Wow. A GF Pie Crust That's Really Good!

When November rolls around I want to bake pies. I'd like to bring a really good one for Thanksgiving dessert, but I confess my pie-making has really gone downhill in the last few years. When you're eating gluten free, pie crust is a challenge. It's not easy to find a decent recipe. All the same, I was seeing the glass half-full this week, so I got it in mind to make a rustic, free-form, French-style tart. I used this crust recipe developed by Helene over at Tartelette. She is a French ex-pat pastry chef, living in the US, and she's an amazing baker. Sadly for her, she had to go gluten free. No need to tell you that her loss is my (and many others') gain! She has come up with some beautiful gluten free pastry recipes. You can read all about them, and drool over her food styling and photography on her blog.

Because I can't get enough of cooked apples, I chose this recipe from Epicurious for the filling. It uses what I think are traditional French elements: the apples are tossed not with cinnamon, but with lemon zest and a little sugar. The crust is spread with a thin layer of apricot jam beneath the apples. I used Bonne Maman preserves - a little pricey, but delicious and not too sweet. This combination of flavors is new to me, and really good!
Still, I must face facts. This crust is tasty, but not fabulous enough to warrant all that extra folded up around the edges. Next time I'll make this in a tart pan, and keep the crust really thin. I think that will be just right.

Mmm . . . Mmm . . . Oatmeal Cookies . .

I made up a recipe for gluten free oatmeal raisin cookies this evening. They turned out really well! I combined elements from two different recipes: one, my favorite gf chocolate chip cookie recipe from Gluten Free Girl and the other, the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe from The Best Recipe (which, unfortunately, isn't available online).

Gluten Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
(makes 24 cookies/ 108 calories each)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl:
1/4 cup teff flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
2 Tbsp sweet rice flour (also known as "mochiko" (Japanese), "Bot Nep" (Thai) or "sticky rice flour." Available at Asian markets.)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (This, from The Best Recipe, replaces the more common cinnamon.)

In stand mixer, beat:
1 stick softened unsalted butter
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp dark muscovado sugar (Also available at Whole Foods Market)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp white sugar

When sugars are fully incorporated into butter, add:
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Add the dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly.
Then add:
1 1/2 cups gluten free certified rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Scoop out about 2Tbsp of cookie dough and roll in a ball, pressing to make the dough into a solid ball. Place on buttered cookie sheet and flatten slightly. Repeat about 24 times (12 per cookie sheet), and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool slightly before removing them to a rack to finish cooling. Cookies are fragile when warm.

Gluten Free Baking from King Arthur Flour!

I don't usually post this sort of thing, but I thought the gluten free readers of this blog would like to know that King Arthur Flour - long a great source for traditional baking information and baker's ingredients and tools - has a whole new line of GF baking mixes, online recipes and information about gluten free baking. It looks like a wonderful resource! Click here to visit the King Arthur Flour gluten free website.

Southern Style Corn Bread

I followed the recipe from "The Best Recipe," using the butter & a little vegetable oil option instead of the traditional bacon grease. I love it when I find a recipe that's gluten free in its original state!

Fruitcake Bars - with thanks (once again) to David Lebovitz

Here's my gluten free version of David Lebovitz's Fruitcake Bars, also known as "Friendship Bars." No disgusting, neon green and yellow candied fruit here - just honest to goodness dates, apricots and nuts. All I did to make it gluten free was switch the 6 T of all purpose flour for 2 T each of tapioca, sorghum and sweet rice (mochi) flour. Whilst baking , it filled the house with the most divine fragrance. And they're delicious too! Click the link above for David's recipe.

Homemade Granola, with thanks to David Lebovitz

Lately I've been following David Lebovitz on Facebook and Twitter, and reading his blog. He's a delightful American food writer, living in Paris. He recently posted a granola recipe that uses applesauce, or another fruit puree, as a substitute for a lot of the oil that usually goes into granola. Since going gluten free, I've wanted to make granola, using certified gluten free oats. So last night, I did.

I started by making the applesauce, using organic Braeburn apples, skins, seeds and all, roughly chopped, and tossed in a pot with a little water. I simmered them until they were very soft, and plopped them into my food mill. Yay for the food mill! It removed the seeds and skins with ease, and left me with a lovely, thick, unsweetened fruit puree.

Ooooh . . .

