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Christmas Stollen, 2.0…Even Better!

Gluten-Free Holiday Stollen Yield: two 10″ loaves

The classic Christmas stollen bread is made with yeast. So don’t tell your gluten eating friends that this quicker, easier gluten-free version, made with baking powder as the rising agent, is even tastier in my humble opinion. Filled with dried fruit and toasted almonds and covered with a layer of melted butter and powdered sugar, this is more like pastry and is delicious with a cup of coffee or tea. Great choice for when company is coming as it isn’t that much work or time needed to create this masterpiece. Everyone will think you slaved all day to bake it. No need to tell them how easy it is! Its origins are Germanic but it isn’t heavy or dry; flaky and tender, pastry perfection. If you are searching for the perfect gluten free holiday treat; look no further. I cannot say enough good things about this treat. It is loved by all, and that second loaf makes a wonderful gift. I am looking forward to enjoying stollen this afternoon; in the oven baking right now!

I first made it about 6 years ago, lost the recipe; had to get it again from the King Arthur Flour’s web site customer service center as they had removed it from their recipe rotation. They said it needed some tweaking. I disagree, it is just delectable although shaping it can be rather messy. It is far easier made without yeast which adds steps and can be finicky. I frankly don’t miss the yeast like I once thought I would. This dough is very tender and flavorful, I have been known to eat leftover tidbits raw it is that tasty. My family adores this pastry treat and will do nefarious things to get more stollen at Christmastime.

Notes: You could use orange rind instead of lemon rind and the dried fruit selection is entirely up to your tastes or your pantry. If you dislike the raisins substitute more dried fruit. One more good thing; it doesn’t require aging like a fruit cake. As soon as it cools you can cut a fat piece and enjoy a slice of heaven on earth!

Adding the butter
Butter is now integrated into dough using pastry cutter

Dough

2 1/4 cups King Arthur basic blend Gluten-Free Flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt*

3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) cold butter

3/4 cup ricotta cheese, part-skim milk type, let warm a bit to get it close to room temp. Can use whole milk ricotta if that is what you have.

2 large eggs, room temp

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Grated rind of 1 small lemon; or 1/4 teaspoon lemon oil, or 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup of your favorite dried fruits, chopped to 1/2″ pieces Yes, dried, not fresh. (I do apricots, cherries, currents, raisins or peaches/pears)

1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted and cooled

—————

*Reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon if you use salted butter.

dried fruit and citrus zest

Topping

the dried fruit is mixed in!

Adding the toasted almonds
Adding the wet mixture into the dry dough
formed stollen ready to bake
baked and powdered
More powdered sugar sprinkled on using a sieve

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with

parchment.

2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum in a mixing bowl.

3. Cut the cold butter into small chunks, then blend it into the flour mixture to form uneven crumbs.

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the cheese, eggs, vanilla, and flavors.

5. Toss the fruit and almonds with the flour mixture until evenly distributed. Then combine the wet and dry ingredients, mixing until most of the flour is

moistened.

6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it two or three times, until it holds together. Divide it in half.

7. Pat each piece of dough into an 8″ x 7″ oval about 1/2″ thick.

8. Fold each piece of dough roughly in half, leaving the edge of the top half about 1/2″ short of the edge of the bottom half. Should you fold the long way, or the short way? The long way will give you a longer, narrower stollen, with shorter slices; folding the short way will give you a wider, fatter stollen, with longer slices.  I do the long way, your choice.

9. Use the edge of your hand to press the dough to seal about 1″ in back of the open edge; this will make the traditional stollen shape. It’s also the familiar Parker House roll shape, if you’ve ever made them. The dough will probably crack; that’s OK, just smooth it out as best you can.

10. Carefully place the shaped stollen on the prepared baking sheet.

11. Bake the stollen until they’re very lightly browned around the edges and on top, about 40 minutes. A cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean.

12. Remove the stollen from the oven, and transfer them to a rack. Brush them each with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle heavily with confectioners’ sugar.

13. Allow the stollen to cool, then brush with butter again, and sprinkle with sugar again. Wrap in plastic wrap until ready to serve; serve within a week. If desired, sprinkle with additional sugar just before serving.

14. Yield: two 1-pound stollen loaves. I like to freeze one for another occasion if I am not gifting it right away. Enjoy!

Baked Penne with Sausage

This post got delayed for some reasons I won’t get into; so here it is 2 weeks later. If you get tired of turkey you might want to make this tasty casserole to warm you on a cold fall evening.

Getting chilly this weekend; time for a classic baked entree with a few twists. I kind of thought this recipe was already on my site but nope. I made some for supper tonight and it was delicious, fairly simple to put together and somewhat healthy. You can leave out the mushrooms if you don’t like them, but I love them with the sausage and tomato sauce. I had penne instead of ziti so that’s what went into this recipe. I actually like it better; smaller tubes are better in my opinion. I used a 32 ounce jar of marinara sauce; so much quicker and it was pretty good tasting sauce. This recipe made a big casserole of hearty yumminess! Enjoy.

