Gluten Free Goodness

101 Cookbooks meets 101 allergies…not quite, but sometimes it feels like it!

I love Heidi’s blog, 101 Cookbooks. One of the things I like best is Heidi’s inventive use of non-gluten grains and flours, like teff, millet, amaranth, and my favorite, mesquite. It’s cooking and baking for people who love good, real, unprocessed foods. Rather than specialty gluten free foods, her site often features great foods that just happen to be gluten free. The pictures are gorgeous, and each is a work of art in itself. Not only that, she has a real, fresh, approachable way about her writing which makes it feel more like an intimate conversation. And the occasional post on social consciousness? It makes me miss my Berkeley days.

Her cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, is among one of the most food stained in my kitchen, which for me is a sort of cookbook rating system.  Some recipes are gluten free, some aren’t, but most are pretty adaptable to GF. It’s worth getting just for the discussion of flours and grains!

I’ve made quite a few from the website and the book, with my favorite being a gluten/dairy/egg/soy free Chocolate Coconut pudding. There is a list of GF recipes on the site, but don’t limit yourself! There are quite a few GF recipes that aren’t tagged as GF.

I “adopted” Heidi, because she’s one of only a handful of mainstream bloggers who aren’t gluten intolerant that choose to make a point to cater to GF folks and have a GF tag.  So thank you, Heidi, both for the GF recipes and great ideas.

For my adoption, I made the Choco coco clusters. They were amazing! I was first introduced to the concept of salt and chocolate by Sally. I tried it, and thought it was interesting, but I wasn’t sure if I actually liked it. But this adoption was my excuse for getting a smoked salt, and the pairing of smoked salt and the deep rich chocolate was just incredible. I did half a batch with almonds, as per the recipe, and use toasted brazil nuts for the other half. Next time I’d maybe add in some orange peel? Both ways were really amazing.

And for the inspiration…

when I read Heidi’s recipe for Banana Chip Cookies, I couldn’t get them out of my head. Banana chips in cookies?   Yes, most of the ingredients were off limits for me, like the wheat flour, eggs, sugar, butter, etc. but I was determined to pull together a gluten free, whole grain, vegan, dairy/egg/corn/soy free version with little sugar.

I’m delighted to say, mission accomplished! It took a few tries, but hey, the experimentation process was delicious.  And these were absolutely incredible. I used macadamia nuts, which gave a total buttery richness, and sweetened them with agave. People who ate them wanted more, and this was by far the best chocolate chip cookie I had since going GF (and everything else free). The only downside is that an egg free dough means you’ve got no good reason not to just eat it raw…

I didn’t use a binder because I didn’t think it was necessary. Personally, I find xantham a off putting (ya know, something about casings of bacteria and all). They stay together just fine as long as you chill them and keep them small.  But if you want bigger cookies or don’t want to chill them, just add in your favorite binder, like xantham or guar or a little chia seed.

Though I had to change a bunch of elements, the spirit of Heidi’s remains in the whole grains and banana chips.  I never would have thought to put them in a cookie on my own!

Also–I use a spoon-in method rather than sweep and dip, meaning you spoon the flour in one spoon at a time. I don’t know what effect, if any, doing it the other way would have on a final product.

Banana Mac-Chip cookies

3/4 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup ivory teff flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1 tablespoon mesquite (or 1 more tablespoon teff)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
scant 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 rounded teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup coconut oil
3 Tablespoons macadamia butter or cashew mac butter
1/2 cup agave
2 Tablespoons of molasses
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1/3 cup sparkling (bubbly) water

1 cup (measured pre-chopped)  macadamia nuts, lightly toasted and salted
2/3 cup banana chips
2/3 cup chocolate chips (dairy and soy free)

Chop macadamia nuts and banana chips.  I finely chopped about 1/3 of them, and left the rest coarsely chopped.  Chop banana chips.

Mix dry ingredients together thoroughly. Cream the coconut oil, nut butter and sweeteners, then add vanilla. Mix wet and dry, add in the bubbly water and add ins. Chill for 30 minutes.

Put walnut sized mounds on a silpat or parchment about 2 inches apart.   Bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes or until they start turning a yummy golden brown.

LET COOKIES COOL COMPLETELY before moving them, or they will definitely crumble.  Ideally, you’d wait 15 minutes before moving/eating, but the broken ones don’t count, right?

The adoption/adaption of Heidi’s recipes and 101 Cookbooks is part of “Adopt a GF Blogger”, as hosted by Book of Yum.  Many thanks to Sea for starting and hosting this event. 

Or, more accurately, 2 yummy chocolate hazelnut cakes

Each time I see the new Daring baker challenges, I think, can I REALLY make this gluten free, dairy free, egg free, soy free, corn free, sugar free and vegan AND have an amazing taste, too? *gulp*
But that’s the fun of being a Daring Baker. It even went more smoothly than I anticipated. This month’s Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Chris of Mele Cotte. The recipe is for the Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walte.

This was a blast. I was pretty excited about doing this, because I haven’t really piped icing in years, and the spirit of the recipe seemed very adaptable to me. I’m not a huge decorator, and I appreciate needing to do thing differently than I normally would. Although it took a long time, I really enjoyed both the process and, of course, the cake!

I did two versions, both gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and vegan.  However, one cake had sugar, soy and alcohol, because I don’t have any burning desire to enforce my restrictions on other people. The two variations were:

• Hazelnut cake, hazelnut cream with fresh apricots and a dark chocolate frosting (second picture)

and

• Hazelnut cake, raspberry glaze, praline buttercream and chocolate ganache with praline buttercream on top (top picture)

I used an adapted version of my hazelnut cake from the May DB challenge. The cake had a mild flavor, which was a perfect complement to all of the other flavors in the final production. Rather than making a thicker cake and cutting them in half, I just made very short cakes.  The filling was a  variant of the PB buttercream recipe from Vegan Cupcakes take over the world for the buttercream. Per a suggestion from VeganNoodle, I used 1/2 the powdered sugar and used Darifree instead, which worked perfectly.
I brought the cakes to a dinner party, which was quite lovely, and they were promptly gobbled.  Most of the people there were glutenovores, and people used to a “normal” diet, so I was delighted to get such positive feedback! Sometimes I get a little nervous, especially when I don’t know how things will turn out, but it was delightful. Not only that, but the cakes were enjoyed equally and the sugar free one disappeared the fastest. Yahoo!

I’ve included the recipes for the original parts of the cakes, but not the ones I used from other sources. I have not shared my recipe for the hazelnut praline, because trust me, you don’t want it. It took a heck of a lot of fussing and redoing and undoing to get a workable paste, but my initial efforts bombed in a big way.   Enough said!

I did do a raspberry glaze in lieu of the apricot, as I realized that our jam was gluten contaminated. Phooey. It couldn’t have been simpler, just a bit of boiling water and jam, strained.

Hazelnut cake For 4 thin layers (makes 2 6-inch cakes)
1 cup finely ground hazelnut meal (from lightly roasted and peeled nuts)
1 ¾ cup sorghum flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup apricot nectar
1/3 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup agave nectar + 1 teaspoon honey or all agave for vegan version
1/3 cup coconut milk
1/3 oil
¼ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon hazelnut (or vanilla) extract

Hazelnut filling (for two 6-inch cakes):
1/2 cup agave nectar
2/3 coconut milk
2 Tablespoons sweet rice
2 small apricots
3 Tablespoons hazelnut butter

Chocolate frosting (for 1 6 inch cake, you can double for both cakes):
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon hazelnut butter (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or other extract (optional)

or, Chocolate Ganache (for 1 6 inch cake, can double for both cakes)
4 oz chocolate, melted
1/3 cup coconut milk (may need 1-2 teaspoons more)
1 teaspoon frangelico, hazelnut extract, etc.

Preheat oven to 350.
Line the bottoms of round 6 inch cake pans with parchment or wax paper (or for a non-opera cake, use an 8X8 square pan) Grease sides of the pans.

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Mix until just combined and put in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. You may need to cover the cakes if they brown too much on top.

Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes and turn out onto a plate.

Hazelnut filling:
Blend coconut milk and apricots. Heat in a small saucepan and whisk in agave, sweet rice and nut butter. Stir over medium high heat, whisking, until thickened. Add in extract if desired. Chill before using.

Chocolate frosting:
Whip together coconut oil and agave, add in cocoa powder. Thin with coconut milk until desired consistency.

Chocolate ganache:
Melt chocolate. I tend to do it in the microwave in a glass bowl, stirring at 30 second intervals. Add in the coconut milk until the desired consistency, then pour over cake.

Assembly:
Bake cakes, let them cool. Glaze with raspberry glaze if desired. Use chilled hazelnut cream (with or without fresh apricots) for the next layer, or you can do the praline buttercream instead. Chill briefly in the fridge. Top with either the chocolate frosting or ganache while they are still warm. Pipe remaining praline buttercream on top. or just decorate with chopped or glazed hazelnuts.

Enjoy! I love these Daring Baker challenges.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

I just couldn’t wait to share these, they were so tasty!  They never last long around here. They are perfect for everyday snacking, with or without the glaze, and great for breakfast, too.

And did I mention that they are gluten free, casein free, soy free, vegan, egg free, corn free and sugar optional? If you go for raisins, they avoid all top 8 allergens.  I’m patting myself on the back as we speak. They are a good source of fiber and quite healthy

You do need to grate the carrots by hand with a small grater, this way they just disappear into the muffin.  You can add more spice if you like a stronger flavor, and I plan to put in pieces of crystallized ginger on my next time around for my husband and I. This version is more little person friendly..

The Salba seeds (or you can use chia seeds) are what hold these babies together. Salba can be ordered online, and chia is sold at many Latino markets. I’ve been using it a lot lately because it’s a great source of omegas and an even better binder than flax.

Ingredients
1 can crushed pineapple (divided into crushed pineapple and juice, we’ll be using most of it)
4 teaspoons whole Salba seeds

1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour (or teff flour)
½ cup arrowroot starch
2 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon each ginger and allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
(or substitute all 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice for all of the spices)
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 T molasses (or 2 more T agave nectar)
½ cup crushed pineapple, drained (from the same can as the above)
½ cup packed finely grated carrots (approx 5 small carrots, but go by the 1/2 cup measure)
2/3-1 cup nuts: brazil nuts, macadamias, or walnuts work well. Or use a combination of nuts, raisins, and/or chopped crystallized ginger for people who enjoy a little kick.

Glaze:
3 Tablespoons powdered sugar (check corn free status) OR you can “powder” maple sugar or succant in a blender
1/2 -1 teaspoon pineapple juice, or orange juice (from the same pineapple can)

Preheat oven to 350º. Put muffin cups into muffin tin or grease tins, or grease baby bundt pans.

Drain ½ cup of pineapple juice into a small bowl and add the Salba seeds to the juice. Set aside for 20 minutes. Reserve crushed pineapple.

Combine dry ingredients, leaveners and spices and mix thoroughly. Chop nuts and add to dry ingredients. Grate carrots finely. Combine agave, molasses, oil thoroughly, then add carrots, ½ cup of crushed pineapple and Salba gel.

Mix wet and dry until just incorporated. Pour into muffin tins or baby bundt pans until they are 2/3 of the way full.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until browned on top. Cool on wire rack and turn out after 5 minutes.

Make glaze: Add juice to powdered sugar, ½ teaspoon at a time until it is a pourable consistency. Glaze while muffins are warm, but not just out of the oven. A little goes a long way.

Makes 12 standard size muffins and 3 baby bundt cakes or 18 standard size muffins.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

By the time I got to stop by Kate’s Virtual BBQ Party, most of the letters, (aside from q and z, I think) were taken. So I figured I that N would work, although in the past, I’ve called this my lazy day skillet bread.

I thoroughly love this recipe. It’s not a traditional banana bread, and it’s not a cake, per se, I suppose it’s best compared to a cornbread. I tend to make things that pop up in my head, and then try to figure out how to explain it. Generally, if someone asks what something is, I tell them to taste it and figure it out that way! I’ve had it for brunch, as a snack, as a dessert with chocolate chips, and it could be used (sans nuts) with chili instead or as a side for, say, a BBQ!

Once upon a time, I wanted a snack cake…but I didn’t have time and I was really tired. So I figured that perhaps I could dump everything in the Vitamix and all would be well. Fortunately, that’s what happened, and this has become one of my quick/easy recipes. It’s easy, delicious, and just comfort food for me. Most times when I make something, I try to figure out what to change next time and how to spice it up. But I actually like this one exactly as is.

I wanted something with a banana flavor, but lower sugar and no eggs or soy, and something I could just pick up and eat, too. That’s a tall order! Through trial and error I came up with a cake I liked, but wanted a brown crisp crust, and so this became a skillet cake. You can make it in a regular 9 inch cake pan, though. This recipe is also totally versatile, and I’ve halved it and put it in a 7 inch dish, which works, too.

You can do all teff, all sorghum, or a combo. If you can get your hands on mesquite, do! Not only is it super high in fiber, but it has caramel-ly taste.

Ingredients
1 cup teff
1 cup sorghum flour
1 T mesquite flour
1Tablespoons +1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pecans or walnuts (optional)
pinch of salt

Wet:
2 über ripe bananas
1 level tablespoon +1 teaspoon ground flax seeds
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
1/3 cup sparkling (bubbly) water, ‘milk’, or juice

Grease a 10 inch cast iron skillet with coconut oil. Preheat oven to 350.
Thoroughly mix dry ingredients together. Dump wet ingredients (not water) in a blender. Let it roll until well blended. In my vitamix, that takes less than a minute. I would assume an ordinary blender would take a few minutes. Add wet, including water,  to dry, mix until well everything is well combined, but don’t overmix (i.e. no more dry stuff, but no need for a workout)

Bake for 30 minutes or until top turns a beautiful golden brown. Cool on a drying rack 5 minute, then turn out.

Yum.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

I’ve got a few names for these brownies: Mayan brownies, Brazil nut brownies, and (dare I say it?) Black bean brownies.  Are you still there?  Please don’t run away!  I know the idea sounds wrong, but I can say, for sure, black bean brownies are really quite yummy.

I heard about black bean brownies years ago, in my pre-gf life, and never got around to trying them.  Then when Heidi posted them on 101 cookbooks and I kept seeing them in different places, like Diet Dessert and Dogs and Have Cake Will Travel.  I was intrigued, but there were so many eggs, and/or more sugar (or succant) than my body can handle.  So I adapted the general spirit, threw caution to the wind and hoped for the best.  It took a few tries.  I dabbled with a carob version, had one with coconut flour, etc. and finally, success!  Fudgy, yummy, moist and light brownies, which were promptly gobbled by a group of folks used to a “normal” diet.   And dare I say they’re even healthy?  They’re not low calorie (well, maybe compared to normal brownies!), but the ingredients are nutrient rich, with good-for-you fats, not empty calories.   I don’t even feel guilty that I had one for breakfast.  In the interests of full disclosure, black bean brownies are tasty and very moist, but not over the top decadent.  So they’re great for an every day treat, but not so much when you’re craving a total chocolate/sugar bomb.

The magic ingredient (besides the beans, of course!) is the Brazil nut butter.  I’ve had a long term, enduring love affair with nut butter.  Peanuts and I parted ways years ago, and I truly missed sticky creamy goodness of peanut butter until I ventured out into the wild world of nut butter   It’s great that you can get almond butter easily, but if you’ve never had hazelnut, pecan or brazil nut butter, baby…get your food processor and let’s get cracking! I’ve been known to creep into the kitchen in the wee hours and eat it by the spoon.

Oh, and the Mayan part of the name?  That’s a tribute to the beans, cinnamon, cayenne, Salba and the mesquite, all common South of the border ingredients.  The cayenne adds a nice zing, and I’ve used anywhere from a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon.  Each level of heat is yummy, and is a matter of personal preference.  If you’ve never mixed chocolate and cayenne, do give it a go.

As an added bonus, your food processor does pretty much all the work, you only need one bowl, and they’re vegan, gluten free, egg free, dairy free, corn free, soy free, sugar free, grain free and delicious.

Mayan brownies

1 can black beans, well washed (1 ¾ cup)
1 ½ cup of toasted brazil nuts, divided (or 2/3 cup chopped nuts and 6T nut butter de jour)
2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate
2 teaspoons whole salba or chia seeds
½ cup agave (or 1/4 cup agave, 1/4 cup honey)
generous 2/3 cup fresh or frozen cherries
2 Tablespoons carob powder
¼ cup plus 2 T cocoa powder
1 t mesquite (optional)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
pinch of cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons almond extract
3 or 4 drops oil of orange (optional)
1/2 cup of chocolate chips (optional)

Line an 8X8 pan with parchment and set aside.  Preheat oven to 325.

Toast about 1.5 cups of brazil nuts for 10-15 min at 350.  Pulse in the processor to grind very coarsely, and reserve 3/4 cup of chopped brazils (somehow, by the point where I add them to the recipe, there’s only 2/3 a cup left).  Grind the rest until they become nut butter, which takes a minute or two.  Scoop out and reserve.  Put chopped unsweetened chocolate in the processor, and grind until you’ve got fine pieces.  Add the rinsed beans, Salba, sweetener and cherries and let it run 3-4 minutes.  Add back the nut butter and everything except the reserved brazil nuts and chips (optional) and process until smooth.

Mix in brazil nut chunks into the batter.  (If you’re feeling really lazy, you can mix within the processor bowl, but it’s a tight squeeze.  Put the batter into a prepared pan and smooth out.  Bake 30 min at 325, then cover loosely with foil and continue to bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes.

This lovely brazil nut butter treat is a part of the Peanut Butter Boy’s PB exhibition. It’s not quite peanut butter, it’s not quite a cake, but it’s along those lines and hey, it’s all in good fun. If I could try it with PB, I would, and I bet it would be awesome!

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

One of my husband’s kung fu students is shipping off to Afghanistan, so we had a small cookout to send him off with warm wishes for safe and entirely uneventful tour. He and his wife are fabulous people, and it was just a small reminder of all of the men and women who are serving every day while we go about our merry ways, totally insulated from the sacrifices they make.

I was a bit stumped at first, since cookouts usually mean hamburgers and hotdogs, and I just didn’t want glutenous crumbs all over the place. DH was a little uncertain about doing things GF, but I promised things would be yummy, so he went along with it. So…we had a gluten free cookout, and people didn’t really notice or miss the wheat in any way!

Generally, if I’m making food I’m going to eat, I have to adapt or create my own recipes, since I can’t do gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, eggs, yadda yadda. So since many of the things I was making were for other people this was a great opportunity for me to make recipes from other GF bloggers!

We had:

• Freshly squeezed mint lemonade



• Guacamole
• 3 bean salad
• Speidie chicken and spice rubbed chicken
• Herb-alicious veggies skewers
• Sweet Potato Cornbread
• Chocolate chip pecan pie (with a nice flaky pie crust)
• Mayan brownies (recipe posted soon)
• Blueberry squares (see below!!)

What can I say, I’m full, and so were all of my guests. Yum.

The first 4 were done freestyle, so I can’t offer much in terms of a recipe. The cornbread was amazing. Despite being hideously seasonally inappropriate, I couldn’t resist making the GF Goddess’ sweet potato cornbread. As usual, she didn’t disappoint! The pie crust was from the Gluten free girl, and my husband asked if there was gluten in it. Um, hello? Have I made anything with gluten for the last 4 years? The brownies are delish AND healthy, a wonderful combo, and I will be posting the recipe soon for the PB exhibition.  They’re chock full of brazil nut butter, which is just luscious.

And here are the blueberry squares, a gluten, dairy, corn, soy, egg, sugar and grain free creation of my very own. I was just so inspired by the beauty of the berries at the Farmer’s Market that I just couldn’t resist. They’re light, moist and a quick, easy, vegan-licous seasonal treat.

Blueberry Squares

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup finely ground blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 cup oil
3 Tablespoons apple sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice or 1 teaspoon water with vitamin c powder for citrus allergic
1/2 cup agave (or 1/4 agave, 1/4 honey)
1 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8X8 with parchment paper. Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and mix wet ingredients together thoroughly in a separate bowl.  Add wet to dry and mix until combined, then add in the berries. Spoon out into prepared pan and smooth down. Bake for 18-20 min or until browning on top (I don’t remember exactly, sorry)

I will also be posting for the Virtual GF BBQ soon and bringing my ‘nana Skillet bread, which is one of my personal all time faves. I just couldn’t make it today because I’m grain free for the month of June (long story, it’s an exercise for a nutrition conference I’m attending. I’m on day 28 of 30 and I can’t wait!!!)

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

As my family is Middle Eastern, I grew up adoring baklava, hummus, shwarma, halva, tahini, and all that good stuff. Since developing allergies to…let’s see, ingredients in all of the above, I’ve really been missing the tastes of family and celebration across the years.

So when I accidentally happened upon Siri’s Corner and and her Middle Eastern recipe challenge AWED:Middle Eastern I figured it was time to start playing and bring back some of the old flavors, even if they were in new form. The experimentation process was quite fun. Really, how can you go wrong with ingredients like these?

The result was a satisfying, shortbread-ish cookie with a whiff of rosewater. Unlike most Middle-eastern treats, they are not very sweet. If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll want to dust with sugar. I’ll have to try these with orange blossom water sometime, too. I might also make them into thumbprint cookies with a dab of raspberry jam…

1 3/4 cup finely ground blanched almond flour
pinch of sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 Tablespoons almond or other oil
2 generous Tablespoons honey (for vegan or low glycemic, use agave)
1 teaspoon rosewater
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
slivered almonds or pistachios (optional)

Mix flour, sea salt, and baking powder. Mix honey oil and rosewater, microwave (or put in a hot oven) briefly to soften the honey. Add to the almond mix and stir.

Briefly kneed together, put on wax paper and roll into a log. Refrigerate a few hours or overnight. Preheat to 350. Cut slices 1/8-1/4 inch thick and place on a silpat. Press in an almond or pistachio, if desired. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until starting to brown.

Enjoy.

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008. Please do not replicate without crediting/permission.

I’m officially a daring baker!
I’m extremely proud of this cake. It’s more than a cake to me, it’s a milestone.

I’ve loved to bake since I was a little kid, but only really got into it in college. Due to a variety of medical issues, I was far too exhausted to cook or bake for the last 3 or 4 years, and I had so many allergies and intolerances that it seemed impossible to bake treats worth eating.

Slowly, things have changed, and I’ve gotten back to baking. Even when I can’t eat everything I make, I still have the joy of creating something new, the opportunity to experiment and the delight of returning to the things I love to do. And so here’s my cake, a beautiful gluten, dairy, egg, soy, corn and sugar* free creation. If you do agave instead of honey, it’s vegan, too. Not only was I able to do it, but it was delicious, too. It’s the start of things to come, and I’m grateful for one of many new beginnings. And we even got to have it for my birthday!

When I saw the Daring Baker Challenge, my first thought was to make a cake for other people. There were too many eggs, so much sugar, butter, cream…where to even begin to adapt it? Then I remembered Susan O’ Brien’s Almond torte from Sugar free, gluten free cooking (great book!!). I ended up changing most of the flavors, proportions, leaveners, shape, size, etc., but it reminded me that this mission was, indeed, possible.

My final creation was a Hazelnut Opéra cake, with layers of rosewater/honey “buttercream” and fresh apricots topped with a hazelnut white chocolate glaze. Obviously, due to my many restrictions, I ventured quite a bit from the recipe, though I kept the spirit as well as I could. The cake itself was marvelous, though I will reduce the liquid slightly when I make it next, as I have listed in the recipe below. The buttercream worked in the end, but oh my. I had to work and rework it so many times that I don’t quite know WHAT was in the final version. The base was coconut milk, with some honey, and rosewater, and it was thickened with sweet rice flour, coconut flour, chestnut flour, coconut oil and cocoa butter. Many thanks to Sheltie girl at Gluten a go go for her coaching.

