Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Frosted Cookies

Valentine's Day Frosted Gingerbread Cookies — Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Frosted Cookies

Mary Kate and I try occasionally to think up recipes with holiday themes. Valentine’s Day is a somewhat of struggle for me, as I’m generally a bit cynical of the whole thing and not a very sentimental person. But I’ve been craving cookies for a while, and I’d gotten myself some cookie cutters (these and these) with an Amazon gift card I’d gotten for Christmas (thanks Mom!) and I was itching to give them a test drive. Now granted, the Gingerdead Men cookie cutters aren’t much in the theme of Valentine’s Day, but they were too funny for me not to try out. I took them to work and they were a huge hit with people who have no allergies and can eat gluten, so I think they’re pretty awesome.

Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Frosted Cookies

I started with a recipe from Cara Reed’s Decadent Gluten-Free Vegan Baking book, which is an excellent resource. However, due to my cocktail of allergies, I generally use her book as a starting point to experiment as I generally have to change quite a bit. This time, I had to change the flour mix as I seem to be having issues with potatoes and rice and I suspect I may be allergic (sigh, shaking fist at the sky). I can’t use vegan shortening or vegan butter due to my corn and coconut allergies. I also can’t use flax as I’m allergic to it. I also wanted to kick up the spices a bit.

To start, you’ll need to make the Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free Flour Mix:

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Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free Flour Mix

CourseIngredient/Staple

Servings	Prep Time
9 cups	15 minutes

Servings	Prep Time
9 cups	15 minutes

Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free Flour Mix

CourseIngredient/Staple

Servings	Prep Time
9 cups	15 minutes

Servings	Prep Time
9 cups	15 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups sorghum flour
2 cups oat flour
2 cups millet flour
2 cups tapioca starch
1 cup arrowroot starch

Servings: cups

Instructions

Measure all ingredients and place in a large mixing bowl. Using a whisk, mix the ingredients until well combined. Place in an air tight storage container and use in baking recipes.

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Once your flour mix is done, we can move onto the cookies.

Cookie Dough:

1/2 cup of cold lard, cold vegetable shortening, or vegan butter (vegan butter and vegetable shortening are not generally safe for those allergic to corn)
2 1/2 cups of Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free flour mix and a bit extra for rolling the dough
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of molasses (Plantation Molasses is the brand most tolerated by those allergic to corn)
1 Tablespoon of ground chia seed
3 Tablespoons of aquafaba

Pink Royal Icing:

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract (Here’s a bunch of recipes for vanilla extract, make sure to use safe alcohol if corn or wheat are an issue for you. I used a vodka made only from potatoes, be careful as some vodkas may also use grain or corn.)
1 Tablespoon of aquafaba
1 teaspoon of beet puree (To make puree, either use canned or fresh cooked beets and puree them in a blender with a bit of cooking liquid)

In a large bowl, whisk together the Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free flour mix, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, until completely combined and set aside. In a small bowl, mix chia and aquafaba together until combined, and set aside.

Using a stand mixer, beat the cold lard, cold vegetable shortening, or vegan butter on medium to high speed until softened. Add molasses, sugar, chia and aquafaba mixture, and half of the flour mixture and beat until combined, scraping down the sides as necessary. Then add the remaining flour mixture and beat it in slowly until combined.

When dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375ºF, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place piece of parchment paper large enough to cover your rolling surface. Lightly flour the parchment paper with some Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free flour mix, flatten the dough ball and flip it to be covered with some of the flour.

Add another piece of parchment paper on top. Roll the dough between the pieces of parchment paper to 1/8 of an inch thickness.

Dough being rolled between two pieces of parchment

If you don’t roll the cookies thin enough, they will spread.

Cut shapes with a cookie cutter and place them 1 inch apart on the parchment covered baking sheet.

Cookies on cookie sheet (placed much too closely, beware!)

Bake 7-13 minutes (range is for a metal sheet pan to Pampered Chef stoneware, you need more time for stoneware) until the edges are lightly browned.

Cookies placed too closely and rolled too thick - A friend noted it looked like a cave made of hearts collapsing on the men, haha! — Cookies placed too closely and rolled too thick – A friend noted it looked like a cave made of hearts collapsing on the men, haha!

Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before transferring them to a wire rack.

When they are cool, it’s time to frost them. To make the Pink Royal Icing, place the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, aquafaba, and beet puree in a bowl and using a stand or electric mixer, beat ingredients until completely combined. If frosting is not firm enough, add additional powdered sugar by the teaspoon until it is.

Place the frosting in a cake decorator and frost as you wish. Enjoy!

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Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Frosted Cookies

Cookies for your sweetheart!

CourseDessert

Servings	Prep Time
2 dozen	30 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
7-13 minutes	3 hours

Servings	Prep Time
2 dozen	30 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
7-13 minutes	3 hours

Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Frosted Cookies

Cookies for your sweetheart!

CourseDessert

Servings	Prep Time
2 dozen	30 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
7-13 minutes	3 hours

Servings	Prep Time
2 dozen	30 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
7-13 minutes	3 hours

Ingredients

Pink Royal Icing

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp aquafaba
1 tsp beet puree (To make puree, either use canned or fresh cooked beets and puree them in a blender)

Servings: dozen

Instructions

Making Cookies

In a large bowl, whisk together the Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free flour mix, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, until completely combined and set aside. In a small bowl, mix chia and aquafaba together until combined, and set aside.
Using a stand mixer, beat the cold lard, cold vegetable shortening, or vegan butter on medium to high speed until softened. Add molasses, sugar, chia and aquafaba mixture, and half of the flour mixture and beat until combined, scraping down the sides as necessary. Then add the remaining flour mixture and beat it in slowly until combined.
Divide the dough in half and create two balls. Either wrap in saran wrap or place in a bowl and cover, and then place in the fridge and chill the dough for at least three hours, I prefer overnight.
When dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375ºF, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place piece of parchment paper large enough to cover your rolling surface. Lightly flour the parchment paper with some Gluten-free, Rice-free, Potato-free flour mix, flatten the dough ball and flip it to be covered with some of the flour, and add another piece of parchment paper on top. Roll the dough between the pieces of parchment paper to 1/8 of an inch thickness. If you don’t roll the cookies thin enough, they will spread. Cut shapes with a cookie cutter and place them 1 inch apart on the parchment covered baking sheet.
Bake 7-13 minutes (range is for a metal sheet pan to Pampered Chef stoneware, you need more time for stoneware) until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before transferring them to a wire rack.

Making Frosting

Place powdered sugar, vanilla extract, aquafaba, and beet puree in a bowl and using a stand or electric mixer, beat ingredients until completely combined. If frosting is not firm enough, add additional powdered sugar by the teaspoon until it is.

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February 8, 2016

Gluten-free Apple Pie (vegan option)

Now that we have have a pie crust that works, of course I had to make apple pie. Because most of you won’t have the copious amount of home canned apple pie filling that is currently sitting in my garage, I made one up using fresh apples.

Gluten-free Apple Pie (vegan option)

2 batches of our Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option) recipe
7-8 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (I used Cortland apples)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup of brown sugar tightly packed
2 tablespoons tapioca starch or arrowroot starch
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Make two batches of our Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option) recipe and chill the resulting dough balls as described until you’re ready for them.

Preheat oven to 400° F. Peel, core and slice your apples if you haven’t already.

Place sugar, brown sugar, tapioca starch or arrow root, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice into a large bowl.

Mix dry ingredients until well combined.

Mix apples into dry ingredients until combined and set aside.

Take chilled dough balls and use one to roll out bottom crust for pie. Place in pie pan, making sure that the rolled crust is wide enough to cover the sides of the pie pan.

Place apples in pie pan.

Use other dough ball to roll out top crust and place over top of pie pan, sealing top crust over bottom crust. Using a knife, cut a few vent holes in the top of the pie crust.

Top crust placed in pan and edges sealed

Bake for 60 to 75 minutes until the crust is browned to your liking.

This cooks longer than a “regular” pie, because of the increased amount of apples (a standard recipe calls for 6 cups but I like mine with more) and the gluten-free crust.

Enjoy!

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Gluten-free Apple Pie (vegan option)

Classic apple pie with gluten-free crust

CourseDessert

Servings	Prep Time
6-8 slices depending on size	60 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
60-75 minutes	60-75 minutes

Servings	Prep Time
6-8 slices depending on size	60 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
60-75 minutes	60-75 minutes

Gluten-free Apple Pie (vegan option)

Classic apple pie with gluten-free crust

CourseDessert

Servings	Prep Time
6-8 slices depending on size	60 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
60-75 minutes	60-75 minutes

Servings	Prep Time
6-8 slices depending on size	60 minutes

Cook Time	Passive Time
60-75 minutes	60-75 minutes

Ingredients

2 batches Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option) recipe http://adultfoodallergies.com/gluten-free-pie-crust-vegan-option/
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples I used Cortland apples
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp tapioca starch
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice

Servings: slices depending on size

Instructions

Make two batches of our Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option) recipe at http://adultfoodallergies.com/gluten-free-pie-crust-vegan-option/ and chill the resulting dough balls as described until you’re ready for them.
Preheat oven to 400° F. Peel, core and slice your apples if you haven’t already.
Place sugar, brown sugar, tapioca starch or arrow root, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice into a large bowl. Mix dry ingredients until well combined. Mix apples into dry ingredients until combined and set aside.
Take chilled dough balls and use one to roll out bottom crust for pie. Place in pie pan, making sure that the rolled crust is wide enough to cover the sides of the pie pan. Place apples in pie pan.
Use other dough ball to roll out top crust and place over top of pie pan, sealing top crust over bottom crust. Using a knife, cut a few vent holes in the top of the pie crust.
Bake for 60 to 75 minutes until the crust is browned to your liking. This cooks longer than a “regular” pie, because of the increased amount of apples and the gluten-free crust.

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November 30, 2015

Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option)

Mini Apple Pie baked in a tortilla shell baker

When I first was diagnosed with my wheat allergy (yep, actually allergic, not celiac), I tried to do a pie crust. I figured that all I’d have to do is mix some rice flour with shortening (I still had a safe-ish one at that point) and a bit of salt and voila, it’d all work out. So that’s what I did and made a pot pie. Ummm…not so much. It was like eating a pot pie with a layer of very fine beach sand on it. Appetizing, right?

Pie crust has been a much bigger struggle than I originally anticipated. I ended up not having a safe shortening, and I can’t buy commercial lard. So I have to render the lard at home. Xanthan gum is problematic for me on a number of levels, and I don’t care for guar gum. So I put off the problem for a while. However, after hearing about aquafaba, I decided to give it another go, and used this recipe as a starting point. I switched out a flour and switched amounts around, got rid of the gum, used cold aquafaba (I refrigerated it) instead of water, and used lard instead of shortening (if you have a safe shortening to use instead of the lard, go for it; it should work).

Gluten-free Pie Crust (Vegan Option)

1/3 cup of sorghum flour
1/3 cup of Otto’s Naturals cassava flour
1/3 cup of arrowroot starch
1/4 cup of millet flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of cold lard or cold shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
5 Tablespoons of cold aquafaba.

Whisk together the sorghum flour, cassava flour, arrowroot starch, millet flour and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut in the lard or shortening until the mixture looks like crumbs.

Flour mixture after cutting in lard or shortening

Mix the water, aquafaba and apple cider vinegar together until blended thoroughly in a small bowl or glass measuring cup, and add it to the flour mixture, stirring until it comes together to form a dough.

Shape the dough into a smooth ball, and put the dough ball into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes. You can chill it for longer, it’ll help make the pie crust more flaky and crisp.

Using some of your other flours (I used sorghum) dust the surface of your rolling space. I was able to roll out my pie crust on a rolling mat and use my rolling pin to transfer the pie crust to the pie plate without too much difficulty. However, if you like your crust thin, try doing rolling your crust out on parchment paper to make it easier to transfer to the pie pan. Make sure you use plenty of dusting flour so that it doesn’t stick to the rolling surface or parchment paper.

You can also use the crust to make tarts or stuffed pastries. The dough does not have the same elasticity as normal pie dough, but you can work with it a little, You can’t bend it in half because it will break. but you can stack pieces of dough on top of each other as long as the filling isn’t too tall. Next time I might experiment with larger top pieces to accommodate more filling.

Bake your pie crust according to your pie recipe. Since I was winging it, I cooked my little pies, tarts, and pastries in the slide slow above for about 45 to 60 minutes. If you’re worried about soggy crusts, you can try blind baking your bottom crust. The Kitchn explains here much better than I can.

Have fun, and send us pictures of your creations!

