Gluten Free Oreos!

Anybody miss me? You know, as the end of the school year approaches, I always think to myself: "At last I'll be able to get some stuff done!" But, somehow, summer has escaped from me, and I haven't accomplished ANY of the things I thought I would. Well, that's not strictly true. I:

1. Did an awful lot of laundry and worked to teach my children how to do the same.

2. Did even more cooking and worked to decrease my "Kitchen Control Freak" vibes so that my children could learn to do the same. (They made cookies all by themselves a couple of times, and I didn't have even one little heart attack!)

3. Took my children to swim lessons almost twice a week for two months. They all had a fabulous time, and one of them actually developed a beautiful forward crawl. It was good enough to earn her a "Ducky Pass" so that she could go down the water slides even though she's too short.

4. Had 20 - 25 family members living in my house for the 2 weeks surrounding my mom's family's reunion here in Utah. We made the kids sleep outside, but with only one shower available, we had to do a lot of creative scheduling to keep everyone clean!

You know, when it's written down like that, it doesn't look like much. But I swear I was running all summer long! Oh, and Kirsti and I also taught a couple of GF cooking classes at the Provo Macey's grocery store. We taught fair foods in August (funnel cake, mmmmmmm . . . ) and then last night we taught a "How to pack GF lunches" class that entailed an awful lot of desserts. (That's the most important part of a school lunch, right? The dessert? My children seem to think so, anyway!) I intended to post all the recipes . . . oh, ages ago. Better late than never, though, eh? So here they come, one post at a time!

Gluten Free Oreos

1 ¾ c. margarine
1 large pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
1 ½ c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 c. featherlight mix
1 c. GF mix
¾ c. dutch processed cocoa powder*
1 ¾ tsp. xanthan gum
¾ tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. salt

Cream margarine, pudding mix, and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Chill about 1 hour.

Dust a clean surface with potato starch. Roll dough out about 1/8 inch thick, adding enough potato starch to make the dough less sticky. Cut with a small round cookie cutter (1 ¾ inch in diameter). Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool.

*Dutch processed cocoa is cocoa that has been processed with alkalai. It is much darker and has a deeper chocolate flavor than natural cocoa. If you can't find straight dutched cocoa, Hershey's sells a "Special Dark" variety of cocoa that is a blend of natural and dutched cocoas. These cookies just don't taste right without the dutched cocoa.

Filling

3 ¾ c. powdered sugar
1 ½ Tbs. granulated sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
½ c. vegetable shortening
2 Tbs. hot water

Combine all filling ingredients and beat until smooth. Roll 1 – 2 teaspoons of filling into a ball. Gently squish the ball of filling between 2 cookies. Store in a closed container.

Enjoy!

Summertime, and the living is easy . . .

School's out, it hasn't snowed for almost a month, and sprinkler-running children are beginning to make a regular appearance in the neighborhood. All of which means that my cooking is drifting towards summer-related foods. In our last class, we demonstrated a tres leches cake recipe. There were lots of "oooooohs" and "aaaaaahs". Just this last Monday, I took the same cake to a family barbeque, and my in-laws' in-laws requested the recipe. It's a cool kind of a cake, needing to be refrigerated for long-term storage, but there is seldom any need to store it long term. :) It's taken me a while to post a picture, because I have seldome been able to find the camera before the cake is gone!


Tres Leches Cake

2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. featherlight mix
1/2 c. GF mix
1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking powder
6 large eggs
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping:

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. milk (or cream)

Place all dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Mix together on low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure all the flour gets mixed it. Using the whisk attachment, beat the cake batter on high speed for about 5 minutes. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes. My cakes have always had a slight dip towards the center . . . but it'll be covered with cool whip later, so don't worry about it.

While the cake is baking, blend together the topping ingredients. Store the topping in the fridge until the cake is done. Pour half of the topping over the warm cake, using a spoon to spread it across the surface of the cake until it has all soaked in. (Most of it will probably soak into the middle, but you want to do your best to help it soak in evenly over the whole cake. You may poke small holes in the top of the cake with a toothpick to aid in absorption if you want, but it's not necessary.) Return the remainder of the topping to the fridge. (Stick the cake in there, too, if you've got room.)

