gluten free baking

Cherry Crumb Pie – Delish!

Pie is a classic American dessert, who doesn’t like a big slice of juicy pie? Cherry pie is perfect for the weeks before and after the Fourth of July or anytime you can get frozen sour cherries.  My sister sometimes uses jarred cherries but I prefer fresh or frozen sours.  You can make it gf easily with this recipe – my crust is really tasty; my family practically cheers when I serve homemade pie and my family does not need to eat gluten free.

Fresh tasting, locally sourced fruits are exactly in the spirit of summer.  I have picked mine at an orchard down in New Jersey around Milford about 25 minutes SE from Hellertown.

The sugar, cinnamon and almond extract create an intense cherry flavor.  If you prefer a lattice it can be made by doubling this pie crust and some careful construction work.  I tend to go the easy route of the crumb as everyone loves it. You could make a smaller 8 inch pie; use a cup less fruit and cut the sugar some, ditto for the tapioca. This pie is fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

This recipe is a blending of my own pie filling and the pie crust and crumb recipes from Annalise Robert’s cookbook, Gluten-Free Baking Classics.  I used a touch less sugar, more fruit, and made a few other changes to create my own special pie.  Her cookbook is a fabulous resource and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone trying to bake gluten free for a family member.  There is nothing like the classic desserts that we used to enjoy seasonally to comfort a celiac who can’t eat what they used to.

Angie’s GF Cherry Crumb Pie

Crust:

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

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

1 Tbps. granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Spray 9 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 pit the fruit.

Filling:

6 cups pitted fresh sour cherries: place in medium bowl (If frozen do not defrost and bake the pie maybe ten extra minutes until good and bubbly)

1/4 tsp. almond extract (I add that to the pitted cherries before the dry mixture)

Mix the following 3 ingredients in a small bowl and pour over the cherries:

¾ cup granulated sugar

3-4 tbsp. tapioca flour

1/4 to ½ tsp. cinnamon

Roll out pie crust between two sheets of wax paper or in a pie bag; 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 sweetened fruit mix.  Sprinkle the crumb topping (1 1/4 to 1½ cup) evenly over this mixture.  The more crumbs the thicker the crust they will form; for a really thick crust use all the crumbs from the recipe below.

NOTE: If you love your pie really sweet add another ¼ cup granulated sugar to the dry mix part of the filling.  I found the pie to be plenty sweet, but everyone has their own sweetness level.

Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes with a piece of aluminum foil on top of the pie, then 15-20 more minutes uncovered until bubbly and the crust is light brown.  If you use frozen berries, don’t defrost them more than halfway and you might have to cook the pie up to 15 extra minutes; make sure it is bubbling and light brown before taking it out of the oven. Cool at least 2 hours before serving at room temperature.

Note: I bake pies on the bottom rack of my oven, and it gives me a great browned crust.  If your oven isn’t great at the bottom crust getting brown, you might pre-bake the crust 10 minutes before filling and topping the fruit.

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. Don’t over mix or you will get a soft dough; not a good thing…done it and not happy with myself…

¾ c brown rice flour mix

½ c granulated sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

Brown Rice Flour Mix  (Same as King Arthur GF blend)
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

Rhubarb Crisp For Dessert…or Breakfast.

It’s still rhubarb season, at least at my house and garden. This dessert is super easy and super yummy. I swear it tasted like there were cherries in there! I never made rhubarb crisp until last spring; I make apple crisp all the time in the fall and winter…so glad I tried it.  I am sharing this tasty quick dessert with you once again.  Makes a yummy breakfast too!

It keeps about 3 days depending on humidity. I have a glass baking dish with a plastic lid for keeping things fresh; works great.

Notes: any gf flour blend will do, I use King Arthur blend.  You can use sliced or slivered almonds. Or no nuts! Tried it with both nuts and I prefer walnuts.  I think the walnuts add a hint of cherry flavor to the result. But great with no nuts too…

Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients

Fruit layer

4-5 cups rhubarb cut into ½ inch bits (I do 5 cups)

¾ cup sugar (could use up to a cup if you like it sweeter)

¼ cup tapioca starch (or cornstarch if you chose)

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

Topping

½ cup gf flour blend

1 cup gf rolled oats (not quick ones!)

½ cup light brown sugar

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ cup brown sugar, not packed

¼ cup butter, cold

½ cup walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the inside of 8×12 glass baking dish; any dish roughly that size will do. In a large mixing bowl dump all the dry ingredients; sugar, starch and cinnamon. Mix a bit; add rhubarb, mix well. Dump into baking dish.

Dump all dry ingredients left except nuts into the bowl of a stand mixer, blend briefly. Add butter which you have cut up into about 12 or more tiny bits; a few cuts with a knife do it quick. Blend a minute or so until you can’t see the butter. Add nuts. Pour over the rhubarb. Bake on middle shelf for 35 to 40 minutes; the thicker the layer of fruit is the longer it takes; you want it bubbling and the top lightly browned. Let cool at least 15 or 20 minutes.  Goes great with vanilla ice cream or plain Greek yogurt on top. Store with a tight lid on top. Enjoy! rhubarb crisp in dish

Rhubarb Custard Crumb Pie

This is my favorite rhubarb pie and my go to recipe for a great spring dessert.

