GF Brownies

I actually posted this recipe a few years ago. But I figured I would RE-Post it now so that it isn't lost in all my gluten filled recipes.

These are some of the best brownies I have ever made. They do take a little extra work, but in the end it is totally worth every second. They are SO rich. Last time I made them with coconut oil instead of the butter. They were a little more dry but had an amazing flavor (I can't get enough of chocolate and coconut together!)


8 Tbs. Unsalted Butter
4 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate
1 c. Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 c. Brown Rice Flour
1/4 c. Tapioca Flour

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and 8in square pan. Chop the chocolate into small slivers. Slice the butter into one-inch pieces. Combine the two flours together.

Bring a saucepan of water to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer. Place a large metal bowl over the top of the saucepan. Put the chocolate and butter into the bowl and stir, occasionally, as they both begin to melt. As they come to a full melt, stir vigorously until you have a cohesive mixture.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the sugar and eggs, whisking vigorously until they are creamed together, with a silky consistency. Add the vanilla extract and alt and stir well. Add in the gluten-free flours and stir. Finally, pour in the melted chocolate-butter mixture and stir, carefully, with a rubber spatula until the mixture has become smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Smooth the top with the spatula. Place in oven and bake for 25 minutes.

While the brownies are baking, fill the sink with ice cubes and 1 inch of water. When the brownies are finished baking, remove the pan from the oven and place it immediately into the ice-water bath, being careful not to splash any water onto the brownies. Leave in water until completely cooled. Refrigeration. These taste great right away but truly are better after sitting in the fridge for a night.

Enjoy!


Recipe originally posted by: http://glutenfreegirl.com/brownies-gluten-free/

GF Cauliflower Crust Pizza

About a week ago, I tried Cauliflower Crust 'Bread' Sticks and instantly fell in love. When I found the recipe, I also found information about Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Hubby and I loved the 'Bread' Sticks so much that we definitely wanted to try making the pizza version. Well, it was an instant hit in our house last night and will be added to my usual rotation. 

The most time consuming step is 'ricing' the cauliflower. The easiest way to do this is with a cheese grater. Just make sure you put the cheese grater in a deep bowl. Otherwise you will end up with a mess of rogue cauliflower pieces (yes, I learned this the hard way). I have *heard* that you can use a food processor for this step, but you have to be careful that you don't end up pureeing it. You just want small pieces.

The Bowl of 'riced' cauliflower

As long as the grater is out, go ahead and shred your cheese. While you are doing that, you can be cooking the cauliflower in the microwave.

Once the cauliflower is finished in the microwave, add your cheese, egg, and spices. Mix Well

Spread the 'dough' out on a silicone baking sheet or a piece of parchment paper. Bake

The top of the crust should be nice and golden after it is finished baking. 

Add your favorite toppings (Pepperoni for my hubby and son)

Canadian Bacon & Pineapple for my daughter and I

Return to the oven under Broil just until the toppings are heated and cheese is bubbly.

The Pepperoni was the first one I baked and there was only one slice left when I remembered I was going to take a picture. 

The recipe makes one 9" pizza, which is enough for 2-3 people. I had an extra large head of cauliflower and decided just to make it all. It yielded me 3 pizzas.

Crust:
2+ Cups of Shredded Cauliflower (approx 1/2 head)
1 large Egg
1 c. Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1 tsp. Minced Garlic
1/2 tsp. Onion Salt

Toppings:
Whatever you like!!

Shred the cauliflower into small pieces using a cheese grater. Place in a glass bowl and microwave for approximately 6-7 minutes.

While your cauliflower is cooking, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or a piece of parchment paper. If using parchment paper, you may still want to spray with just a small bit of olive oil.

After your cauliflower is done cooking and has had a chance to cool slightly, ad the remaining ingredients. Mix well until you have a nice 'dough'. Pour onto your prepared pan and gently pat it out into a rectangle or circle, using a rubber spatula. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven.

Turn the oven up to Broil.

Add your favorite toppings to the cooked crust. Return to oven under broiler for 3-4 minutes until cheese is bubbly and toppings are hot. (Because you are not baking it for long, be sure all of your toppings are already cooked).

Enjoy!!


