Ye Olde Gluten-Free Bake Shoppe

This holiday season I got the bright idea to make different fun fruity flavors of cupcakes and give them out to my friends and neighbors. I used the pumpkin spice chocolate cupcake recipe, but ditched the cocoa, amped up the xanthan gum, and used pureed organic fruit with a little juice for each flavor (apple is the least overpowering). I also ordered some flavor drops online to give the flavor a little boost. I bought all the cupcake boxes at my local craft store and downloaded and made the tags from here.

The "Not Your Mother's Fruitcake" GF cupcake flavors are strawberry chocolate surprise (the surprise is a chocolate kiss baked inside), apples and caramel, orange creamcicle, and peachy keen. I put candy pearls on top for a little holiday cupcake glamor and I used food coloring to make the cupcake flavors easy to identify and added a hand written key to the side of each box. I found twine at my local grocery store and tied them up. So far, all deliveries have been a smashing success, or people are too polite to say otherwise. Happy Holidays!

GF Sticky Buns (Cinnamon Rolls)

 

And here is your Thanksgiving weekend surprise, for when you're sick of cooking, but you still want a little something special for breakfast with your family. The directions make it seem like a lot of effort, but they are actually pretty easy to make. They are pretty fluffy all things considered. Enjoy!!

Ingredients
Dough
2 tablespoons shortening or butter
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup of milk, luke warm
1 packet yeast (about +1 tablespoon)
1 egg, room temp
1/4 cup plus 2 TBSP canola oil
1/2 cup potato starch
1 cup corn starch
1/2 cup all-purpose GF flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons xantham gum
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 

1 - 2 tablespoons sugar (for sprinkling on your plastic wrapped pastry board)
 

Filling
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 - 1/2 cup chopped nuts - optional
 

Glaze
3⁄4 cup powdered or confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk to thicken
 

Directions
Dough/Filling
Measure warm milk and add yeast to milk. Whisk well to fully dissolve, cover and set aside for about 10-15 minutes (you may need to re-whisk prior to using). Mix brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts in a small bowl and set aside.
 

In mixing bowl, combine shortening and sugar. Mix well. Add milk/yeast to sugar mixture. Add remaining ingredients. Mix very well, being sure to remove all lumps. Dough will be quite soft and hold well.
 

Take a piece of plastic wrap and lay it out so it covers a 12" x 16" rectangle. Sprinkle sugar on the wrap. Lay ball of dough on top of that. Then pull out another sheet of wrap and gently lay over the dough. Pat the dough down into a roughly retangular pancake (reposition plastic wrap if needed). Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough in between the two layers of wrap. Remove top piece of wrap. 

Spread filling evenly across dough's surface. (Note: Leave about a 1 1/2" sugar free on three outside edges -- two short and one long -- because when you roll the dough all the sugar shifts and fills this in; otherwise all the sugar spills out). Use the bottom piece of wrap to lift the edge of the dough and start to roll it up forming a long cylinder. Start with the sugary edge, which will be the center of your roll and roll toward the sugarless edge. 

Cut off or trim up the irregular ends of your "log". Then cut into eight to ten slices of similar size, about 1-1 1/2" wide. Place rolls into a greased round glass pie pan.
 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake approximately 20-30 minutes, until tops are lightly browned and bottoms are thorougly cooked.

Glaze

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to make glaze. The amount of milk you use will depend on how thick you want the glaze to be. Stir until all lumps are dissolved. Drizzle over warm rolls if desired.

You can make these buns the night before and stop short of baking them (make the glaze while baking). Wrap them up in their dish and leave on the counter or fridge for the night. The next morning bake them and they come out just the same (leaving them out over night let's them rise a little bit).
 

*Yields eight to ten rolls

GF Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Cuppy Cakes

**UPDATE** - The frosting recipe I used is found on bestbites.com. It works reasonably well with GF all-purpose flour. It won't get gain as much volume, but is otherwise good. Please note that you will need to keep your mixer on high for closer to 20 minutes to get the desired effect with GF flours. I also found a great cupcake frosting tutorial (frosting tip is at A.C. Moore for around $1).  Enjoy!!

Sometimes when you get invites to Thanksgiving elsewhere, you want to bring a delicious pumpkin themed dessert without having it overpower the star dessert of Turkey day, the pumpkin pie. I had thought I might bring my pumpkin roll this year, it's easy and delicious, but I was in the mood for some chocolate with my pumpkin spice, so I trolled the Internets for a recipe to make-over. I found one, and oh, did it deliver. These cuppy cakes are delicious, cakey, and moist. The chocolate and pumpkin do not overpower each other, and the spice is subtle.

The frosting I found is light, creamy, and not too sweet (I flavored it vanilla-orange, but you can do whatever you like), however I am still working out a couple of small kinks before I post it. I promise the frosting will go up by Wednesday afternoon and it will not have any ingredients you don't already have in your pantry. If you'd rather not wait, any traditional cream cheese frosting will workout just fine. Happy Turkey Day, readers!!

Ingredients
2 Cups plus two tablespoons GF all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup potato or corn starch
1 Cup plus 2 tablespoons good-quality cocoa
1 heaping teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon fresh-grated nutmeg

3/4 Cup buttermilk or milk/cream/milk substitute (soy, coconut, rice, or almond)
1 1/2 Cups pumpkin purée (15 oz. can)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 Cups (firmly packed) dark brown sugar
1 1/2 Cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room tempurature

*Suggested: orange frosting to top

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Fill your cuppy cake pans with cuppy cake wrappers. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, starch, xanthan gum, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg and set aside. Combine the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla in a medium bowl and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, with an electric mixer set on medium speed, until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and light. Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, blending well after each addition (do so carefully, dry ingredients are messy).  Fill each cuppy cake wrapper to the the exact top or just under (you may need to smooth out the tops with a spatula or your finger. Bake for 22 minutes (near sea level, adjust for higher altitudes).

