gluten free baking

Mom’s Strawberry Shortcake 2.3 Version

I just have to share this recipe with you again.  It is just a classic and no one I know turns down homemade strawberry shortcake. We had it last Sunday.  I am not sure where I got the recipe…. my gf biscuit version is pretty tasty I have to say.

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This year’s biscuit was so flaky and tasty I could hardly believe it was gf and I am the one who made it!

 

But there is one thing, you gotta make it with the best freaking strawberries you can find.  None of those big firm ones with whitish cores that are shipped in from far away.  You need juicy ripe, scented red berries that can be chopped coarsely and mixed with sugar and served over shortbread.  Gluten free shortcake biscuit.  Yes, it can be made with other than local berries and it will taste great but local fruit make it fantastic!

My mom always made a gorgeous version of strawberry shortcake. When I was a kid she would serve it as the meal.  I have done that and it is kinda cool.  For that I made a huge oval biscuit that lay in my turkey platter with a smaller oval topping biscuit that I split off the big biscuit and buttered the split area before topping with berries and the smaller biscuit.  And more ripe berries.  Then a topping of softly whipped heavy cream.  Oh berry perfection.

Now I bake it in two separate pans but the construction of the final product is the same otherwise.  These pictures are from last June; my daughter snapped them as I put the shortcake together at a family gathering.  It is always a hit even with gf shortbread.  The shortbread I made this past Sunday was so good, I swear it could pass for my old shortbread… Feeds six or four piggie eaters.

Mom’s Strawberry Shortcake, GF2.3

Biscuit dough

1 cup white rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tbsp. sugar

½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. xanthan gum

6 tbsp cold butter

1 medium egg

2/3 cup buttermilk

2-3 tsp. sugar (optional)

2 tsp. soft butter

Other ingredients:

2 quarts ripe strawberries

½ cup sugar

2-3 tbsp. Karo light syrup

1 cup heavy whipping cream

½ tsp. real vanilla

2-4 tbs. powdered sugar (if you like your cream sweet)

Directions
Heat oven t0 400 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter until it is small pebbles.  Add the egg and most of the buttermilk.  Mix with a spoon; add rest of buttermilk if you need it.  It should be a bit sticky, don’t over mix; just until dry is blended in.  Spray the inside of an eight inch cake pan and a 6 inch cake pan with cooking spray.  If you don’t have a small pan just use two 8 inch ones.  Pat ¾ of the dough into the 8 inch; make it about ¾ to 1 inch thick and try to smooth the top and side edges a bit.  Put the rest of the dough in the smaller pan and do the same smoothing.  Make that one ½ to ¾ inch thick.  Optional: take 2-3 tsp. of granulated sugar and sprinkle it over top of them. I think it gives a great finish to the shortcake. Bake them about 20 to 25 min; the smaller one should be done in 20 minutes; a golden light brown. Set on a cooling rack for a few minutes.

While it bakes, get the berries ready.  Hull 2 quarts of fresh ripe berries.  Place them in a glass mixing bowl; chop through them a few strokes with a sharp knife.  Add ½ cup sugar and about 2-3 tbsp. Karo light corn syrup to the berries.  Stir well and refrigerate until the shortcake is baked.  You could do this berry preparation up to two hours in advance.  No more or they will start to disintegrate.

Place the fairly hot bigger layer on a large platter, one big enough to hold the shortbread and still have room for a generous overflow of strawberries. Butter lightly if you wish.  Top with several big spoonfuls of berries.  Don’t worry if there is juice in the berry bowl; there should be; melted down sugar and karo syrup with berry juice will give you a delish berry liquid.  Top with the second smaller biscuit and then more berries.   Cut into chunks.  Top with freshly whipped cream; beat a cup of heavy whipping cream until it is softly whipped.  Add ½ tsp. vanilla and ¼ cup sugar if you wish it sweet.  Be sure to pour the berry juice over your shortcake; it soaks in and adds to the strawberry experience.  My dad liked to pour unbeaten cream over his shortcake. My mom usually set out the whipped cream, a jug of cream and some whole milk so you could chose how to finish off your personal shortcake.  I might add that I grew up on a farm so this was raw milk from grass pastured cows; fantastic cream equaling a freaking perfect shortcake topper.  We also grew our own berries; no chemical sprayed on them ever.

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Forgive the paper plate: I was at my mom’s assisted living and I do paper to save on clean up time plus her sink is miniscule!

If there is any left over it makes a great breakfast the next morning…

Originally published in June 2014, again last June and now in late June.  I confess I could not find local berries on Sunday, I used organic ones and only used the ripest berries for this cake. So can you, just set aside any underripe ones as they are not great in a shortcake.

I am thinking blackberries might be good with this shortcake biscuit. Going to try them tonight!

Rhubarb Frangipane Pie: GF of Course!

 

Another week, another rhubarb pie.  This time I went with almond; a frangipane layer under the rhubarb but it’s quick to make and blends in: you won’t see it  when you bite into this luscious pie.  This is easy to make even though it has several steps.  Keeper recipe!

The GF crust will work for any pie you wish and the sugared topping is a great look and a crunchy sweet treat.  This pie does has several steps but each one is easy.  This was my first try at a two crust pie and I have to say the top crust was very flaky and tasty. I am now wondering why it took me three plus years to attempt a double crust.  Apple pie coming our way this fall with two crusts for sure!

 

Angie’s GF Rhubarb Frangipane Pie

Crust:

2 ¼ c brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

¼ cup sweet rice flour

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

12 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

2 large eggs

4 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Directions: Spray 9 or 10 inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into two equal balls with your hands. Put each on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust balls some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you chop the rhubarb into ½ inch chunks.

Frangipane Filling:

2/3 cup almond meal

1/3 c sugar

6 tbsp. butter at room temp

1 large egg

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 tbsp. rice flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix the almond meal and sugar in your stand mixer on low, add the butter, cream well, use spatula to make sure the butter gets down and fully integrated into the mixture and then add egg and almond extract, mix and add the flour and cinnamon.

Rhubarb filling:

5 cups cut up fresh rhubarb

3 tbsp. tapioca flour

¼ tsp. salt

Zest of one orange (optional)

2 tbsp. sugar

1 or 2 tsp. of milk to brush on for a glaze

Raw sugar to sprinkle on top

——–

In large bowl: place rhubarb, add tapioca flour, salt, plain sugar and orange zest. Stir with spoon to coat.

Assembling the pie:

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Roll out one pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! I use a pie bag my sister gave me; works fantastically with gf crusts. Peel off one side of wax paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.

Spread frangipane filling on the bottom of the crust.  Fill with dry rhubarb mix.  Roll out other pie crust. Place gently on top of pie, crimp around edges. Cut a few vent slits in the top crust. Brush top crust with milk, sprinkle heavily with raw sugar.

Place on baking sheet to catch drips (I have a pie drip pan I love!)  Bake 20 mi, rotate it half way through so the back and front are the same level of golden. Lower heat to 350 degrees.  Bake for 30-40 min until crust is golden and you can see the filling bubbling.  Cool on rack for at least 1-2 hours before serving. rhubarb frangipane pie 001

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

This recipe is a blending of one I found on splendidtable.org with my favorite crust recipe out of Annalise Roberts cookbooks with my own small changes to create a pie to my taste buds happiness.

Easy Quick Lemon Cupcakes

Cupcakes, who doesn’t love a sweet little cake with some homemade icing?  I tried a mix for lemon cake made by Authentic Foods. Mail order and about four bucks for a packet that makes 12 cupcakes or one layer.  I bought it when I got that imitation rye flavoring for breads; no extra handling charge for one small additional item and lemon cake mix is not that common especially gluten free. Bonus was that the mix said no GMOs and no soy.  lemon cake mix

So I made them as a lunch dessert for company visiting this weekend.  The directions give option for butter or vegetable oil. I used butter. I used 1 percent milk; directions said to use milk or cream.

The recipe mixed up very thick, like loose whipped cream. I have to wonder if I should have thinned the batter a bit.  The directions do not say what consistency the batter should have.  I filled the cupcake liners and baked the recommended time.

They looked great when they were on the cooling rack.  I made some homemade cream cheese icing.  Iced six and froze six.

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Very nice but a bit denser than I like in my cakes. I think next time I will use the vegetable oil instead of butter. The icing was my basic vanilla cream cheese icing. Delicate and complemented the lemon cupcakes nicely. indian food 004 My friends enjoyed the dessert and each gladly took a spare one home with them.  Notable because neither of them normally eats gluten free.  I will count this mix as a win especially if you love lemon flavored cake.  Buy it on line at authenticfoods.com; I don’t know any stores that carry their cake mixes. They have other flavors for sure!

Banana Muffins…Tried and True

Sometimes you find that the bananas you got only a few days ago are getting squishy and you have no desire to eat sticky overripe fruit.  This recipe is perfect for those days.  This muffin recipe is my own version of muffins from Annalise Roberts’s wonderful cookbook: Gluten Free Baking Classics.  They are easy to make, perfect in texture and totally yummy.  My family and friends love them for snacks. They were my first kind of gf muffins and were so tasty and foolproof they launched my love of gf muffins.

I have subbed in chopped apples for some of the mashed bananas or applesauce will do too.  Sometimes I add ¼ cup currents, raisins or dried cranberries.  They add a tasty surprise when you bit into your muffin.  If you are not a fan of nuts leave them out.  Sometimes I leave out the nutmeg, or add extra cinnamon.

I do love to sprinkle them with chunky sugar; used for fancy baking.  Sometimes I ice some for company and we have them for dessert.  They were banging good that way. I feel no guilt; these muffins are low fat, low sugar and totally yummy, even when left un-iced!   muffin with frosting

I freeze any I won’t eat in 2 days; in a Ziplock freezer bag.  They make super school or work snacks and I sometimes take a couple on a hike, wrapped carefully so they don’t turn to banana nut crumbs on the way up the mountain!

Here are some I made on 6-1-16; they have a streusel topping and some chocolate chips added for extra yummy.

Banana Nut Muffins

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below)

2/3 c granulated sugar or coconut palm sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

1 c packed ripe mashed banana

½ c chopped walnuts

2 lg eggs beaten

½ c milk, 1 or 2 percent plus 2-3 extra tbsp. if you use the palm sugar

½ c canola oil

Directions: Heat oven to 350 degrees, 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 bananas and walnuts; stir to coat them with dry mix

Combine milk and oil and.add liquids and eggs to mixing bowl; stir until blended.  Sometimes I add ¼ c dried cranberries which is a nice addition.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full.  Bake 18-24 min until golden brown. Do not overbake or they get dry.  Remove immediately from the pans and cool on a rack.  I like to sprinkle the muffins with big sugar granules before baking for crunch.   Freezes well for up to 3 weeks.  Keeps in fridge (well wrapped) a few days.

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

2/3 c potato starch (not potato flour)

1/3 c tapioca flour

 

Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie

Rhubarb is plentiful so it is a perfect choice for a spring dessert.  This is easy to make even though it has several steps.  Sour cream rhubarb pie is different from any other rhubarb pie I make because the texture is delightfully light, almost fluffy. It has a touch of crumbs on the top; they are added after it bakes a while.  I think this adding of crumbs later help keep them from sinking into the raw pie and keeping it from becoming rather cake-like as my rhubarb custard pie turns out.  I never made this pie before so it was a new experience and everyone loved it…will be making it again for sure! It is my adaption from a recipe off of a website called Mary/The Kitchen Paper.

The GF crust will work for any pie you wish and the GF crumb topping is q great pie topper.  I store any leftover crumb mixture in a sealed container in the fridge; keeps a few weeks.  What I am giving you is my mixture of a couple of recipes. I know it has several steps but each one is easy and you can use these crust and crumb recipes for other pies.

Angie’s GF Rhubarb Sour Cream Crumb Pie

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (at bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbsp. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 large egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

————

Spray 9 or 10 inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice.  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape into a ball with your hands. Put it on a crust sized piece of wax paper (14 x 14 inches more or less), flatten the crust ball some; put on top of it another piece of wax paper and chill it all in your fridge 15-20 minutes while you chop the rhubarb into ½ inch chunks.

Filling:

5 to 6 cups (if you use the ten inch pie pan) cut up fresh rhubarb – place in medium bowl

Mix with

1 c sugar

3 tbsp. rice flour

½ tsp cinnamon

———

Roll out pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper, try to get the thickness even, no thick middle! Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Fill with dry rhubarb mix.

Topping: Pour evenly over this mixture:  3 eggs beaten lightly with 1 cup sour cream, and1 tsp vanilla extract.  I did use light sour cream and it worked fine.

Place in 400 degree oven and bake 15 min, lower to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes more.  Top with crumbs and bake 20-25 minutes until the crumbs are lightly browned.  I think next time I will bake it five more minutes so my crumbs are browner. Cool at least 2 hours before serving.  Enjoy!rhubarb sour cream pie 010

Crumb topping

Put all four ingredients in the same mixing bowl you made the bottom crust in and mix well with mixer paddle until crumbs form.

¾ c brown rice flour mix

½ c sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

Sprinkle the top of the pie with crumb mix; use as much as you like.  I like about a cup of the mixture.  Up to your personal taste.

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour