Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I have found the perfect use for zucchini. Put it in a cake with some chocolate and you've got yourself an awesome, moist, yummy chocolate cake!! This is one of my absolute favorite cake recipes. I intended to frost it with a vanilla frosting, but we ate it all before I even thought about frosting. Seriously, it didn't need a bit of frosting.

I pureed several zucchini, divided it all up into 1 cup containers and froze them so I make this cake again even in the middle of winter.





Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Cream:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or earth balance
1 tablespoon shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar

Add & beat well:
2 eggs

Add
1 cup unsweetened pureed fresh zucchini

1 1/2 cup gluten free flour mix
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda

Beat until smooth. Bake in greased 8" x 8 square baking pan at 350F for 45 minutes (If you bake in glass, reduce the heat by 25F).

Frost with your favorite vanilla frosting recipe.....or not. :) It's awesome either way.

Pie crust

One thing that we like quite a lot around here is pie. Fruit pie of any kind. I haven't made many pies lately, mainly because I haven't found a recipe that I liked. It seems like gf pie crust is either a pain to work with, but end result is good, or it's easier to work with and the end result is lousy.

I have found a pie crust recipe that is awesome. Just awesome. It is super easy to work with... you mix it in a mixer and you can actually roll it out in between wax paper. The best part of all? The result is a nice flaky crust.

So after finding this recipe and peaches being in season, what's a girl to do but make a peach pie?


The pie. The top crust didn't even break when I put it on. Yay!




I found this recipe in Annaliese Roberts cookbook, Gluten Free Baking Classics. (I LOVE her cookbook, can you tell?)

Pie crust

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp brown rice flour mix (see below)
2 Tbsp sweet rice flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold butter or Earth Balance Buttery spread
1 large egg
2 tsp lemon juice

Prepare pie pan by greasing. Preheat oven to 375.

Mix flours, sugar, xanthan gum and salt in bowl of electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly (resembling coarse meal)

Add egg and lemon juice. Mix on low speed until dough holds together, it should not be sticky*. Form dough into a ball and place on a sheet of wax paper. Top with 2nd sheet of paper and flatten dough to 1 inch thick.

Roll out dough between the wax paper. Remove top sheet of wax paper and invert dough into pie pan. Remove remaining sheet of wax paper and crimp sides for single crust**.

Bake crust for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, fill, place top crust on and bake as per recipe.

For a bottom pie crust with no top crust, bake at 375 for about 25 minutes or until golden.

* My crust seemed a bit dry when I made it, so I added water a tablespoon at a time until it seemed the right consistency. I ended up adding 2 tbsp.

** This recipe is for a single bottom or single top crust. I had a lot leftover, and was able to make both top and bottom with 1 batch.

Brown rice flour mix:

2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca flour


Enjoy!

Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Banana bread.....what's not to like? I've tried several recipes for gf banana bread over the years. Most of them have tasted pretty good, but the texture wasn't the strong point and they always seem to fall apart. But try, try again. :) I have been recently browsing the gluten free goddess's blog and drooling over all of her tasty recipes. She had a banana bread recipe with chocolate chips that I knew I had to try. Why? Because it was also a vegan recipe, meaning no dairy. I am by no means vegan. But with our dairy issues in this household I appreciate vegan recipes a whole lot these days. :) Plus it had chocolate chips in it. What else could I do?

It turned out to be the best gluten free/dairy free banana bread I have ever had. It's been a while since I've had wheat banana bread, but I might even dare to say that it was better than that. Maybe it was the chocolate chips. But the texture was great, it didn't fall apart as soon as you thought about slicing off a piece either. The loaf lasted 2 days.




Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips

Here is the original recipe from the gluten free goddess
Her recipe is vegan, so has no eggs in it. We have chickens and have an abundance of good eggs, so I changed it to add some eggs.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a standard bread loaf pan.

Combine in a large bowl:

3-4 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
1/3 cup light olive oil
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

In a separate bowl:
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 rounded teaspoon cinnamon

Add the dry ingredients into the banana mixture and stir until smooth.

Add in 1/2 cup dairy free chocolate chips

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the center of a preheated oven for an hour, until the loaf is firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Cool the loaf on a wire rack. Slice and enjoy!

Thank you, gluten free goddess for this awesome recipe!

Fish fry!

A few weeks ago my hubby was hungry for batter fried fish and so set out to have a gf fish fry. He found several recipes for batter, combined a few together and then made it gluten free. It was everything batter fried fish should be, except not as greasy which I think is a good thing.

Batter Fried Fish

Ingredients

• 3/4 - 1 lb boneless fish fillets (tilapia, cod, perch, walleye, etc) -we used tilapia
  
• Oil for frying (safflower, peanut oil, non-hydrogenated shortening are all good)
• 1 cup Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour ( or any gf flour mix)
  
• 1 cup cornstarch (or leave out and decrease liquids)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 - 12 oz gluten-free beer or club soda (~12 if using cornstarch. Add slowly to ensure proper consistency)

Procedure

• Start heating oil in a fryer or deep pan. Heat to about 365F
• Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly and then stir in the beer or club soda until a thin batter is formed. Batter should drip off the fillets when dunked.
• Ensure oil has reached 365F
• Dip fillets in the batter and then carefully place in the oil. Fry until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per fillet.
• Scoop out cooked fillets and place on paper towels to drain. Serve hot.

Living Without and Blueberry Scones

I recently got a subscription to Living Without, a magazine dedicated to gluten free and dairy free cooking. Lots of good recipes, articles and the like. I also discovered that they have a website as well. Tons of recipes and substitution ideas. I have found a lot of recipes that I want to try.

One recipe I did try was the Blueberry Scone recipe. I love scones and have been missing them since our family has been gluten free. This scone is very dense, but perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. I followed the directions and made them about 2 inches thick, but next time I will make them a little thinner. Maybe 1 inch instead. Did I mention that this recipe is also dairy free? And to top it off, it didn't have any soy in it either. Bonus!


Blueberry Scones from Living Without Magazine:

2¾ cups brown rice flour
1½ cups + 1 tablespoon garbanzo bean flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup almond milk
¾ cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used fresh)

1. Combine the brown rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the canola oil and sugar until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and rice milk alternately, a little at a time, until well mixed, about 3 minutes. Chill the dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

3. Dust your counter liberally with brown rice flour. Knead the blueberries into the chilled dough and pat the dough into a 2-inch thick disc*. Cut the disc into 8 wedges. Place the wedges onto a greased or parchment-line baking sheet, spaced evenly apart. Bake until scones are golden brown and firm to the touch, about 30 minutes.

* I would recommend patting the dough into a 1-inch thick disk. The scones rise a bit in the oven and tend to get rather large.

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream (dairy free)

Hi all. Did you think I dropped off of the face of the earth? It's been a rough spring with sick kids, so I haven't had much time to think about blogging. Thankfully we're all healthy and we're on to summer.

It's been really hot the last week or so here, so I decided to try to make some dairy free ice cream to cool us off a bit. Sure, you can buy some really good dairy free ice cream at the store....Coconut Bliss is a favorite around here. But there's something about homemade ice cream. This ice cream was super easy to make, very refreshing and good! Trust me, you won't be thinking that it's a dairy free treat.....it's just a good chocolate treat! :)


Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

2 teaspoons kosher gelatin

1/4 cup peppermint tea, room temperature

1/4 cup honey

3-1/4 cups chocolate almond milk


1. In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over apple juice. Let sit, stirring occasionally, until gelatin is dissolved and softened, about 10 minutes.

2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together honey and 2 cups almond milk. Cook until just hot, stirring frequently; remove from heat. Add softened gelatin to hot milk mixture, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in remaining almond milk; let cool, cover, and refrigerate until very well-chilled ( I chilled it for about 8 hrs)

3. Spoon chilled mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker and make the ice cream per the manufacturers directions.

Makes about 1 quart.

Awesome gluten free bread

I recently tried a new gluten free bread recipe that we are LOVING. I've had this recipe for a while, but always passed by it because it calls for powdered milk which doesn't work for my daughter. Sure you can get powdered soy milk, but we still have the same problem. So without a good substitute, I passed it up. I then learned that you can replace powdered milk with sweet rice flour. Happy day! I decided to try this recipe with that substitution.....and it worked!


The first time I made this bread, it was good but after a couple days it started to crumble. A few tweaks and this bread is a keeper. It may be due to altitude (we live at 7,000 ft) but I found after adding a bit more water (~ 2 Tbsp) and baking it at the minimum baking time, that was all it took. No more crumbly bread. I have a hard time keeping this bread in the house....my family gobbles it up!

Ok, ok. Enough chatter.....on to the recipe! :)

White Bread
adapted from 125 Gluten Free Recipes by Donna Washburn and Heather Butts

1 3/4 cups white rice flour
1/2 cup potato flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup powdered milk or sweet rice flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup water ( plus 2 Tbsp)
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 Tbsp oil
2 eggs
2 egg whites

• In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Mix very well and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, using a heavy mixer with paddle attachment, combine wet ingredients until well blended.
• With the mixer on the lowest speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined. You may need to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on the HIGHEST speed, mix for 4 minutes.
• Spoon into prepared pan. Smooth the top with hands, using shortening. Let rise, uncovered, in a warm, draft free place for 60 to 75 minutes or until dough has risen to the top of the pans. Preheat oven to 350 and bake for 35 to 45 minutes (I bake mine for 35 minutes).

Enjoy! I have another gf bread recipe that I'm going to try.....stay tuned. :)