**Refrigerate until ready to serve. Cupcakes can be made up to four days in advance, but frosting should be added the night before or day of.
***Tip: Eggs that are fridge temp can be brought to room temp by putting eggs in a bowl with hot water from the tap for 5+ minutes (repeat once if necessary). Room temp eggs will do their job a lot better than cold eggs.

Nearly Vegetarian GF Spring Rolls

Hubby has decided to give up salt and reduce his meat to almost zero. I refuse to stand by and suffer with just flavorless beans and rice. He has had to go without all sorts of other things for my diet, so I think it's only fair to take a good stab at finding us something delicious and uber healthy. I only used organic items for this dinner, but you could go conventional if you wanted to.

This dish is basically vegetarian, but definitely not vegan. I also have to say that the rice helped this dish to be very filling, and the sauces added plenty of flavor. I did not miss the salt or the meat. It seems like it might be difficult, but it was surprisingly easy to make.

Ingredients
Spring Rolls
Spring roll skins (i.e. rice paper wraps found in Asian markets/sections)
2 TBSP chopped pickled ginger
2 cups cooked rice (I like Jasmine or Basmati)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup finely chopped purple cabbage
1/2 cup cucumber, julienne
1/2 cubed avacado
2 sweet peppers, cored and chopped
1/2 cup zucchini, julienne
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Sweet and Spicy Chili Sauce
1 cup Asian sweet chili sauce (Asian aisle)
1 TBSP lemon juice
1 TBSP fish sauce (anchovy)
3 cloves garlic,  chopped (tip - smashed the clove with your open palm and the peel will come right off)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp chopped ginger (fresh or pickled)
1 tsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 tsp serrano pepper, chopped

Mustard Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame seed oil
1 TBSP Sugar

Directions
Make both sauces first, by combining the ingredients for each sauce in it's own small container with sealed lid (I used 1 quart mason jars). Shake vigorously and refrigerate until spring rolls are ready to eat.

Bring two cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add one cup of rice and bring back to a boil. Cover and reduce to low heat. Cook for 15 minutes. Add chopped, pickled ginger and fresh cilantro. Cook for five to ten more minutes until soft and moist. Keep covered and set aside. In a wok or large skillet, pre-heat olive oil on med-high heat. Sauté cabbage until lightly softened. Set aside.

Fill a large bowl with warm water and dampen a clean kitchen towel to lay out on the counter. Take a rice paper spring roll wrapper and submerge into the warm water for a few seconds until it begins to soften (don't over moisten). Lay flat on the moist dish towel. Layer rice, cabbage, and other chopped veggies (add one or both sauces if you want it contained). Fold the spring roll wrapper over the food like a burrito. The wrapper will be sticky and will hold. Plate and serve. Put dipping sauces in bowls for diners to dip their spring rolls if the sauce was left out of center of the spring roll.

New Year's Resolution Thingybobs of Sorts

Now that Oprah has a new network, I've been filling up my TiVo with all the new shows to try out and see if I want to follow them or not. Low and behold, I stumbled onto a total gem of a show (some of them are real stinkers). It's called Anna and Kristina's Grocery Bag. It's a Canadian import that's been on the air since 2007. That's more episodes to watch, so yay for me!

The thing I like about the show is that the premise is two amateur ladies taking on cookbook after cookbook, with some success and also many disasters that follow. They get experts to judge their work at the end of each episode. It's very insightful and often hilarious. They also field/lab test ingredients and kitchen gadgetry which is awesome for those of us who would like to save money by getting it right the first time.


Well, they have inspired me to get cooking again. They have caused me to re-consider cookbooks I previously turned my nose up at and have motivated me to get more ambitious with my baking. I know I've been a bit of a slacker lately, but hey, we all get into food ruts from time-to-time. So after watching about five episodes over the last couple of days, while I was suffering through one of the worst colds I've had in three years, I decided for hubby and I, that we are going to start trying one new recipe a week and that we can alternate who's turn it is, so no one has to do more that two new meals a month. I think that's manageable. He seems skeptical, but I think I can win him over with delicious new things to add to our menu options that are GF and low sodium.

I may even ask my sister to guest blog about working with dry beans. I called her about the beans yesterday, but we'll wait a bit because she just had a new baby a week ago.

I've been quite the nagging wife about  hubby's sodium intake for the last month or so, and now that he's seen enough of Dr. Oz's scare tactics about heart disease, he is taking it seriously. We discovered that canned, pre-cooked beans are loaded with sodium and that the cans they are packaged in are coated in BPAs, which can be really bad for you in large amounts. Perhaps some of you remember my anti-plastic campaign I started roughly a year ago partially for that very reason. I also like sea turtles to live nice lives, free of eating plastic bags in the giant garbage swirls in the oceans.

So, the long and the short of it is, I will be trying new things. And we will be in an even slower food movement at our house, if you can imagine that. We're trying to eliminate as many pre-processed foods that come in cans and boxes, including single ingredients, like beans. You will see the successful dishes posted here, with pictures.

Thanks to Anna and Kristina, I will be getting a used copy of the Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentis for my birthday this year, which is mere weeks away. We'll see how the food allergy conversions go. Maybe there's hope for us all that we can eat good Italian food that won't kill us (BTW, I've tried the new Olive Garden GF menu and it's terrible).

Wish me luck!