Coconut Sugar Cookies

I've been a baking fool yet again and tried something new for 2010.  I've baked some gingerbread and sugar cookies following the same recipes as last year and they were a hit.  I must admit though using a better quality of spices certainly made the gingerbread much fuller bodied and lovely tasting.  Thank you Victorian Epicure (http://www.epicureselections.com/) for great spices for my great cookies.  The sugar cookies although good were not quite the statement that the gingerbread were with their flavour.  I've found gluten free oats and managed to make some great macaroons too that we ate WAY too quickly to be considered truly healthy. But yesterday MJ & I made coconut sugar cookies and they were so tasty.  Here's the recipe if you're interested.  I stole this straight from the package label but it bears sharing.
4 eggs
3/4c + 2 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup coconut flour - sifted
2 tsp cinnamon
Mix together eggs and sugar less 1 TBSP
Add butter and vanilla
Add flour and combine until well mixed.
Let sit 5-10 minutes to thicken (I was so surprised at how much it really does thicken)
Mix remaining sugar with cinnamon (I actually used more than what they say)
Form dough into 1 - 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in sugar mixture
Place on cookie sheet and flatten into 2 inch circles
Bake at 375 degree C for 15 minutes
These are soft lovely morsels to savour.
We got just over 2 dozen of various sizes since we were both shaping them... we didn't have a single nice round one - but that's ok we had a blast making them.
Try it for yourself.... we used organic ingredients so they were gluten free and totally organic!  YUM!
ENJOY!

On a Sweeter Note

Well the next time I decide to decorate cup cakes with black and orange someone needs to give me a kick!  The cupcakes are for T's SK class party for Halloween.  Since she can't eat most of what is sent by the other families I feel compelled to send her with something she can eat.  Only this year I went a little over board.  A cupcake for each student and the teacher and EAs...   Being that its for Halloween I of course had to make them seasonally appropriate - thus the black and orange!

But I admit that I love baking and making special things for my little family.  The fact that I am able to make such lovely looking and tasting treats for my family is truly something for which I am glad .  My waistline is not so glad but that is another blog all on its own.

So here's hoping my girls and T's class mates enjoy the cupcakes.  I've had one already and besides the sugar buzz, it was tasty.  I am very glad to have found the Gluten Free white cake mix at our local bulk food store (where they take care to avoid cross contamination - I have yet to have had problems with anything from there and I've been purchasing their open bin GF stuff for  over 2 years now).

MMMMMMMM cupcakes!  BOO!

Worlds Best GF CF Banana Cake

I'm still learning about my new Gluten Free lifestyle and modifying recipes that were once loved, tried, tested and true for regular ingredients. I hadn't found an easy solution for certain favourites yet. But now I have for my banana cake/muffin/bread recipe. I couldn't believe just how easy it was too.
I have a new favourite all purpose flour mixture that I posted back in December. All I had to do was use that for the recipe, add some xanthan gum and let it sit for a while before popping it into the oven. This is one for the books if you love banana cake/muffins/bread. Especially if you like a nice moist cake that will be devoured by days end (if you're not careful).
I'd post a picture but my family ate it before I had the chance to get a photo. My husband (who can be quite skeptical about the taste and consistency of the GF CF recipes) said he couldn't tell that it was GF CF. I amazed him yet again.
Here's the recipe:
Wet Ingredients
2 eggs (room temperature)
1/2c CF ghee, CF shortening, margarine or regular butter if casein isn't an issue
1/2c Almond Breeze, or other milk substitute or milk again if milk isn't an issue
1tsp vinegar (add it to the milk now and let it sit at least 5 minutes)
1tsp vanilla
3 very ripe bananas
Dry Ingredients
1/2c white sugar
1/2c brown sugar (I use sucanat)
2c all purpose flour mixture (- if you're not GF just use regular baking flour and NO xanthan gum)
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
2tsp xanthan gum
Mixing Instructions
In a large bowl -
1. Peel and mash the bananas
2. Add sugars and mix well
3. Add the eggs and mix well
In a separate bowl
4. Combine all dry ingredients and sift a couple of times to be sure they're well mixed
Then -
5. Mix dry ingredients into wet about 1/3 at a time and mix well
6. Add the milk and the vanilla and mix well
7. Let mixture sit covered with a moist cloth for at least 30 minutes and at most 1.5 hours this allows the xanthan gum and baking soda and powder to do their thing and make the cake fluffier.
Pre-heat the oven to 350F
Now for the tough part - decide which type of desert you are making and pour into 9x13 pan, muffin tins or bread pan.
For the 9x13 cake it takes about 30 minutes at 350F
The bread and muffins are around the same but make sure you test with a tooth pick before removing from the oven for good. You want to be sure the tooth pick comes out clean in several areas of the muffins, bread or cake as it could 'look' cooked in one spot but not be on the other side of the item. (I ran into this problem when I made a double batch in a larger cake pan - I think my oven cooks hotter on one side too).
If you want to ice the cake or muffins let them cool completely before making an icing of your choice. They freeze well too but I've never had the muffins in the freezer for longer than about a month. They're too tasty to leave sitting around.
There you have it. SOOOOO tasty. Let me know if you enjoy them. I'll see if I can get pictures next time we make them.

