I don’t buy redi-made mixes that often, in fact I have never bought a gf biscuit mix except these. These were from Aldi’s; a fav hangout! Cheddar cheese biscuits in the orange and blue box. This was my third time making them.
You add water, quarter cup oil and a third of a cup of grated cheese, stir and it becomes this slightly weird fluffy white stuff that looks more like cotton batting than anything else. Next, plop big clumps of this fluffy mixture onto a parchment paper lined (or baking oil sprayed) baking sheet and pop them into the hot oven to bake. After about 16-17 minutes out comes the pan. Each biscuit gets brushed with a buttery mixture you create with an herb/garlic powder that is blended with fresh melted butter. Super easy to make and definitely popular at my house.
They are browned on the bottom and tender. The flavor is buttery and definitely has a garlic vibe going on. We had them with a big bowl of beef stew I made for supper. My guy took home a container of stew and two biscuits. He wanted more cheesy rolls than two but I said; “Hey, those are my gf biscuits! Two is enough!” He left happily clutching his treats including those biscuits. That should tell you they are tasty; Joe does not need to eat gf and he is fairly picky about his bread. If it passes the Joe test; it is pretty tasty!!
They were a couple bucks and the add ins are minimal. I made 10 decent sized biscuits. I froze two which were destined for consumption in January. Totally yummy even if not particularly healthy, white gf flour, sugar, cheese and butter as major components. Not gonna tell you how many calories are in them but frankly regular rolls have lots of calories. If it tastes buttery it gonna have calories…. Still, not often I find something this easy to make and this tasty. I put this in my win win column. Enjoy!
The classic Christmas stollen dough is made with yeast. 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 pastry 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! 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 made it 2 years ago, lost the recipe; had to get it again from the King Arthur Flour’s web site customer service center as they have removed it from their recipe rotation. They said it needs some tweaking. I disagree, it is just delectable. My family adores it and will do nefarious things to get more stollen at Christmastime.
It is far easier made without yeast and I frankly don’t miss it like I thought I would. This dough is very tender and flavorful. You could use orange rind instead of lemon rind and the dried fruit selection is entirely up to your tastes or your pantry. I am looking forward to enjoying stollen in a couple of weeks. 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 butterButter 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
2 large eggs
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 (I do apricots, dried cherries, currents, raisins or dried peaches/pears)
1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted and cooled
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*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 almondsAdding the wet mixture into the dry doughformed stollen ready to bakebaked and powderedMore 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!
I have made this tart many times. This time I used a simple, sweet, press in, gf pie crust. It adds a bit of sweetness and is super easy; no rolling out the pie dough. In the past I always had leftover filling that I baked in a separate pan. This recipe revision endeavored to end that practice; I reduced the volume to make just enough to fill the tart pan, success!
Notes; you can leave out the lemon ingredients if you don’t want that flavor. I use King Arthur’s basic gf flour blend when I make a homemade crust, the one that is just flours, no xanthan in it. I used blueberries but I am sure you could make this with raspberries or a mixture of the two.
The ricotta adds a delicate texture and crumb. These were definitely off season blueberries but tasty none the less. I used a little of the rind and juice of a Meyer lemon which has a delicate flavor compared to regular lemons. Do let the ricotta cheese and eggs warm up to room temp before using them; always good advice with gf baking.
Ricotta Blueberry Tart
Cookie crust:
1 cup brown rice blend; King Arthur Basic GF Blend
1 tsp. xanthan gum
¼ cup sugar
5 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 10 pieces
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Mix the dry ingredients in stand mixer bowl. Add the butter, mix until fine like sand. Add extract. Blend briefly. Spray pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle in the mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Press lightly in with your hands. DO not press too hard or it becomes way too firm.
Or, roll out that premade pie crust and fit into your pan; trim off extra crust. Fill.
Filling:
1 cup ricotta cheese, whole milk is best but any will do.
2 lg eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. lemon extract
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon rind grated
1 Tbsp. plus 1 Tsp. tapioca starch or corn starch
Pinch sea salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
DIRECTIONS:
Heat oven to 350 degrees/ Mix ricotta with eggs in the mixer bowl you just made the crust in and then add the rest of ingredients except the blueberries. Carefully pour into the tart crust. Top with the berries.
Bake tart 40-45 min at 350 degrees. It should be fairly firm in the center. Let cool before slicing. You can sprinkle it with powdered sugar if desired. I am always so eager to try it I totally forget to do this! Enjoy.
Figs, figs, figs! Enough to enjoy, not enough for making laborious batches of fig jam. Made one small batch and a smaller batch of fig mustard. Yeap, that’s a thing! Delish too. Anyway, I wanted to make another fig cake; a couple of weeks ago I made my beloved Turkish fig and yogurt cake which is super light and fluffy and I made an olive oil and honey fig cake the following week that was rather dense if delish and now this ricotta cake. 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. As much as I liked the other two I have recently made; this cake was perfect and 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 best 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!
We enjoyed the most amazing cake last night. I used 10 of my own homegrown figs in it. It is sort of like if your cheesecake recipe and your dessert souffle recipe had a baby together: light in texture, delicate orange hints and quite scrumptious. Simply exquisite in my estimation.
Not that much sugar, lots of Greek yogurt, a few eggs, some flavorings and very little flour. It was very easy to put together; sort of like making a dessert soufflé. I mixed the yolks with the sugar and then the flour added in bit by bit with a whisk. My stand mixer made the egg whites into fluff and I folded them into the yolk/sugar mixture. Spooned into a buttered cheesecake pan and laid the cut halves of the figs into the batter. Bake it and BOOM; an amazing dessert fit for a king and queen! It does puff up a lot as it bakes; don’t worry; it will sink somewhat; can’t stay puffed when it cools.
The flavor was a lemony, fluffy light cake but the figs were the star attraction. If you like figs; this is your cake!
I made only a couple of changes to fit what I had in my pantry. This is a spectacular cake to serve to company. Just need those fresh figs and some yogurt. I got mine at Aldi’s. Their store brand Greek yogurt in a big size has wonderful flavor and texture. Great price point too.
Turkish Fig and Yogurt Cake
Ingredients (at room temperature)
4 eggs, separated
½ tsp. cream of tarter
½ cup sugar
3 tbsp. gf flour – I used King Arthur blend
½ tsp. xanthan gum (leave out if your flour has some in it already)
1/2 to 1 tsp. lemon or orange extract
1 tsp. water
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
½ tsp. orange or tangerine zest (optional; add if you don’t have orange extract)
1 ½ cup plain Greek yogurt, preferably whole milk
7-12 figs (big ones; only 7, small; use more) Halved
