Chocolate Chip & Cherry Zucchini Bread (Gluten-Free but enjoyed by Gluten Eaters)

Alas more baking. Cannot be helped. Though Gluten Free options are more widely available these days, they do not hold a candle to gooey warm-out-of-the oven zucchini bread. AND it contains legitimate vegetables. This recipe, adapted from Michael McCamley's Gluten Free Baking, is a great basic, we have tried chocolate chip and cherry version, loaves studded with dried cranberries, all good.   I plan to make a version with lemon and herbs and also with espresso.

The recipe makes two loaves. 

Ingredients
3 eggs

1 cup of sugar (or brown sugar)

1 cup olive oil

2 cups sorghum flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp xanthan gum

2 medium zucchinis, shredded

Cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon, whatever works

Goodies: chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chopped cherries, whatever strikes your fancy

Set the oven to warm to 325. 

Shred the zucchini.  Some recipes suggest letting zucchini drain of juice but skipping this step has not been an issue. 

Right, then.  Mix the dry ingredients, mix in eggs an oil (what DID one do before the Kitchenaid was invented?). Zucchini goes in next - somehow it makes the loaves moist but the shreds are almost undetectable in texture, weird, right? Next mix in the goodies and into the oiled loaf pans. The bread bakes for about 55-60 minutes. 

Zuchinni bread is a little dense, working on that, but let me tell you, these do not last long!  

And here is photographic evidence from a recent batch. 

Shred, shred, shred. 

Chopped frozen cherries looked like a crime scene.

Ready to go in the oven.

Finished! The loafs disappeared quickly.

Orange Polenta Cake (Gluten-Free, Naturally)

As of late, posts have been far and few in between. Right, we are all busy, so on it goes, and lets keep it brief, shall we?

This lovely little cake is naturally gluten free. The source is here but required some calculations to translate metric to cups.

Ingredients:

• 8 cardamom pods, seeds extracted and bashed with a pestle (OR you could just use ground cardamom)
• 2 cups almond flour
• 2/3 cup polenta
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup caster sugar (translation - sugar)
• 1 cup of butter (I used vegan substitution)
•  3 eggs
• zest of three oranges
• vanilla (a bit)
• pistachios (a hand full)
• creme frache

lovely oranges

So from there on, easy-peasy. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a springform and line the bottom with parchment paper.

If you are bashing your own cardamom, roll up your sleeves and bash away. Mix in almond flour, polenta, baking powder, and cardamom, and set aside.

Beat sugar and butter together. Add in eggs and keep mixing, add the dry ingredients, orange zest, and vanilla  into the mixture. Pour the mixture into the springform and bake for about 40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

butter & sugar

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup - heat up slowly juice of two oranges, 3 tablespoons of honey, and 2 tablespoons of rose water.

After the cake is ready ever-so-carefully extract it from the springform and place on a pretty cake plate. Poke itty-bitty holes in the cake and pour the syrup over it. Sprinkle crushed pistachios and orange zest over the cake, garnish with whipped cream if you are feeling decadent, and serve with tea (or Limoncello).

I am thinking this cake might work very nicely with rhubarb sauce too or perhaps lemon ginger?

Pretty little cake, totally gluten-free.

Camp Fire Cupcakes

This post isn't about cupcakes, actually. It is about decorating them. There comes a day, say any dreary Wednesday, when one realizes that she (or he) is expected to produce decorated desert for a group of greedy Cub Scouts. Right. We were in it to win. But win we did not, a subject that no one in the Klatch household is prepared to discuss, as it is still raw and it is generally agreed that we were robbed. 

So back to decorating the said cupcakes. Never mind the cupcakes themselves. A cake from a mix will do the job here. The pretty flames are key here and like jello shots, the flames are remarkably simple to make, if you follow the right steps.
 

What's not to love? Pretzel logs, mini marshmallows on toothpicks, and flames!