I didn't follow Mr. Lebovitz's recipe to the letter - I used what I had on hand: a few pepitas, some walnuts, lots of almonds and maple syrup instead of rice syrup. The applesauce-instead-of-lots-of-oil is genius - the resulting product is light and just sweet enough. I ate it this morning with extra apple sauce and homemade greek style yogurt. So good!

How Can You Mess Up Corn Bread?

THIS IS THE BATCH I MADE TONIGHT - BEING EXTRA CAREFUL TO MEASURE CORRECTLY AND INCLUDE ALL THE INGREDIENTS. IT'S QUITE LOVELY!
LAST NIGHT S. AND I MADE A TERRIBLE BATCH - TO GO WITH OUR SPLIT PEA SOUP. OH, THE CORN BREAD WAS JUST AWFUL - SOGGY AND TART TASTING. IT WAS SO SAD.
DRINK YOUR WINE DURING DINNER - DON'T DRINK AND BAKE! :-)

Snow Day Cookie Baking, Gluten Free

WITH ALL THE SNOW & SLEET TODAY, I DIDN'T HAVE TO GO TO WORK, SO I FINALLY MADE THESE GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES. I USED THIS RECIPE FROM GLUTEN FREE GIRL'S BLOG. IT WAS DEVELOPED BY HER FRIEND NINA.
IN THIS RECIPE THE GLUTEN FREE REPLACEMENTS FOR WHEAT FLOUR ARE TEFF, SORGHUM AND SWEET RICE FLOURS, AND FLAX SEED MEAL.
FULL OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS AND WALNUTS, THESE COOKIES TASTE GREAT RIGHT OUT OF THE OVEN. I CHECKED BY EATING THREE OF THEM! I'LL TRY ANOTHER WHEN THEY'VE COOLED. (I DID - AND THEY'RE EVEN BETTER WHEN THEY'VE HAD A CHANCE TO COOL!)

Baking Gluten Free Bread

WELL, HERE IT IS - MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT GLUTEN FREE BREAD. INSPIRED BY THIS POST ON GLUTI GIRLS BLOG, I USED THE MILLET-OATMEAL BREAD RECIPE FROM GLUTEN FREE MOMMY, FOUND HERE. I FOLLOWED THE RECIPE FAITHFULLY, USING THE BREAD MACHINE ADAPTATION. THE TEXTURE IS REALLY GOOD! IT'S REALLY BREAD. SO COOL!
EXCEPT . . . THERE IS SOME VERY SLIGHT BITTER/SOUR SMELL AND AFTERTASTE THAT I HAVE TO IDENTIFY. WHAT COULD IT BE? FLAX SEED MEAL? XANTHAN GUM? IF YOU'D LIKE TO HELP SOLVE THE MYSTERY, TAKE A PEEK AT THE RECIPE AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW. (I USED CORN STARCH IN PLACE OF ARROWROOT STARCH - I COULDN'T FIND ANY AT WHOLE FOODS; THE BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES I USED IS QUITE DARK, MAKING THE BREAD A DARKER COLOR THAN THE OTHER PICTURES OF IT ON THE WEB.)
OF COURSE IT DIDN'T STOP ME FROM CUTTING A THICK SLICE, SLATHERING IT WITH BUTTER AND ENJOYING IT QUITE THOROUGHLY!

Corn Bread Stuffing - Step One

THIS THANKSGIVING, I'M MAKING CORN BREAD STUFFING. I JUST MADE THE CORN BREAD USING A GREAT SOUTHERN STYLE RECIPE FROM "THE BEST RECIPE" COOK BOOK. I SUBSTITUTED YOGURT FOR THE BUTTERMILK, AS I ALWAYS DO. THE RESULT IS A DENSE, MOIST CORN BREAD. THE ONLY FLOUR IN THIS RECIPE IS CORN MEAL - NO WHEAT FLOUR, SO IT'S GLUTEN FREE. I LOVE IT WHEN I FIND RECIPES THAT ARE NATURALLY GLUTEN FREE! NO ADJUSTMENTS TO BE MADE, NO EXPERIMENTING!
NOW IT'S CUT IN SMALL CUBES AND LEFT OUT TO GET STALE SO IT WILL BE NICE AND DRY FOR MAKING THIS STUFFING (CLICK HERE) ON THURSDAY MORNING.
WHAT ARE YOU MAKING FOR THANKSGIVING THIS YEAR?
OH, AND HERE'S A LINK TO A REALLY LOVELY BLOG CALLED "11286": CLICK HERE.

Yet Another Variation!