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Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option)

A lovely crust for both dessert and savory applications. Double the recipe to make a top and bottom pie crust.

Servings	Prep Time
1 single crust	45 minutes

Passive Time

30 minutes

Servings	Prep Time
1 single crust	45 minutes

Passive Time

30 minutes

Gluten-free Pie Crust (vegan option)

A lovely crust for both dessert and savory applications. Double the recipe to make a top and bottom pie crust.

Servings	Prep Time
1 single crust	45 minutes

Passive Time

30 minutes

Servings	Prep Time
1 single crust	45 minutes

Passive Time

30 minutes

Ingredients

1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup Otto’s Naturals cassava flour
1/3 cup arrowroot starch
1/4 cup millet flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold lard or cold vegetable shortening
1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
5 tbsp cold aquafaba

Servings: single crust

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together the sorghum flour, the cassava flour, arrowroot starch, millet flour, and salt, until they are thoroughly mixed.
Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut in the lard or vegetable shortening until the mixture looks like crumbs.
In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, mix the aquafaba and apple cider vinegar together until it is well blended. Add the liquid mixture to your flour mixture and stir until it comes together to form a dough.
Shape the dough into a smooth ball, and put the dough ball into the freezer to chill for 30 minutes before rolling it out.
Using some of your other flours (I used sorghum) dust the surface of your rolling space. I was able to roll out my pie crust on a rolling mat and use my rolling pin to transfer the pie crust to the pie plate without too much difficulty. However, if you like your crust thin, try doing rolling your crust out on parchment paper to make it easier to transfer to the pie pan. Make sure you use plenty of dusting flour so that it doesn’t stick to the rolling surface or parchment paper.
Place pie crust in pie plate, and fill pie. Bake according to pie recipe. If you’re concerned about soggy crust, you may wish to blind bake your bottom crust first.

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November 16, 2015

Apple Cake, Vegan and Gluten-Free

You guys are noticing a trend, right? It’s apparently a bumper crop year for apples. When I was trying to figure out how to use up apples, my friend Erika sent me a link for this recipe for Mom’s Apple Cake from Smitten Kitchen. For obvious reasons, I had to change the original, and I tried making it more like an upside down cake. It took a couple of tries, but I have it where I like it now.

Apple Cake, Vegan and Gluten-Free

Apple mixture:

6 large apples or 7 medium apples (I used a mix from my apple trees out back, mostly McIntosh and Galas.)
1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon
5 Tablespoons of brown sugar

Cake batter:

2 and 3/4 cups of all purpose gluten-free flour mix (I used Cara Reed’s mix from her blog, Fork and Beans)
1 Tablespoon of baking powder (For corn free baking powder you can use this recipe.)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of safe for you oil (I used olive oil and grape seed oil, mostly because I ran out of olive oil and had to top it off with grape seed oil.)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of orange juice (I don’t have a safe orange juice so I squeezed mine myself.)
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract (Here’s a bunch of recipes for vanilla extract, make sure to use safe alcohol if corn or wheat are an issue for you. I used a vodka made only from potatoes, be careful as some vodkas may also use grain or corn.)
1/2 cup of applesauce (I used my home canned but use any safe applesauce you have.)
1/4 cup of aquafaba (The liquid from a can of garbanzo beans or chick peas. I used my home canned garbanzo bean liquid.)
1 Tablespoon of ground chia seed

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 inch by 8 inch baking pan with some safe for you oil.

Peel, core and slice apples. Place them in a bowl and toss them with the 5 tablespoons of brown sugar and the cinnamon. Set the apple mixture aside for now.

Stir gluten-free flour mix, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, orange juice, sugar, the remaining brown sugar, vanilla, applesauce, aquafaba and ground chia seed. I use a stand mixer with flat beater to do this.

Once these ingredients are fully incorporated together, add the flour mixture slowly to your wet mixture, with the mixer speed on low. You could also mix this manually, but the stand mixer makes my life a lot easier.

Cake batter after mixing wet and dry ingredients

Pour half of the apple mixture into your greased baking pan, spreading them evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Pouring half apples in bottom of baking pan

Pour half of the cake batter over the apples, spreading it evenly across the pan.

Then pour the remaining apple mixture over the batter evenly.

Second layer of apples over first layer of batter

Cover the apple mixture with the remaining cake batter.