**For my third pizza I tried baking it a little differently. I don't have any circle silicone pans, but do have a heart shaped one that is about the same size as an 8" round. I placed my 'dough' in there and baked it at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Then I turned it out onto a silicone baking mat on my cookie sheet and baked another 10 minutes. Then I added toppings and broiled for 4 minutes. This did not alter the flavor at all but did offer a nicer looking pizza and a more firm crust. I think in the future I will probably continue to do it this way.


Recipe adapted from: http://www.recipegirl.com/2012/01/16/cauliflower-crust-hawaiian-pizza/

GF Baked Oatmeal

Lately I have been enjoying baked oatmeal every morning for breakfast. I just put a batch in the oven and thought I would share the recipe. The nice thing about this one is that there are several very simple variations you can make so it is regular, gluten-free, or even dairy free! And uses ingredients most people have in their kitchen on a regular basis.

I will write the recipe the way that I personally prefer to make it, but will include substitutions in parenthesis. 

1 1/2 c. GF Quick-Cooking Oats (or regular quick-cook oats)

1/4 c. Brown Sugar

1/2 c. Milk (or almond milk)

1/4 c. Butter, melted (or coconut oil, or vegan butter)

1 Egg (or 1/2 banana, mashed)

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

3/4 c. Fresh or Frozen Berries

Preheat oven to 350 degreees.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Spread into a greased 8x8 baking dish.

Bake for 25-30 mins, until edges are golden brown and center is set.

Serve immediately and top with a few extra tablespoons of milk. 

Serve 2-3

*I use whatever berries I have in the house. Usually it ends up being blueberries and strawberries as I like a mixture.

*I usually eat half of this for breakfast, then save the rest in the fridge to reheat and eat the next morning. 

GF Zucchini Bread

Yesterday was a snow day for my boys. So that meant extra time as a family. And or course, baking! It is my favorite way to warm up the house.

I had gone through our deep freeze to see what all we had for actual food since a lot of space is taken up by frozen breast milk right now. I came across my stock of grated zucchini that I froze this past summer. I figured it was as good a day as any to try making some GF zucchini bread. I recently ordered over 100 lbs of my favorite GF flours so I have plenty in the house right now to experiment with (and MORE than enough zucchini). So I started looking for GF recipes.

Several that I came across talked about just adapting their standard recipe to be GF. I have one that I really like so I decided to try it. Hubby claimed it was the best bread I have ever made. I wouldn't go that far but would say it is the best zucchini bread I have ever made. Which is interesting since it is the same recipe I have used for a few years. I guess it is all in the flavor and texture of my homemade  AP flour mix.

I have posted this in another recipe but again, here is the recipe for my flour (60% starch, 40% whole grain). I make a large batch to fit in my flour canister when I make it so I will list the amount I mix and in parenthesis I will put the percentage.
* 300 g Tapioca Flour (40%)
* 150 g White Rice Flour (20%)
* 150 g Sorghum Flour (20%)
* 150 g Brown Rice Flour (20%)

So now, on to the recipe.

*Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Mix together following dry ingredients and set aside:
* 420 g GF AP Flour (3 cups white flour if you are not GF)
* 2 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum (omit if you are not doing GF)
* 1 tsp Salt
* 1 tsp Baking Powder
* 3 tsp Cinnamon

Beat together the following:
* 3 eggs, slightly beaten
* 1/2 c. Unsweetened Apple Sauce
* 1/2 c. melted Coconut Oil (slightly cooled)
* 2 1/4 c. Sugar
* 3 tsp Vanilla

Add in Dry ingredients and mix well.

Stir in:
* 2 c. Shredded Zucchini (be sure to press out as much water as possible)
* chocolate chips or walnuts, to taste (optional)

Grease 2 loaf pans. Pour half of batter in each pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-60 mins, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 20 mins in the pan. Flip out onto wire rack to finish cooling.

Note: I prefer to use 1/2 c. Apple Sauce & 1/2 c. melted Coconut Oil. The original recipe calls for 1 c. vegetable oil)

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Pancakes

We love pancakes in our house. This is something I did not want to give up with our new lifestyle. I also did not want to be stuck using GF Pancake mixes. They are expensive and just don't have the flavor I was looking for. By making them myself, I could adapt the flours to create the flavor I desired. It took only a couple tries and I found a recipe that we love. My 4 1/2 yr old sits quietly and eats slowly, not dropping a single crumb. Those of you who know him know that this is a rare occurrence for him during meal time.

I adapted my recipe from Gluten Free Girls GF Pancakes for the Ratio Rally.