WELL, YOU MAY BE SICK OF PICTURES OF APPLE COBBLER, BUT I'M NOT TIRED OF EXPERIMENTING WITH MAKING A DECENT GLUTEN FREE ONE!
THIS ONE USES DOUGH LEFT OVER FROM THE LAST ONE. I SHAPED IT INTO A LOG, PLASTIC WRAPPED IT, AND STORED IN THE FREEZER. IT WAS JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT FOR A MINI-COBBLER, USING ONLY THREE APPLES. REMOVED FROM THE FREEZER LAST NIGHT, IT WAS EASY TO SLICE THIS MORNING. AN UNCONVENTIONAL, COOKIE-LIKE APPEARANCE, BUT SO EASY. I'LL LET YOU KNOW HOW IT TURNED OUT . . .

Cobbler Redux

I'M STILL WORKING ON MY GLUTEN FREE COBBLER RECIPE. THIS WAS THE BEST ONE YET. (I'VE MADE THREE SO FAR.) PART OF THE TRICK SEEMS TO BE MAKING THE BISCUITS THIN. I'VE BEEN PUTTING A SCOOP OF IT IN THE MICROWAVE FOR BREAKFAST, AND UNLIKE WHEAT PRODUCTS, MICROWAVING ACTUALLY IMPROVES THE TEXTURE.

E for Effort

I'VE NEVER BEEN A BAKER OF FANCY DESSERTS. THE HUMBLE COBBLER WAS ALWAYS A FAVORITE. IT'S SO EASY TO MAKE, AND HAS WHAT I REALLY WANT: BUTTERY CRUST AND SWEET, COOKED FRUIT.

HOWEVER . . .

THIS IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT ONE MADE WITHOUT WHEAT FLOUR. IT LOOKS GOOD, IT SMELLS GREAT, BUT IT LEAVES A FEW THINGS TO BE DESIRED. I'VE BEEN INSPIRED BY GLUTEN FREE GIRL TO EXPERIMENT - AND I CAN SEE THAT IT WILL TAKE SOME MORE EFFORT TO MAKE A COBBLER THAT MY GLUTEN-EATING FRIENDS WILL SHARE WITH ME WITHOUT HAVING TO BE POLITE WHEN THEY TASTE IT. THIS ONE ISN'T BAD - IN FACT I HAD TO RESIST A SECOND HELPING! BUT I'M GOING TO WORK ON IT. WHEN I COME UP WITH A SATISFACTORY RECIPE, YOU'LL BE THE FIRST TO KNOW! I'D BETTER KEEP GOING TO THE GYM WHILE I EXPERIMENT!

Clafoutis!

I'VE WANTED TO MAKE A CLAFOUTIS (FRENCH: cla-foo-TEE) FOR YEARS. WHY DID I WAIT? THIS IS SUCH A SIMPLE DESSERT - OR INDULGENT BREAKFAST. YOU CAN FIND THE RECIPE I USED HERE, AT GLUTEN FREE MOMMY'S BLOG.


THE FIRST RECIPE I EVER SAW FOR THIS DISH (CLIPPED FROM THE PAPER AND SAVED FOR EONS) USES APRICOTS, BUT CHERRIES ARE THE TRADITIONAL SUMMER FRUIT TO USE. I'VE RESEARCHED RECIPES, AND THEY VARY WIDELY. SOME USE 6 WHOLE EGGS (LIKE THE ONE I MADE). SOME USE ONLY 3. I FOUND THIS ONE MORE CUSTARD-LIKE THAN I EXPECTED (I WAS EXPECTING PANCAKE-LIKE TEXTURE), BUT I LOVE IT, ESPECIALLY CHILLED.


SWEET RICE FLOUR IS A VERY COMMON INGREDIENT IN GLUTEN FREE BAKING. IT'S MADE FROM STICKY RICE, ALSO CALLED GLUTINOUS RICE, ALTHOUGH IT DOES NOT CONTAIN GLUTEN. IT DOES MIMIC SOME OF GLUTEN'S PROPERTIES - HENCE IT'S POPULARITY IN GF BAKING. AFTER SOME RESEARCH, I DISCOVERED THAT IT IS CALLED MOCHIKO IN JAPANESE (USED TO MAKE MOCHI), AND BOT NEP IN THAI. I FOUND IT AT MY LOCAL ASIAN MARKET.


THE ALMOND MEAL USED IN MY CLAFOUTIS CAME FROM TRADER JOE'S. OF COURSE YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN BY GRINDING RAW, UNSALTED ALMONDS IN YOUR BLENDER.