The person didn't ask for egg-free sugar cookies, he or she asked for a recipe for egg-free sugar cookies that also do not include butter, margarine, or any form of shortening. In that sugar cookies are generally a mixture of sugar, butter, flour, eggs, some leaven, and perhaps a little vanilla, we felt fairly comfortable stating that a sugar cookie without eggs and butter would leave only sugar and flour. For the sake of brevity, we left out the bit about leaven and vanilla.

We totally understand that there are things people cannot eat, and we get similar questions every day from people, many of whom have huge lists of foods to avoid. Often we cannot help them. Where we are not as tolerant is when people choose not to eat something (and it is generally broad categories of things) and still want the foods of their childhoods.

There certainly are consequences of leaving certain foods behind. We have enormous sympathy for those who are directed by health-care professionals to omit eggs, flour, tomatoes, etc., etc. from their diets. We have much less sympathy for those who choose to eat around certain foods. We understand that they may be making noble choices, but we are willing to accept that there are consequences of their choices – and think that they should be, too.

If the original questioner is allergic to both eggs and all fats, then we apologize profusely. We go to all the food trade shows and will be on the lookout for shortening-free, egg-free cookies for you. Quite likely they're out there. Bakers and manufacturers are experimenting all the time with recipes to fill the gaps for people who must avoid even the most mainstream foods. Generally, their creations are impractical for home cooks, as they often combine dozens of obscure ingredients and often require specialized equipment. To us, they are often hit-or-miss when it comes to taste or texture, but quite likely they are a blessing to someone just hungering for a cookie.

We have almost limitless sympathy for those who are told they cannot eat a certain food or certain foods. We have less sympathy for people who choose to exclude certain foods and yet expect to eat as they always have. In many cases, whether we are sympathetic or not doesn't matter – there is still no good substitute for the excluded food. Yes, we could sugarcoat an answer for you and them, but who is that helping? In many cases, the need is to move on to the foods that you can eat or will eat, and choose from the thousands or millions of recipes that already exist for these foods.