Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Fennel Seed Cookies (Question about using soy butter)

Hi - there are lots of soy (and rice!) butters out there. Some are as high fat as butter, and can be used interchangeably. Some are a bit lower, and only meant for baking, not frying. Best thing to do is find a health food store with a good variety and check the labels.

As you'll see in my note to Ruchie in this thread, replacing enough of the solid fat in cookies is tough - really tough. They're the one dessert that really depends on solid fat for texture.

It sounds like you're up for some kitchen experimenting, so if you can get your hand on some specialty ingredients like guar or xantham gum (in bulk spice sections, especially at health food stores), get a hold of some low fat and/or vegan cookie recipes for a starting point. The best results will come from combining the low fat traditional ingredients (white flour, white sugar) with the vegan ways of replacing dairy and eggs (here's where the gums come in). It is possible to do this well - I've had delicious examples, but I don't have recipes and I've never played around myself.

Read the intros in the low fat and vegan cookbooks - they'll give you a great idea of what the different ingredients can do (corn syrup can give a chewy texture, the gums can help bind and give a chewy texture, combined with some oil that will give you crispiness, etc.)

Hope this helps - cookies really shouldn't be this complicated!

Oh - and there is one IBS safe recipe for cookies in Eating for IBS with the peppermint ice dream sandwiches. They're ice box cookies, and they are really good.

Also, there's a sugar cookie on the boards someone just posted - do a search.

- H

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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!

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