The key ingredient in flames are Jolly Ranchers! Thought any hard candy should work. Step one is smashing the candy (IMPORTANT: smashing is best done in a large zip-lock, this is where things could go wrong)

Smashed Jolly Ranchers

Step two is melting the candy - at about 350 degrees for 4-5 minutes. Now this is where things could go really wrong so it's important to line the cookie sheet with tin foil and spray it with oil (or else you may be faced with a nasty clean up job, for reals). Also, you have to watch melting candy like a hawk so it does not burn. when melted candy comes out of the oven it looks a little bubbly but the foam disappears as the mixture cools.  

Oh, and one more thing. Don't touch melted candy - it is hot, hot, hot.

Melted Jolly Ranchers.

Once the candy cools and hardens, carefully peel it off the tin foil and break into shards. And they are sharp, so watch your fingers, things could go wrong here too.

That's it! I am thinking this same technique of cupcake decorating would work for for ice cupcakes with blue and clear candy or for bloodied glass for Halloween, no?

These will be making a comeback this summer!

Let's Make Whoopie, Chocolate with Marshmallow Filling

Cupcakes are booooring, not to mention the frosting does not travel well. The answer: whoopie! I am still fiddling with this recipe to get the cakes smoother (where did I get it to begin with? It may have started out as a combination of recipes).

The Cakes for Woopies (this makes about 35-40 little half cakes)
8 tablespoons of veg shortening (Spectrum is the go-to brand)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs
1 cup of coconut milk
vanilla
 
2 1/4 cups of gluten free flour (usually a mixture of white rice flour, potato starch, & tapioca starch, but GF mixture worked very well too)
3/4 cups of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xantham gum


Step 1: Preheat oven to 375, line baking sheets with parchment. Into the KitchenAid goes Spectrum shortening and sugar and brown sugar, start mixing and then beating together to fluff. Add eggs and vanilla, mix to fluff.

Step 2. I am never one to get an extra bowl dirty, but this step is necessary. Mix the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, xantham). Add half of the dry mixture and half of the milk to the KitchenAid, mix, mix, mix. Add the rest of the dry mixture and milk, mix again.

Step 3. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto the parchment (cookie dough scoop works great, I am in the market for a new one so let me know if you have a model to recommend) and bake for 12-15 minutes, cool cookies on baking racks.

Look at these beauts! Still working on getting smoother cakes.

On to fluffy frosting!

1 1/2 cups of Marshmallow Fluff (Rice marshmallow cream worked great, Ricemellow)
1 1/4 cups of Spectrum Shortening
A few glugs of vanilla

Step 4. Put all the frosting ingredients together and fluff, fluff, fluff. My original notes mention confectioners' sugar but the frosting was plenty sweet without the extra sugar.

This is my go-to frosting now!

Step 5. Frost and sandwich the cakes.

Option: are Whoopies too summery?

Mince Pies - Part 1 (Filling)

I am new to mince pie making but it seemed just the thing to go with our Olde-Worlde meets Whole Foods gluten-free holiday feast. None of the recipes were quite right. Some called for "good quality ready made mince" oblivious to realities of the New World - a sad dusty little jar of mince at the bottom of the grocery store shelf. Does that count as good quality?

Other recipes had precise measurements in metric system or called for beef suet (tradition or not, I am not prepared to bake with beef fat). It was time for desperate measures - winging it. 

All the recipes boiled down to dried fruit, apples, spices and brandy. On to the the mince.

Gobs of dried fruit and spices

So into the pot went:

• Loads of golden raisins
• Handfuls of prunes chopped up
• Dried chopped apricots, not too many
• Chopped dry figs
• A baggie of dried cherries
• 2-3 tart chopped apples (mine were Granny Smith)
• 2-3 Meyer Lemon juice and zest 
• Juice of an orange and zest
• Spices: cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg
• Some dark molasses
• In the absence of brandy, in went Cointreau (but later, once the fruit is close to being done)

Into the pot the goodies go, stir and cook, smell the goodness. Here is what did not go into the pot - no beef or any meet products and no sugar. Most recipes called for extra sugar but dried fruit are so sweet that sugar seemed an overkill.

