Happy Valentine’s Day (almost) my little cupids and crafters! I thought it might be fun
to put together a little treat themed post to inspire your sweeter side. This post was inspired by my desire for cookies as
they go so well with a cup of tea in the colder months (or the warmer months depending
on your current season ;) and I know there are a lot of you out there that
don’t eat gluten so if any of you have the ‘missing gluten blues’ you are in
good company.
When it comes to the sweet treats you will find
macaroons, meringues and a lot of other cookies are easy to make and don’t
require regular flour. There are also a
number of gluten free cake and cookie mixes on the market as well. I know this
is a terrible time to offer recipes for such things when we’re all still in our
‘New Year’s healthy’ mindset but what can I say, I’m a firm believer that
alcohol and sugar, in moderation of course, are good for the human body. You
can argue with me on this over a glass of wine and/or a plate of cookies, but I
will win. I promise you that.
And on that note, here’s to the cookies and cakes,
muffins and other sweets because they bring us cheer, and well, a girl can’t be
perfect on her New Year’s resolution
diet all the time! Besides, my sweetie has already confirmed that if you are
consuming calories specifically for a blog post then those calories don’t
count. So, I’m safe at least ;) If you upload photos of the treats you’ve made
then it would stand to reason that those calories won’t count either. I don’t
know this for sure, but it makes sense to
me ;)
Happy baking and for any of you out there that are feeling
down about a gluten free diet for 2013, keep your chin up! Gluten free cooking
is super easy and the food is so good those little gluten eaters out there are
sure to want your gluten free foods
so go pre-heat that oven & get baking, we have some cooking magic to stir
up!
Enjoy,
Lindsay ;)
Recipes / Ideas for Gluten Free Goodies
Below you will find the original links to recipes I
have tried, really like, and use regularly. You will also find variations on
those original recipes to get your baked goods gluten free. Just a quick note
in regards to my comments below-I picked up a small coffee grinder and use it
to grind up ingredients such as whole fennel, gluten free oats and things of
that nature in my baking. Along with almond flour, I really like the texture
oats give to baked goods so below you will see where I have adding ‘ground gf
oats’ and that is what I mean by that, though you may have some luck finding
ground oat flour. I just purchase the oats whole so I can use them in things
like Oatmeal Cookies, oatmeal for breakfast or foods of that nature and then
just grind down what I need for my baking (p.s.
do not try and grind your own brown rice in a coffee grinder, it burns the
motor out :p). If you have a small mortar and pestle you can grind them that
way or you can replace the ground gf oats with another flour in its place. I do
not use my regular coffee grinder to grind these ingredients. I have heard cooks
say you can just grind a little rice and it cleans out the grinder but I know
my coffee won’t taste like fennel and my pizza won’t taste like coffee if I just
go with a separate grinder for the baking. The choice is yours but I did want
to mention it J
Macaroons:
link: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/First-Place-Coconut-Macaroons
Comments: Follow the directions in the link above with
the exceptions being that you replace the flour with 2 tbs. almond flour and 1
tsp. brown rice flour-you can substitute the flours for other flours such as a
gluten free flour mix currently sold at most stores and the recipe is perfect.
Zucchini
Almond Muffins: Link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/zucchini-bread-recipe/index.html
Comments: I like this recipe and I have found it is also
easy to modify in a number of ways. I of course substitute the flour for a
gluten free flour mix, and I do so by mixing together 1.5 cups of almond flour,
1 cup of brown rice flour, ½ cup of ground gf oats, and if more flour is
required, I will add a little more of one of these original flours such as
brown rice flour. If you do not have brown rice flour you can substitute it for
white rice flour I also will, depending on what ingredients I have available,
substitute the 1 cup of oil for ½ cup of oil and ½ cup of apple sauce. I don’t
like to add too much oil or butter to the mix and I have made it each way and
it turns out better with less than the called for amount in my opinion.
You can also go with ½ a stick of softened butter
(almost fully melted), ¼ cup of apple sauce and ¼ cup of milk or cream to
balance the wet/ dry ratio of the recipe. These can easily be cooked as regular
sized muffins or mini muffins and they taste great with a light glaze dribbled over
the top, cream cheese frosting added, a crumb topping, a crumb topping and then
a light glaze dribbled over the top, or no topping at all even. I have made
this recipe all of those ways and it always turns out well. The trick to baking
muffins is not to over stir the batter.
Gluten free cooking does in some cases dry a baked
good out so I like to use a lot of almond flour for my sweet baked goods
especially as it makes them light weight and sweeter. I like to go a tad more
on the wet side with muffin mix to balance the gf flours that will use up the
fluids in the mix while cooking. Modify the cooking time according to what
sized muffin pan you are using and do keep in mind that gluten free muffins can
easily turn out either too dry or too mushy, especially when using a squash
filling such as zucchini or pumpkin. In order to counteract this, substituting
the yoke on one last egg may help this, and going with smaller muffin pans or
about 2 tbs. less per muffin per pan to help the middle of the muffins cooks
more fully. If you find your muffins need a little more moisture, ¼ cup water
and or apple sauce should help.
