Gluten Free Graham Crackers

Gluten Free S'mores!

   The latest recipe challenge came in the form of a campfire for the boys at church.  They were going to be roasting marshmallows and making smores.  This sounds like a lovely chocolaty, sticky fun time for a hoard of boys.  To this mom it brought nervousness, and a challenge.  I could take the easy route and buy the store bought "graham crackers" that frankly taste nothing like real graham crackers and are thick as a fig newton (gluten filled one of course), or I could 'whip up' a homemade graham cracker the boys could take with them.  Easy as pie.....er, or not. 

   Because of the rice-free requirement, I have to tweak even gluten free recipes so I keep a binder to chronicle my recipe 'tweaks'.  I had a failed graham cracker recipe in my binder and knew I at least had a jumping off point.  I decided against a trip to the store, because I had all the ingredients on hand to give it a try (all the while being thankful that there was a back-up option if this recipe tweak was an epic fail). 

  Fortunately, this recipe 'tweak' turned out really well!  It brought back memories of eating those wonderful rectangle shaped cracker cookies out of the plastic wrappers.  The taste and smell were there!  After letting the boys try them, it hit me again that they didn't know what "real" graham crackers taste like.  (moments like that bring pangs of sadness at what they are missing out on by not eating traditional "gluten" foods, quickly replaced by relief that they don't have to eat something that makes them sick.)

  In the end, with the graham crackers from this recipe, my boys were able to join in the fun of marshmallow melted goodness on graham crackers with their friends...burned marshmallow torches and all. :)

aka. stacks of memories

Graham Crackers

 

3/4 cup My Flour Mix (Rice free and Gluten free)

1/4 cup Potato Starch

1 tsp Cinnamon

3 Tbs Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 1/2 Tbs Butter (or non-dairy butter substitute like Earth Balance)

 

1- 1 1/2 Tbs Milk (I used SoDelicious Vanilla Coconut Milk)

2 Tbs Honey

 

Blend dry ingredients and grate butter into dry ingredients.  Add milk and honey and stir until combined.  Form ball, flatten slightly and wrap in plastic wrap.  Place dough into freezer for 1 hr, until chilled.  After 1 hr, roll dough to about 1/8" thick.  (thin is best and most authentic, so remember they will get thicker as they bake.)

*Tip: Line baking sheet with parchment paper, and cover dough with saran wrap for easy rolling. 

Don't they look "real"!

After dough is rolled out, bake at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  The pan may need to be rotated for even browning.  Bake until just lightly browned.  After removing from oven use a chopping knife to square off the edges, and cut the lines for the rectangle shapes.  Use a bread knife to score the lines on the crackers dividing each larger rectangle into four smaller rectangles (with this, just rest the knife down where you want it but don't cut all the way through...think about what the "real" ones look like).  Use a thick cake tester or toothpick to poke two holes in each smaller rectangle (if you want them to look authentic!). :)  When completely cool, gently break along lines resulting in traditional rectangle crackers.  This makes one cookie sheet of crackers, number of crackers depend on size (pictures show one batch).

Other notes:
-Any gluten free flour blend would probably work for this recipe, but I have not tested that.
-Xanthan gum has already been added to my flour mix, so no additional xanthan gum is needed.

No-Rise Pizza Crust- Recipe Review from Elizabeth Barbone's newest cookbook

  Imagine this, it has been a busy day and you don't know what to make for dinner.  You ask your kids what they would like and they respond in unison, "Pizza!"  Um yeah.  There are two problems with that, OK three but the third is easily worked out.  The first problem, you eat gluten-free and everyone knows that good  GF pizza is rare.  The second problem, it's close to dinner and there is no time to let a crust rise.  The third problem, you can't have cheese (but that is easily solved thanks to Diaya's Mozz 'cheese').  Imagine this...melt downs all around.  I've seen it, you've seen it...