Mince smells and tastes like Christmas.

Next step pie crust. Good luck to me!

Magic Macaroons

Macaroons are magic - they are easy, gluten-free, and universally beloved (except by coconut haters). So, without further ado, on to to the macaroons. This recipe is courtesy of Danny Macaroons.

This is the plain old regular macaroon version but I see salty caramel and spiced pumpkin in our future. And the recipe couldn't be simpler. Pop your oven on to 350 and start gathering your ingredients. Arrange the said ingredients in an artful way - 14 ounce standard issue back of sweetened shredded coconut (make sure it is sweetened!), 14 ounce can of sweet condensed milk, 2 egg whites and a pinch of salt. A dash of boozy vanilla doesn't hurt either.

This was a double batch.

Add salt to egg whites and whip them. There are different schools of thought on whether it is better to use cold or room temperature egg whites. Mine were cold and whipped well. Oh here is a tip, use a mixer, don't be a hero with a hand whisk.

See? Upside down! I took a chance and flipped the bowl over to test if my egg white whipping skills were up to snuff. They are!

This is the sticky part - mix shredded coconut with condensed milk and then fold in the whipped egg whites.

Egg whites are folded into coconut & condensed milk mixture.

Scoop spoonfulls of the mixture onto cookie sheets lined with parchment and in the oven they go for 25 or so minutes (I kept mine a little longer to get them golden).

Done!

Danny Macaroons just came out with a book "The Macaroon Bible" - mad props! This is going on the holiday gifts short list. But then again, I might keep it for myself!

Excellent GF Pumpkin Bread

After a year and a half of intensive gluten-free baking one can adapt "regular" wheat-reliant recipes with a degree of competence. This one is adapted from this Bon Appetit version. My version, obviously, uses a different flour mix and also cuts down, way down, on sugar.

Don't even think about cutting the recipe in half to make one loaf. These will be gone fast.

INGREDIENTS (Makes 2 loaves!)

• 2 cups of white rice or sorghum flour
• 1 cup of tapioca flour or potato starch (or do half and half)
• 3/4 teaspoons of xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, ground nutmeg, cloves. I also like a bit of cardamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of veggie oil (we used olive oil, which worked very well)
• 3 eggs
• 1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)

Mix the first seven ingredients together. In your trusty KitchenAid, beat sugar and oil, then mix in eggs and pumpkin. Stir in the dry ingredients mix. Pour equal amounts into two loaf pans (I line mine with parchment but you can probably spray and flour them too.

Bake your loaves for about 1 hour 10 minutes until ready, let the loaves cool and enjoy with a cup of tea. I am thinking a smear of apple butter would not hurt things either.

Perhaps I better go test out this recipe another time, just to be sure.

Here is my Gluten Free 101 guide and Ginger-Apricot scones if you are on a GF baking spree.

Apricot-Ginger Tea Scones (GF)

A few months back, with a bake sale looming, I couldn't find a suitable gluten-free scone recipe (plain old wheat ones were abound, of course). I settled on chocolate chip scones from Gluten-Free Goddess. But with a few substitutions. Vanilla rice mild (meeh!), became soy milk. Spectrum shortening was replaced with coconut oil. And chocolate chips were replaced with apricots and ginger. So, behold my very own version of gluten-free scones.

These puppies went fast!

Set the over to 375 and get mixing. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup of white rice flour
• 1/2 cup of amaranth flour (or millet - hey, baking GF, you can't avoid a few oddball items)
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup sugar (or brown sugar)
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup of soy milk
• A dash of boozy vanilla 
• Grated fresh ginger and chopped dry apricots

 Mix, mix, mix.

 

Form a circle on the cookie sheet lined with parchment and score it with knife into wedges. Sprinkle with sugar (raw sugar if you have it on hand). In the oven it goes for 25 minutes.

Serve with dairy free butter, Earl Gray for grown ups and berry tea for classy tea-loving tots.

Boozy Vanilla: DIY

I first had the notion of making vanilla extract at home from "Make the Bread, Buy the Butter." Do it. Order your vanilla beans from Amazon (seems to be by far the cheapest purveyor), slice 3 or 4 open along the length, and stick them into a small bottle of Bourbon (vodka if you are looking for a more pure taste). In the baking cabinet it goes to become in a few short weeks vanilla extract.

Bourbon gives vanilla a more tropical, distinct taste. 

P.S. All my photos are from iPhone these days - would a proper camera produce better results?

Baker's Kitchen: Holiday Ready GF Kitchen

This post is a bit of a departure from posts past. But holiday baking is just around the corner. Last year we had great fun with the virtual cookie exchange. This year will be my first holiday season baking GF-style since we switched to no gluten diet six months ago. So to follow up the last post about baker's arsenal of tools, this post is about the pantry necessities to set up a GF kitchen ready for holiday baking.

Picture source

Gluten-free isn't for everyone and it may not be for you. It is hard before it gets easier.  But many people do give up wheat, beer and barley because of health, allergies, or vanity. And it isn't all THAT hard. There are plenty of excellent recipes and products. Many cooks and bakers who've walked the walk and are willing to share. So there you have it, things to stock up on to bake in style.

The Basics

When I started baking GF style, I just bought a packet of each type of flour. Research came later. But it turns out some types of flour are more indespensible than others. When  you do not use wheat flour, you have to rely on a mixture of several types of flour to bake. Some cooks vary the mixture depending on the recipe, others stick to one tried and true formula, even pre-mixing it it by the batch full. With these on hand you can make just about anything - pancakes, muffins, cookies.

• White Rice Flour or Sorghum Flour, that's your flour foundation. Both have very neutral flavor.
• Tapioca Starch and Potato Starch, both are lighter and are mixed in with the heavier flour. Tapioca in particular gives a nice crispiness and improves the texture of the baked goodies.
• Xanthan Gum - not so very scary, just a tiny bit of xanthan helps ingredients stick together. The other alternative is Guar Gum but from what I hear Guar is better for cold foods, while Xanthan is preferable for baking.

Bob's Red Mill has this nifty bundle to get you started. They offer just about every type of flour you can imagine and are at most stores, I really cannot imagine what we'd do without Bob's Red Mill!

Not to state the obvious but eggs, baking soda, and baking powder come in handy too.

Nice to have
These are some additional ingredients to vary your repertoire and boost the nutrition factor.

• Almond Flour it is excellent in power-breakfast muffins and desserts and is lower in carbs, higher in protein.
• Amaranth Flour has a unique taste that you'll either love or not, some call it nutty. It is high in iron and protein.
• Buckwheat Flour - despite the name, also GF. It is a very heavy flour. We've made blinis and even added it to pumpkin pie mixture.
• Cornmeal
• Garbanzo Flour has a very pronounced bean flavor. But surprisingly it works in sweets (I will be attempting Middle-Eastern chickpea cookie this year) and also is the main ingredient in socca, French savory pancake. 
• Quinoa Flour is super-nutritious but a little goes a long way.
• Brown Rice Flour is only slightly healthier, but to me it tastes grainy so I pretty much stopped using it.

A few additional flours that I have not yet tried are hazelnut (what can possibly be wrong with that?), soy, and  millet.

Wet and Fat Ingredients
I couldn't give up eggs in my baking but forgoing dairy is easy-peasy.

• Soy or rice milk do the trick, just one-to-one substitution for regular milk. Coconut milk is also a nice substitution.
• Coconut oil is amazing and makes the best pancakes ever!
• Oil, olive, grape, or vegetable, works in most goodies.
• Vegan shortening doesn't leave the funny aftertaste like animal products. Spectrum seems to be the agreed upon staple.
• Vegan butter, thought I do not often use it for cooking, is also an easy substitution. And don't be fooled, we use gobs of Earth Balance on toast, it is tasty stuff.