This is the inside of the casserole as I build it up; just added fried onions on top of ricotta cheese mixture which is on top of pasta and sauce. Rough layers, sort of like lasagna.
Some on a plate before I devour it! I like the penne; ziti is too big in my opinion. This is good tasting comfort food.

Angie’s Baked Penne with Sausage

Ingredients:

1 12 oz box of gf penne (It is not 16 ounce like wheat flour pasta)

1 package of Italian sausage; 5 of them were in my package

1 24 ounce jar of basil spaghetti sauce

1 Tbsp. EVOL

Olive oil gf Cooking spray

1 Tsp each of dried basil and oregano

1 medium onion, diced fine

2 garlic cloves minced

an 8 ounce rectangular package of mozzarella cheese (I find this at Aldi’s and the price is great there too!)

8 ounce can of sliced mushrooms

15 ounce container of ricotta cheese, preferable whole milk

2 large eggs

1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1 Tsp. dried parsely

3 sliced scallions

Directions:

Heat a medium saucepan of well salted water. While it heats put a medium frying pan on to heat; spray it first with olive oil cooking spray. I cooked it about 15 minutes until fairly done; turned it over 3-4 times – every 2 minutes I turned them. Once browned I added 3-4 Tbsp water to help it cook. Cook until 150 degrees inside. Let cool and then slice.

Pour the dried pasta into the boiling salted water. Cook to 2 minutes less than package says. Drain.

Once the sausage comes out of the pan add 1 Tbsp. EVOL and then the finely chopped onions, cook 3-4 minutes until softened. Add minced garlic and cook on low for 1 minute. Pour some of the jarred sauce into the baking dish to just cover the bottom. I used an ovel 2 quart dish with 4 inch sides. Add the basil, oregano, scallions and cooked onion/garlic to the open jar of sauce; stir with a long-handled spoon until mixed in.

Start oven heating – 375 degrees. Mid oven rack. Spray a 2 quart baking dish with cooking spray.

Pour ricotta cheese into a medium mixing bowl. Add 2 eggs, dried parsley and grated parmesan cheese, mix well. Grate half the bar of mozzarella cheese with the coarse side of your grater. Slice the other half with a sharp paring knife into 1/4 inch rectangles.

Put 1/3 of the cooked penne in on top of the sauce, top with half the sausage coins, half the jar of mushrooms and then half of the ricotta cheese mixture, the grated mozzarella and a 1/4 of the tomato sauce. then add 1/3 of the penne, then the rest of the coins, the rest of the mushrooms and top with the ricotta cheese mixture and the rest of the tomato sauce Top with the sliced mozzarella. Bake 50 minutes until it is bubbling and hot. Let cool 10-15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Dutch Apple Crumb Pie

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

I used just golden delicious apples in this most recent apple pie, and they were apple perfection, held 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.

I used a Bob’s Redmill GF crust mix someone gave me; 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 did use my homemade crumbs. They are 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 crust bake fully.

Each step is fairly easy but the results are spectacular.  Of course, you could buy a readymade unbaked crust but this crust I 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. 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 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. Mix in a large bowl with:

¼ cup 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)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Heap in pie crust.

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

Finishing directions: Sprinkle the top of the pie with crumb mix; use as much as you like.  I like about 2/3 of the mixture.  Up to your personal taste…  Bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for 55-60 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 10-29-23.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Brown Butter Sage Sauce

I made this dish early last week and just loved how it came out; fresh pasta filled with a ricotta and pumpkin mixture and served in brown butter full of sage leaves. Fall on a plate! I made maple flavored breakfast sausage to serve with these raviolis and the maple sausage went perfectly with the pumpkin flavor.

The dough is very basic; 2 ingredients, King Arthur basic GF flour and whole large eggs plus a sprinkle of salt. It is pretty close to Annalise Roberts’ pasta dough. Her recipes are the best; my copies are well worn! I have a pasta roller attachment to my KitchenAide stand mixer and it works very nicely to do the rolling out of fresh pasta dough. GF dough needs no rest period. I did let mine stand while I ran an errand. The first two passes through the machine were crumbly and ragged. Run it at least 3 times; more likely 4 through the pasta machine until it gets smooth and no longer has rag edges; I actually cut off the edges on the second run through and folded them in to give a neater edge. Do flour the dough between passes through. You don’t want it sticking. after 4 passes this dough was silky smooth and pliant; perfect for ravioli making!

The filling is also very simple; 2 main ingredients; pumpkin puree and ricotta cheese. I used canned puree as I had an open can and I had part skim ricotta; you can use whole milk ricotta if you have some. A sprinkle of nutmeg and there you have it; a quick yet delicious filling for your ravioli.

Pumpkin Ricotta Ravioli and Brown Butter Sage Sauce.

Ingredients

Pasta:

1 1/2 cups King Arthur Basic GF flour blend plus more for rolling out

3/4 -1 Tsp. xanthan gum

3 large eggs

a sprinkle of sea salt

Filling:

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup ricotta

a pinch of salt

1/4 rounded tsp. of ground nutmeg.

