gluten free baking

Apple Pan Dowdy, a Really Delish Dessert

If you don’t have quite enough apples for a pie you can make this quick and delish apple pan dowdy. It sounds very old fashioned and I think it is just that: old school yummy.  I believe the name comes from the messy way you create the final look; turning the crust under the hot fruit and baking again so that crust get finished as it soaks in the juices and your dessert becomes a bit more like an apple crisp than a pie. I believe my recipe came originally from a very old Betty Crocker cookbook.  I have adapted it to make it gluten free. Its one of my favorite quick fruit desserts for cold winter nights.

Dowdy means not very pretty, drab and this is a bit of a hot mess in its looks but the flavor is spicy, fruity and far more exciting than a plain apple pie. I think it has spoiled me from apple pie. Definitely worth a try.

I have made it with golden raisins, regular raisins or currents which are tiny raisins. All work great.

Please use a firm baking apple that will hold its shape for a decently long bake. I used yellow delicious this time. I have used a number of different baking apples for this; Rome, Braeburn work fine; just don’t use red delicious which is an eating only variety. Green granny smiths tend to be a bit too firm for this recipe while Empire apples get a bit too squishy and applesauce like. Most any other type of apple will do.

This might be my second favorite apple dessert; after my French apple tart that I make regularly; easy, fairly low sugar and oh so delightfully cinnamony and lemony at the same time.

apple pan dowdy

Messy but oh so tasty!

Apple Pan Dowdy

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

Butter the inside of a glass baking dish: I used a 9 inch glass pie pan.

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.

Filling:

1/3 cup golden or regular raisins

2 Tbsp. peach schnapps

5-6 large Golden Delicious apples

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

Heaping ½ tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Sprinkle ground cloves

1 tsp. lemon zest if you like

1 -2 tsp. softened butter

Directions: Put raisins in a small glass dish, add schnaps, microwave one minute on high. Let stand so the booze soaks into the raisins. Peel apples, cut in quarters, remove cores, cut each quarter into 4 or 5 slices. Place in a large mixing bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice.  Mix the dry ingredients in a cup; pour over the slices, toss with a big spoon; sprinkle with lemon zest if desired.

Pour the apple mixture into the glass pie pan that you had rubbed with soft butter. Get out the crust and roll it out; just slightly bigger than the top of your baking dish. Lay it on top of the apple slices and tuck in the edges so nothing hangs down over the edge.  Bake for 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Remove from oven, use a sharp knife to cut a cross hatch into the top (4 big cuts) so you end up with 9 pieces. Use a big serving spoon to gently tip up the crust and get it under some of the hot apples.  Don’t worry if it breaks up further or looks like a mess.  That’s part of its charm! Let bake 25 to 30 more minutes.  The crust (whatever peeks out of the messy fruit pieces) should be very lightly browned and the apples are bubbling. Let it rest a bit; don’t serve boiling hot but warm will be awesome.  Slice and top with a big dollop of vanilla ice cream, crème or yogurt if you like that sort of thing.  We ate it with ice cream and then the next time I had some plain – just my favorite way to appreciate the flavor and texture of this spicy treat. Enjoy!

Brown Rice Flour Mix (same as King Arthur basic gf blend)

2 c brown rice flour

2/3 c potato starch – not potato flour!

1/3 c tapioca flour

The crust recipe is from Annalise Roberts great cookbook, GF Baking Classics, Second Edition.

Date Pyramid Cookies: Delicious Pastry

These filled cookies called Klaicha have a center of chopped dates and a hint of butter and are fairly low in sugar and surprisingly tasty. After just 24 hours since they came out of the oven and cooled off, I think I am addicted. They are shaped a bit like tiny pyramids, you use a dinner fork to press on them on opposite sides to flatten them while creating ridges reminiscent of peanut butter cookies. The dough is made from buckwheat flour, brown rice flour, almond flour and tapioca flour with brown sugar and butter. Spiced a bit with cinnamon, cardamon and anise seeds which give it a subtle middle eastern flavor profile when combined with the date filling. They are Iranian in origin, and I have no idea how to pronounce the traditional name, so I am just calling them date pyramid cookies, no offence Iran! I like that there isn’t a ton of date in each cookie; my sister Margie used to make these tasty date bars but honestly, I always thought they had just way too much date; was an overwhelming flavor in my humble opinion. Date pyramid cookies; just the right amount and a pleasing hint of spice. Date cookie perfection.

I enjoy their slightly crunchy exterior and soft date center. I like that they are fairly low in sugar (the date filling sweetens them up a lot) and that Klaicha are made with whole grain flours for most part. Forming them is a bit of a task. Half way through I returned them to the fridge to harden the dough and stop it from being a sticky mess on my hands. That said, it didn’t take long to do all 25 of them. Definitely a keeper recipe for the flavor, the texture and the relatively low sugar.

KLAICHA DATE PYRAMID COOKIES

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup almond flour (not meal)

½ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup tapioca flour

¼ rounded tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cardamon

½-1 tsp. anise seeds

1 ½ tsp. xanthan gum

Pinch sea salt

9 Tbsp. room temp (firm) butter cut into 12-15 small pieces

½ cup brown sugar

5-7 Tbsp filtered water

Filling: 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. chopped dates, 1 ½ Tbsp butter

Directions: Put flours, spices, salt and gum in stand mixer bowl. Cut in butter with either the stand mixer paddle or a handheld butter cutter until butter is in tiny pebbles. Add sugar, blend. Add water as mixer turns slowly; a steady stream.  Use all of it or less; you want it to come together into a slightly crumbly dough. Chill 30-60 minutes. Mix dates and water in sauce pan; cook covered on low for 5-7 minutes until softened and butter blends in; stir frequently. Let cool.

Form cookies: a chunk the size of a large walnut formed into a ball, squash it down with your thumb or index finger; place 1 tsp date mix in that depression and push dough up to form it back into a ball. If you use too much date filling it will be very difficult to get the dough to wrap completely around the filling. Once done with that step, use a dinner fork to press on opposite sides of the ball to leave ridges on those two sides. Place on lightly sprayed baking sheet. I kinda gently scrunch them down so they have a flat bottom. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-32 minutes until light brown. The bottom of the cookies should be browned but not dark. Let them cool on the sheet. They get a bit crunchy by the time the cookies are fully cooled. I store mine in the cookie jar and a few in the freezer for when these run out…gf cookies rarely keep well so I always freeze some. Great with a cup of tea or coffee. I dare you to eat just one.

Christmas Stollen, 2.0….Even Better!

Gluten-Free Holiday Stollen Yield: two 10″ loaves

The classic Christmas stollen bread is made with yeast. Shush, 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 3 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!

Fig and Ricotta Cake, GF and Fabulous!

Figs, figs, figs! Enough to enjoy, not enough for making big batches of fig jam. I did make some sweet pickled figs in October and last week we enjoyed a lovely fig and sweet cheese galette. This time I went back to the best bake I ever have made with figs; the fig and ricotta cake. It is just so delish, I now call it THE Fig Cake. When I told my sister Karen I was making a fig cake she knew exactly which one; she and her hubby who is of Italian heritage loved it when I made it in September 2020 while visiting them and our mom for her big 100th birthday celebration. I made it about 3 weeks ago but last night I felt another ricotta cake was just the right way to use some of my last ripe figs from this season.

This recipe is a big favorite of Ina Garten; you can find it on her barefoot contessa website. I reworked it a tiny bit to make it gluten free. It has a lovely crumb and a delicate flavor that is delightful. I think this cake is definitely one I would like to try and make with other fresh fruit, cherries? Apricots? Plums? All seem like great possibilities.

You can use small figs like I did or get larger yellow ones. Which tastes better is definitely a personal decision! Dried ones will not work. I think orange zest might be a delicious substitution for lemon zest. I think you can use any cup for cup gf flour as long as it is meant for direct substitution in recipes.

Don’t forget to let the eggs and all dairy items come to close to room temp; cold from the fridge is not good for gf baking. DO not underbake the cake; the center needs to look firm not squishy. Better to bake 5 more minutes than have a soggy center.

I think this cake tastes great warm but once it is cool it is still delish; you can warm slices briefly in the microwave before serving; I did this once and loved it.

brown turkey figs just picked

Fig and Ricotta Cake

Mixing up a storm of yumminess!
ready for figs!

Ingredients:

10 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 extra large eggs; I just picked the three largest in my dozen large eggs

1 cup whole milk ricotta; also at room temp.

2 Tbsp. sour cream; room temp.

1 Tsp. vanilla extract

½-1 Tsp. fresh grated lemon zest

1 ¼ cups Bob’s Red Mill One for One Gluten Free flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 Tsp. kosher salt

8 large or 12 medium figs, stems removed! Quarter if large, halve if smaller

1 Tbsp. coarse sugar or finishing sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter and flour a 8 inch removable bottom round cake pan. Tap out excess flour.

Beat butter and sugar in stand mixer at medium speed for 3 minutes, scrape down as needed. Until it is fluffy. Then add eggs one at a time, beating well between eggs.  Add ricotta, sour cream, vanilla, zest and mix until smooth. Mix dry ingredients in small bowl and add in thirds, mixing well between additions. Pour into prepared cake pan. Place figs, cut side up in pan; I started with a ring around the outside and worked my way inside pressing them in a bit. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 40-48 minutes until a cake tester in center comes out clean. I did 46 minutes. The top should be browned but not really dark.  Cool on a rack for 15-20 minutes before removing side panel. Serve warm with whipped cream, crème fraiche or ice cream. I actually like it best plain so I can focus on the amazing flavors and texture. Enjoy!

This is a re-blogging of the recipe first published by my blog in Sept, 2020. Minor text changes and some new photos. Recipe unchanged.

Peach Custard Pie with Cinnamon Crumble Crust

Hey, it is STILL peach season!! But not for long and those last peaches tend to be less than the best…so get baking now! This recipe is a translation of a pie made with all purpose flour that I saw somewhere, an adaptation of a Good Housekeeping recipe to make it gluten free and with cinnamon crumbs. I used my favorite gf crust and the crumbs I use: with the addition of cinnamon in the crumbs. I don’t know why I never added cinnamon before; it was inspired I guess by this recipe. We enjoyed it yesterday afternoon, still warm from the oven. I actually like it even better today after 24 hours. It is so very peaches and cream! Just a lovely classic combination. Years ago I made a peach cheese tart which was delish but has less peaches and that is made with cream cheese. This creamy filling is a simple mixture of plain Greek yogurt, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla which is healthish by the nature of the yogurt. I froze the egg whites for angel food cake this fall. The construction is very easy; no fancy decorating. Just a treat to eat, no need for ice cream; the cream is in there!

Notes: I used a lot of crumbs; you can cut back to half that recipe of crumbs if you like. I suppose you could use canned peaches but I wouldn’t unless it was the dead of winter…. I doesn’t look like much when you put it in the oven to do the first bake but man, it sure does get pretty with the crumbs on top. Nectarines would be n ice; no peeling required. Enjoy!

Peach pie, no crumbs, before first baking
Hot out of oven, just starting to put crumbs on.
All crumbed up and ready to bake.
Wow; that’s a lot of crumbs; we love it that way but you could use far less if you wanted; even just a cup of crumbs…

Angie’s Peach Custard 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 large 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 prepare the filling.

Filling:

3 1/2 cups sliced fresh peaches, peeled and cut in half inch slices

Mix in a medium bowl the following ingredients:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt, I prefer whole milk, and let it warm up a bit first

2/3 -3/4 cup sugar, sweeter if you like it that way or if peaches are not fully ripe

3 egg yolks, room temp.

1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup brown rice mixture flour

Crumb topping

¾ c brown rice flour mix

½ c sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

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

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Directions: Turn oven on to 425 degrees. Put the oven rack on the bottom shelf position. Once the crust is chilled some but not hard, Roll it out and fit into the pie shell. Trim off excess crust. I like to chill those crumbs of crust and roll out to make a jam filled hand pie. Anyway, put the sliced peaches in the pie shell in a fairly even layer, as the filling and crumbs will hide it there is no need for a pretty design. Then pour the filling over it and bake for 30 minutes. I turned down my oven to 375 after 20 minutes. I am considering lowering the temp to start at to 400 degrees; my crust edges got too browned for my liking. While it bakes those 30 minutes make the crumbs. Carefully remove the pie from the oven and sprinkle the top of the pie with crumb mix;  I used all of it but you could use a bit less if you don’t want a thick crumb layer. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes until crumbs are browned. Let stand at least 1 to 11/2 hours before slicing and serving. Enjoy!

Thickly crumbed, still warm and lush with fresh peach flavor and that creamy filling all around and in every bite!