Last by not least, a couple favorite sources to get you started - there are other sources for course but these are the ones that I've turned to again and again:

• Bob's Red Mill for everything! Most stores actually carrry it.
• Silvana Nardone's recipies have not steered me wrong! And her cookbook is super.
• I bake something from Gluten Free Goddess at least once a week!

Baker's Kitchen: Most and Least Useful Tools

I've been baking a fair amount. No, scratch that. I've been baking at LOT. Muffins. Doughnuts. Tea cakes. Slowly but surely Klatch kitchen became more functional, more attuned to the baker's needs. The frequently used tools are now within arms reach and we've stocked up on additional baking tins, while other clutter has been relegated to the space above the fridge.

So here is a round up of the best and most undervalued baking equipment and also the items that seemed like a good idea but turned out to be utterly useless.

First, the Hall of Fame.If you have been telling yourself all these years that KitchenAid is only for serious bakers, stop this nonsense and get yourself one. Aqua or bright pink are both formidable options. And if you have one, plant it firmly on your counter and never ever move it (when you do not have to pull it out, you WILL use it). I may one day upgrade to a professional grade with extra juice, but my basic model, black with little specks, has served me well for the past few years.

I have my eye on Kitchenaid ice cream attachment but please skip fripperies like citrus juicer and meat grinder.

Don't underestimate the cookie scoop. This little fella gets a whole lot of use around our kitchen. When handling sticky dough it is the best way to fill up muffins or cupcake cups.

After countless muffins, my cookie scoop met its untimely demise just this morning. I have my eye on this slick one but will probably go with the more practical OXO.

A pretty ceramic pie dish, from France like so many other good things, goes the distance. I have not made an actual pie in some time, but this dish is a standby, whether we are making Sheppard's pie, a crumble, or just need a pretty plate to pile on the veg.

Ceramic pie dish with wavy edge just makes everything more special.

Surprisingly enough, my doughnut pan gets a whole lot of use around here.The thing is, a homemade and baked (rather than deep-fried!) doughnut isn't all that unhealthy. We had doubts, but this doughnut pan is worthy of the cabinet space.

If you are GF like us this pan is a MUST.

On these few things, the jury is still out. Obviously, measuring cups and spoons are very useful. But mine are, well, boring. I am not a fan of over-designed measuring tools but am on the look out for simple, functional, and cute ones to replace the current ones.

how cool are these measuring cups from The Container Store?

c Much of the year I wonder why a cookie press box is occupying valuable real estate in the baking cabinet. It is a one trick pony, if you know what I mean. But then holidays roll around, and I am glad to have spritz cookies, even if it means battling this deceptively simple device.

We are also fully stocked with loaf pans around here. From banana bread to meat loaf, no kitchen should be without a solid set of two (because one just doesn't cut it)l. But this Crueset loaf pan is adorable. It would look lovely next to the previously mentioned ceramic pie dish.

 Now for the overrated category. Don't get me started on the Bundt pan. Don't get me wrong, I like it and it is so pretty, but truthfully, how often does one make a bundt cake? I like my bundt pan and won't part with it, but that pan is lucky to see the daylight once a year.

Maida Heatter's Lemon White Pepper and Ginger Bundt cake is my favorite! Perhaps it is fine time to adapt it and make a GF version!

Cookie cutters are oh-so-pretty, especially the copper ones. But, seriously, how often do you bake roll-out cookies? They never quite turn out with edges slightly over-baked and oftentimes spread out in baking to look like a big doughy blob instead of intended Fleur de Lis or Lobster.

My cookie-cutters are comfortably stashed out of the way.

You might also enjoy last year's cookie posts.

[Virtual] Cookie Exchange

Friends, get your rolling pins ready! A new Klatch holiday tradition in the making: a virtual cookie exchange! Here is how it works – email me photos of your holiday baking with recipes, tips, and baking stories. Deadline: Christmas. Easy as a sugar cookie!