Cinnamon Roll Cake

I woke up early yesterday and suddenly wanted to make a Cinnamon Roll Cake. And since I had a couple of hours before church, I did it. 

Cinnamon Roll Cake is a quick substitute for yeast-based cinnamon rolls, and it tastes FABULOUS. The basic cake recipe is nearly identical to the one we use for the Peach Right-Side-Up Cake, but the addition of a cinnamon swirl turns it from a plain vanilla cake to a much more enjoyable breakfast dessert. (Is that a thing? It should be a thing, right?) 

Cinnamon Roll Cake

2 1/2 c. EGF all purpose flour mix

1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 (3.4 oz.) pkg instant vanilla pudding mix
3/4 c. butter, softened but still cool
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 c. buttermilk (I usually combine 1 1/8 c. whole milk and 1/8 c. lemon juice and let it sit for about 5 minutes while I combine the rest of the ingredients) 

Cinnamon Swirl

3/4 c butter, slightly melted

1 c brown sugar

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon 

Cream Cheese Icing

2 oz cream cheese 

2 c powdered sugar

4-5 Tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x18 sheet cake pan with cooking spray. Remove the eggs and buttermilk from the fridge and let them sit at room temp for about half an hour. (In a hurry? Place your fridge-cold eggs in a bowl of warm water for five minutes or so and they’ll be much closer to room temp.) 

Combine all the dry cake ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the butter and mix on low to medium speed until the mixture resembles a cake mix (the butter will be in very small crumbs. 

Add eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk to the dry ingredients. Mix on medium-low speed until mixture is smooth.

Spread cake batter evenly in the prepared pan. 

Combine all cinnamon swirl ingredients. Pour (or, if your mixture is too thick to pour, drop in small spoonfuls) on top of the cake batter. Use a knife to swirl the cinnamon mixture through the cake batter, leaving the batter as evenly spread as you can. 

Bake at 350 for 23-28 minutes or until the top of the cake is golden brown. Remove from oven. 

To make the glaze, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Add vanilla. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time, pausing to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl every once in a while. (Adding the milk slowly allows you to ensure that the glaze will be smooth and without lumps of cream cheese.)

Spoon the glaze over the top of the warm cake. Serve warm or cold.

Gingerbread Cake

I love how versatile this sheet cake recipe has turned out. For the last few days I’ve been thinking I out what a “Christmas” flavored cake would be like and finally decided to try a gingerbread flavored cake. The flavor turned out lovely - gingerbready without being overpowering. The texture was soft and airy, like the rest of these “Texas Sheet Cakes.” We topped it with powdered sugar and stabilized whipped cream, and it was really hard to stop with just one piece! 

Gingerbread Texas Sheet Cake

2 c. EGF all-purpose flour

2 c. Brown sugar

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. butter (2 sticks)

1/4 c molasses

3/4 c. water

1/2 c. buttermilk (I use 1/2 c. whole milk plus about 1.5 tsp. lemon juice)

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl, combine flour mix, sugar, xanthan gum, baking soda, spices, and salt. In a medium pan, combine butter, molasses, and water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and mix well until smooth. Add buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. The batter will be quite thin.

Pour batter into a greased (or well-sprayed-with-Pam) 13x18 sheet cake pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. (The edges of the cake will pull away from the pan when the cake is done.) Remove from the oven and cool thoroughly. Dust with powdered sugar. Serve with stabilized whipped cream. 

Cookbook reprints available!

Several years ago we started to run low on our cookbooks, so I contacted the printer to see about ordering more of them. Unfortunately, they had lost our files in a server crash. I spent quite a long time working on the recipe files, only to be completely thrown for a loop by the missing covers. So I sat and stared at my computer, wondering how to recreate the covers and inserts. For two years. 

Yes, it took me two years to recreate the covers and inserts. Could have been worse, though...I swear I have had clean laundry piles hanging over my head for that long. (OK, that is perhaps a slight exaggeration about the laundry. Perhaps.) 

Anyway, I finally decided to just do SOMETHING and print it. So, if you are looking for a new copy of our first cookbook (with a much more helpful index), they are now available! 

If you are in the Utah Valley area, you can purchase one through Kate’s GF Kitchen and pick it up today right away. If you need it mailed, visit eatingglutenfree.com’s products page. (They will be available for pickup starting today, but won’t be available to ship for another few weeks.) 

Look at that helpful index! (That took me DAYS to create!) Also, can you see the way the light shines off the pages? (It’s most noticeable up by the M section). We had it printed on heavy paper that’s a little bit slick to the touch, which should help it to be more liquid resistant.

Gluten Free Spudnuts!!

 So, you may not know this, but spudnuts are the best kind of doughnuts ever invented. They are So Good. I mean, Krispy Kreme are decent, but Spudnuts are stellar. I have, in the past, tried to make raised yeast-style gluten free doughnuts, but I have never actually liked the results. (This explains why the only doughnut recipe on this site is a cake doughnut.) Well, this morning I woke up thinking about Spudnuts and wanting to find a way to make them gluten free. 