Second layer of batter over second layer of apples

Bake for about an hour and half or until a tooth pick comes out clean.

Cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Loosen edges around the pan with a butter knife, and then invert the baking pan onto platter. Don’t let it cool too long or it will stick and be harder to remove from the pan (which you can tell mine did because I got distracted.)

Enjoy!

October 5, 2015

Mary Kate’s Perfect Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mary Kate's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies — Mary Kate’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

The problem with chocolate chip cookies? Everyone likes them differently. Some people like them soft, others chewy, some crunchy. This is why there are a billion recipes out there. And when your recipe no longer works for you, you might try 5 recipes and still be disappointed. Because “just like Mom made” may not be YOUR mom’s recipe. Or YOUR perfect recipe.

So I’ll tell you what I was aiming for in this recipe and you can decide if that’s what you’re looking for before you start measuring.

The Ryan perfect chocolate chip cookie should be crunchy on the edges, softer and puffier in the middle, but not underdone or actually soft. SoftER, but still with a good crumb. I believe my mother’s cookie recipe was an altered version of the classic Tollhouse recipe, tweaked until it was perfect for our family — or, rather, perfect for my dad. The man used to eat about a dozen cookies as they came out of the oven, usually burning his mouth at least a few times. These cookies are great for dunking, and another thing I learned from my dad (after “don’t eat hot cookies if you don’t want to burn yourself”) is that cookies dunked in coffee are an excellent morning treat. These don’t spread out as much as my mother’s did, but they do get the texture right.

Key to getting this texture is a trick I learned from my friend Corianne who runs a vegan bakery in Phoenix, Arizona: Treehouse. If you’re in Phoenix, check it out. Anyway, the trick is to freeze the cookie balls before baking. It adds another 30-45 minutes to the process but it is so worth it in terms of payoff.

Dough, Prep for Freezing, Prep for Baking.

NOTES ON INGREDIENTS:

Since I’ve fussed with this recipe more than almost any other recipe on this blog, I have some very specific notes on what has worked and what hasn’t.

The two major ingredients are measured by weight — I hope you have a kitchen scale if you’re trying to do gluten-free baking. It really is necessary, and you can get a decent one for under $20.

For ALL of your ingredients, I hope it goes without saying that you need to source what’s safe for you.

For “shortening,” I’ve used Spectrum shortening. Feel free to use a vegan shortening, vegan butter, or, if you aren’t vegan, another fat or shortening of your choice. I’ve done these with soy-free Earth Balance, but because if it’s really low melting point (it’s really soft at room temperature), the cookies are flatter and crispier, so reduce the baking time by a few minutes. Actually, if you mess with anything, watch your baking time. If you really like a buttery flavor, I’d suggest half margarine and half shortening as a compromise.

For the flour mix, I’m using Cara’s Gluten-Free Flour Mix. Still. Nothing else I’ve tried has worked as well. Sorghum flour is great — I am particular about sourcing, and I buy Authentic Foods sorghum flour and super-fine brown rice flour.

Sugar. I know my mom’s recipe used both white and brown sugars. I ran out of brown sugar while trying this recipe and subbed in the molasses and white sugar and I liked the flavor better, so I kept it.

Last, but not least, chocolate chips. I’ve used Enjoy Life chocolate chips for a while now, but I can never find regular-sized chips and don’t always want mini chips. I did use the mini-chips here, and I use a scant measurement of the mini chips so that they spread out better. I also recently discovered Equal Exchange chocolate chips and I’m a fan. I used this in a lot of the test versions of this recipe, but I’m out at the moment. As far as I know, neither of these brands is corn-safe, as corn is used the processing of the chips and generally isn’t on the label. If you have corn allergies and have a safe chocolate brand, tell us in the comments?

Mary Kate’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

107 grams shortening
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons molasses
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 Tablespoons aquafaba
200 grams gluten-free flour mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (or just under, if mini chips) chocolate chips

With a mixer, cream the shortening, sugar, and molasses. When it’s nice and creamy, add the aquafaba and the vanilla and mix well.

Separately, mix the flour, salt, soda, powder.

Add the flour mix to the shortening mix slowly, and mix well. The dough will be pretty stiff, pulling together and way from the sides of the bowl.

Mix in the chocolate chips by hand. I find a rubber or silicone spatula works best for this.