Almost but not quite

OK so I continued my baking trials and have a near success. I decided to try making gluten free, casein free chocolate macaroons. Well they are both GF & CF but they are not quite your traditional macaroons.

I found my recipe and replaced the milk with almond milk and the butter with margarine (cf). I didn't have quite enough GF oats so I used quinoa flakes to top it up. I warmed my sugar, cocoa, margarine and milk then removed them from the stove and added the dry ingredients of quinoa, oats and coconut. I mixed them all together and they sure smelled like regular macaroons.

Fast forward several hours... the macaroons are still soft and mushy. They taste great. A little nutty flavoured from the quinoa but good and chocolaty nonetheless. So I guess that means that we'll be eating soft mushy macaroons and I'll be going grocery shopping for the new oats and making a new batch with butter and milk for gifting. But really I don't mind so much having to eat 2 dozen yummy chocolate treats. They look great and taste great but they fall apart everywhere and stick to every finger!

So here we sit thinking about mushy macaroons and watching Home Alone 2 with the family. But if you want a GF CG chocolaty treat here's the recipe.

1/2c margarine
1/2c milk
6Tbsp cocoa
1c sugar
1/2c coconut
3 cups mixed oats (GF) and quinoa

Heat the first 4 ingredients until melted. Once melted remove from the heat and add the remaining ingredients. Spoon onto parchment papered cookie sheets and cool until firm. Remember they won't get hard just firm.
ENJOY!
I know we will.

Gluten Free Christmas Cookies

Ok so it was a grand idea and so far so good.

After being recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease and having other family members who are either also Celiac lifers or choose to be gluten free for other reasons, I decided to give us all a bit of our past for the holidays. The one thing I have heard a lot of Celiac lifers miss are traditional seasonal sweets. Especially lifers who don't bake, as a habit, for themselves. My family members are those lifers. They enjoy the treats but don't bake... or at least haven't since they became gluten free. So weeks ago I started searching out recipes. Boy was I pleasantly surprised to find so many out there. Most of them on various blogs like this one or adaptations from 'regular' cookbooks on Celiac group sites and other recipe sites. But I must say this one is FAB!

The recipe came from an un-noted blog and I have modified it slightly but kept pretty true to the original authors notes. These sugar cookies are light once baked and quite tasty but what got me was the ease of handling with the dough! As anyone who has ever worked with rice flour knows, baked goods are usually crumbly and fall apart VERY easily. This dough was handled, and handled and then handled more by myself and my girls. And another great attribute of this recipe - it doesn't require refrigeration, so we could make the dough and cut the cookies right away!! Thank you to the author for such a great Sugar cookie recipe.

Ingredients:

1c GF, CF shortening

1c white sugar

1 egg

2tsp GF Vanilla (I used real not artificial - I think it makes a difference)

1c white rice flour

1/2c tapioca flour

1c potato starch (not flour)

2-1/2tsp xanthan gum

1tsp salt

1tsp GF baking powder

extra potato starch for dusting board and kneading

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer cream together the shortening and sugar.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined and fluffy.

In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients by sifting and re-sift.

Sift into the wet ingredients a little bit at a time. Mix well and add all dry ingredients. The dough will start to 'ball up' this is what you're looking for.

Coat your hands with potato starch and make the dough into a ball. Roll the dough onto a starched surface and roll with a starched rolling pin. Roll to 1/4inch thick. Cut into seasonal cookies. We did Christmas shapes.

Place on cookie sheet directly OR on parchment paper. I used both metal and stone ware and both worked quite nicely.

Decorate with sugars etc if desired or save decorating till after they're baked if you're going to ice them etc.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until very slightly browning on the edges. Cool on baking rack.

The author says they freeze well but so far I haven't had the chance to try that but I will be doing so and let you know.

Enjoy! I know we have.