  In comes Elizabeth Barbone's newest superhero cookbook, How to Cook Gluten-Free: Over 150 Recipes That Really Work. :) 

(like the drama?!)  :)  Today's recipe review is for her No-Rise Pizza Crust.  Now, I'm usually a fan of a nice yeasty raised crust pizza, but that's just not practical on some days.  Having a recipe like this that works, reliably, is great.  And, this one does.  I made it with traditional pizza ingredients; sauce, cheese (Diaya Mozzerella) and pepperoni.  I substituted my Rice Free GF Flour blend for the rice flour, but  still added the tapioca starch.  I wanted to make sure it had enough 'give'.  The boys also gave this one a two thumbs up! :)  That's two for two (or two cubed..two thumbs up, for two recipes, out of two tried) from this cookbook.  My view is that even one staple recipe from a book makes the purchase worthwhile.  This book is definitely one to have.  Oh, this pizza crust is even good reheated the next day for lunch.  Can't beat that!

No-Rise Pizza Crust

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups white rice flour

3/4 cup tapioca starch

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup water

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1)In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.  In a small bowl, mix together the wet ingredients with a fork or small whisk until combined.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry.  Using a wooden spoon, stir to combine until a dough forms.  The dough will be on the dry side.  This is normal.

2)Generously sprinkle your counter with white rice flour.  Turn the dough out onto the counter.  Knead the dough until it is smooth.  If, after kneading for a minute, the dough is still dry and doesn't hold together, add a tablespoon more water.

3)Center the dough on a 16 1/2 by 12 1/2 inch piece of parchment paper.  Dust the dough generously with white rice flour.  Roll out the dough until it covers the parchment paper.

4)Set a rimmed baking sheet very close to the rolled-out crust.  Grab the corners of one of the long sides of the parchment paper and slide the crust into the pan.  Do this quickly. 

5)Top and bake as directed in the recipe.

Makes one pizza crust.

*I substituted my Rice Free GF Flour blend for the rice flour, but  still added the tapioca starch.  I wanted to make sure it had enough 'give'.  I also did not use the xanthan gum since my flour blend already has it added.

  Once again Elizabeth Barbone has not disappointed with this new cookbook; recipes that work, for people who by default see food as something they can't have is priceless.  She is making food dreams come true for those avoiding gluten. For more great recipes like this pizza crust, and the powdered sugar donut muffins recipe I reviewed yesterday, check out her cookbook!

 

"Powdered Sugar Doughnut" Muffins - From Elizabeth Barbone's Newest Cookbook!

I had the amazing opportunity to preview a few recipes from the newest cookbook by Elizabeth Barbone, How to Cook Gluten Free: Over 150 Recipes That Really Work. She is one of my favorite cookbook authors, and Easy Gluten Free Baking was one of my first gluten free cookbooks. She really puts thought into each and every recipe, and that thought goes into her cookbooks too. I mean, how many gluten free cookbooks are spiral bound so they lay flat on the counter?! And, the pictures look so yummy! I love cookbooks that have pictures. The recipes are 'normal' food that taste like Betty Crocker. This cookbook has breakfast, dinner, dessert, and other special recipes. So, I was excited to try some recipes from her newest cookbook!

I decided to try the Powdered Sugar Doughnut Muffins recipe first. Mainly, because I love powdered sugar donuts. Yum! Frying just two or three at a time can be time consuming though. When I saw this recipe, I just had to try it. I substituted my flour mix for the flour components (because I avoid rice) and they turned out really, really well. The boys gave them two thumbs up. When I gave one to my husband(who doesn't avoid gluten) to try, he ate it and then said, "I could eat all of them!" LOL! :) So, if you walk by those sugar donut holes at the grocery store, this recipe will be one you want to try....like now! See my notes at the end of the recipe for my variations from the cookbook recipe. And for a special treat, scroll all the way down to the bottom.

"Powdered Sugar Doughnut" Muffins

Dry Ingredients:
3/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Wet Ingredients
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg

1 package (1 pound) Powdered Sugar

1)Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350`F. Lightly grease the cavities of a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray (I used olive oil)

2)In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and whisk to combine. The batter will be thin.
3)Fill the muffin cavities about half full, Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are golden brown.
4)While the muffins are baking, fill an 8-inch square baking dish with the powdered sugar.
5)Remove the muffins from the oven and working in batches, place them directly into the powdered sugar. Gently roll the muffins in the sugar to cover them. The stream from the hot muffins will make the sugar stick to the muffins. Remove the muffins from the sugar and tap off any excess. Transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.

Makes 24 mini muffins.

My recipe changes/comments:
*I sprayed the muffin pan with olive oil instead of cooking spray. Worked fine.
*I subbed my Rice Free GF Flour blend for the white rice, cornstarch and sweet rice flour. Total 1 1/2 cups my flour blend.
*For the milk I subbed SoDelicious Coconut Milk.
*It actually made more than 24 mini muffins...which was great! I made 24 mini muffins, and 6 regular muffins.
*For a super duper easy way to coat the muffins with sugar, dump about 2 cups of powdered sugar into a lunchbag sized paper bag. Then put about 6 muffins at a time in the bag, hold the top closed and shake the bag gently to coat all the muffins in sugar. Repeat proccess with remaining muffins.

*For extra special donuts, after coating in sugar, fill with raspberry jam. These are the leftover batter made in the regular size muffin pan. My husband LOVED these. LOL!

Go buy the cookbook for more great recipes like this! :)

Waffles - Gluten and Dairy Free style

Using a belgian waffle maker this recipe makes 12 full size waffles.  Enough for dinner, um I mean breakfast, with just a few to freeze.  The recipe can easily be halved.  I have never actually made this recipe with real buttermilk.  I always use the Coconut milk with vinegar.  These waffles easily pass as "real" waffles.
A tip: be sure to use Olive Oil to avoid waffles sticking to the waffle iron.

Waffles

6 eggs
3 1/2 cups Buttermilk (or ~2 tsp vinegar in measuring cup and fill to 3 1/2 cups with SoDelicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk)
3/4 cup Light Olive Oil

3 1/2 cups My GF Flour Blend (rice based, or no rice based)
4 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp salt

Heat waffle irons, and cook until desired cripness.  Makes 12 waffles.

Gluten Free, Dairy Free Mock Tastycake Peanut Butter KandyKakes!!!

Yep, you know them. Those lovely peanut butter over yellow cake, chocolate covered goodies, packaged in twos, like little delicious hockey pucks.  If you are on a gluten and dairy free diet, these lovable little treats have been off limits.  No more!  The process is (can be) involved if you are looking for a replicate of the real deal. But, the result is amazing, if I do say so myself. These aren’t like “homemade gluten free” food. You all know what I mean. These are good! :)  and, they are gluten and dairy free.  They could even be peanut free if you used Sunbutter. 

To summarize the directions...make cake, bake cake, melt peanut butter over hot cake, freeze peanut butter covered cake, cut out circle shapes and freeze, dip bottoms in chocolate and cool, cover entire cake in chocolate and chill again. Then, admire the copy! :)

I used the Perfect Pound Cake recipe from Glutenfreeeasily.com with some modifications as the base for the cake part of the KandyKakes.

Gluten and Dairy free KandyKake cake recipe:

2 ¼ cup My GF Rice Free Flour mix (if you use another GF flour mix, be sure it has xanthan gum added.  Add 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum to the recipe if your flour mix does not contain xanthan gum)
1 ¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

¾ cup olive oil

1 ½ cups sugar
1 Tbs vanilla extract

3 large eggs
¾ cup SoDelicious Coconut Milk

½ cup Peanut Butter (or more!)
1 ½ bags Enjoy Life Mini Chips
1 tsp Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Mix together Olive oil, sugar, sugar and vanilla extract. Add eggs one at a time mixing after each. Add milk and mix for 2 minutes, then gradually add dry ingredients. Pour batter into 12”x9” jelly roll pan (or any pan you can bake the cake in a thin layer). I actually had enough batter for the jelly roll pan and a mini-pound cake.

