Gluten Free Goodness

Ah, it’s that time of month again, when luscious photos of overly indulgent Daring Baker challenges appear.  It’s always such great fun!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Now, cheesecake used to be my favorite food.  Without dairy or soy, it just wouldn’t be right.  So I opted to make cheesecake for the masses and just liberate the crust of gluten, and do a simple ground almond crust with a hint of cinnamon.  And boy did I have a good time.  One 7 inch blueberry cheesecake, 1 little blueberry, 1 mini praline cheesecake, and 1 mini chocolate swirl, too.

The recipe was super simple.  It’s amazing that I’ve forgotten what cheesecake batter looks like, and each time I do it, I’m reminded why I swear I’m done with recipes that require a waterbath.  Especially since the mini-cheesecakes required a mini waterbath, and had to cool down in the toaster so that the big one could bake longer…it was a big of a logistical mess, but worked out surprisingly well.

Do check out the blogroll to see what everyone else came up with.  It’s hard to go wrong with cheesecake. And, of course, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next month.

What better way to spread the love than a chocolate cake that tastes like pure chocolate.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Many thanks to our kind co-hosts for choosing such a delicious treat, and a naturally GF recipe, too!

January and Feb were busy and crazy months with WAY too many bouts of the stomach flu, and I wasn’t interested or able to do much baking. But Valentine’s day was the first day that I got the opportunity to get back in the kitchen, and I really wanted my husband to have a special treat. It was the perfect choice! Rather than a big cake, I made a bunch of little 4″ cakes, and they were as cute as can be. I used mostly bittersweet chocolate, with just a few ounces of milk to add some sweetness to the mix. Regretfully, I was not able to do the ice cream portion of the challenge, but instead made a hazelnut frosting and little chocolate hearts to decorate.

DH thought it was yummy, rich, decadent, and delicious. And, of course, with such an easy recipe, I’m sure we’ll be making it again!

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Please do check out the beautiful masterpieces of my fellow Daring Baker brigade. I’m always amazed at the artistic photos!

It’s Daring Baker time again, and this month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. Not only were Karen and Zorra kind enough to gift us with great recipes, they gave us a variety of alternatives, too! On the Alternative DB list (go alt DB’ers!) someone posted on sugar free, vegan Sesame Lace Tuiles from the Millennium cookbook. I was quite intrigued, so I had to try them. With gluten free flour, of course.

The recipe was simple and quite easy. The only issue was my second guessing! I pulled them out of the oven at the correct time and they were total mush. So I popped them back in, and they still weren’t hard. Well, I forgot about them for a couple of minutes, and then the were too hard to roll up. Which just gave me an excuse to make a bunch of batches. If you want them flat, it doesn’t matter. But if you want to play…well, it’s a fine line between to hard and too soft. DH, my head taster, liked them a good deal. They were more than a bit greasy, but the texture and flavor was interesting. The only annoying thing is that they’re dropped by the 1/2 tsp fulls and spread like mad, so you’re making batch after batch…and I’m not a huge fan of never ending cookie batches!

Please do check out all of the Daring Bakers and their creations…it’s always a pleasure, and I can’t wait until next month’s challenge!