVE it. It doesnt have any shaved nuts on it, or vegetable oils or shortenings. So as long as you confirm that the other ingredients have had no cross contamination, you'll be fine.

I adjusted the original recipe by adding ground Mahleb (the seed of the St. Lucie cherry) to it. This is the tricky ingredient. Please make sure your child isnt allergic to this, and also you MUST ensure that there has been no cross contamination during packaging. I bought mine then scrubbled them, let them dry, and then ground them. However, I suggest you skip this ingredient if you think there is any chance of allergic reaction, and I will take no responsibility for it.


Peanut free Braided Easter Bread (Mixer version)


2 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 cup warm milk

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter

2 slightly beaten eggs

1 cup sugar (only use 1/2 cup if you prefer it more like bread than cake)

5 1/2 cups flour

1/2 flour (for kneading, and work surface)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground mahleb (if using)

egg wash



Egg Wash

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

Disolve the yeast in the warm water and milk and a teaspoon of sugar. Cover and let froth. Add the slightly cooled melted butter. In a large bowl, mix eggs and sugar. Add the yeast mixture. Mix, add mahleb (if using), then add one cup of flour with the salt, and continue mixing. Mix in flour one cup at a time until you get a soft dough. If its too sticky, you may need another 1/4 cup of flour. Turn dough out onto floured work surface, and knead. If the dough is still too sticky, slowly add in a tablespoon of flour at a time (too much will make it tough). Knead the dough until elasticky. Place in a large, lightly oiled bowl. Turn dough over to coat with oil. Cover bowl with wrap, and place in a cool oven to rise. When the dough doubles in size (approx. 1 hour, sometimes more), remove from oven, punch down, and divide into four portions. Cover 3 of the portions. Take the first quarter and cut into thirds. Roll each third into a long thin roll. Once you've rolled all three out, you can reroll them, as the first one rolled will have rested, and become more elasticky. Make three uniform lengths, braid, and set aside. Gently place braids on parchment lined cookie sheets.

Repeat with the three remaining quarters. You will have four lovely, plump, braids. Cover with wrap, and return to cold oven. Let rise for another hour. The Armenian way is to let these loaves rise overnight. When the loaves are ready, brush with egg wash, and bake in a 375 degree oven for approx. 45 to 60 minutes. When the top is golden, check bottom to make sure its baked, and remove. Let cool completely, wrap and freeze. Or, eat warm with or without butter!

These are really yummy and very kid friendly treats. You can eat it for breakfast, or anytime. I used to make them for my kids Montessori school class a few years ago, before the directress banned any baked treats from coming in for the entire class i.e. no birthday cakes, cookies etc... . If you are so lucky to belong to a school like this, you will see what peace of mind it provides. People try to reassure you that they made the treats at home and that they are 'nutfree', but they dont know what is nutfree. They dont understand that vegetable oils, and any bulk food items are not allowed. Most dont even check labels for 'nut warnings'. However, that is another rant...

Arda

Just an update on the Yalangi sarma...I spent a whole day preparing the filling, trimming the leaves and wrapping the whole jar of leaves. Now I have a pot full of flavourless overcooked rice, with tough undercooked grape leaves. I'll have to tweak the recipe and try again once I recover from todays experience.

Arda

Those Nutty Armenians!

I love being Armenian. I feel like I've been blessed by being born into such a culturally rich group of people. Our history is long, and full of suffering and bloodshed, yet from this our group has learned to enjoy life to its fullest (in between trying to set up safe homes for our children in countries which didnt persecute us). Regardless, we have learned to enjoy the best of everything we can earn, think of what we have as the best, and strive for better. We have taught our children to appreciate the struggles our ancestors have endured. Through language, music (have you heard a duduk?), poetry and food, we provide ourselves with a warm quilt where each square of heritage has been contributed by an elder whom we respect.


So now you're wondering why my 'nutless life blog' is blabbing on about my rich heritage. Three out of four (the youngest three) of my children are half Irish and half Armenian. Since I didn't use to speak Armenian to them when my husband was home, I felt that I was depriving them of their rightful heritage. So at the ripe old ages of 7, 6 and 5 (call me crazy), I sent my three children to Saturday Armenian school. I felt that I would give them the tools with which to explore their heritage if they so chose to in the future. Also, I owe it to my ancestors. Well, sending kids to Saturday school sounds easy...but if you're Armenian (or any culture from around the middle east), you can assume that there will be plenty of nuts around (remember, not the human kind). If you can grind a nut and stick in in or on a food, its in ours.