To make a (quite) long story short, I compared recipes, realized that the Six Sister’s Spudnut recipe was actually very similar to my favorite gluten free bread recipe, and decided to combine them and make gluten free Spudnuts. 

They turned out beautifully. The dough was super easy to work with, they fried up a beautiful golden brown, and the taste and texture were great. They aren’t exactly like the raised-glazed doughnuts sold by The Spudnut Shop in my hometown, but they’re certainly the best gluten free yeast doughnuts I’ve ever had. (And when I shared one with my spudnut loving neighbor he said “But these are gluten free? Nuh-uh!” Success :) 

My only regret is that I only made a single batch (about a dozen doughnuts). I was afraid they wouldn’t turn out well and that I would regret wasting the flour. Instead they were fabulous and all my children complained that they couldn’t eat more. 

Look how light and chewy they are! 

Try them! And let me know if you like them as much as we did! 

Gluten Free Spudnut Recipe

1/4 c potato water*

3/4 c milk 

1/4 c mashed potatoes*

1/4 c sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 c oil

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 TBS yeast 

2 eggs

3 c EGF All-Purpose flour mix

2 tsp Xanthan gum 

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

*The initial step in making Spudnuts is to take a medium potato, peel it, dice it into small cubes, and boil it until the potato cubes are soft (just as you would to make mashed potatoes). Quarter inch cubes need to be boiled for about ten minutes, while one inch cubes can take 20 minutes or more. Once the potatoes are soft, drain off the water (reserving 1/4 cup of that hot water for the donuts). Mash the boiled potatoes until smooth. Now you’re ready to start making the Spudnut dough. 

Mix together potato water and milk. If necessary, microwave for about twenty seconds or so to get the liquid to 100° to 110°. (This is just the right temperature to activate the yeast without killing it. I prefer to linger right around 100°.) Combine the milk/water mixture with the mashed potatoes, sugar, salt, oil, and vanilla. Add yeast and mix well. Let sit until yeast starts foaming and is fully dissolved. (If you are using regular active yeast, let sit until the yeast is fully dissolved and starting to bubble - about 30 minutes. If using instant yeast, the time needed to dissolve and activate the yeast is much shorter, maybe 10 minutes.) While waiting for the yeast to start foaming, combine flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and baking soda. 

Once the yeast has begun foaming, add beaten eggs and flour mixture to the yeast mixture. Mix well. Once the dough is thoroughly combined, scrape the dough into a ball, then cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise until doubled (about 1 hour).**

This dough is slightly stiffer than many gluten free bread doughs, and is quite easy to handle (I tried to post a video of it, but blogger seemed unable). (I’m kind of thinking I may try adding potatoes to my bread recipe next time....) 

Stir down the dough. Turn dough out onto a piece of parchment paper that has been well dusted with potato starch. Use the back of a spatula (also dipped in potato starch) to press the dough out evenly (about 1/3-1/2 inch thick). (Use enough potato starch to keep the dough from sticking, but don’t go crazy with it - adding too much starch can make the doughnuts drier.) 

Use a cookie cutter or cup dipped in potato starch to cut out doughnuts. Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut a hole in the center of each doughnut. (I didn’t have a cutter of the right size to cut out the centers, so we cut the top off a small Gatorade bottle and used that.)  

Combine any scraps of dough and cut out more doughnuts until all the dough has been used up (we got 13 doughnuts). 

Transfer cut doughnuts (and holes) to another parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Gently cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled (about 30 minutes). (By the way, it really is important to let the dough raise fully both times. It’s tempting to cut the time short because you just want to eat them already, but letting them raise completely is what gives them their lighter, softer texture. Don’t shortchange yourself by not allowing the dough to raise properly!)

Heat vegetable oil to 350°. Transfer doughnuts gently into the hot oil and fry until golden brown (1-2 minutes). Turn doughnuts over to cook the other side.  

(Fry one or four at a time, depending on the size of the pan😄). Remove cooked doughnuts from oil and drain on paper towels. Dip slightly cooled doughnuts in glaze (see recipe below) and place glazed-side-up on parchment paper to cool (I reused the parchment paper the doughnuts had been raising on.) 

Enjoy! 

**Want to have hot doughnuts in the morning, but not to wake up at 5 am to start making them? Make the dough the night before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight. Pull it out in the morning to warm up and finish rising before finishing them. You can probably even place cut out doughnuts in the fridge to rise, so all you would need to do is fry them in the morning...I haven’t tried it myself yet, though, so if one of you tries it, let me know in the comments how it worked. 

Vanilla Glaze Recipe (modified from Six Sisters) 

2 Tbs very hot water

1 c powdered sugar

1 Tbs butter

1 tsp vanilla 

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Makes just enough glaze for a single recipe of doughnuts and their holes. 

Homemade Tapioca Pudding

Tapioca pudding is one of those things that is NORMALLY gluten-free. Unfortunately, 2020 seems to have attacked minute tapioca along with toilet paper. There is NONE to be found. I have checked ALL of the stores, and online, and all of the places… There just is not any minute tapioca. So what is a mom of eight kids who all love tapioca pudding to do? 

Fortunately, there are still tapioca pearls available. Unfortunately, I have never actually made tapioca pudding with anything but Kraft minute tapioca. So I’ve had a little bit of a learning curve. The bag of small tapioca pearls I bought at a local Asian Foods market had no cooking instructions, so I had to search the internet for vague instructions. The first recipe I followed was not a success. It had me soak the tapioca in hot water for half an hour, but the proportions were not right and my soaked tapioca pearls formed a solid sheet across the bottom of my pan that took FOREVER to break up into smaller pieces again. The cooking process (post-soaking) also seemed to take forever. It was probably really only a few minutes more than the “minute” version, but it SEEMED longer because I had to take the pudding off the heat and temper the eggs before adding them back in ... lazy, I know, but it just felt like a lot of effort. And then, once the pudding was finished, my children objected to the flavor (“It just tastes like regular vanilla pudding!”) and the amount of tapioca pearls (“There’s so much tapioca...it’s stiff!”). 

So today I went back to the drawing board. I kept the pre-soaking step, but increased the water. Then I looked up the instructions for Krafts’ minute tapioca and based my recipe on their instructions. The recipe was simpler and faster, and my children agree the resultant pudding is “Much Better!” So, no matter what else 2020 takes from you, don’t let it take your tapioca pudding! 

 

Tapioca Pudding with Small Pearl Tapioca

1/3 c. small pearl tapioca

2/3 c. hot water

5 1/2 c. whole milk

2/3 c. sugar

Two eggs, beaten

Dash salt

1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla

In a large sauce pan, combine small pearl tapioca and hot water. Swirl around a bit to allow the tapioca to spread evenly across the bottom of the pan. Let sit for half an hour. After half an hour has passed, gently stir the tapioca to make sure it has not formed any large clumps. There will still be a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan. Do not remove the excess water. 

Add milk, sugar, salt, and beaten egg to the tapioca. Whisk well. Let sit for five minutes.

Heat the pudding mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it comes to a full rolling boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Allow pudding to sit and cool for 20 minutes. Pudding will continue to thicken as it cools. (If desired, cover the pudding with plastic wrap to prevent it from forming a skin. I usually just give it a quick stir every few minutes instead.) 

If, for some reason, your pudding is not thickening after it has been cooling for ten minutes, return it to medium heat and bring it back to a boil, then allow it to cool. This should fix it. 

Serve warm or cold. Makes about ten 1/2 c servings. (If you want to cut the recipe in half, use 3 Tbs. tapioca pearls and 6 Tbs. hot water.) 

 

Gluten Free Tomato Soup for Casseroles

 Tomato soup is one of those things I never eat on its own but which I use all the time anyway. Because so many casseroles call for tomato soup, this is one of those items that most people really miss after going gluten free. (Well, maybe not “most people”, but as a busy mother with a lot of children, I sure missed being able to buy it.) 

The good news is, tomato soup is really easy to make. Really easy. If you just adore sitting down with a hot bowl of tomato soup, this may not be exactly what you are looking for.  It is, instead, a thicker, casserole ready, almost condensed soup...so Shepherd’s Pie gets to stay on your menu :)

Tomato Soup

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup EGF all purpose flour mix

1 tsp beef bouillon

1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 c milk 

Salt and pepper to taste

Basil leaves, oregano, and dill weed to taste

Combine butter and flour mix in a medium sauce pan. Add bouillon and spices. Heat over medium high heat until melted and well combined, whisking constantly. Add milk and tomato sauce. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbling. Use in your favorite casserole. (Makes about 2 cans-worth of tomato soup.) 

(In the picture above, I’ve combine a recipe of this tomato soup with 2 c cooked hamburger, and I’m about to top it with green beans, mashed potatoes, and cheese, a favorite busy-fall-day dinner at our house.) 

Gluten Free Snickerdoodles

 

To be completely honest with you, I don’t really care for snickerdoodles. My husband really likes them, so I developed a recipe several years ago…but I really haven’t made it more than a couple of times since then. Today one of my twins decided that she would make snickerdoodles for one of her church youth leaders who had to have surgery. Other than asking me “How do you know when it’s creamed?”, she made them all by herself. So far I’ve eaten two, and I may eat a third. Maybe I have COVID and my sense of taste has gone, but they just taste so GOOD. And the little boy whose hand is in the next picture? I think he’s eaten five. We may have to make a second batch. 

Gluten Free Snickerdoodles

1 c. butter flavored shortening

1 c. sugar

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

2 eggs

2 3/4 c. EGF all-purpose flour mix

1 1/3 tsp. xanthan gum

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

Cinnamon sugar for rolling**

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cream shortening, sugar, and dry pudding mix. Add eggs and mix well. Combine dry ingredients, then mix them into the creamed mixture.

Rolled into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. (Or, if you like, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.)

Bake 10 to 11 minutes. (Bottom edges will be a light golden brown. Cookies will be puffed up a little bit, but not completely firm to the touch. They should fall a little bit after they come out of the oven.)

**To make cinnamon sugar, combine 1 c. white sugar with 1 tsp. cinnamon and mix well. Or, if you like your cinnamon flavor a little bit stronger, add two or even 3 teaspoons cinnamon per cup of sugar.