Bake at 350º for 35 minutes, testing with a toothpick.

While cake is still hot from the oven, carefully remove from pan onto parchment paper, and spread peanut butter over entire cake. The heat from the cake will make the peanut butter soft and very easy to spread. Once the peanut butter is spread evenly, freeze until the peanut butter is hard.

***This is where the magic happens. You have two options; make bar cookies, or make Kandy Kakes. I prefer to make the real thing, so I pulled out a small glass 2” diameter to use as a cutter to make the Kandy Kake shape. ***

Cut the circle shapes out and lay them out on a parchment covered cookie sheet. (just be sure you have space in your refrigerator or freezer for the pan!).

Use a double boiler or microwave to melt the chocolate chips and shortening until smooth. When the cake cutouts are cool and the chocolate is melted and smooth, bring the cake cutouts back out to put the first layer of chocolate on. Spread a thin layer of melted chocolate on the bottom of each cake layer (not the peanut butter side!). You can go ahead and put it peanut butter side down. When all the cutouts have their bottom side covered in chocolate, return the sheet to the refrigerator or freezer to cool the chocolate. The chocolate will change from shiny to matte when it is completely cool. When the chocolate cake cutouts are cool, bring them back out to do the final chocolate covering. There are several ways to do this. What I found worked best was to use the corner of a wire cooling rack. One at a time I set a cake cutout peanut butter side up and poured a little chocolate on top. Then, I shook the rack to completely cover the cutout. This will smooth out the chocolate and make it look real! When it is covered, place it back onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet into the freezer for the final cooling of the chocolate.

What you have when you are done is a pretty good copy of the real thing, a Tastykake Peanut Butter Kandy Kake. If you ask me, it is definitely worth the effort to make the round shape. It is time consuming, but half of replicating the true Kandy Kake experience, is biting into it and seeing the layers covered in chocolate…which you just don’t get if you layer everything in a pan.

Were these a success? Definitely! My boys were raving over these! I have never seen them so excited and express so much appreciation for anything I have made before. That makes it worth every minute, and a success in my book. :)

Extra Thoughts:
* Using the EnjoyLife chocolate chips give it a dark chocolate flavor. Look for a DF milk chocolate for the milk chocolate taste.
* To get a more authentic peanut butter taste, I would use a more processed peanut butter product instead of natural peanut butter. Natural may be healthier, but really, are we going for healthy here? Honestly?
* You will have extra cake/peanut butter pieces after cutting out the circles.  One idea to use this extra cake material to make cakepops!  Crumble it all up, mix in vanilla icing, form balls, freeze and dip in chocolate.  Sounds like a sugar headache waiting to happen. :)

Ways to save

We are always searching for ways to save eating GF, right? I just stumbled across a few things that will decrease costs. :)

Newly diagnosed Celiacs are an amazing resource. Sometimes we get in a rut of what is known and reliable, whereas newbies are on the lookout everywhere. Thanks to one of these experiences I was able to get gluten free (GMO free too!) pasta for $2.00/pound. Seriously! Oh, and rice free too. Big Lots, of all places! Apparently, Big Lots carries all kinds if GF products. It is hit or miss, but I have seen Bob's Red Mills products and GF pasta. Worth swinging by there to see what they have. But, don't look for the pasta this week....I cleaned them out. (as I shirk behind my GF pasta stockpile. Hey, I have boys to feed.) :)

Another sah-weeeeet deal I found was on Amazon. Now, they may change this, but it is worth a shot. If you search for a Bob's Red Mill product, millet flour for example, look to the right of one of the pages to see a list of other sellers. There I saw that Millet Flour was less than $2 per bag from Vitacost. Plus, free shipping if you order $49 in products. Easy to meet the shipping minimum if you buy GF flour components in bulk like I do. Tapioca flour, potato starch, millet flour, sorghum flour, xanthan gum...they were all at least $1 cheaper than going directly to the Vitacost site. Makes no sense, but it works for me!

The final deal idea is going through LivingSocial.com and buying a $50 gift card to GlutenFreely.com which costs $25. Most of their stuff is more expensive than you can buy locally with coupons and sales (ie. Chex cereal), but if you are looking for Better Batter flour blend, it is a deal! $35 total for 12 1/2 lbs of flour. That is 5 of their 2.5 pound boxes. If you can eat rice flour based flour blends then give that deal a try. (if you can't eat rice flour, try my flour blend recipe and buy the ingredients from Amazon!)

More deals as I find them! :)

GF Bagels!!!!

Anyone that knows me knows how much I LOVE bagels.  In grad school, Sunday mornings before church consisted of stopping by the bagel shop for my chocolate chip bagel.  Then, after I graduated, I would stop by the bagel shop on my way to work for breakfast...a fresh, warm bagel.  Needless to say, a good bagel has been sadly missed.  But no more!  These bagels meet my criteria for "a real bagel" unlike any other GF bagel I have had.  I'm still tweaking, so I'll update this as I improve.  Since I said I'd post it, here it is...   Btw, that's an actual picture below!!!

GF Bagels

1 1/4 cup warm water
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups Jules Inspired Rice Free Gluten Free flour mix

Boiling solution:
4 cups warm water
2 T sugar
1 tsp molasses (not necessary, but might add some color)

1 egg white, beaten with a bit of water added

Easy Directions: Mix wets(water/yeast/sugar), mix drys(flour/salt), combine wets and drys together, beat until smooth, divide into 6 on floured surface, form bagels with floured hands, refrigerate overnight, boil in sugar water, brush with egg, bake and enjoy.

Detailed Directions:
- Measure warm water in a measuring cup, add yeast and brown sugar then whisk to combine and dissolve yeast and sugar.  Let rest to be sure yeast is active.
-Measure out flour and add salt.
-Pour water mixture into mixer bowl, add flour mixture and beat for 3 minutes (or until it is smooth).
-Lay out a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap, and heavily sprinkle with flour.  Put dough onto flour sprinkled sheet and fold over a few times to work it in.  It will be pretty sticky at this point. 
-Get a knife and cut (or mark) the dough into 6 even parts. 
-With floured hands, flop one part of the dough between your hands forming a ball.  Poke your finger through to make the bagel shape.  Make the hole larger than you want it to be in the end.  Remember, the dough will rise and the hole will shrink by more than half.
-Place bagels onto parchment lined cookie sheet.  You could even sprinkle with cornmeal.
-When all 6 bagels are on cookie sheet, cover with saran wrap and place sheet into refrigerator overnight.  Putting it into the refrigerator overnight helps it to rise slowly, but it also allows the next step to happen easily.
-In the morning, turn oven to 425 degrees, and boil 4 cups of water (or a small pan full) and sugar.  Adjust to low boil and slide bagels one or two at a time into the boiling water, allowing to boil for about 30 seconds on each side then return to parchment lined cookie sheet.  When all the bagels are returned to the cookie sheet, brush tops with egg whites and place bagels into preheated oven.
-Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until golden.
That's it!!! :)  Enjoy!!
They are wonderful with eggs for a breakfast sandwich, toasted with butter or jam, or just eaten plain.  They will stay fresh about as long as a "real" wheat-filled bagel.  (I didn't like stale wheat bagels so I always froze whatever I didn't eat...so I'll do the same with these).
Seriously, these are amazing!!!  Gluten free, dairy free, rice free....but every bit as tasty as the "real" thing. :)

*again, sorry for the poor picture. :)