This is an easy pie even though it has several steps.  It is different from the usual rhubarb pie because the texture is a bit closer to a crumb cake, no wet, slimy texture and no ultra sour flavor.  I think this version tastes even better than it did when I made it with wheat-based flour.  This GF crust will work for any pie and the GF crumb topping is perfect for any crumb pie topper.  What I am giving you is my mixture of three recipes with some small modifications over time to create one of my favorite GF pie recipes.  I know it has several steps, but each one is easy, and you can use these crust and crumb recipes for other pies.

I like it because it has a great texture, and the flavor is complex but subtly rhubarby.  It isn’t really soft or all that custardy but more cake-like in texture. It is a game changer of a rhubarb pie. I promise you that!

Angie’s GF Rhubarb Custard Pie

Crust:

1 c plus 1 tbsp brown rice flour mix (recipe for blend at bottom of pie 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

——————

Spray a 9-inch metal pie pan with cooking spray, dust with white rice flour. I must confess I forget this step a lot of the time and it doesn’t seem to matter much….

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of stand electric mixer.  Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.  Add egg and juice. Do not leave out the juice; it is critical to the crust texture and structure!  Mix until it comes together into big chunks.  Shape the sticky mess 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.

rhubarb

And make the crumbs while the crust ball chills:

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

Make the fruit Filling:

5 cups cut up fresh rhubarb – place in medium bowl

Mix with dry mix made of

2/3 – 1 c sugar (depends on how sweet you like your pie) I go with 2/3 cup

¼ c brown rice flour mix (see below recipe)

½ tsp nutmeg

Sprinkle cinnamon

Rolling out the bottom crust: My sister bought me one of those pie crust plastic bag thingies; has a zipper around the edge.  By OXO: I love it; it works better than wax paper which can get soft and tear as you roll out the crust.  King Arthur Flour sells an inexpensive one on line. I highly recommend you get the OXO version for making scratch pie crust.  Or maybe improvise with a sheet of heavy duty plastic! Strong enough to work with the rolling pin and better than wax paper.pie crust bag

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 dry rhubarb mix.  Pour the following wet mix evenly over this mixture: Wet mix: 3 eggs (171 grams) beaten lightly with 1/3 c milk (not skim), and ¼ tsp almond extract.

Sprinkle the top of the pie with the crumb mix; use as much as you like.  I like about 2/3-3/4 of the mixture.  Up to your personal taste… It sinks into the rhubarb and wet mixture to create an almost cake like texture and the crumb crust adds lots of sweetness and eye appeal.

Bake on the bottom shelf in a preheated 375-degree oven for 55-60 minutes until bubbly and the crust is light brown.  Cool at least 2 to 4 hours before serving at room temperature.

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur’s Basic GF Blend) [Not Measure for Measure or baking mix]
2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch

1/3 c tapioca flour

This post was originally published in the late spring of 2013.  I revised it somewhat since then.  I have made this pie many times in past years to rave reviews.  One of my friends had it for dessert at my house and said it was the best pie she had ever eaten, gluten free or not!  Spring is rhubarb season.  Go forth and make pie!

Gluten Free Graham Crackers – Easy Peasy

This post is for all of you who have bought gf graham crackers at the store; you pay double what regular grahams cost, get only half as much and they taste like actual cardboard. Just don’t. These homemade ones are super easy, no tricky or expensive ingredients, not even an egg so if you use vegan butter they will be vegan (other than the honey which I bet you could sub maple syrup in it; might need a bit more to get the right amount of liquid) and best of all, they are absolutely delicious!

You will want to eat them with tea, coffee or a glass of cold milk, not make crust out of them! No sawdust or cardboard flavor here. They are not overwhelmingly cinnaminy. [did I just make up a new word?] If you want that, add another half or whole teaspoon of cinnamon. Cheap, yummy and fun to make; let the kids prick them each 2-3 times with a dinner fork. Mine look like my grands made them; crooked edges and somewhat uneven; who cares; they are going into the blender tomorrow!

I found a couple of similar gf recipes and altered to suit my wishes. They make me happy as they are much cleaner than commercial stuff which can be full of preservatives or other ghastly crap. And I am not supporting a big GF baking company by paying a lot for nasty tasteless crackers.  You can do these! The dough is very forgiving.

Notes: you can use a measure for measure flour; just leave out the xanthan gum. Not sure if they will cook as fast. Check them frequently during the last 2-3 minutes.

I love these crackers for my Easter Cherry Sunrise Pie. Great for a chocolate pudding pie. Any recipe for a cookie crumbled up crust works great with these beauties. If you are baking them for that purpose bake them an extra minute or two and leave them out at least 24 hours to dry further. If they are fresh the crumbs will fuse together and sag making your crust top lower and once it cools it will be extra firm but it will still taste good. Enjoy!

GF Graham Crackers

Ingredients

1 ½ cups gf flour blend; I used King Arthur’s Basic GF blend – I’m guessing a number of blends will work

½ tsp xanthan gum – if your flour blend doesn’t have any in it

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp kosher salt (can cut in half if you use salted butter)

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 stick cold butter cut into small chunks

¼ cup honey

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3-4 Tbsp cold water

Directions: Mix all the dry ingredients in your stand mixer bowl until well blended. Add the butter chunks and blend with the beater attachment until well blended into tiny bits. Add honey, vanilla and 3 Tbsp cold water; stir; you will probably need that fourth Tbsp. of water to bring it into a cohesive dough. Be sure that the butter is fully blended in before stopping. Gather it into a ball and I sometimes put it in a plastic bag or even between the two sheets of parchment paper squashed down flat; it chills faster that way.  Chill a minimum of 30 minutes; an hour would be better. Unless you chill it the dough will be too sticky to work into a sheet of dough.

Tear off two sheets of parchment paper that will cover a large baking sheet or sided bake tray. Put the dough on one on a rolling surface and cover with the other sheet. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Use your rolling pin to roll it out to about 11×15 inches. Peel off the top sheet and use a pizza cutter or knife to cut the rolled-out dough into 3×2.5 inch rectangles; you should get about 24. Pick it up while still on the parchment and lay it on the baking tray. Poke each cookie 2-3 times with a dinner fork. Bake 14 minutes for softer cookies or 15 for more crisp which you want if  you are making crumbs for crust construction. I did 15 and I think 16 might be even crisper. Use the pizza cutter to go over those cuts again.  Leave on tray to cool for 10-12 minutes. Then slide the cookies off with a pancake turner onto a cooling rack and let cool completely. If you are going to grind them up for a graham cracker crust you should leave them sit out on the rack for 24 hours to crisp up. This is probably not going to work so great on a hot humid day… I use about ¾ of the cookies to make one crust; blend in blender and mix with ¼-1/3 cup melted butter, mix well; dump into pie pan and spread out to fill it. Bake at 375 degrees for about 12-15 minutes watching it closely. Let cool completely before filling. Enjoy!

Moravian Spice Cookies

Time to bake more cookies!

We all long for things familiar, things remembered from our childhood. Especially when it comes to cookies. In my family the holidays were framed by a huge array of fancy cookies, no chocolate chips or peanut butters for my relatives but we had spritz, springerle, butter horns, almond crescents, Russian tea cakes, candy cane cookies, and sugar cookies rolled, cut into Christmas shapes like trees, bells, stars or reindeer and sprinkled with fancy-colored sugars. So going gluten free meant finding ways to re-create the special cookies I loved. My first effort was the Russian or Mexican tea cakes, and the results were utterly delicious. Last year I made spritz cookies and they were a big hit. I have the newest cookbook by Annalise Roberts, “The Heirloom Collection” and so far, nothing has disappointed. If you like to bake gf it is a must purchase, not just for cookies but tarts and lots of other tasty treats.

Today I bring you her Moravian Spice Cookies. I chose them for many reasons – the memories of spicy cookies being foremost. I am blogging this recipe for a friend who avoids chocolate as well as gluten: makes it hard to find great cookies. I think you will love this cookie for its flavor and crisp texture. I live not far from Bethlehem which is the home base for the Moravian Church.  You can buy these cookies in the Moravian Book Shop but probably not gluten free.  So now those who can’t eat gluten can have them to enjoy this holiday season.  xmas cookies 007xmas cookies 005

You can cut them out in shapes but I found I liked to mostly make diamonds using a sharp knife. I did do some hearts and ornament shapes but it was tough going to get them off the wax paper and onto the baking sheet without distorting their original shape. You can take her advice and chill them further to facilitate the moving process.  I do love them any shape they are!

Moravian Spice Cookies

1 1/4 cup brown rice blend (recipe below)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
¾ tsp. xanthan gum
¼ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. butter or vegetable shortening (room temp)
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses

Directions: First combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl; mix well.
Beat shortening, brown sugar and molasses in your big mixer bowl until smooth, add flour mixture and blend until well combined. Shape dough into two disks, chill about 30 minutes, lay between two sheets of wax paper, roll into a very thin (1/8 inch thick) sheet. Cut into 2 inch or less shapes, move with spatula onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. If they are sticky and hard to lift up return the sheet to the freezer for a few minutes until they are stiff enough to move. Bake at 325 degrees for 8-11 minutes. Make sure they are fully baked or they won’t be crisp. Leave on the cookie sheet a minute before moving to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight cookie jar or tin.

Spicy and crisp. Great with a cup of coffee or tea! Annalise says you can reduce the spices for less zing; 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, ¾ tsp. ginger and ½ or less of cloves.
Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur GF flour)
2 c brown rice flour
2/3 c potato starch
1/3 c tapioca flour