The original recipe calls for 7 oz (or roughly 200 g) of Whole-Grain Flour mix. A good whole-grain flour mix is 70% whole grains and 30 % starch. The recipe listed below is exactly how I make them for my family.

40 g Tapioca Flour
20 g White Rice Flour
70 g Sorghum Flour
35 g Brown Rice Flour
35 g Almond Flour
2 Tbs Milled Chia Seeds (or ground flaxseed if you don't have Chia on hand)
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Cardamom
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 Tbs Agave Nectar
8 oz Buttermilk (*see note)
1/4 tsp Almond Extract
2 large Eggs
4 Tbs Melted Butter

Whisk together the flours and chia seeds to combine them. Add baking powder, salt, Cardamom, and Cinnamon. Whisk all together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

Whisk together agave nectar, buttermilk, almond extract, and eggs. Pour into the dry ingredients. Stir with a rubber spatula until batter is combined. Add the melted butter and stir until it is well incorporated.

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Grease it liberally with butter (I add a small pat of butter everytime I add new batter). Pour the pancake batter into the buttered skillet, about 1/4 cup at a time. When bubbles have started to form and pop on the top of pancake, flip it. Cook for about 1 minute more. Serve with your favorite toppings.

If you plan to serve them all at once, put the pancakes on an oven-safe plate in a 250 degree oven to keep them warm. If you are like me, the kids will gobble them up as soon as they are off the skillet so I omit this step.

*Note about buttermilk*
I never have buttermilk on hand. So I take out my liquid measuring cup, add a squirt of lemon juice, then fill to the 8 oz line with regular milk. I let it set for a few minutes while I prepare the rest of the ingredients so it can 'sour up' a little and become buttermilk substitute.

Gluten-Free Blueberry Muffin Tops

Our family recently decided to start following a gluten-free lifestyle. Since I do so much baking and cooking, it has been rather easy to convert. However, recreating our favorite recipes is a bit of a challenge at times. We LOVE Blueberry (or Blackberry) muffin tops. So naturally it was on the top of my list of recipes to convert. My first attempt was a success in texture and decent in taste (well, I wasn't a fan but Hubby and Son ate them). I knew I could come up with a better version. Attempt #2 was a great texture, although a little more spongy than typical muffins, and yielded an amazing flavor! So, I thought I would share. 

One thing I have found from several blogs, is that when working with GF flours, it is much more accurate to measure by weight. You can pick up a food scale pretty cheap and it will make your GF recipes much more successful. To begin, you need to make a GF flour mixture. There are several ways to do this since there are so many GF flours available. You will get different flavor and texture results from all of them. The key is to have 60% Starch and 40% Whole Grain. So here is the specific mixture I used for my muffin tops: 

Flour mixture (this will make just slightly more than you need for this recipe) 
180 g Tapioca Flour (starch) 
45 g Brown Rice Flour (whole grain) 
45 g Sorghum Flour (whole grain)
Mix all 3 together well. (After my second attempt turned out so great, I also made a batch of Blackberry ones. However, I didn't have quite enough Tapioca Flour so I added the weight I was short by in White Rice Flour - another starch. The flavor was still what I was looking for) 


 Batter 
* 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter 
* 1/3 cup whole milk 
* 1 whole large egg 
* 1 large yolk 
* 3/4 teaspoon Almond Extract 
* 210 g Flour mixture 
* 1 1/4 tsp. Xanthan Gum 
* 3/4 cup sugar 
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
* 3/4 teaspoon salt 
* 9 oz fresh blueberries (can use 12 oz of Frozen Blueberries - thawed and drained) 

 Topping 
* 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into bits 
* 35 g flour mixture 
* 1/4 cup brown sugar

 Preheat oven to 375 (350 for dark or non-stick pans). Grease Muffin Top pans (or regular muffin tins) Melt butter over low heat. Meanwhile, mix together dry ingredients and set aside. Once butter is melted, remove from heat and whisk in Milk. Next, add whole egg, egg yolk, and almond extract. Whisk together well. Add to dry ingredients and mix just until blended. Carefully fold in blueberries. Pour into prepared muffin tins. Bake for 18-20 mins (May need to bake longer for regular muffins). Cool on baking racks for 10 mins. Remove from pans to cooling racks to finish cooling off. Enjoy warm or room temperature.