gluten free baking

Mexican Wedding Cookies – A Classic

These miniature snowball cookies were the foundation of the Christmas cookie baking season when I was a kid.  They were always made every year, sometimes a second batch had to be baked as we had eaten them all well before the big day!   Some people call them Russian Teacakes… For me it is not Christmas without these cookies so I was extremely pleased to find a great gf recipe. My sisters think they are better tasting than the old regular recipe!

They are easy to make with not too many ingredients.  Don’t make them too big or they become very fragile… stick with the size as given. Be careful lifting them off the pan as they are delicate until fully cooled. The texture and subtle flavor of this GF version is actually superior to the wheat flour recipe of my childhood. When you bite into one it shatters into a delicious mouthful of sweet cookie. They are delightful with a cup of tea or coffee.  My family clamors for a few to take home!

You can use pecans, but I rarely do; walnuts are somewhat cheaper, and I sort of prefer their flavor for this cookie. If you like them really sweet sprinkle on extra powdered sugar, less of it makes them perfect for those who are not used to too much sweetness. This recipe is from Annalise Roberts’ fabulous Gluten-Free Baking Classics with some minor changes by me. I have not tried them with any but this flour blend. I bet they might work with a measure for measure flour mix; just leave out the xanthan gum in that case.

Storage: they keep well; I put mine in an empty butter cookie tin with wax paper between the 2 layers; no more than 2 layers or they tend to break up easily. Or a cookie jar but do be careful about too many stacked on top of each other.  No one will ever know they are GF, and you will get complements on their flavor and texture.  Enjoy: they are rather addictive cookies!

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Mexican Wedding Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

6 tbsp. powdered (confectioners) sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups King Arther Basic GF blend flour – aka brown rice mix (recipe below)

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup walnuts or pecans chopped fine

Confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling

Directions: beat butter and powdered sugar in large bowl of stand mixer until light and creamy.  Add vanilla, beat in.  Add flour and gum, mix in until well blended, stir in walnuts until distributed.  Chill dough for an hour, more than 2 hours; dough gets too stiff.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Form dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in powdered sugar if you like.  Place on cookie sheet lightly sprayed with Pam (not the baker’s version that has flour).  Place about 1 ½ inches apart.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes until lightly browned on top and bottom.  Cool on pan for 5 min and then sprinkle with lots of powdered sugar before placing on wire rack to cool. I like to sift it onto the cookies so the coating is even.  You could put a sheet of wax paper under the wire rack to catch the excess sugar.  Store well wrapped: in airtight container, in fridge for a week or freezer for up to 30 days.  You could store unbaked dough in fridge for a few days.

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

2/3 c potato starch *not potato flour

1/3 c tapioca flour

Note: First posted December 2014 on my blog.  Minor revisions have been made since then.

Delicious Nectarine Blueberry Pie

 This July post never got uploaded, when I discovered that, I decided to add it to my blog so it’s available next summer. The resulting pie was delicious down to the last slice.

This is so easy to make: slice and dump together the filling, crumb topping gets made in the mixer bowl you just used for bottom crust. You can store any leftover crumb mixture in a sealed container in the fridge; it keeps a few weeks.  This GF crumb topping is perfect for most any fruit pie.

I used a lot more nectarines than blueberries; the proportions are up to you. The nectarines don’t need to be peeled like peaches. I used coconut palm sugar in my crumbs; it does darken them but lowers the hypoglycemic level of the pie; good for those of us who are prediabetic or just avoiding white sugar. You can also replace some or all of the sugar in the filling with coconut palm sugar. I like to do 50/50 sugar and c coconut palm sugar.

You could make this pie with frozen fruit; just add at least 10-20 minutes of time to the bake time. Don’t defrost them fully; can defrost somewhat but not completely before putting it together to bake.

Bake and enjoy summer in a pie in just a few minutes of work.  Don’t eat it piping hot; it should be cooled to close to room temperature.  You could certainly serve this with vanilla ice cream. 

GF Nectarine and Blueberry Crumb Pie

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix (King Arthur Basic GF blend or use the recipe at the bottom of recipe)

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Directions:

Spray 9 or 10 inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. I confess I forget to do this more often than I remember…still works.

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 prepare the filling.

crust

Filling:

5 cups sliced fresh nectarines, unpeeled and cut in thick slices

1 cup fresh blueberries – rinse and place in medium bowl

Mix with:

½ cup sugar (or use coconut palm sugar for half of the sugar)

½ tsp. cinnamon

3 Tbsp. quick tapioca

Add and stir in

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Let the filling stand while you prepare the crust, important for the tapioca so it does its job optimally.

Roll out pie crust in a pie bag or 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 fruit mixture.

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 or a blend of coconut palm sugar and granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

Directions:

Sprinkle the top of the pie with crumb mix; use as much as you like.  I like about a heaping cup and a half of the mixture.  Up to your personal taste… It sinks partially into the fruit mixture and adds lots of sweetness and eye appeal.