Sauce:

3-4 Tbsp. salted butter

7-10 fresh sage leaves

DIRECTIONS: Put the flour in a big bowl, sprinkle with salt and gum, made a depression in the center; and add the eggs. Stir with a fork pulling in flour to the soft mixture. Try to integrate all the flour into the egg mixture. Hand knead for a few moments to make sure it is a smooth mixture. If you are not using it immediately wrap it in plastic to keep it moist.

Roll it out; I cut mine into 6 chunks and flattened them as I used that chunk; flatten so it will feed into your pasta machine. feed it through 2-4 times folding it between each run so it is like a square/rectangle. This is at the fattest setting of your machine. Lower the setting to the next thinner one and run it through once or twice. I lay mine out on plastic cutting boards as I roll them all once and then at the next setting. I stopped there; if you want thinner pasta lower the setting and run through just once.

Mix the ricotta and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl, add nutmeg and salt and mix again briefly. Drop a scant tablespoon of filling (might be closer to 2 teaspoons) on one side every 3-4 inches. I use a small bowl of water and my finger dipped in it to run around where the dough will be cut. Fold over the dough; press the edges gently trying not to trap air inside the ravioli. I have a ripple edged cutting wheel. Use it or a knife to cut the dough to form individual ravioli.

Heat a pot of salted water to a slow rolling boil. Drop in 4-6 ravioli at a time. I cooked mine 3 minutes. Don’t let it boil once they’re in; almost boil is where you want the water to be. Make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan, I used a spatula to dislodge any that were sticking. They will rise up to the surface. Use a slotted spoon to remove them and put them in a wide low bowl while you continue to cook ravioli.

While they cook make the sauce. Put a small frying pan on to heat. Add the butter cut into 3-4 slices. Watch it melt (on medium heat) and look for it to color; add sage leaves to butter once it starts to brown a bit. Let cook until medium brown and remove from heat; that will take less than a minute; stay right there watching it, better you turn off a tiny bit early than it gets burnt. Pour over bowl of cooked ravioli and serve. Enjoy!

Summer Tomato Soup with Spaetzle

Summer always is tomato time around here.  But it’s now officially autumn and this day is distinctly chilly. I still have a few nice tomatoes, so I made my homemade tomato soup but added something special to it. Spaetzle; skinny egg dumplings which my mom made free form and tossed in her tomato soup often served for Saturday lunch. I got a lovely spaetzle maker for Christmas which I had not used too much yet and so I decided that I would try to replicate my mom’s luncheon soup. You don’t have to make spaetzles, but I highly recommend them. They really shine in the soup’s rich flavor; they are delicate and delicious.

I generally make Ina Garten’s tomato soup recipe but simplified a tad.  I made it today without the cream; I don’t think it goes as well with the spaetzles. So, if you don’t make spaetzles and don’t like it creamy leave out the cream or use half and half or whole milk for less calories.  If you are a vegetarian use veggie broth instead of chicken broth. I actually did half of each type of broth today as I had nearly a cup of veggie broth to use up.  You can strain or blend the soup. I never strain but sometimes I use my immersion blender to make it smoother. But I generally prefer it unstrained and chunky. Note: It has a good amount of garlic which you can reduce as wished.  I cut back on the salt, but you can cut it even further as you wish.

Your family will love this soup with a sandwich or salad. It is naturally gluten free.  GF croutons would bring a lovely crunch to it if you have any and aren’t doing the spaetzle dumplings. Enjoy!

See my trusty spaetzle maker in action! Notice how thick the dough is,

 

Just after I added the dumplings and before I put the lid on for their 5 minute beauty bath.

 

Fresh Tomato Soup with Spaetzles

Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped red or yellow onions (2 onions)
2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5-6 large)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves

2-3 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream/half and half or whole milk (optional)

Spaetzle Ingredients

1 large egg

100 grams of Better Batter gf flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4-1/3 cup 2 percent milk ( I believe I used a full 1/3 cup)

Soup Directions
Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and sauté for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well. Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender.

Or: use your Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker to make it; saute as per recipe in the pot, add the rest of the ingredients and put the lid on and cook under pressure 20 minutes.  You might have to blend it a bit with an immersion blender. I sometimes leave off the cream but my next paragraph is how to add that….

Spaetzles:  Beat the egg with a whisk in a medium mixing bowl. Add in the milk and then the salt mixed with the flour, Stir briefly until you have a very thick batter. Use a spaetzle maker to drop the dough in strands into the hot soup; I added it about 6-8 minutes before the soup was supposed to be done. I cooked it 5 minutes once all the dumplings were in and turned off the heat; let it stand 10 minutes. 

Thick, chunky and fragrant with EVOL and fresh basil as well as the ripe tomatoes. Heavenly.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cream-of-fresh-tomato-soup-recipe.

Original post of this was way back in the summer of 2014.  Minor changes and addition in this recipe of the spaetzle dumplings. Enjoy!