Chocolate Peppermint Pie - Easily Gluten Free

Tonight Tim and I are going to visit some really good friends of ours. They’re like my second family, really. One of the girls, Bekka, has Celiac disease, so it’s easy for me to eat at their house.

I’m bringing along a gluten free Chocolate Peppermint Pie. I used Glutino chocolate dream cookies for the crust. It looks so good, I can’t wait to try it!

Raspberry Cranberry Pie - Gluten Free

I made another Raspberry Cranberry pie, for Christmas this time instead of Thanksgiving. I paid more attention to what I was doing so I now have an actual recipe, albeit a simple one.

Raspberry Cranberry Pie

30 oz raspberries, fresh or frozen
18 oz cranberries
Sugar to taste
¼ cup minute tapioca
½ cup tapioca flour
Two pie crusts

Combine the berries and add sugar to your preference of sweetness. Mix in the minute tapioca. Let stand in the fridge over night or longer.

Prepare the pie crusts. Mix the tapioca flour into the filling and pour into the bottom crust. Cover with the top crust and follow the crust’s baking directions.

And there you go!

I always have a little extra crust, so I made two little pie tartlets for some gluten free friends from church. I hope they enjoy them!

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Christmas Cookies!

When my friend Morgan told me she was going to do some gluten free Christmas cookie baking, I directed her to Carrie’s gluten free cookie roundup at GingerLemonGirl. Once I browsed through the plethora of cookie recipes, I decided that I needed to do a gluten free cookie baking day, too.

I have a friend from my church who was diagnosed with Celiacs two weeks ago. So I invited her over and we baked cookies all morning and afternoon last Saturday!

We made Chocolate Chip Cookies (of course!), Cranberry Orange Cookies (since I have a love affair with cranberries), and Sugar Cookies.

I’ll definitely be saving these recipes to use again. The cookies were so scrumptious!

On a side note; yes the sugar cookies are a donkey and a pig. Unfortunately I don’t have any “Christmasy” cookie cutters, just barn yard animals. But, I figured there were probably donkeys and pigs in the stable when Jesus was born, so it works!

Yummy Gluten Free Brownies

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Mix (or sift) together:
1 cup brown rice flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, mix together:
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Melt together:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup unsalted butter

Slowly pour the melted chocolate/butter into the eggs while beating on low with an electric mixer.

Add the dry ingredients and beat on medium until combined. Pour batter into a greased 9x9 pan and smooth flat with a spatula. The batter will be quite thick.

Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!

I created this recipe for my mom. She doesn’t eat wheat, potatoes, tapioca, or sorghum, along with a bunch of other foods. And since she doesn’t keep xanthan gum in her pantry, wheat-free baking is a challenge for her.

She called me a few weeks ago and asked if I had a good gluten free brownie recipe. I pulled out my trusty Bette Hagman cookbook, but her brownie recipe called for potato starch, tapioca flour, and xanthan gum. So that was out of the question!

Hopefully this recipe will work for you Mom. I hope you like it!

Apple Cobbler

I made Apple Cobbler for our Sunday school party on Labor Day, but unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of it. Here’s my recipe:

Apple Cobbler

6 medium apples, peeled and sliced
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice

Topping:
¾ cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown rice flour
¾ cup gluten free rolled oats
½ tablespoon cinnamon

Grease the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Arrange the apple slices in the pan. Mix together the sugar, 1 T. cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and pour evenly over the apples.

Mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Spread over the apples.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!


Thanks to Gluten Free Kay for the inspiration for the topping!

Cherry Cobbler

I was so excited when I finally broke down and bought Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats. Really, for the price (I think it was $6.99), they're going to last me a long time.

For the Fourth of July I made Cherry Cobbler! I really love cobbler, so I was super excited about trying this tasty dessert gluten free. Thanks to Gluten Free Kay for the great recipe.

I modified mine slightly from Kay's recipe. To start with, I am not even close to being as wonderful of a gardener as she is, so I don't have my own cherry trees. I just bought a can of *horror of horrors* premade cherry pie filling. Also, I don't have a 7x7 baking dish like Kay used. So I made it in my 9x9 cake pan and increased the ingredients by 50%. It did need to bake a little longer because of the bigger size.

Cherry Cobbler turned out to be a cheap and super easy dessert. I'm for sure making this again (soon, hopefully).

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I got a lot done around the house yesterday. My clothes are put away, the dishes are done, my coupons are clipped, and I made chocolate chocolate chip muffins!

Like my recent mac'n'cheese experiment, these muffins were good, but they could be better. I'll wait to put up the recipe until I get them just right. But, hopefully the picture will be inspiring to you!

Strawberry Muffins

I hate to share this, but I made these muffins on Thursday, and they're all gone now! But, I did bring a few to my neighbors, so Tim and I didn't eat them all.

Strawberry Muffins
1 cup sorghum flour (or quinoa flour)
1 cup brown rice flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup turbinado sugar (or regular)

1 1/2 cup mashed strawberries (a few less than 16 oz.)
3 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare the muffin tins (grease or line). I then used a food chopper to pulverize the strawberries. Mix together the dry ingredients. In a seperate bowl, mix together the three wet ingredients. Then add the dry ingredients to the the wet and blend. Do not overmix. Fill the muffin tins and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

I must give credit to my mom, since I adapted this recipe from her great banana muffin recipe. Thanks Mom!