The cake and buttercream were sugar free, but the glaze was not due to the fact that my hot bowl of cocoa butter took an impromptu flying leap across the kitchen. (I must say, btw, cocoa butter is surprisingly hard to clean off cabinets.) So I did use decorating chips, but I have no doubt that the cocoa butter glaze would have worked just as well.

I wanted to use blanched hazelnuts, so I roasted them. However, I discovered very quickly that hazels turn to butter very quickly…and now have a jar of super yummy hazelnut butter, so no complaints here. It’s probably much easier to use raw hazel meal or you have to be extremely careful and chill the nuts before grinding.

To see more gorgeous cakes from this amazing group of bakers, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll . And, of course, thanks to this month’s hosts Lis and Ivonne,for a great challenge.

Hazelnut cake
1 cup finely ground hazelnut meal (I used half roasted, half raw)
1 ¾ cup sorghum flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup apricot nectar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup agave nectar + 1 T honey or all agave for vegan version
1/3 cup hazel nut milk
1/4 oil
1 teaspoon rosewater
¼ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon hazelnut (or vanilla) extract

Buttercream:
Coconut milk, sweet rice flour, rosewater, coconut flour, coconut oil, cocoa butter. That’s about as much as I can tell ya.

Glaze:
.5 oz cocoa butter
¼ cup decorator (dairy free, but like white chocolate) chips*
A few drops of hazelnut extract
* these do have sugar, I would imagine cocoa butter with a little agave would work just as well.

Preheat oven to 350.

Line the bottoms of round 6 inch cake pans with parchment or wax paper (or for a non-opera cake, use an 8X8 square pan) Grease sides of the pans.

Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls. Mix until just combined and put in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. You may need to cover the cakes if they brown too much on top.

Cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes and turn out onto a plate. Cut the cakes in half for your layers (you will have one left over for snacking)

Make the buttercream: I can’t give great advice on this one, but allow your frosting to chill completely before figuring out if it’ll work for you. My original batch would have been fine if I was just patient…not one of my strengths.

Assemble the cake: first cake, then buttercream, then apricots, and repeat! I would not recommend putting the buttercream on top of the top layer, I did, and it ran a little.

Hazelnut glaze: Melt the cocoa butter and chips in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring each time. It should be melted in 1 minute or 1 and a half minutes. Add in extract of you choice. When slightly cooled, pour on the cake.

Enjoy!

I’ll be honest–I don’t really do breakfasts. Well, I do breakfasts, but just not breakfast FOOD. My body functions better low carb, and so I have no issue with having last nights’ dinner as breakfast. But as the “Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free” for this month is for breakfast foods, I wanted to share a recipe I recently developed. It’s largely whole grain, allergen friendly, vegan friendly, healthy breakfast bread that I developed. May’s edition is hosted by the luscious Straight into Bed Cakefree and Dried.

I’m sure I’ll tinker a little more when I do this again, I am tempted to add in a little orange rind or sub OJ for some of the water. I’m sure you could also try a bunch of different whole grains. The possibilities are endless…if you experiment, please do let me know how it works for you.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water
3 tablespoons of honey (or agave for vegan version)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt

¼ cup rice bran
1/3 cup almond meal
½ cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup amaranth
1/3 cup millet
1/3 cup arrowroot starch or corn starch
¼ cup potato starch
¼ cup tapioca starch
2 TBSP sesame seeds, white or black (I like how the black ones look!)

3 Tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ cup carbonated water (can use regular water)

Chia gel:
¼ cup water with 1 T chia seeds

Directions:
Preheat oven at 250 for 5 minutes then turn off. Line a 8X4 inch bread pan with parchment paper.

Combine water with chia seeds. Let sit at least 30 minutes, but longer or overnight is fine. Combine all dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix thoroughly. Combine water, honey and yeast for 5-10 minutes or until fizzy.

Thoroughly mix dry and wet ingredients separately. Combine and mix vigorously for 1-2 minutes (or use your mixer on medium for about a minute).

Put dough in to pan lined with parchment in the slightly-preheated oven, or put covered dough in a warm place, like on top of the drying machine. Allow to rise for 45 min to an hour, or until the dough reaches the top of the pan.

Preheat oven to 375 (wait at least 20 min until oven is hot). Bake for 15 min, then cover with foil and bake for a total of 50-55 min.

Allow to cool for 5 minutes on a drying rack, then remove bread from loaf pan and allow to cool.

Delightfully gluten free, egg free, soy free, dairy free, corn free and sugar free. Yahoo!

~from Cheryl’s kitchen ©2008

Having friends for dinner is an excuse to get creative. Having friends that eat GF? Now, that’s just a chance to play in the kitchen.

So, dinner was:

• Adeena’s rolls adapted to be gluten, dairy and egg free, with added Kalamata olives
• Dipping sauce: olive oil with minced olives, fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme, pinenuts, and crushed red pepper
• Broccoli with sauteed garlic and toasted pine nuts
• GF brown rice pasta
• Chicken “parm”: chicken breaded in herbed crushed cassava crackers, baked in a sea of yummy tomato sauce. Parm for the dairy eaters and melted mozzarella, and fresh herbs from my garden for me.
• Brazil nut chip cookies with 3 variations

And the kichen, not surprisingly, looks like a tornado hit. Methinks tomorrow is all about leftovers

I spied Adeena’s rolls a while back on Book of Yum, and they got good reviews. I subbed flax eggs and some egg replacer for the egg, used almond milk, and subbed amaranth for the teff for a ‘wheatier’ taste. We did them rosemary, thyme, and cracked sea salt. Some had added in chopped kalamata olives for variety. And those rolls are FORGIVING!! My cuisinart stopped working in the middle and I had to do half by hand and they were STILL good. Rolls you can’t mess up…priceless.

And the best part is dessert, of course.

Brazil nuts and chocolate are heavenly together, and I’ve always been a brazil nut fan. I made brazil nut butter a few weeks back, and it was in the refrigerator, calling loudly to me. Not that I wasn’t sneaking spoonfuls every now and again, but I hadn’t figured out what I wanted creative venture it was destined for. We were having friends to dinner, and so I needed to find something that met my dietary needs AND avoided chocolate, as DH is avoiding caffeine. So it seemed easy enough to do some cookies with chocolate, some without.

The cookies were sweeter than I anticipated, even though I was the only one who thought so. And the brazil nut flavor wasn’t as pronounced as I’d expect. But they’re yummy treats, and largely whole grain, so that counts as delicious and nutritious. For one of the variations, I used chunks of UNSWEETENED (baking) chocolate, which paired well with the sweetness. The 3 variations were unsweetened chocolate chunks for me, Enjoy life chips for the other chocolate eaters, and heath bar toffee pieces to keep my caffeine avoiding DH from pouting too much. It’s no fun watching someone else eat when it looks like they’re getting something better than you, so I didn’t want him to feel left out.

But where, oh where, do you get brazil nut butter? Well, your food processor, of course! Buy toasted nuts or toast your own , and put them in the food processor until smooth. It takes about 6-10 minutes to process, depending on your food processor, and do scrape down the sides periodically. It’s that simple. Or, of course, you could use almond, hazelnut, peanut or butter, or even tahini. You could always do raw nut butters, too, and then you’d have to add a little oil for the grinding.

Brazil nut butter cookies, heavily modified from a recipe from the back of the quinoa flake box

1/2 cup honey* (I would use a little less next time)
1/4 cup sugar (I used turbino, next time I would use a finer grained sugar)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup soft avocado. Yes, avocado.
1/2 cup brazil nut butter
3/4 cup quinoa flakes
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup GF flour (I used mostly teff, some sorghum, and a little sweet rice and coconut flours)
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks, nuts, or heath bar pieces
pinch of salt

*use agave if you are vegan

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the honey, sugar, oil, avocado, brazil nut butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine flours and add flours to wet ingredients. Add in chips/chunks/nuts.

Drop walnut sized balls and flatten slighly onto cookie sheet, silpat mat, or parchment paper. Cook 12-15 minutes, allow to cool on a rack.

Enjoy, try not to eat too many.