Now portion out the cookies on a tray lined with parchment or a silicone baking sheet and pop it in the freezer. Since I don’t have room in my freezer for two trays, I just put the cookie balls close together to freeze, and then space them out onto two trays for baking.

Pre-heat the oven to 375ºF.

When the cookies are frozen (30-45 minutes in my freezer), space them out to give about 2 inches of space around each cookie ball, on the lined baking sheet, and bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely — I tend to just drag the liner from the tray to the rack and leave it. This is me being lazy, but it’s also a good way to deal with the fragility of gluten-free, vegan baked goods.

September 28, 2015

Gluten-free Vegan Italian Herb Crackers

1/4 cup of Denise’s All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Mix (I used the Gluten Free Girl’s post on gluten-free holiday baking and modified it a bit – to make 500 grams of the mix, you’ll have a bit extra to use for other recipes, whisk together thoroughly 50 grams of oat flour, 50 grams of teff flour, 75 grams of sorghum flour, 25 grams of potato flour, 125 grams of sweet or glutinous rice flour, 75 grams of potato starch, 50 grams of arrowroot, and 50 grams of tapioca starch) or use a safe for you commercial gluten free all purpose flour.
1/4 cup of brown rice flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground chia seed
1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning mix or (or a bit of oregano, basil, marjoram, sage, rosemary, and thyme to add up to 1 teaspoon)
2 teaspoons of olive oil or a safe oil for you
4 Tablespoons of water.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.

Then add the oil and water and mix with a silicone spatula until the dough holds together in a ball.

Dough after adding wet ingredients and mixing

Flatten the ball to a frisbee-like shape, and then place it on a sheet of parchment paper.

Dough in Frisbee shape on parchment paper

Place another sheet of parchment paper over the dough and roll out the dough between the two sheets to about an eighth of an inch.

Dough being rolled between two sheets of parchment paper

Peel off top layer of parchment, and use a knife to cut lines in the dough (don’t cut through parchment). The picture shows that I used a ravioli cutter to get the squiggly lines, but at the end it started getting clogged and stopped doing the squiggly lines because it all gummed up in the wheel, which was a pain to clean. Which is why I suggest a knife.

Dough after rolling and cut up into cracker size pieces

Transfer the parchment with the dough on it to a sheet pan.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Leave the crackers on the pan to cool. Once completely cool, transfer to an airtight container to store, or just eat them all. That’s a viable option too. Enjoy!

March 3, 2014

Killer Chocolate Fudge-y Brownies

So Mary Kate put up a recipe for brownies a bit ago, but it had almond flour, coconut flour and coconut oil in it, which are a big no-no for me. So I wanted to see if I could do a brownie recipe I could eat, especially with some of my new restrictions. Keep in mind for those of you who have a corn issue, that I am not that sensitive, and that I am not dealing with packaging and cross contamination issues at this point, I’m just dealing with obvious corn and derivatives, and using safe for me ingredients.

2 Tablespoons of ground or milled chia seed
1/3 cup and 2 teaspoons of water
350 grams of Denise’s All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Mix (I used the Gluten Free Girl’s post on gluten-free holiday baking and modified it a bit – to make 500 grams of the mix, you’ll have a bit extra to use for other recipes, whisk together thoroughly 50 grams of oat flour, 50 grams of teff flour, 75 grams of sorghum flour, 25 grams of potato flour, 125 grams of sweet or glutinous rice flour, 75 grams of potato starch, 50 grams of arrowroot, and 50 grams of tapioca starch) or 2 ½ cups of All Purpose Flour if you can have wheat
½ teaspoon of sea salt
½ teaspoon baking powder (For corn free baking powder you can use this recipe)
1 ½ cups of sugar
½ cup of brown sugar
¼ cup of shortening, vegan margarine, etc., whatever is safe for you, and a little bit extra to grease the pan.
¼ cup of olive oil
¾ cup of water
1 cup of cocoa powder
1 ½ cups of safe (dairy free, nut free, soy free) chocolate chips or homemade chocolate if you’re corn free (I used this recipe, but modified it to use this sugar syrup recipe instead of honey, as honey can be problematic for people allergic to corn if you don’t know whether your beekeeper is feeding his bees corn syrup or not. Also, I used the whole batch in these brownies, so I didn’t let them cool into chocolate chips, I just put the chocolate into a heat safe bowl as described below.)
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract (Here’s a bunch of recipes for vanilla extract, make sure to use safe alcohol if corn or wheat are an issue for you. I used Luksusowa Vodka because it’s made only from potatoes, where some vodkas may also use grain or corn.)

Preheat your oven 325°F and lightly grease a 9 by 11 inch pan with a little bit of the shortening or margarine.

Whisk together the ground or milled chia seed and 1/3 cup and 2 teaspoons of water in a small bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Place the chocolate chips into a large metal or glass bowl (you want it to be heat-safe).

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, brown sugar, shortening or margarine, oil, cocoa powder, and the water and bring it to a boil, stirring constantly.

Melted shortening, sugar, coffee and cocoa powder in saucepan

Once it is boiling, pour the mixture into the heat-safe bowl containing the chocolate chips, mixing it quickly so that the chocolate chips melt and combine with the mixture.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the mixer bowl containing the flour, scraping down the chocolate mixture bowl thoroughly. Add the chia and water mixture and the vanilla to the mixer bowl and mix on medium-high speed until the brownie batter is smooth. I used the batter beater on my KitchenAid mixer.

Spread the batter evenly in the greased baking pan.

Bake it in the preheated oven for 65-75 minutes. Check them using a toothpick, the toothpick should come out clean, and then remove the brownies from the oven. Let the brownies cool completely before you cut or serve them.

Some fun variations would be to mix nuts or more chocolate chips into the batter before baking, or maybe, if you like some spice, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, or if you like less spice, a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Have fun with them!

October 28, 2013

Gluten-free Bread Rounds

Round bread things -- gluten-free! — Round bread things — gluten-free!

I was trying to make pita bread. Which, this really isn’t. Mainly in that it’s not as dry as pita bread (which is kind of weird, because you can usually count on gluten-free bread being drier than wheat bread), nor as puffy, and without the cavity in the middle. And they’re smaller — given the structural integrity issues that gluten-freeness can cause, I’d suggest staying on the smaller side.

So basically these are nothing like pita bread. Sorry for the misdirection there. They are small sandwich round bread things which are tasty, allergen-free, and seem to please the few non-allergenic people I’ve fed them to (i.e. my neighbors). So you should try them!

Gluten-free Bread Round Things

You’re going to make three mixes and then mix them all together. With me?

First, mix:

2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup + 2 Tablespoons warm — not hot — rice milk

Second, in a separate bowl, mix:

1/4 cup rice milk
2 Tablespoons ground chia seeds
4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Third, in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, mix:

1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup tapioca starch
2 Tablespoons rice milk powder
4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons olive oil
yeast mixture (should be foamy!)
chia mixture (should be gelled somewhat)

Mix until you have a pretty solid dough, reasonably thick and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. The nice thing (“nice”) about gluten-free baking is that you really can’t overmix things. There’s no gluten to get tough. I let my mixer go and make up the dishwater while it’s working, so maybe 5 minutes or so.

With well-oiled hands, scoop out 1/4 cup of dough and shape into a smooth ball. Press out to form the round — aiming for 1/8 — 1/4 inch or so in thickness, but all about the same (thickness is more important than exact size for cooking time). Place the round on a parchment covered baking sheet. Repeat until you’ve used all the dough.

Place into a COLD OVEN and turn the oven on to 400F. The timing from here on out will depend on how fast your oven heats up — mine takes almost 20 minutes to reach 400F. Check these out at about 20 minutes, but it will likely take 35-45 minutes for them to fully bake, depending on the thickness of your rounds.

Now the one thing that you’re missing are the toasted bubbled bits that a real pita bread has — if you want these, throw the pita on a grill or into a hot skillet, a few minutes on each side. This is not necessary, but does add flavor and visual texture.

When the bread rounds are completely cooled, you will be able to slice them, but carefully! Don’t expect to make pita pockets, but honestly these hold up better than most gluten-free bread for sandwiches (or at least the ones that are also egg and dairy free), so give it a try.

May 27, 2013

Category: Baked Goods

Valentine’s Day Gingerbread Frosted Cookies

Gluten-free Apple Pie (vegan option)

Gluten-free Pie Crust (Vegan Option)

Apple Cake, Vegan and Gluten-Free

Mary Kate’s Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-free Vegan Italian Herb Crackers