baking

Gluten Free Granola to Grin Over!

I recently purchased some gluten free granola that Aldi’s sells; their own brand.  It had freeze dried bits of strawberries and raspberries in it.  I ate some last night as a snack, covered with milk.  It was okay but really kinda pale and bland.  I had not planned to re-post my granola recipe so soon but I really think you can make your own gf granola so easily that it is almost criminal to buy the blah, teeth breaking stuff that stores carry for a premium price.  So I am reposting my recipe.  I myself seldom add much fruit to it; it has so much flavor and crunch just as it is that it rarely occurs to me to throw in the dried fruit.  If you are a dried fruit lover; by all means, add it in!  Image

Finding decently tasty and safe-for-me granola seemed impossible once I went gluten free. I have tried a few gf kinds and they were all less than impressive: tough, lacking in flavor and devoid of any fruit. So, in desperation, I took the recipe that my sister makes all the time and modified it slightly. You can change it to suit your pantry and your tastes. It is lovely with milk and frankly divine sprinkled on Greek yogurt or over unsweetened applesauce!

Homemade GF Granola

4 cups old fashioned GF rolled oats

2 cups shredded coconut, (the sweetened kind that comes in a bag)

1 cup sliced almonds or broken pecans/walnuts

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

¾ cup canola oil

½ cup good quality honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the oil and honey in a small bowl. Mix the four other ingredients in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Pour over the oil/honey and mix well. Pour onto a full size sheet cookie tray (one that has sides). Spread out to fill the sheet. Bake 35 to 45 minutes, stirring it up a few times, until it is an even golden brown. Remove tray from oven and cool, stirring it occasionally. Store in an airtight container. Note: if you don’t care for sunflower seeds use 2 cups of nuts in any proportion you like.  Be sure to get decent quality honey, I like to get mine at Bechdolt’s Orchard just south of Hellertown on Route 412.  Great flavor and it is the real deal, not watered down or adulterated.

Fruit Additives:

Any combination of the following in these or your own proportions:

1 cup each, diced dried apricots, raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, roasted unsalted cashews or any other dried fruit (figs and dates come to mind) totaling about 4 cups. I like to store it without fruit and add them when I am eating it. This way it stays crunchy. I had some this morning with sliced bananas and milk, just a bit of dried cherries added: fabulous flavor.  This batch was made with pecans but any nuts would work well.

I made a batch early this week and put some in a sturdy Tupperware container and froze it. I am not sure how many weeks it will keep on the counter without preservatives but honestly, if real deal granola is sitting around I will be compelled to munch it so I felt it best to store half safely in the freezer out of easy reach! It is rather addictive even all by itself.

Of course, you who can eat gluten just use any old fashioned oatmeal and you will have a fantastic granola for your family to crunch on. Far better than any you can buy and not that expensive compared to store granola especially if you leave off some of the added fruits and nuts. So whip up some granola, it is easy and wickedly tasty.

I found that it kept well in a sealed jar and the rest of it froze fantastically. After my original posting I read somewhere that freezing half your batch is a good idea as it will go stale even stored in a lidded jar.

Originally posted January 2014 on Patch. 

A Lemony Dessert to Remember…… Meyer Lemon Love!

This week my friend Josh bought some special lemons at Trader Joe’s in Montgomery county.  I was filled with envy, lemon envy to be exact!  He inspired me to post on these very lemons, Meyer Lemons.

My brother Robert lives in Texas, below Houston.  He had a good sized lemon tree in his yard and every December for the past few years he has sent me a box of lemons. Meyer lemons to be exact.  They are a cross between a lemon and an orange.  The fruit looks very much like a lemon but the flavor is much sweeter and they have a gorgeous fragrance that is hugely appealing.