Chipper Sandwich

This one's for my Dad. When I was young, every time we'd venture off to DQ, Dad would invariably get the "Chipper Sandwich." Now, using the chocolate chip cookie recipe at Ginger Lemon Girl, I made my own!

I did use chocolate chip ice cream instead of vanilla. It was still delicious!

Ice Cream Pizza!

So, our Sunday School party on Friday was pizza-themed. We had pizza appetizers, pizza entrees, and pizza dessert. Since I very much like dessert, I thought I'd bring along something I could eat. Here's what I came up with:

It's an Ice Cream Pizza. I got the idea while I was trying to fall asleep one night. It couldn't be simpler, and it was oh-so-good!

I started with my chocolate cookie crust that I use for cheese cakes. After freezing the crust, I spread on slightly soften vanilla ice cream. I froze that for just a few minutes, and then spread on mint chocolate chip. I drizzled it with chocolate sauce to top off the decadence.

It was loved by one and all!

Unusual Cream Cheese Puffs

Okay, I was craving a sort of sweet and sugary cream cheese wonton. (Check out my other sweet craving here.) Luckily, that craving is now behind me.

I blended some sugar into cream cheese, filled some rice paper, and deep fried. I then dipped the warm finished product into cinnamon sugar. They were actually pretty good, but I think I'll shoot for a more "normal" wonton next time I have rice paper on hand.

Really Good Bars

I grew up in Minnesota. Yup, I'm from the frigid arctic wasteland of... Minneapolis. Actually, it's not as cold as some might think. My family and my in-laws are still there, so we get to visit from time to time.

"Why are you telling me this?" you might ask. I'm telling you this as a way to explain today's post title: "Really Good Bars." Depending on where you live, you would call bars cookies, or treats, or some other ridiculous name. In the North country, we tell it like it is. When it comes out of a rectangular pan, and it's retangular or square in shape, it's a bar. That's just the way it is.
I work with our AWANA kids program at church, and this week we were celebrating everyone's birthday by having everyone bring treats to share. I brought the afore mentioned "Really Good Bars." Here's what I put in 'em.

10 oz. marshmallows
1/4 cup butter
6 cups Cocoa Pebbles
mini M&M's
extra mini marshmallows

Melt the 10 oz. marshmallows and butter. Mix with the cereal in a 9 x 13 pan. Add mini M&M's and extra mini marshmallows and mix. Spread out flat in the pan using a lightly greased baggie. They should look like this:


I must say, they were a hit!

Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake

1 package Glutino chocolate cream sandwich cookies, crushed

1/4 cup butter, melted

4 packages Neufchatel (light cream cheese), room temperature

4 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

12 oz. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Form the crushed cookies and melted butter into a crust in the bottom of a spring form pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.

Place the Neufchatel, still in its packages, into a bowl of hot water. After soaking, turn out the Neufchatel into a medium mixing bowl. The cheese should be soft and warm. This will make for a creamy cheese cake. Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla to the cheese and beat with an electric mixer on low until no lumps remain. Fold in the mini chocolate chips. Pour into the crust.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. If the middle seems soft, that's fine as it will set as it cools. I have baked it longer, though, sometimes up to 75 minutes.

Once out of the oven, run a knife along to outside edge to loosen it. This should help the cheese cake not crack, although mine usually still does. Cool in the pan on a wire rack, and then refrigerate. Do not cover right away in the fridge as steam will condense on the cheese cake. Cover after about two hours to avoid smells being absorbed. When cutting the cake, always wipe off the knife after each cut.

Enjoy!

Sweet Cravings

About two months ago, I had a craving for apple fritters. Now, this was no ordinary craving; it lasted for a week and a half! I finally broke down and found a recipe that modified nicely into gluten free.

Oddly enough, yesterday I was struck with the same apple fritter mega-craving again. I decided to not wait a week and a half this time before indulging, so I made up a batch this afternoon. They are extremely tasty and pretty easy to make, too. Here's my recipe:

Apple Fritters

1 cup gf baking mix (I use Bette Hagman's Gourment Blend)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 medium apple, finely chopped
Cooking oil
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Sift together the first 4 ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Add milk and egg; beat with an electric mixer until batter is smooth. Fold in the apple. Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil at approximately 370 degrees and at least 2 inches deep. Fry until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels on a cooling rack and then roll in the powdered sugar. Serve warm.

I made them a little bit too big this time, I think. But, that doesn't affect the taste!

Milk Chocolate Bubble Cake

I made this delicious dessert this weekend. It's pretty easy to make, too.

Milk Chocolate Bubble Cake

Your favorite biscuit or yeast roll batter
16 Hershey's Kisses
1/4 Butter, melted
Cinnamon Sugar

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease a regular-sized loaf pan. Wrap each Kiss in some of the biscuit batter and form it into a ball. Roll each ball in the melted butter, and then roll it in the cinnamon sugar. Arrange the balls in the loaf pan in three long rows. If using a yeast recipe, allow to rise. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Enjoy warm!