Coming soon......

I have a few recipes lined up to share with ya'll. Pizza crust, frosted sugar cookies and I'm currently trying out 2 new bread recipes. I will have them up soon!!!

Pumpkin Muffins

I am absolutely loving Annalise Roberts cookbook. It is currently my favorite gluten free cookbook. I have been trying a lot of her recipes lately. Mainly muffins and cookies at the moment. But there a lot of other good looking recipes that I will definitely have to try.

These muffins are the best gluten free muffins that I have ever had. Actually, they are the best pumpkin muffins I have ever had. Including wheat. The texture is perfect, they are moist, they are GOOD. Even my hubby, who isn't a fan of pumpkin, had to agree that they were very good. I froze a lot of pumpkin from our garden this year, so was glad to find another good use for it.

I did change the recipe slightly from the original, mainly cutting back on a few spices, so my hubby and kids would enjoy them. The original recipe calls for ground cloves and ginger, which I omitted. It also calls for molasses, but I replaced that with brown sugar.

Pumpkin Muffins

• 1 3/4 cups brown rice flour mix (see below)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree

Brown Rice Flour mix: 2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
1/3 cup tapioca flour

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin pan or use baking cups.
Mix dry ingredients together in large mixing bowl of electric mixer.
Combine eggs, water, oil, brown sugar and pumpkin in a separate bowl and whisk to blend.
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Do not over beat.
Pour batter evenly into muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove muffins from pan immediately.

Enjoy! :)

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

I'm a little slow at getting this posted. This was our favorite Christmas cookie this year. You can't go wrong when chocolate and candy canes are involved. :) You won't be disappointed.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies:

• 1 bag semi sweet (or bittersweet) chocolate chips
• 6 Tbsp ( 3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup gf flour mix
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 bag semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 or 3 crushed candy canes
  

Directions:

1. Melt bittersweet chocolate chips and butter in medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stirring constantly.

2. In large bowl with electric mixer beat eggs and sugar until thick; stir in chocolate mixture. In small bowl , stir together flour and baking powder; stir into chocolate mixture. Gently mix in semi sweet chocolate chips and walnuts

3. Refrigerate at least an hour or until firm. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, place spoonfuls 1 1/2 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 14 minutes until shiny crust forms on top but interior is still soft. Sprinkle crushed candy canes over top of cookies immediately after taking them out of the oven.

Sweet biscuits!!

Since I started cooking/baking gluten free, I have been on a search for a good biscuit recipe. I have tried countless recipes and none of them have been even remotely good. I was beginning to think that you just couldn't make a good gluten free biscuit. Think again!! I recently found a buttermilk biscuit recipe in Annalise Roberts cookbook, Gluten free baking classics that I had to try. It was AWESOME. Melt in your mouth goodness. My kids thought they were cookies...probably didn't help that I used a cookie cutter to cut them out. Ha!

I did change the recipe a bit to make it dairy free as well. That didn't seem to affect the taste or texture at all.



Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour Mix (see below)
• 1/4 cup Sweet Rice Flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon milk (or any milk substitute, I used almond milk)
  
• 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 5 slices
• 1 large egg white (or 2 small)
• 2 tablespoons water

• Brown Rice Flour Mix

• Brown rice flour (extra finely ground) 2 cups
• Potato starch (not potato flour) 2/3 cup
• Tapioca flour 1/3 cup

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Position rack in center of oven.

2. Mix brown rice flour mix, sweet rice flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt in large bowl of electric mixer. With mixer on low speed, cut butter into flour mixture until mixture is crumbly and resembles coarse meal. Put mixture into a small bowl and set aside.

3. Beat egg white in the same large bowl of electric mixer until very foamy. Add water, milk and flour mixture all at once, and mix at medium-low speed for 1 minute. Use lightly floured hands to pat out dough into a large 3/4 inch thick round on lightly floured surface. Cut out biscuits with a 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter. Press dough scraps together and repeat.

4. Place baking sheet on center rack of oven and turn oven temperature down to 400 degrees. Bake 15 - 18 minutes or until medium golden brown. Serve immediately.

I used a star cookie cutter to make things more interesting.

Watch out, these will go fast!! There were no leftovers. I better make a double batch next time. :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Now that the weather is cooler, soup has been on the menu. Chicken Tortilla Soup is one of our all time favorites. I found this recipe on All Recipes and didn't have to do anything to make it gluten free. The soup is dairy free, but then you can add sour cream and shredded cheese to make it extra good. We have used plain soy yogurt or plain coconut yogurt in place of the sour cream and that worked great.

The soup is good without the extra toppings, but with the toppings it's awesome. You can use any corn chips that you choose, I use corn tortilla chips. Don't skip the diced avocados either, that adds so much flavor.

(I really need to work on my food photography, but you get the general idea.)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

• 4 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded
• 2 (14.5oz) cans chicken broth
• 1 (4oz) can diced green chiles
• 1 (10oz) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 2 Tbsp fresh chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

Combine the chicken broth, green chiles, tomatoes with green chiles, onion and garlic into a soup pot. Add the shredded chicken. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-35 minutes.

Add the lime juice, cilantro, cayenne and cumin. Simmer for 10-15 minutes longer.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with shredded cheese, diced avocados, sour cream and crushed corn tortilla chips.

Go to Gluten-free Homemaker for more awesome gluten free menu ideas.

Pork Chops with Scalloped Potatoes

As a mom to 2 small children, I am always looking for easy recipes. I found this recipe on allrecipes and it has now been added to my stash of recipes. It's easy to prepare and it doesn't have a lot of special gf ingredients in it. We enjoy it, hope you do too!

Pork Chops with Scalloped Potatoes

• 3 Tbsp butter or olive oil, divided
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 Tbsp gf flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mill all-purpose flour, but cornstarch would work well also)
  
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 4 pork chops
• 4 cups thinly sliced potatoes
• dash paprika

Preheat oven to 350F. In sauce pan, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Add salt, pepper and flour (or cornstarch). Pour in the chicken broth, cook and stir until mixture boils. Remove from heat and set aside.

In skillet brown pork chops in 1 tablespoon butter, making sure not to overcook. Grease a cooking dish with the remaining tablespoon of butter and layer potatoes. Pour mixture over potatoes and place browned chops on top. Sprinkle paprika on top. Cover and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

German Chocolate Cake

We celebrated my father in-law's 70th birthday at our house tonight. No birthday is complete without a birthday cake, so I happily made one. :) I recently got a new cookbook, Cooking with Coconut Flour which has a gluten free, dairy free german chocolate cake recipe in it. That recipe was what convinced me that I had to have this cookbook. I have been looking for a good gf german chocolate cake for a while, and this is it. This cake is awesome. Everything a german chocolate cake should be. The cake texture was perfect. Nice and moist, not the slightest bit crumbly. There were people at the party that do not eat gluten free, and they were raving about the cake. That's the best compliment ever when baking gluten free!!

I frosted the cake a little too soon, so a lot of the frosting started falling off. It still tasted good. :)

German Chocolate Cake
(Makes a double layer cake)

2/3 cup butter or Earth Balance Soy free buttery spread
1 cup cocoa powder
8 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 whole eggs
8 egg yolks
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sifted coconut flour

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and mix well. Remove from heat and let it cool. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, combine 2 whole eggs, egg yolks, coconut milk, sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir in cocoa mixture. Add coconut flour and whisk in until there are no lumps. Fold egg whites into batter. Pour batter equally into 2 greased round 9 inch cake pans. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into cake. Let cool. Fill layers and cover top and sides of cake with Coconut-Pecan Frosting.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter or Earth Balance soy free buttery spread
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Mix coconut milk, cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks and butter in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla, flaked coconut and pecans. Let cool before frosting cake. (I doubled the frosting recipe)

Go ahead, take a bite. You know you want to. :)