Gluten Free Expedition

Muffins Variations (Gluten Free)

So remember how I said that blueberry muffin recipe was versatile?  Here's my post to prove it.  I made a double batch and divided it in half*.  The first half got the normal cup of blueberries.  To the second half I added 1 tsp of almond flavor and 1 cup of frozen cherries and then put almond slices on top.  YUM!

A little while ago I made a quick bread pudding from a recipe I found on Kraft's website.  The recipe uses a combination of cinnamon and chocolate and oh I forgot what a great combination that is!  I had been craving these flavors when I decided to make muffins.  Using the original recipe sans blueberries, I then added 1 tsp cinnamon and 3/4 cup chocolate chips to the batter and made a topping from 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.  Sprinkle the topping on and bake.  Double YUM!

Simple Muffin Recipe

4 Tbls butter - softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup sweet (glutinous) rice flour
1 Tbls flax seed meal (optional)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup milk
Optional ingredients: almond flavoring, vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate chips, frozen berries, frozen cherries, craisins/raisins, nuts, let your imagination be your guide!

Mix the butter and sugar in mixer until well incorporated.  Add the egg and mix.

Whisk together the flours, flax seed meal, baking powder and xanthan gum.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.

Fold in any optional ingredients to suit your tastes.  Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and sprinkle with extra sugar or brown sugar/cinnamon topping if desired.  Bake at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes, until muffins are browned on top.  Makes 9 muffins.

*This post was written a while ago - when I had a functioning kitchen!  I am still enjoying the muffins though.  I made that double batch to freeze in pairs that I can now microwave and enjoy for breakfast!  I'm hoping that miraculously I'll come home to a kitchen with a finished floor and some cabinets and the sink in my laundry room hooked up so that I can stop getting drinking water from the bathroom!

Rebuilding

I'm sure you all are wondering why I haven't posted in a while - or maybe it's just my mom!  I have no kitchen right now.  Seriously, it looks like this:

 

For anyone curious, this is the before shot:

 

So I know I shouldn't be complaining and someday (hopefully sooner rather than later!) I'll look back and think how it was all worth it, but right now - my house is a disaster!  There is drywall dust and who knows what else all over EVERYTHING!  We're also adding onto the upstairs, so nothing is spared!  The painting is getting done and the flooring installed this week, so I'm counting on that to reduce some of the mess we are tracking around. 

Our contractor keeps telling me that they're doing this today and that tomorrow and the other on Friday (what nobody wants to work on Christmas?!!)  I keep saying - just get it done soon, PLEASE!

So I have no kitchen, my bed is in the living room and I'm always covered in dust!  No room for creativity here and I'm so unorganized this Christmas.  Good thing it's almost January - I need a do over!

Cookies, cookies everywhere!

I'm going a little nuts because I can't use my kitchen (more on that later!) and Christmas is always full of delicious homemade Christmas cookies!  Plus I've been hanging out at Ginger Lemon Girl's GF Christmas Cookie Roundup and it's making my mouth water and all I've got is premade GF cookies that aren't nearly as yummy as the pictures of everyone's cookies!!

I do have a few Almond Pie Cookies in the freezer.  I might have to break those out.  I've been trying to save them because I know as soon as they come out of the freezer the Husband will have 2/3 of them devored (and THEY'RE MINE!) 

Holiday Mail for Heroes

OK, I kept thinking I should post about this (quite a while ago!), but I'm only getting around to it now.  Sorry about the late notice, but I think this is a really great program so I wanted to share it!

The American Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes is collecting holiday cards to send to American service members across the world.  Last year 600,000 cards were collected and sent.  This year their goal is reach 1 million.  All you have to do is send a holiday card to the following address:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Cards must be postmarked by Wednesday, December 10 (see late notice!).  If you don't have a card to send you can also print a card off their website.  You can also visit Let's Say Thanks and pick out a card that Xerox will print and send for you.

What else can you do?

Send a care package from Give2TheTroops® and if you live near one of their branch locations you can drop off requested items.

Send a prepaid calling card.

Donate an Operation USO Care package.

Visit the American Supports You Homefront Groups page to find more ideas and links.

I know this is a busy time of the year, but these are some quick and easy ways to say "Thank you!" to the men and women for the sacrifices they make every day.

*Please note that the Walter Reed Army Medical Center is not collecting cards.  I received a forwarded e-mail about their program for "A Recovering American Soldier", which is how I first starting looking into this.  They are not accepting any cards, so don't send mail to them.

Leftover Yum!

What do you do with the leftover Almond Pie Cookie dough when you run out of filling?  Well, if you're me, you roll out cookies and then top them with raspberry jam!  The Mom always used to do this with little pieces cut off of pie crusts.  They were the most delicious little bites! 

These tasted a lot like thumbprint cookies and I think you could use the pastry dough to make those!  Those are the Husband's favorite, so I think I may have to try that sometime. 

Almond Pie Cookies

When I was at the Parent's house for Thanksgiving I was putting leftovers in their garage freezer when I saw that they had my favorite (gluten filled) pastries in there.  These pastries are like a cross between a cookie and a pie.  The pastry dough is almost like a pie dough, but with sugar added so it's sweeter; it's buttery and soft!  And they are filled with almond paste, which is like a little bite of delicious in your mouth!  They are amazing! 

The cookies come from a bakery in a small Midwest Dutch town about an hour from where the Parents live.  You can't just go down the street and buy them, so they were a real treat when we got them.  The Dutch call these "gevulde koeken", which means "filled cookies".

I just had to try to recreate these!  I found a few (gluten) recipes online and they were all very similar.  They also all used weight measurements (grams or ounces) for the ingredients; I don't have a food scale (just a bathroom one!) so I had to convert those too.  I used this site for the conversions.  I also found that I had to add more milk to make the dough come together - the other recipes call for a few drops to 1 tsp.  The cookies turned out to be so yummy!  I had to limit myself to trying just 1/2 of one.  I think I'll probably put the rest in the freezer so they don't disappear too fast...out of site, you know!

Almond Pie Cookies

14 Tbls butter, cubed
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
2 Tbls milk
7 oz almond paste
1 egg

1 egg + a splash of milk beaten together for the egg wash

Whisk together flours and xanthan gum.  Add butter, sugar and flour mixture to the mixer bowl and stir until incorporated.  Add milk slowly until dough just sticks together.  Cover dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

When the dough is ready, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the almond paste with the egg.

Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper, until it is about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out into a circle (I used a wide mouth glass for this, but a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter would work; traditionally a round, flutter cutter is used).  Place 1/2 the rounds on a cookie sheet and put a mound of almond paste on each.  

Moisten the edges with water and place another round on top - seal the edges by pressing down gently with your fingers.  I also used a fork to make a pretty edge since I didn't have a fluted one.  Place an almond (I used slivered almonds because that's what I had in my freezer) on top and brush with the egg wash.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, until browned.  I also brushed the egg wash on again at the 15 minute mark, as recommended, to help get a nice golden color.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

I'm not a huge fan of leftovers.  Even though I do bring them to work in my lunch nearly every day.  It's just easier than trying to find something gluten free and tasty in the cafeteria at work!  This year's gluten free Thanksgiving was so yummy (thanks Mom!), but one can only eat so much turkey and stuffing the traditional way.  I do, however, want some more of those sweet potatoes! 

For lunch one day I had a turkey, cheddar, and cranberry panini (with GF Beer Bread) and a side of cornbread stuffing.  The Mom also made beer bread stuffing that was amazing with the turkey.

And for the leftovers that the Mom so generously froze and sent home with us - I made a sort of Turkey Pot Pie (the Mom made one too - I'm sure they were vastly different, but both delicious!)  I was going to make the gravy like I did for the Chicken Cornbread Casserole, but then I remembered I already had leftover gravy!  Why reinvent the wheel?  I put the leftover gravy into a saucepan and warmed it up.  Then I added about 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 2 Tbls sherry and heated until bubbly.  I shredded the leftover turkey and threw in some frozen veggies (after sauteing them). 

Put the turkey/veggie mixture into my round casserole dish and mixed up some Gluten Free Pantry Yankee Cornbread Mix and poured that over the top.  Then I baked it at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes. 

Sorry, no pictures of the food.  We had a pretty good snow yesterday, so we took the kids sledding.  The Girl loved flying down the hill and wanted to go "really faster!"  I leave you with a picture of our Sunday and the season's first snow.