Author: Angela Drake

Angela Drakehttp://AWorldWithoutWheat.wordpress.comElementary school teacher, circulation desk clerk at my local library, mother of Kasey, Nonna to Aiden and Liam, volunteer at Musikfest, gardener, potter in stoneware, quilter, gf baker, hiker, camper, birdwatcher and addictive reader.......
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Apple Streusel Muffins: Absolutely Sensational!

Fall is the best time for fresh apples and I have a peck of apples right from Bechdolt’s orchards so I figure it is time for a tasty batch of apple muffins. Yes. Muffins. I especially love them because they save me money and I avoid processed foods like the snack bars I used to eat every day. Plus muffins are dead easy to make; no shaping, no tricky steps; dump, mix and spoon into the muffin tin.  Couldn’t be easier…. But, most of all they taste fantastic compared to all those commercial snack bars.

This is another great recipe out of Annalise Robert’s cookbook; Gluten-Free Baking Classics.  It is very similar to her blueberry nut muffins. If I had to have just one GF cookbook hers would be the one for me. I use so many of the recipes and her quick breads are particularly outstanding! The apple streusel muffins did not disappoint: light, crunchy top with a delicate cinnamon apple flavor inside.  I put some golden raisins in my muffins but if you are not a fan; leave them out.  They are my favorite addition to this easy to make treat.

apples

Do use a baking apple; not red delicious which are solely an eating apple and don’t use a extra firm one like the tasty Granny Smith; they won’t get soft enough during the rapid baking of these tasty little treats.  Most any other baking apple will work perfect for these muffins. I like to get a peck of mixed baking apples from Bechdolt’s Orchard: can use them in lots of recipes.

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I always enjoy eating a muffin still warm out of the oven. It is smart to freeze any you won’t eat in 2 days; ziplock freezer bag works great.   These apple muffins are kinda delicate; if you want to take them on a hike or car ride put them in a plastic bin – rigid sides will keep them safe from crushing.

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One fat apple muffin…streusel closeup!

Apple Streusel Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below)

2/3 c granulated sugar (I love using coconut palm sugar)

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 c chopped apple; peel and core the apple!

½ c chopped walnuts

¼ cup golden raisins (optional)

2 large eggs beaten

½ c milk, 1 or 2 percent

½ c canola oil

Topping: Mix the following in a bowl, make sure the butter is in tiny pebbles; use your fingertips to blend. Do this before you mix up the muffins.

½ cup rolled oats

¼ cup brown sugar

2 tbsp. almond meal

1½ tbsp. butter

¼ tsp. cinnamon

Directions: Heat oven to 375, placing the rack in middle of oven.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray.  One batch makes 12-16 muffins.

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl of stand mixer or big bowl

Add apple, raisins and walnuts; stir to coat them with dry mix

Combine milk and oil, remove 1 tbsp of combined liquid and ditch it unless you are using the coconut palm sugar; no need to then.  You might need an extra tablespoon of milk actually.  Beat in eggs.  Add liquids to big bowl; stir until blended.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full.  I use a big serving spoon filled about half way to dump in each muffin space. Sprinkle the top with streusel mix or cinnamon sugar. Bake 20-22 min until golden brown. Do not over bake or they will taste dry.  Remove in 4-5 minutes from the pans and cool on a rack.  I use a fork and pry them out one at a time to keep any of the yummy streusel from falling off. Freezes well for up to 3 weeks.  Keeps in fridge (well wrapped) two or three days.

Brown Rice Flour Mix base mix (same as King Arthur gf flour)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Sassy Sweet and Sour Pork

Eating out at Chinese restaurants is nearly impossible for me. No PF Changs has arrived in the Valley so that great choice for eating gf Chinese is not available…. Soy sauce is generally unsafe unless you bring your own, ditto for a few other sauces and the eggroll wrappers, wonton wrappers and steamed buns are wheat based…sad news for us celiacs.

Still, there is an alternative to Chinese takeout: home cooking. I make some rocking good Chinese foods to satisfy my cravings.  My latest is sweet and sour pork over rice.  A classic; my mom used to make it long long ago!  I hadn’t tried it since I went gf but have felt a yearning for that incredibly addictive sweet and sour sauce.  So I went to my reliable source; Betty Crocker…and modified from there to make it gf for me.

I used baby bok choy, red pepper and brown rice; can use green pepper if you prefer, big ribs of bok choy and white rice.  Your choice.  I was out of chunk pineapple so I used a can of rings.  If rings, use a knife to cut them up while still in the can into about 6 chunks by cutting down vertically with a long knife. Be sure to use pineapple canned in its own juice not syrup.

The sauce flavor is excellent;if you have any leftovers – makes a great lunch. Best of all it is easy to put together and you can be flexible with the ingredients. Win!

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Angie’s Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients:

¼ cup gf flour mix: I used my standard mix; recipe below

2 tsp. ground ginger

1 lb pork shoulder or boneless pork chops, cut into ½ inch cubes

3 tbsp. mild olive oil

1  13 oz can pineapple chunks or rings in juice.  Drain, reserve juice

¼ c apple cider vinegar

¼ c. gf soy sauce

1.5 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 medium onion, diced

1 red pepper cut into fat strips and then across into 3 sections

1 can bamboo shoots or sliced water chestnuts; drained,

2-3 baby bok choy cut into 1 inch sections or cut up 3 ribs of bok choy

½ tsp siracha sauce or chili sauce (1-2 tsp)

2.5 cups hot cooked rice

Directions: Mix the flour with the ginger in a bag and toss the pork cubes with it until they are all coated.  Heat a large frying pan, add the olive oil.  Heat to medium hot and add the pork cubes.  Fry stirring occasionally until the cubes are browned. If you have too many to brown; use two frying pans. Add the onion after the cubes are at least half browned. Add about 1/4 cup water to the reserved pineapple juice to make a cup of liquid.  Add the flour/ginger remains to the pan of browned pork cubes.  Stir for a minute.  Add the juice, the soy sauce, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce; heat until it boils, stirring constantly.  Boil a minute, turn down heat, add sugar, salt, pepper. Cover and cook at least 20 minutes, preferably 30 minutes.  Add more water if needed.  Add the pepper chunks and bok choy, cook 5 minutes, add the bok choy, bamboo shoots and siracha sauce.  Cover five more minutes.  Serve over hot rice.  Five servings.

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Or for a quick flour dip mix try ½ cup coconut flour and ½ cup white rice flour.

Aldi’s…My Latest Finds

Okay, I confess to loving cheese curls, baked ones… bag marked gluten free and totally addictive in the cheesy crunch of these treats. But this post is not about them.  It is focused on treats you can buy for cheap at Aldi’s. These are products new to me. Just forget I mentioned cheese curls…for now!

aldi's

green pea crisps

Ever eat Green Pea Crisps by Simply Nature? Never tried them until recently, you can find these interesting snack crisps at Aldi’s… This is a baked whole pea pod with less fat than potato chips; about 120 calories for a one ounce serving.  They are very tasty, irresistible in their fluffy powdery crunch. Labeled gluten free, baked instead of fried and free of a lot of additives.  The coating is rice flour, baked with any of three vegetable oils.  I had even almost half the bag before I realized they had the note “Processed in a facility that uses, milk, wheat and soy.”  Whoops! Now that was a big downer.  I hadn’t gotten ill, it was my second time of eating them with no issues so I did keep and finish them another day.  Not sure I will buy again, a bit chancy in my opinion. I wish they would not use wheat in the same facility.  Probably not safe for those of us with celiac because even a crumb of gluten (wheat, rye or barley) is enough to make a celiac really ill.

I also bought some Aldi’s Gluten Free Mini Pretzels.  They were rather hard and crunchy; fairly similar to other gf mini pretzels.  Cheaper but not better tasting.

mini pretzelsfiesta lime crisps

In the liveGfree food line available only at Aldi’s a stand out is their black bean and rice flour fiesta lime crackers.  They are spicy and crisp.  We tried them with a goat cheese spread I made with fresh herbs.  Amazing combination: the spread is basically plain goat cheese made smooth by adding a tbsp. of organic yogurt and flavored by a tbsp. of minced fresh herbs like oregano, garlic chives and thyme or rosemary.  Also ate some with extra sharp cheddar cheese and tomato jam; wonderful combo.  I have been enjoying their sea salt multi seed gf crackers for a while now; they are lightly salted and perfectly flavored.  Go with cheese or dips and are priced to please.  Why spend $4 bucks on crackers when you can go to Aldi’s and get these for less than half of that?multi seed crackers

Saved the best for last: Aldi’s Hazelnut Dark Chocolate bars, big, crunchy, delish and only $2.  A must buy if you like dark chocolate, made in Germany and marked gf.

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So, yes…get to Aldi’s; great prices, interesting and tasty gluten free products.  Just take a shopping bag or two with you; bags are extra!

Monk Fish with Ratatouille…Early Fall on a Plate

My mom sometimes made fish for dinner and one of her favorites was monkfish, sometimes called poor man’s lobster. If you google monkfish it is one big ugly black fish. Luckily it tastes pretty good and is a change of pace from the fish I seem to be in a rut of choosing. I can’t remember how my mom made it but I saw this recipe on epicurious and decided to try it with some fresh veggies straight from the garden as a treat for her.  We both love ratatouille so what could be better?

I made a few small changes and cut the ingredient amounts in half for just two (my mom and I).  I was blown away by the rich flavors of the roasted ratatouille and the delicate but meaty monk fish fillet.  I think its nick name is due to the texture which does remind me of lobster, sort of.  It isn’t the most popular of fish (insert salmon her!) but this dish might change your mind and make the list of top ten fish recipes for your family. We ate every bite of the fish and those incredible veggies. I almost forgot to mention; this entree is ridiculously easy to make and is naturally gluten free.  Perfect!

The amounts are flexible; if you love eggplant it could be a bit more and if you have yellow squash instead of zuke that is perfect. I used that skinny Japanese eggplant but any regular eggplant cut in strips and then cubes would be perfect. The original recipe used canned marinara sauce but I chose to use some tomato paste from a tube and the fresh plum tomatoes. I was concerned about having a runny sauce but if you want more liquid add some sauce to thin things down.

I carefully transferred the dish to a glass oven pan and baked it just long enough to get the pan hot before putting on the lid and heading over to where my mom lives.  You don’t have to take that step but this is an easy meal to transport which makes my life a bit easier.

My starch was fire roasted russet potatoes but I am thinking this would be awesome with either gf noodles, gf pasta or rice pilaf.

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I just sprinkled dried basil on top of the veggies. Will stir and add fish before roasting some more. You can add more wine if necessary.

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Capers are on top, in my lidded glass oven dish.

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About to dig in…yes…that’s a paper plate. I am at my mom’s assisted living room……easy clean up. This is just a blog. Not the food network, lol.

Monkfish with Ratatouille

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound eggplant, cut into 1-inch cubes (1.5 cups)

1 cup sliced zucchini

1/2 large red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 medium onion, cut into thin segments from top to bottom

2 teaspoon olive oil, divided

Vegetable oil cooking spray

2 to 4 tbsp. dry white wine (or red if you prefer)

1 large clove garlic chopped coarsely

2 tbsp. tomato paste.

3 big plum tomatoes cut into chunks

2 monkfish fillets (about 5-6 ounces each)

1 tsp dried basil or 1.5 tbsp. fresh

1 tablespoon drained capers

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 425°F.

Coat a shallow baking pan with cooking spray. Place eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper and onion on the sheet and drizzle with 1 teaspoon olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss a bit…I used a pancake turner to do that operation. Then spread the vegetables out over the pan so they are in a thin layer and roast until tender, about 20 minutes.

Sprinkle with white wine, garlic and tomatoes. Cover loosely with foil and roast 5-10 minutes more. Remove pan from oven. Stir in basil. Lay fish fillets in the middle of the veggies; push them aside first to make a cleared space; drizzle with remaining teaspoon oil; season with salt and pepper. Cook about 10-12 minutes.  Sprinkle with capers and fresh basil if you have some.

I served this with grilled potatoes but if you are low carbing leave off the starch and you won’t be disappointed by the results.

Autumn Plum Tart: Plumalishous!

There is a huge abundance of fruit in September.  Still some peaches, plums, grapes and nectarines while apples and pears are pouring in.  What to bake?  Tough decision, I decided to go with something I rarely use: we love juicy ripe plums but I seldom bake with them.  This is one of the only recipes I can make gluten free with blue plums; these are those oval plums, sometimes called prune or Stanley plums that are only available for a few weeks in the early fall.  purple plumThey are inexpensive, not too sweet and they get soft and purply delish in this simple tart.  It is modeled closely after German plum tarts I had enjoyed in my wheat loving past life.  I think it replicates them quite well.  I posted this last year (2014) but wanted to share it again. This time I found really huge Stanley plums and tried them instead of the small ones I have always used in the past. They were great so you can definitely go with either size of oval plum.  I think you could make it with round plums but I do think the oval ones have more flavor and are more suited to baking than round eating plums.

lemon peel

Candied lemon peels before blending into lemon powder

I use my favorite cobbler mix which makes this really simple.  I will put the mix recipe down at the end of this post. It was created by Bette Hagman. I keep it in my freezer and one cup is the dry ingredients for a great cobbler or for this tart. To this particular batch I added a couple teaspoons of dried lemon peel powder.  This ingredient is made of lemon peels rolled in sugar and dried, leftover after make homemade lemoncello liquor.  They become powder after a few moments in my spice blender. The fine powder adds a subtle lemon flavor but its okay; you don’t absolutely need it to make this recipe work.  It is in the original recipe but I never bothered before to make some even though I had the dried lemon peels.  The addition is great and if you can add it you won’t be disappointed.

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A few instructions to assist you if you make this tart: I cut up the plums first and sprinkle them with sugar, let them stand while I mix the dry stuff up and then stir up the wet items in a small mixing bowl.  If you want it lower in sugar just leave off that sprinkle here; it will still taste great.

Be sure to use a 10 inch tart pan; if you made the tart in a 9 inch one it may well spill over and burn on the bottom of your oven which is never a good thing.

We like it with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. It is fine all on its own.  Makes a great breakfast too with a cup of coffee or tea.

plum tart

This is the tart I made Sept. 2014 in a 9 inch tart pan; very very full!

plum tart 001

This tart was made in September 2015 with big fat Stanley plums: just before putting in the oven. Made in a a ten inch ceramic tart pan.

Angie’s Fall Plum Tart

1 cup cobbler dry mix; recipe below

¼ c sugar

—-

2 eggs

3 Tbps. buttermilk

2 Tbps. melted butter

1/2  tsp. vanilla

1/2  tsp. almond extract

1 ½ lbs prune plums (enough to cover the entire tart pan) pitted and cut in half.

Mix them with 2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Spray a 10 in deep tart pan or 9 in pie pan with cooking spray

Cut up plums; be sure to get all the pit; sometimes a small bit of it can be left up near the pointy end where the plum attached to the branch.  I like to cut them in half along the crease; get a  nice pair of plum halves that way. Sprinkle with the sugar and let them sit while you make the batter.

Beat eggs in bowl, add rest of wet ingredients, mix well, add to dry ingredients, stir the batter briefly to fully blend.  Pour into the prepared pan and spread it out with a spatula.  It often just spread great if you tilt the pan a bit – the batter will spread all on its own. Top with plums, cut side up, push each in slightly into the batter and cover the entire surface of tart base. Sometimes I cut up a few plums and fit the chunks in around the halves but this time I didn’t; works either way.

Bake 30 min.  Top with mixture of 1 ½ tsp sugar and ½ tsp cinnamon

Bake 4- 10 more minutes or until top looks done.

Cool somewhat before slicing/serving.

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Plum tart September 2016

Dry Cobbler Mix –   (Bette Hegman recipe)

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

Reposted – originally posted in 2014 and again in September 2015,