Bake in a preheated 400-degree oven for 45-50 minutes until bubbly and the crumb crust is light brown.  I put a piece of aluminum foil on top for the last ten minutes.  Cool at least 1 to 4 hours before serving at room temperature.  I think it is best served the same day you make it, or no more than 10 hours after baking for optimal flavor.  The crumbs will get soggy if too much time passes.

Note: if you find your bottom crust is not browning enough there are a couple of choices; you could bake it empty at 375 degrees for ten minutes before filling it with the fruit. Choice 2: I bake pies on a rack placed at the very bottom of my oven which gives me perfect pie crust; I don’t ever have pale pie crust.

The topping is extra brown due to coconut palm sugar instead of all granulated sugar.

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour (finely ground)

2/3 c potato starch – Not potato flour!

1/3 c tapioca flour

Pecan Pie: Thanksgiving Classic!

Thanksgiving pie – you gotta have it. Posted my go-to pumpkin pie recipe the other day.  Here is another classic pie. This is my favorite pecan pie recipe; been making it for a long while and I have shared the recipe before but not on this blog; right out of Betty Crocker, just now with a gluten free crust.  I add an extra quarter cup pecans to make the pie a bit fatter and I always use dark Karo syrup; it is really the only one you should use if you want a great result. The next time I bake it I want to test it with coconut palm sugar instead of granulated sugar in the filling. I love the lower spot for it on the hypoglycemic index so lately I use it whenever possible.

karopecans

I often don’t need a whole pecan pie so I make a half batch of filling to fill four flat bottom tartlets filled with pecan yumminess. Just a thought if you don’t want a whole big pie.  My tartlets were baked in 30-35 minutes.  They were scrumptious.

Pecan pie is awesome on its own but is also great with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  A classic never goes out of style.  It looks just like pecan pie should; rich, dark and chock full of pecan halves. The crust is tender and flaky: it tastes exactly like the best pecan pie ever: no one will ever know it is gf!

pecan-pie

I keep forgetting to take a pic of my pie; this is from McCormick Spices but looks a lot like mine.

Angie’s GF Pecan Pie 

Crust:

1 c plus 2 tbsp brown rice flour mix aka King Arthur basic gf blend (diy recipe is at the bottom of this 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 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Directions: Spray a 9-inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour.  I don’t usually bother with this but feel free to take this extra caution. A glass pie tin works too.

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 get the rest ready. I use an OXO pie bag that is great for rolling out gf crust…better than wax paper by far.

Filling:

3 large eggs

2/3 c sugar (try coconut palm sugar!)

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup very soft or melted butter

1 cup dark corn syrup

1 1/4 cups pecan halves

Sprinkle of cinnamon

Directions: Beat eggs, sugar, salt, butter and corn syrup until well mixed, can use a hand held mixer.  Stir in pecans and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Roll out pie crust between the two sheets of wax paper or in a pie bag; try to get the thickness even, no thick middle is allowed! Peel off one side of paper and place in pie pan, centered.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.  Fill with pecan mix.  Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 40-50 minutes until the filling is set.  Cool at least 1 hour before serving at room temperature or slightly chilled.

 

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur’s gf flour blend)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Apple Crumb Pie

Apples are a favorite American fruit, and they are the main ingredient in America’s favorite pie.   This crumb topped pie is easier to construct than a two-crust pie. I gave you the amounts for a 9-inch pie; I myself generally make it 10 inches; use 9-10 cups sliced apples and higher end of amounts of sugar, tapioca and spices.  Bake this bigger pie for 55-60 minutes.

I like to use 2-3 kinds of apples in my pie; my favorites include golden delicious, Cortland, Pink Lady, Empire, Rome or Ida apples but if you want to use one variety my favorite is golden delicious, and they generally are apple perfection, great flavor and hold their shape without any crunchiness. They also play well in pies made with other baking apples like Empire, Ida Red, Rome to name a few. Just skip Red Delicious; only for eating raw and their texture doesn’t hold up in a pie.

I generally make my own crust but you can use a Bob’s Redmill GF crust mix; pretty decent if a bit trickier to roll out than my usual homemade crust. Definitely a good choice when you don’t have the time for a scratch pie crust. I always use my homemade crumbs. They are easy to make and taste the best!

I put this pie together in a few steps; make the crust dough; put it in fridge to chill while I peel, slice and cut up the apples. I also throw together the crumbs before rolling out the pie; you don’t need to rinse the mixer bowl from the crust then.  If you plan to prebake your crust those ten minutes of baking the empty pie crust are also a good time for making the crumbs and preparing the apples too! I generally move an oven shelf to the very bottom of my oven and that helps the bottom pie crust bake fully.

Note that I love using coconut palm sugar in place of brown sugar as it is lower on the hypoglycemic index which is better for your pancreas if you are avoiding sugar. I am pre-diabetic, so I have switched to coconut palm sugar whenever possible for that reason and it is working great for me! It has a lovely caramel flavor too!

Each step is fairly easy, but the results are spectacular.  Of course, you could buy a readymade unbaked crust but this roll out crust I prefer to use is really tasty: my mom never believed it was gluten free!  This disbelief of hers was proof of the great flavor and texture of this particular basic gf pie crust.unbaked-apple-crumb-pie

It goes without saying that this pie is great with a slice of vanilla ice cream.  Fall is the best season for apple pie as they are fresh and full of juicy flavor.   Be seasonal whenever possible when it comes to fruits, and you will get the best taste in your fruit-based desserts.

Apple Crumb Pie

Crust:

1 c plus 2 Tbsp. King Arthur Basic GF blend or the brown rice flour mix at bottom of my 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 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Directions: Spray a nine-inch pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. Set aside.

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.

Roll out the flattened ball into a pie crust in a pie bag or 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 the pie pan, be sure to center it.  Remove other slice of wax paper.  Crimp edges all around.

Filling:

8 cups thin apple slices from 8-9 medium-large sized apples, I like a mixture of yellow delicious and at least one other cooking variety; red Rome, Jonathan, empire, Courtland, or any tart apple you like to bake with. Note: I have made it just with Cortland or with Golden Delicious apples; excellent pies! Peel apples, quarter, cut out core, slice into 1/3-inch-thick slices. Place apple slices in a large bowl and sprinkle top with 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Mix the following dry ingredients in a small bowl and then pour over the apples and mix up with a big spoon.

¼ cup brown sugar or coconut palm sugar (my new fav sub for brown sugar)

3-8 Tbsp. granulated sugar (3= pretty tart, 8 if you like it sweet)

2 Tbsp. minute tapioca or tapioca flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

A good sprinkle of ground nutmeg

A small sprinkle of ground ginger (optional)

Directions: After you mix up the apples and topping then heap the apples in your uncooked pie crust.

Crumb topping

Directions: 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

Finishing directions: Sprinkle the top of the pie with crumb mix; use as much as you like.  I like about 2/3-3/4 of the mixture.  Up to your personal taste…  Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 50-60 minutes until bubbly and the crust is light brown.  You can cover the pie loosely with aluminum foil for the first 30 minutes.  I bake my pies at the lowest possible level shelf, so my crust gets crisp but if you have issues with soggy bottom crusts; prebake your crust for 10 minutes; then fill and bake immediately.

Cool the pie at least 3 to 4 hours before serving at room temperature.

Brown Rice Flour Mix
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

The crust and crumbs are from Annalise Roberts’ great cookbook: Gluten-Free Baking Classics. My filling is slightly different.

Originally posted February 2015. Revised slightly and updated for this 11/1/24 post.

Healthy PawPaw Kitchen Sink Muffins

This healthy muffin is a variation of my kitchen sink muffin recipe; the changes include adding locally sourced pawpaw pulp and swapping sugar for coconut palm sugar *lower on hypoglycemic index.  I have grown to love pawpaws and this is my first muffin attempt.  They are tender and delicious. These are breakfast style muffins so not that sweet, great texture and totally yummy.  I do love muffins for snacks. They are healthy; more fruit and no sugary topping.  If you want to add extra sweetening use my oatmeal topping from my chocolate chip banana muffin recipe.  This time I used pawpaw puree, golden raisins and dried sweetened coconut, great combo! I swapped walnuts for slivered almonds, either is fine. 

Because they will lose moisture if they sit around, I will freeze any I won’t eat in 2 days; I love using a Ziplock freezer bag for this but cool them first.  Label carefully with date and contents…be sure to eat them within a month. kitchen sink muffins and spring flowers 001

Pawpaw Kitchen Sink Muffins 

2 cups brown rice flour mix (see below) or King Arthur Basic GF Mix

2/3 c coconut palm sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

2/3 cup pawpaw puree

2/3 c flaked coconut 

½ c golden raisins

½ c slivered almonds (optional)

2 large eggs beaten

½ c plus 2 Tbsp. milk, whole or 2 percent

½ c canola oil

Directions:

Heat oven to 375, placing the rack in middle of oven.  Spray muffin pans with cooking spray.  One batch makes 14-15 muffins.

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

Add fruits and nuts; stir to coat them with dry mix

Combine milk and oil, beat in eggs.  Add liquids to big bowl; stir until blended.  Note: If you used regular sugar you will need to leave out the extra 2 tbsp. of milk.

Fill muffin pans 3/4 full.  Bake 22-24 min until golden brown. Do not overbake or they will be dry.  Remove within a minute from the pans and cool on a rack.   Freezes well for up to 3-4 weeks and keeps in fridge (well wrapped) a few days.

Brown Rice Flour Mix 
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour