cupcakes

no pics except on the original page - i made these cupcakes gluten free (with rice flour)
other than that, stuck to the recipe for the cupcakes and did an interpretation of the frosting.

so the peanut butter and chocolate cupcake recipe is HERE

and for the frosting i used instant vanilla pudding
1/2c cream cheese
1/3 cup icing sugar
1c frozen whipped topping (cool whip or others)
1c light cream
whipped up with the electric mixer

yum
and a nice treat for labour day

gluten free muffin base

so i think i have my muffin mix down pat at this point. you can change up the ingredients but i've had a half dozen perfect batches in a row so seems like that makes for a solid recipe

remember, i am no baker, i never professed to be, so what may be simple to other cooks is a triumph for me.

my gluten free muffin base

3.5c of flour - i use equal amounts of sorghum and rice flour
1.5tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1tsp vanilla extract
dash of cinnamon
1/3c butter or margarine (both work - have tried) melted
1 egg
2/3c demerara sugar - more if no other sweet ingredients (i use bananas and berries a lot so 2/3 has become the standard)
3tbsp coconut milk, a bit more if not using fruit

i use a mixer for all - i don't have a specific order all the time but i do usually do wet ingredients, then sugar, then add the rest.

325 oven for about 20min

makes 12-15 muffins when adding other ingredients like apples (or applesauce but then cut out coconut milk), strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, or my fave 2.5-3 really ripe bananas all mashed up.

if you can tolerate oats, i found i can also sub out .5c flour for oats instead.

mmm - made some muffins tonight with 2.5 ripe mashed bananas and 1/4 c blueberries that i mashed up too

breakfast muffins/cakes

i am not a huge fan of using tapioca flour as my main gluten free flour but that's what i had and bad me i didn't put it after beer on my grocery list...so a nice, tasty, fat-filled frosting made up for that (just a little goes a long way)

3 bananas mashed, 1 egg, 1c tapioca flour, 1/2c bobs gluten free mix, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4c water, 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1c turbinado sugar, 1tbsp butter - all mixed in a bowl and a 350 oven about 20min.

similar ingredients to above just used a chopped apple instead, added 4tbsp of my homemade caramel sauce and a bit more water.

homemade icing to cut the taste of tapioca flour (it's really starchy but the only gluten free flour i had other than a tiny bit of bob's mix) so - 1/4c shortening, 2tbsp homemade caramel sauce, 1.5c icing sugar, 1tsp vanilla, 3tbsp table cream all whipped up...yum!

apple cinnamon and caramel muffins - gluten free

i altered a recipe posted by laura at orgjunkie.com from taste of home
for the topping - oats are called for (i can handle them in small doses, but many with issues to wheat gluten may find it an irritant...in this case the oats are not necessary at all - plenty of flavour without them

for sugar/brown sugar i used one of my fave natural sugars - demerara.
for flour i used a combo of rice flour, tapioca starch and about a cup's worth of bob's gluten free biscuit mix
for the apple - i doubled what was called for in the recipe and used an organic gala apple
for the caramels - i sprayed both the knife and caramels with pam to cut more easily
for the caramels - i didn't fold them in - i stuck them in individually

the muffin mix and the topping mix

yeah - see - topping not necessary - i think a bit of sugar, cinnamon and a tiny bit of butter would have been more than sufficient...

all cleaned up and sampled - delicious - we all loved these

jam pie - gluten free

thanksgiving - perfect excuse to try and make some new desserts. i liked this one because it looked easy to make, and easy to make gluten free.
so i used a recipe from one of my cookbooks (one of the company's coming), and altered it to make it gluten free.

ingredients
50-60mL whiskey (about 2oz to a little more) - i used 50mL of crown royal
1.5c jam (i used strawberry
1 egg
1c butter softened
1/2c sugar (i used demerara)
3c flour (i used 2c rice flour and 1c bob's gluten free biscuit mix flour)



cream butter and sugar in bowl, add whiskey and egg (beat in), and add flour



take 2/3 of dough and press in a 9x13 pan

spread jam on top

use the rest of the dough on top (the original called for a criss cross pattern but i was going butterfly themed as we had recently gone to a butterfly show



in a 350 oven for about 30min until lovely and golden like this

i am not a huge baker but as you can see by the few ingredients, this one is hard to screw up. the flavour does rely on the jam and the booze so i went for a triple fruit jam and good quality whiskey and it was really lovely. total keeper - you'd never know this was gluten free, as the booze and butter seemed to elevate the finicky nature of gluten free flour and make it a lot like the glutinous, wheat-y version.

roasted banana ice cream

do not look at pretty pictures of homemade ice cream unless you are prepared to make it...
note to self made

my ice cream maker is getting a lot of use this week

ingredients
4 very ripe medium bananas
1c heavy cream
2c 5% cream
1/2c sucanat (natural sugar)

bananas were sliced and tossed in sucanat and baked at 325 for about 15min

at the 10min mark i tossed them around for more even baking
all in a bowl with the other ingredients
i used a hand blender to blend until smooth
cooled in the fridge for about 2hrs
and then into the ice cream maker for 30min
ice cream was a soft serve consistency at that point so into a container in the freezer for about 2hrs

this was really tasty, but i would have liked more of the cream taste shine. so next time i'll halve the amount of bananas and see what happens.

huge hit with the boys - huge, smeared all over their faces, hit

sorbet / gelato - 2nd batch and my first time in italy

view from the top of the ice cream maker

after a successful 1st batch of sorbet, i was ready to refine it last night.
the results...seriously reminded me of italian gelato.
i became a bit nostalgic about my first time visiting italy, and the daily ritual of gelato in the mid-afternoon, wandering around the old streets of firenze
crossing covered bridges
taking it in.

i've always loved travel
and willing to take risks, try something new, learn, eat, experience
i was 18
living in switzerland on an exchange program
and on the flight over from canada, i briefly met a few other students (going to different parts of the country)
and we vowed, in the air, somewhere over the atlantic, that we would all do a trip together.
i lied to my host family and said i was going with my family that lived in geneva (i did visit them, but another time)
and so for 5 nights we went to magical, macho florence and a night in milan
there was a lot of chianti, a lot of capuccino, and a lot of gelato (upon reflection it did seem to be a week of liquid dieting)
i fell in love with firenze
the uffizi
the frescos
the buildings that reminded me of mint candy stripes
even the macho men
and the gypsies who tried to rob one of my travel mates
all part of the experience
i remember all of the lights at night
that soft yellow-ish glow
the music in the streets
my
at 18, i just marvelled at the whole experience.
and i loved the gelato
when i came home i sought it out
and i live on the doorstep of little italy - sweet, perfect patio dessert.


the ingredients
about 2.5c of frozen raspberries
1/3c sucanat
about 7 pieces of frozen mango
3tbsp lime
1c wild raspberry 100% juice (sunrype)
about 1c water
about 4tbsp cornstarch

everything went in the pot on low
then i used the hand blender to smooth the texture
and strained the whole thing (i need to learn how to strain better - this step took a long time)

raspberries, a few pieces of frozen mango,

and sucanat (natural sugar)

yum!

the effort of straining the seeds out was absolutely worth it.

ok

so i am not in italy

and this is not gelato - but it reminds me of it, and it was so so good. 

i think i have a new appliance addiction.

sweet sorbet

i just bought an ice cream maker. hmmm that makes it sound like a confession.
i ordered it online and got a great deal on a cuisinart with an extra ice cream making bowl, and it arrived yesterday.

so, late last night when the ice cream making bowl was frozen, i made my first batch - a sorbet

i had no cream or eggs in the fridge but wanted to test out the new appliance. i make lots of smoothies so i always have frozen fruit...so sorbet it was

my dairy free, gluten free frozen delight...

ingredients
4c frozen berries (mostly mixed and about a cup and a half of raspberries)

1/2c sugar - i use natural sugars so demerara

a few tbsp water
3 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp corn starch (had to use some thickener - it's what i had)

i put everything in a small pot on low so that the sugar would blend
as it got a little syrupy, i broke out the hand blender and blended the mix together
i put it in the freezer to cool it to a refrigerated temp (about 40min)

then put it in the ice cream maker, blended for 23minutes and it was a wonderful texture - it was like a fruit gelato
it was really rich, i think i could have added a bit more water and cornstarch to stretch another serving out of it without sacrificing flavour.

am making more tonight - the 3yr old was delighted to have "ice cream", the 11mth old lapped it up and he is cutting 6 (!) teeth at once so am sure it felt great on little swollen gums, and i enjoyed a nice serving too - dh is saving his for a midnight snack...so any minute now.

i toasted some shredded coconut in the iron skillet to have a topping option

dessert bars - leftover dulce de leche, jam and apple sauce too!

i really like simple breakfast bars, and i've played around with different flavours, and they all seem to work.

i put this in the latin recipes because of the dulce de leche i used ;)

2 cups rice flour
about a tsp baking powder
1.5 c rolled oats
1 cup demerara sugar or your natural sugar of choice
3/4 cup butter
2c filling - i used 1/2c leftover dulce de leche, 1c of homemade jam (some sort of plum) that a friend had given me, 1/2c of blueberry/apple sauce that the bub had barely touched

mix together ingredients except the filling.

press a bit more than half of the mixture into a greased casserole dish or baking pan.
add filling
top with rest of mix
spray oil or brush butter on top

375 oven for about 30min until a little brown.
let cool and cut into bars.

these are a whole lot of yum and was originally inspired by a recipe i used to make raspberry bars. great way to use up leftover sweet fillings like jams, apple sauce etc.

i had these a few mornings with coffee - and a few midnight+ as a snack.

gluten free muffins

a look at the wet ingredients before i added the flour


i altered a recipe i found for banana chocolate chip muffins to make them gluten free


so


recipe (first blended wet ingredients, then added dry ones

2 ripe bananas

1 ripe mango peeled and sliced
1/4 c wildflower honey
4tbsp veg oil
2tsp lemon juice


i used a handblender to mix those then added and mixed in
1c sorghum flour
1/2c potato flour
1/4c tapioca flour
1tsp xanthan gum
2tsp baking powder
1.5tsp baking soda
dash of salt
3/4c semi sweet chocolate chips


oven at 350 for 18-20min until firm and knife comes out clean...
these were pretty good. i think i would add a bit of cinnamon or nutmeg because i like a bit more spice but was worried that all the ripe fruit and honey and chips would mean it would be too sweet. didn't end up too sweet and a good start for a gluten free muffin. definitely decent even done as is, but i want to see what other flavours i can add in

instant oatmeal muffins

another easy dessert / snack since i am not much of a baker
from allrecipes
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Applesauce-Oat-Muffins-2/Detail.aspx


modifications i made - adding a few slivers of empire apple to each muffin, using the whole egg not just the egg white, and soy milk instead of cow's milk

rolled oats jam dessert bars

this is easy, and from a recipe at allrecipes.com

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Delicious-Raspberry-Oatmeal-Cookie-Bars/Detail.aspx

i didn't change a thing - they were easy and the butter gave a bit of a shortbread taste to them. nice with coffee!