When I received the first box I was at a momentary loss.  What to do with a dozen lemons!  I went to Food Network and looked under Meyer lemon.  I found a few items and the best of them was this lemony tart.  It is very simple; dump all the filling ingredients into a mixing bowl, spin them up good with a hand mixer and pour carefully into a partially cooked and cooled tart crust, bake some more, chill and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.  Real whipped cream, none of that funky canned stuff!   Image

Sometimes I make it in my long rectangular tart pan.  I like to put 3-4 thin slices of Meyer lemon down the tart as decoration.  Robert sometimes puts in fresh lemon leaves with his fruits and they are also a nice tart decoration.

This filling is made with buttermilk, which has a bad reputation with some.  Don’t be put off by that, when you bite into this tangy tart you would never know that it is based in buttermilk.  It is well blended and the addition of the lemon zest takes it to a higher level in flavor.  You will not be disappointed in this easy to make dessert.

I had no trouble making it gluten free; the tart shell is from my favorite cookbook by Annalise Roberts.  I swapped out the all purpose flour in the filling for sweet rice flour.  Perfect!

 

Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Tart

Ingredients:

1 9 inch Un-baked Tart Crust

Filling

¾ cup buttermilk

½ cup granulated sugar

2 lg. eggs

6 tbsp. Meyer lemon juice

2 tbsp sweet rice flour

2 tbsp finely grated Meyer lemon peel

————-

Preparation:

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake 9-10 inch tart crust for 10 min

Cool at least ten minutes before filling

Mix all filling ingredients in a mixing bowl until smooth.  Pour into crust and bake at 325 for 25-30 min; until set.  Cool completely and refrigerate until chilled.  Can decorate tart with thin slices of Meyer lemon tart.

 

Topping:

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp powdered sugar

Beat cream, add powdered sugar.  Serve a dollop with each slice of tart.  It is okay without the topping but it really sparkles with lemon when you have the contrast of the whipped cream.

So, if you get your hands upon some Meyer lemons please make this recipe.  I promise you will love it for both the delicate flavor and the easy preparation.  Anyone who likes lemon will be in love once they bite into this tart!

A Spring Pie to Remember and Pretty Easy Too!

ImageToday is Easter, the day of baked ham, chocolate candies and hardboiled eggs… We did the ham, the toddler had some chocolate and we enjoyed doing an egg hunt for him after lunch. But, I wanted the lunch dessert to be special yet not too heavy or fattening.  I wanted an attractive pie, with fruit in it and was hoping to make something easy.  A tall bill to fill for sure.  Upon some reflection I remembered a family dessert from a few years ago.  I am not sure why I stopped baking it other than I am gluten free and my dieting sisters balk at heavy cream in any recipe.  It was not that fattening if you look at just a slice, not the whole cup of cream in the pie! 

It has to have a gluten free crust for me but if you are making it for the wheat eating public there are redi-made crusts out there that will make this so simple

My sisters forked it down as they are cherry lovers, my aging mom ate every scrap and the kids were happy to eat large slices.   So I thought I should share it, you can make it anytime you want an easy company dessert.  

I like it in the spring, seems somehow appropriate and there isn’t much fresh fruit available to make a decent pie.  You could make it the night before or early in the morning. I did it this morning before church and it was chilled enough to eat by 1 pm. 

Cherry Sunrise Pie

One pie crust: I made mine from an 8 oz box of gluten free graham crackers crushed and mixed with 1/3 cup melted butter and pressed gently into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9 or 10 minutes.  Let cool completely before filling. I made mine the night before.

Ingredients for filling

18 or 19 oz can of crushed pineapple in own juice

1 21 oz can of cherry pie filling

1 8 oz pkg light cream cheese, room temp.

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup powdered sugar

Directions

Drain the pineapple for 20 min; save the juice!  I used my microwave to gently warm the cream cheese. I unwrapped it and placed the cold slab on a small plate and warmed it on a very low heat until supple and smooth.  Dump in a mixing bowl, add 2 tbsp pineapple juice, the vanilla, 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, ½ cup cherry pie filling.  If you are smart you will mostly use the goopy stuff and not too many cherries.  Save them for on top! Next, stir this all together really well. 

Then whip the chilled heavy cream in a separate bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, add powdered sugar and mix well with the mixer; be careful not to over beat it.  If it gets clumpy you went too far.  Fold this into the cream cheese mix until it isn’t streaky with white areas.

Gently spoon the filling into the pie shell, spread it out to fill the entire bottom.  I used a spoonula (blend of spoon and spatula) and smooth the top with a flat cake spatula.  I like to leave a sort of tiny ridge on the outer edge to keep the pineapple from spilling out onto the crust.  Then carefully pour the rest of the cherry pie filling in the center spreading it to cover ¾ of the top from the center out.  Finally, use a spoon to put clumps of pineapple around the outer rim of the cherry filling.  Chill at least 2 hours, preferably 4.  Cut and slice. No adornments are needed.

It has a light fluffy consistency and it isn’t that sweet.  Great to top off a big meal; not too filling and the fresh fruity taste is a spring treat.  Try it soon and you will be giving the recipe out afterwards!

Eeek my GF Sibling is Visiting and I Have no Clue!

It may seem daunting to make dinner for a friend who is gluten free. What can you make? How can you do that in your kitchen? I want to give you some basic advice for such a situation so you won’t feel too stressed out about it. I wrote this for my sisters and a friend who wanted to cook a meal for me last summer. Image

First, I suggest you make sure your pots/pans/cutting boards/knives/baking dishes are very clean; if you have a dishwasher run them through. Any small bit of wheat flour can be a problem so scrub up good! Especially colanders that had wheat pasta in; it sticks in the tiny holes. If you are planning on cooking GF often you should have a colander dedicated for GF usage.

Planning is everything when you are entertaining. Good menu choices for sides: anything with potatoes or rice or corn as the star is generally okay. You should check that your GF friend doesn’t have any other allergies -like to corn or dairy. Unfortunately, that is fairly common for GF individuals. So ask before you plan a menu. Also acceptable for sides are quinoa, a wide variety of beans or polenta which is made with corn. There are lots of GF pastas out there; you can make enough for everyone or just enough GF for the person who must have it. In the summer you can serve a variety of tasty salads or picnic side dishes: rice salad, potato salad, baked beans, pickled eggs and deviled eggs. If you grill do clean the grill well in advance just in case something wheaty was on it (some bbq sauces have wheat in them as a thickener). If you buy a rice mix at the supermarket check it for a GF label; a lot of seasoning packets have wheat in them. Zatarians marks which of their mixes are GF.

If your recipe for scalloped potatoes has flour in it; replace it with white rice flour, it works fairly interchangeably for thickening sauces, flouring fish fillets or meat, or for making gravy. You can buy GF bread crumbs although I personally prefer to grind up left over GF bread and freeze the crumbs. You can buy rice flour in most supermarkets and health food stores these days. Chinese grocery stores sell it too. Supermarkets have a GF area where you can find crackers, hamburger buns and a decent variety of foods to help create your meal.

Some on line resources you can check out while planning a GF meal include: http://glutenfreeresourcedirectory.com/uid/4df6c6a2-2750-4966-a17d-540b30b115c5 Also, http://celiaccentral.wordpress.com/ or: http://www.celiac.com/. There are lots of sites with GF recipes; even food.com and foodnetwork.com have gluten free recipes you can chose from.

For desserts you can always serve fresh fruit, puddings, ice cream (no cookies with cream or cookie dough ice cream!), sorbet or ices. If you want to bake a dessert there are lots of great GF recipes out there; cookies and cakes translate well to GF, sometimes tasting even better than their wheat counterparts. I put up a pie recipe a few weeks ago; the crust and crumb portions from that recipe will make a great fruit pie; just use tapioca, cornstarch or white rice flour for thickening the fruit filling of your choice. The grocery stores GF section carries cake mixes and cookie mixes so you can make a quick and tasty dessert. There are lots of recipes for flourless chocolate cake which is a chocoholics dream! And you can get GF graham crackers to make a cheese cake crust that is safe for us celiacs. Use the above mentioned flour alternatives if any wheat flour is in your cheesecake recipe as a thickener. I just got some ice cream cones that are GF. Great snack choice if your company includes little kids. There are many tasty GF dessert choices for a minimum of effort.

Honestly, you can easily make a lovely tasting meal that will be safe for your celiac friend(s). It just takes some planning and extra care in the kitchen. Step one is planning a tasty GF meal, two is purchasing GF ingredients, three is making sure the utensils and surfaces are really cleaned up well so no wheat clings anywhere, four is cooking your meal components safely in a wheat free environment and step five is relaxing with friends enjoying the delicious GF meal you lovingly prepared for your company. So, don’t hesitate when you find out someone you love is now GF. You can make a great meal without totally stressing out about how to make your food all GF. It’s as easy as one, two, three, four, five!

Originally posted in July 2013.

Wheaty Snacks Abounding…What is a GF Girl to Do?

Image      So here I am, 12 weeks GF. Every day I have to actually think about how I will eat, meaning plan meals. I can’t just grab a HotPocket and a yogurt and run out the door. I have to plan my lunches so I have a decent GF lunch. And in the scheme of things, this doubles the stress of getting ready for work on days when I have no leftovers from the night before to take for lunch. So…I am forced to plan or accept whatever I might find at the lunchroom where ever I am that day. And elementary schools are not known for their healthful and GF fare!

Worse yet, the faculty rooms are often a place of temptation. Big plastic jars of pretzels, tins of chocolate chip cookies, donut boxes crammed full of sweet sticky wheaty donuts. Oh MY! Lunches and celebrations abound in the workplace. Some days I have to just turn around and leave as I can’t stay in the same room with the smell of those yummies. It is okay sometimes but other moments I can’t be in that space with those things I used to eat but no longer can. I take a GF muffin or breakfast cookie to school every day so I have a safe snack choice.

Volunteering can be a really positive thing in one’s life. I volunteer at my local library- this time every week is very enjoyable. But even there the specter of temptation rears its ugly head! During the 20th Birthday Celebration there are goodies to enjoy. Not for me! I urge others to eat them. Get them gone so I won’t keep staring at their tastiness….

Church gatherings are full of wheaty treats. I have been to events where a long, long table of baked goods beckoned to me. Not one thing I could consume. I am resolved that I must bake GF goodies for such events if I want a treat. So that will be my solution: more baking but GF from now on. Frankly GF cookies are so good no one will even know they are GF!

Visiting friends is another source of temptation. Of course, their countertops are the location of boxes of crackers, cookies and other wheat filled treats that are off limits for me. I think I will need to bring a GF treat in my purse so I can eat that when the lure of the treats causes a dangerous crack in my resolve….

There is a family wedding this weekend that I am looking forward to and I got in touch with the bride to find out what I could eat at her reception. Most of the meal looks safe for me. I will cross my fingers that the food is not contaminated by any wheat flour. But, no wedding cupcakes for me! I am bringing a GF vanilla cupcate of my own to celebrate this special day for Lisa and Mike.

I am planning a trip to visit friends and family up in New England. We normally eat some meals out and have a big family dinner party. This year it is a bit different in that the planning must include discussions on what I can eat and where I can eat it. A favorite restaurant we used to go to does not have a GF menu so it was passed by in our planning. I will be making some bread to take up with me and I plan to bring a baggie of GF baked snacks so I have something safe to gobble up when hunger strikes at 3 am!

Don’t get me wrong, traveling GF is not scary or impossible but it does seem that planning will help me avoid bad situations like that 3 am brownie craving and nothing I can eat in the house. Plus I am hoping my sisters do not leave wheaty treats about to tempt me but never fear: I will be ready with my bag of GF treats to satisfy any hunger pangs and late night cravings. Planning is everything when you are GF….

Now, I am going to eat a totally yummy GF vanilla cupcake, frankly even better than my cupcakes used to be. And so much safer for my tummy!

Originally published May 17, 2013.  Update coming this weekend!!Image