Luckily, in Ontario, many schools follow Sabrina's Law, and have tried to provide allergen 'safe' schools and environments, so the school isnt so bad. I have volunteered to help out another class during Saturday school 'just in case' the epipen had to be used. Although I trained Liams teacher myself, neither one of us was comfortable with her confidence to use it properly. Although I have to let go and trust others, I still need a little time. To be fair, it is quite a responsibility to place on someone who isnt familliar with these things (Although she is a teacher by trade, she only arrived from Lebanon 1 year ago, and hadn't even heard of this). As I mentioned, this school strives to be a 'nut safe' school, yet I have had to throw out numerous peanut butter or nutella sandwhich, and nutty snacks. I bring nut free snacks just in case of such an event, so the child woudn't go hungry until the 1:15 pick up time.

Anyway, making a long story longer, providing an 'Armenian cultural experience' has been difficult for us. Liam, the 7 year old who is extremely anaphylactic (over the top IgE, and his first reaction was upper respiratory restriction with an immediate drop in bloodpressure within 2 minutes), not only is allergic to peanuts, but to all nuts, and to all legumes. Hmm....Armenians and nuts, I've explained the close connection. Now think about Armenians and legumes...lentils (we do everything with them), chick peas (HUMMUS, dried, candied, you name it). Nuts and Legumes are so prevalent in our culture, that non allergic Armenians dont even see them, they've become invisable fixtures in our kitchens.

So, we avoid Armenian functions with food (and our friends think we're being snobby and over the top cautious). My husband and I attended a dinner theatre production ran by the teachers association (and we were asked to bring the kids - but because we're such snobs and 'crazy cautious' we didnt). We walked in, and at the front door they were selling big bags of mixed nuts and seeds. Liam would have puffed up right there without walking in. Dont get me started on the food.


Yesterday I thought to myself, why not try to make some traditional Armenian food? My kids love it when my mom makes it, so wouldnt it be great to go to an Armenian or Middle eastern food market, get the ingredients and cook away? I'm speechless about the whole experience. Cross Contamination warning alarms started ringing all around me! Seriously, if something didnt have nuts in it, it was right next to something with nuts. I went through four brands of bulgur (cracked wheat), three of which had possible nut contamination warnings. I bought a spice called Mahleb (a seed to grind) for our braided sweet bread, and came home and scrubbed those poor wee seeds immediatly. I'll grind them when they've dried. People think I'm being ridiculous, and say...'there are no nuts in this or that!' but people forget that there are only a few large distributors of products, so the guy distributing and packaging the mixed nuts, is also packaging the barley on the same machines! I had a heck of a time buying shredded coconut once, and now I just skip any recipes with it.


It gets to the point where you've got to balance life with food. Armenians are food rich, but its not for everyone. I'll try to make my nut free or 'safe' food for my kids, I'll try to let them experience as much of their culture that is safe and allowable, but just as some people ache that their kids will miss out on the whole PB & J 'American' childhood, I ache that they'll miss out on hummus with pita, vospof keufteh, lebleboo, etc... Anyway, enough of my griping. I'm off to make my Yalangi Sarma (meatless wrapped grape leaves). Its my first time, but if turns out, I'll post the recipe!





Arda

'Just avoid peanuts!'

The first time my son had a smidgen of peanut butter (age 3), he went into severe respiratory distress, after running around inarticulately screaming in agony. We immediately rushed him to the ER, but he was barely conscious by the time we arrived. The doctors immediately pumped him full of epinephrine. Afterwards when the doctors tell you that your child has to avoid eating peanuts, it seems relatively obvious, and you cant believe thats all their going to say or do. I dont know what I expected, but I couldnt believe how little support we received. I thought we deserved at least a hug. We were just sent home in complete shock, with a perscription for an epipen. Then, all of a sudden its like your eyes are opened for the first time, and you see just how much peanuts and nuts there are all over. What seems like a simple task (how hard can not eating something be?), all of a sudden feels like walking through a field of landmines blindfolded. Then you realize just what a nutty society we North Americans have. Avoiding being around peanuts and nuts alienates your child from all kinds of 'North American' childhood experiences like baseball games, circuses, and eating a nonplanned meal at a food court. Birthday cakes, popsicles and popcorn become loaded guns. Although my child doesnt have a terminal illness, he plays Russian roullette everytime he eats. People who dont know someone who has anaphylaxis, just dont understand what this means. A mother at my sons school asked me once if it was okay to send 'honey nut' cereal to our 'nutfree' school. I tried to hide my shock at her misunderstanding of the words 'deadly allergy' and 'nutfree'. Anyway, I wanted my son not to see what he was missing by being allergic to nuts, I wanted him to see the bonuses. His mother wouldnt buy him stale supermarket baked goods. No way! I learned to make him everything from crackers and pizza (that didnt last too long), to brownies, cornbread, birthday cake, candy popcorn and fudge! His friends started to look at his snacks with envy! Although I'm not a techie, I figured I would learn how to create this blog so I could share recipes, ideas, and experiences with other parents of anaphylactic children. So please be patient with my blog, as I'm sure it wont be elegantly written and layed out for a while. Also, since I usually only have time to write at night, I'm usually sleepy and perhaps not as concise as I think I'm being.

Thanks
Arda