Chocolate
Chip Cookies: I think everyone knows this recipe but
I will give it to you anyway just in case. We all need a good chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Ingredients: 2.5 cups gluten free flour mix
(consisting of some or all of these gf flours-almond flour, gf flour baking
mix, ground gf oats, white or brown rice flour), 2 eggs, 1.5 cups brown sugar,
1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 stick of softened butter, a dash of cinnamon, 1
tsp. baking powder, chocolate chips, *optional-1 cup chopped walnuts.
Instructions: Mix the dry ingredients together. In a
separate bowl soften the butter if needed and add the brown sugar and stir
until well mixed. Add the vanilla and the eggs and mix. Slowly add the wet
mixture into the dry mixture and stir. Add the chocolate chips and, if desired,
chopped walnuts. Chill the dough for 1 hour, pre-heat oven to 350 and butter
the baking dish. Cook for 12 minutes and check to see if finished. If more time
is needed then keep a close eye, they probably won’t require more than a few
additional minutes before they are finished. Remove from the oven, let cool.
Cake
Pops: Woot! I happen to have a new cake pop
pan and since I am currently working on a number of recipes for gluten free
party treats right now, making these was the perfect excuse! I have tried and would recommend a gluten free cake mix, not bad at
all, and the cake pops turned out so good! You can also grab a cake mix recipe
online quite easily as well if you do not want to go with a store
bought mix. I used a cake pop pan and followed the instructions that came with except
that it did say to go with a cooking spray and I didn’t have any on hand so I
just greased the top and bottom of the pan with butter and was really careful
to have it greased as evenly as possible. If you have cooking spray, it is
probably preferable.
I picked up the sticks and little baggies as I
knew I was going to want to wrap these up and share them. I also managed to
find cookies and cream flavored sprinkles! I know what you’re thinking, these totally have to have gluten in them
right? No! I read the ingredients and unless they’re wrong, it says they
used corn flour for the flour ingredients so I did buy them and sprinkle
cookies and cream bits on top of my newly frosted cake pops and they are
fantastic! *note on the pan style-If you do not have a pan for these then you
can use a mini muffin pan, and then while the little muffins are still cooling
drop them out onto a baking sheet and try rolling them out a little bit so they
are round in shape. If you need to dust the pan with a powdered sugar it may
help if the muffins seem like they’re going to stick to the pan.
The instructions from my cake pop pan said the best
way to get the sticks to stay inside the cake pop is to melt chocolate wafers
(I usually use chocolate chips if I have those on hand/ only melt a little bit
of the chocolate at a time or it starts to get gunky as it cools), dunk the end
of the stick into the hot chocolate and then into the cake pop itself. Let cool.
Then melt about 1/3 of the container of the frosting in the microwave just a
little-melt and check/ stir the frosting and do this until it is not super thin
but slightly melted. Take a cake pop by the stick and dunk it into the
frosting. Turn the cake pop slightly to stop the frosting from dribbling too
much and again place on the waxed paper. At this time you can determine if you
need to warm the frosting a little more or let cool slightly. You want it so
the frosting drips off, adding a nice thin layer of frosting to the cake pop.
Sprinkle the cake pops with the sprinkles once they
have been frosted. I have found it is helpful to frost a few at a time and then
put the bowl of frosting aside and then pick each frosted cake pop up with a
spoon to hold up the bottom of each, sprinkle, and then lay each in a shallow
bed of the sprinkles. That way you get the sprinkles and the bottom of each cake
pop shows sprinkles, not an area where frosting is missing. I like my cake pops
to be yummy and look good too, what can I say?! ;) I found those cookies and
cream sprinkles by Wilton, the candy company, they were selling them at Joanns
in the baking area of their store if you are searching for your own. You can
also add melted chocolate or peanut butter over the tops once the frosting has
been added.
(Gluten Free) Rice Krispy Treats:
They just added gluten free rice krispies cereal so all you have to do is
substitute the regular cereal with the brown rice type and you’re all set!
You’re going to want the gluten free rice krispies cereal for gluten free safety
though because the malt in the original cereal contains gluten. The ingredients
and directions may very well be on the box but if not then you are going to want
2 cups mini marshmallows, 2 cups of cereal, 4 tbs. butter and 1 tsp. vanilla
extract. Melt the butter and marshmallows on low heat in a sauce pan. Once
mixed and melted add the vanilla and stir. Add the cereal and stir and then put
in a buttered baking dish, chill in the fridge at least 20 minutes and you’re
all set. Once they have cooled you can also cut them into squares or round
balls and put on candy or popsicle sticks, lay out over sheet of wax paper and
dribble melted chocolate, sprinkles and any other super yummy extras over them,
gift wrap and then you have fabulous little treats for the holidays.
Happy Baking/ Snacking ;)
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