As you can see, the topping soaks into the cake quite well. So don't worry that it won't all fit in . . . it will!

Once the cake is cool, slowly pour the rest of the topping over the cake. (I pour topping on one side of the cake at a time, tilting the pan to ensure that the topping doesn't just all slip right back to the middle of the cake. The goal is to ensure that the whole cake is moistened with the milk topping.) Once all the topping has been absorbed by the cake, cover the cake with Cool Whip (or real whipped cream if you have it). Garnish it with fresh sliced fruit such as strawberries and kiwi, if you like. Then return it to the fridge until ready to serve. (It's really good after it's been in the fridge for 2 hours or so.)

Cowboy Monster Cookies

It's raining in my backyard today. The new shoots on the raspberry bushes are dripping, there are occasional flashes of lightning, and it's about 10 degrees cooler than it was yesterday. Obviously, today was the day to try a new cookie recipe.

My neighbor has a recipe called "Monster Cookies" that called for no flour, and I thought I would try them. They did, however call for 18 cups of oats . . . . and WHOA! that's a lot of expensive gluten free oats to put into cookies. So I decided to combine my "Cowboy Cookie" recipe with her "Monster Cookie" recipe . . . yummy deliciousness resulted. Peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips make a lovely rainy day treat . . . or any day, really.

Cowboy Monster Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 c. featherlight mix
1/2 c. GF mix
2 c. GF rolled oats
1 c. chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla, then peanut butter. Add salt, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, and flour mixes, and mix well. Mix in oats, then chocolate chips. (The chocolate chips don't mix into the cookie dough as well when there is peanut butter in the recipe . . . the oil from the peanut butter makes them want to slip out of the dough. Just mix them in as well as you can so that you don't end up with half of your cookies lacking chocolate chips.)



Roll in 1 inch balls, and place on a 13x18 cookie sheet. Press down slightly . . . don't use a fork, just smoosh 'em a bit with your fingers. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool and enjoy!

Citrus Pound Cake

Strawberries have been available for about a dollar a pound for a few weeks now. They always smell so sweet and summery when I walk by them . . . so I buy some. And then, of course, I have to make angel food cake or pound cake to go with them! This particular recipe has been passed from one friend, through another friend, to me. The friend before me changed it a bit, and I changed it again, then I made it gluten free. It's really good . . . especially with strawberries!

Citrus Pound Cake

1 1/2 c. butter, at room temperature
zest from one lime and zest from half an orange*
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
juice of half an orange
juice of one lime
2 1/4 c. featherlight mix
3/4 c. GF mix
1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 or 3 loaf pans with parchment paper. (I really like parchment paper. It allows me to remove things from the pans so easily. If you don't have any, however, a non-stick cooking spray should do the trick. Or you can lightly grease the pan with either butter or shortening, then dust it with featherlight mix.)

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and zest, then beat on high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, "until light and airy" my original recipe said. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. (Adding the eggs slowly like this allows them to mix evenly into the butter mixture, without leaving clumps of butter that are didn't mix in well.) Add the vanilla and citrus juices, and mix well. Then add the flours, xanthan gum, and salt all at once. Mix until well blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and shake lightly to even out the top. Bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes. (I left mine in the pans for hours . . . until I went to bed that night.) Allow to cool completely before serving. Cover leftovers tightly. (I kept mine in a ziplock bag overnight.)

This cake is good on the first day, but it is REALLY good after it's been allowed to sit for a while. I'd suggest making it 8 - 24 hours before you want to serve it. If you forget to make it early, though, it's not the end of the world. It tastes good, just an hour out of the oven - it's mostly the texture that improves with time.


*I used a fine cheese grater to "zest" the lime and orange, because I don't own a zester. The thing to remember is that you want the colored part of the peel, but not the white part underneath it. Once you are done zesting them, the fruit peels will look like pale copies of their former selves. Then you can juice the fruits for later in the recipe!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pancakes and waffles are one of the first foods I recommend to new gluten free cooks. The batter is easy to make, and they freeze and reheat well. They're great for peanut butter sandwiches, too. Besides which, it's easy to vary the recipe. This particular variation is one that my neighbor shared with me. The ones she brought me were full of wheat, but I was easily able to modify my own pancake recipe to re-create the delicious flavor.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 c. Featherlight mix
1/2 c. GF mix
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbs. baking powder
¼ c. sugar
¼ c. brown sugar
1 Tbs. cinnamon
3 dashes mace
3 eggs
1 ¾ c. milk
½ c. oil
1 c. pumpkin
¼ - ½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs, milk, oil, and pumpkin. Add to dry ingredients and mix well (there should be few, if any, lumps). Stir in chocolate chips. Cook on a hot griddle until bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes. Flip and cook on the other side. Leftover pancakes may be refrigerated (or frozen) and reheated in the microwave.

White Sandwich Bread . . . really!

Bread is one of the foods that people with Celiac Disease miss the most. Rolls, stuffing, sandwiches made from leftover turkey . . . all of these things require a bread recipe. If you want a GF bread that works well for all of these, try the following. People always say: "Wow! This tastes like bread!" Success!

Betsy's Favorite White Sandwich Bread Recipe

2 c. GF mix
1 c. Featherlight mix
1/4 c. sugar
2 ½ tsp. Xanthan gum
1 ½ tsp. Salt
3 ½ tsp. yeast
1/4 c. oil
1 3/4 c. warm water
1 tsp. Rice vinegar
3 eggs

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Place yeast on top. (Don't mix it in yet!) Combine water, oil, and vinegar. Pour the water mixture on top of the yeast and let it sit for about 3-5 mintues. Mix well, then add eggs. Beat on high for 5 minutes.

Turn oven to 375. Grease 2 loaf pans or 12 english muffin rings on a 13x18 pan. Spoon into pans (or English Muffin rings), and let rise for 20 minutes. Bake loaf pans for about 35 minutes. Bake muffin rings for 20 minutes.

GF Mix and Featherlight Mix

We use two basic gluten free flour mixes for most of our cooking. Both mixes were developed by Bette Hagman, the author of the Gluten Free Gourmet cookbooks. The recipes for these mixes are:

GF Mix

6 c. rice flour
2 c. potato STARCH*
1 c. tapioca starch


Featherlight Mix

1 c. rice flour
1 c. tapioca starch
1 c. cornstarch
1 Tbs. potato FLOUR*


I mix up large batches of flour mixes at one time and keep them in my cabinet.

*Potato flour is not the same as potato starch. Make sure you use the right one!

Doughnuts

I've never been fully satisfied with the doughnut recipe from our cookbook, so the other day I decided to do some experimenting. I pulled about 6 gluten-filled recipes off the net, combined them, and then made them with gluten free flours. They were really good! The texture was just like "normal" cake doughnuts, and the flavor was great. My husband wanted to throw away the oil, but I wouldn't let him. Something this yummy deserved an encore!

Gluten Free Cake Doughnuts

1 c. GF Mix
3 c. Featherlight Mix
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. mace (or use 1/2 tsp. nutmeg)
1 c. milk
3 eggs
4 Tbs. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla



Combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Mix well. Let sit in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

You can see that the dough is a little sticky, but the refrigeration helps. Now, to shape the doughnuts there are two possible methods. The first is to roll the dough out on parchment paper that has been dusted with potato starch. Using one large and one small cookie cutter, cut out doughnut shapes. The second (which I prefer) is to scoop out balls of dough with a cookie scooper, pat them out with a little potato starch to keep them from sticking, then swirl them around on a sheet of parchment paper until they are shaped like doughnuts. I'm not explaining this so well. Better watch the video.

Fry shaped doughnuts in hot oil; one recipe said 370 degrees, but I must admit that I didn't actually check the temperature - I just turned it down a bit when it started to burn my doughnuts.

Cook until golden brown on the first side, then turn and cook until golden brown on the second side. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Enjoy!