Month: September 2015

Bread and Butter Pickle Project – Beautiful Pickles!

I am watering someone’s plants while they take an extended vacation.  Since their pickling cucumbers are going to waste I decided to try something new; I made pickles this week.  Old fashioned bread and butter pickles which are tangy and sweet slices of yummy pickly goodness.  I think the name may come from the Depression era; from poor folk eating them often like you might enjoy bread and butter for a cheap meal.

This recipe comes out of an old Rodale cookbook, Stocking Up.  I did swap honey for sugar; not enough honey around here this week and I will have to try that next summer.  Plus I cut the recipe in like a fourth; not enough cukes for a huge batch; otherwise pretty close translation.  FYI: they need to have sugar, turmeric, mustard and onions to be called bread and butter pickles.

They have to sit a few weeks so I am trying to be patient.  Want pickles now.  Oh well, I guess store pickles will have to do at present.

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If you get a few pickling cukes; they are kinda cute; all bumpy and gray green, try this recipe and impress your family. Pickle making seemed so mysterious but it is really not hard at all and I enjoyed the process.  They are fun to make and gluten free, of course!

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Bread and Butter Pickles

6 decent sized pickling cucumbers

2 medium sized onions

2 tsp. sea salt.

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2 ¼ cups white vinegar

1 1/3 cup sugar

¾ tsp. celery seed

¾ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp turmeric

¾ tsp. mustard seed

Directions: Rinse off your cucumbers, peel the onions, slice cucumbers into rounds and onions into medium thick slices, put in colander, sprinkle with salt. Let stand an hour. Drain well.  Make a vinegar mix with the rest of the ingredients; put in a pot and bring to a boil.  Add the cukes and onions, bring back to boil.  Pack in sterilized pint jars using a ladle; leaving ¼ inch head space.  Put on brand new lids and rings (which can be used) – tighten, process ten minutes in a boiling water bath.  Let cool, store a few weeks before opening. Enjoy! Makes 4 pints.

Peachy Keen Peach Cobbler

Peaches; peachy keen, peaches and cream, peach ice cream and peach cobbler.  Well, this post will be on peach cobbler and it is is peachy keen!  Still, I often make it with blueberries.  I am guessing most any fruit might work; blackberries, raspberries, cherries, plums, nectarines and apricots come to mind.

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This recipe is modified from one in Bette Hagman’s book, More from the Gluten-Free Gourmet and is based on a flour mix that will give you 4 cups of the dry ingredients.  One cup will make an 8×8 pan of cobbler topping.  I bet two cups dry mix will make a big 9×13 cobbler.

I have made it over a camp fire a few times, delish and not that difficult either.  But that will be a separate post as there are some tricks to campfire baking.

I have tried a number of cobbler recipes but nothing has been better than this one so I stick to what works for me.  If you use nectarines there is no peeling involved which makes it easy to throw together. I need to make a cherry cobbler but cherry season has passed.  Oh well, there are frozen cherries at the grocery store and in my freezer……

Mix this up and store in an airtight container in the freezer to keep it fresh.

I always get the fruit cooking before putting the topping together so the fruit is hot and ready for the topping and can go right into the oven. All of these pictures are of peach raspberry cobbler.  An interesting combination I can recommend to you.

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Dry Cobbler Mix

2 ¼ cups white rice flour

½ cup potato starch

½ cup tapioca flour

1 tsp. baking soda

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1/3 cup sugar

Cobbler Topping

1 cup dry baking mix

2 eggs

2 tbsp melted butter or canola oil

1/3 cup milk/buttermilk

½ tsp. vanilla

Mix the wet ingredients and then add to the dry mix in a big bowl.

Fruit Filling

4 cups sliced ripe peeled peaches, nectarines, blueberries

½ tsp. almond extract

½-2/3 cup sugar depending on how sweet you want it

3 tbsp. GF flour

½ tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Mix the fruit and almond extract in a sauce pan. Stir together the sugar, cinnamon and flour and mix into the fruit.  Cook on the stove top for 5-10 minutes until it is thickened and hot.  Pour into a buttered 8 inch square pan, top with big blops of the cobbler topping.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  The top should be light brown and spring back when you poke it with your finger.  If it looks damp or squishy bake it 5 more minutes.

Let cool 5-7 minutes before serving as it will burn your mouth right out of the oven!  Some people love it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream; had some that way in September 2015.  This peach raspberry cobbler shown below is perfect just on its own.

peach raspberry cobbler

Between you and me, I just made some cobbler with 4 fat peaches and a handful of fancy frozen raspberries. It tastes amazing!  The zing of the raspberries and the ripe peachy flavor mingle with the tender cobbler crust in an incredible blend that must be tasted and enjoyed ASAP!  Originally posted in August 2014.