gluten free baking

Blueberry Ricotta Tart

In search of a dessert that uses what I have on hand. Too cold to head out to the grocery store… So, I had a container of ricotta about to reach its expiration date, frozen blueberries, eggs, sugar and crust materials. Saw a tart recipe, adapted it slightly to make it gluten free and I wanted a touch of lemon. Used my favorite gf shortbread cookie crust for tarts. Added some lemon extract to the filling for that desired lemony flavor. I used to make a similar tart when I still ate gluten; this replication came out just perfect.

Boom! A great quick tart that is not too sweet and has a lighter texture due to the ricotta; my old tart was made with cream cheese; heavier. Plus, I didn’t have to buy any ingredients!

I used a long rectangular pan to create mine but you can use a round one if that is what you have. I just enjoy the rectangular pan as I can cut it across into bars; easy to eat with fingers if you cut your bar in half to make two squares. Plus it looks awesome…. blueberry ricotta tart

blueberry ricotta tart slice

Notes; you can leave out the lemon extract if you don’t want that flavor. I used King Arthur’s basic gf flour blend, 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.

I used my awesome new kitchen scale to weigh out the ricotta. I got it for Christmas from my sister, Elaine. Guessing that she noticed that my old scale was ancient and inefficient: from decades ago and so got me this futuristic one that can weigh in ounces or grams! I think it is gorgeous; bonus….scale.jpg

The ricotta was in a 15 ounce container so I have a little leftover. Might make a tiny bit of dip for crackers. Or maybe an egg custard for breakfast tomorrow…hmmm.
Ricotta Blueberry Tart

Cookie crust:

1 cup brown rice blend

1 tsp. xanthan gum

¼ cup sugar

5 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 10 pieces or more

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-2 tsp. water

Mix the dry ingredients in stand mixer bowl.  Add the butter, mix until fine like sand.  Add extract and water. 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.

Filling:

12 ounces of ricotta cheese, whole milk is best

3 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. lemon extract

2 Tbsp. cornstarch

Pinch sea salt

1 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries, I used frozen

Mix ricotta with eggs and rest of ingredients except fruit; can use same bowl with your stand mixer.  Carefully pour into the tart crust. Top with the berries. If you have too much liquid filling as I did: pour rest into a small low casserole and top with ¼ of the berries; bake that small pan about 25-30 minutes. Bonus treat!

Bake tart 50 min at 375 degrees. It should be fairly firm in the center.  Let cool before slicing.  You can sprinkle it with powdered sugar if desired. I was so eager to try it I totally forgot to do this! Enjoy.

GF Flour blend (if you want to make it yourself)

2 cups brown rice flour

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca starch

Meyer Lemon Tartlets

Winter suddenly is upon us and I always look forward to all the fresh winter citrus. I was lucky enough last week to get a small shipment of fresh Meyer lemons from my brother who lives in Texas and has a tree in his back yard. He didn’t send a lot as he had somewhat of a crop failure but a box came my way when I thought none were going to be shared so I am thrilled at my horde of smallish, greenish lemons. He was heading out of the country and picked them a tad early due to his eminent departure.  They are relaxing safe in my fruit bin of the fridge and I decided to make a special dessert yesterday.

I have made plenty of full sized lemon tarts but not so much in my small 3 inch across flat bottomed tartlet pans. I have two 4 piece pans so I could make 8 at a time. I chose to make 4 yesterday and the rest today.  That way my crust for tonight is incredibly fresh so I can present them with the perfect contrast of the flaky buttery crust and the lightly sweetened but tangy lemon filling.

We ate a couple last night for dessert and I served them with full fat plain Greek yogurt from Aldi’s which has great flavor and a thick smooth texture. It is rich and still somehow light.  A better topping than ice cream which melts…unfortunate in a lemon tart and less work than making whipped cream. I suppose you could top with some spray whipped cream but I chose something healthier and I happen to love it used as a pie topper.  High end plain yogurt is also really good for this purpose; StonyField Organic Low Fat is my preferred choice.

I make my standard pie crust dough and chill before rolling out chunks of it. I didn’t make thick fancy edges; smaller edges being better for the putting of the lemon flavor as the forward taste of these tartlets. I ended up with six shells and I took the leftover crust bits and make a hand pie filled with homemade pawpaw jam. Can’t wait to try that treat!

Notes: You can make these tartlets with regular lemons that you freshly juice. You might want to up the sugar by ¼ cup if you do that.  Also, these tarts should be stored in the fridge until serving. Enjoy!

tartlet shells

lemon tartlet

Meyer Lemon Tartlets  makes six

Crust:

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

2 Tbsp. sweet rice flour

½ tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

6 Tbsp. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 large egg

2 tsp fresh orange or lemon juice

Directions: 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 chunks of it out to thin circles and fit into tartlet pans. Mine have removable disc bottoms and I highly recommend them. Prick the bottoms with a fork to prevent puffing up and bake at 375 degrees for about 11 or 12 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool.  You need six tartlet shells as the filling is just fill six. You should have enough crust for 7: hence my hand pie.

Lemon Filling:

¾ cup sugar

2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

The zested rind of 1 and a half Meyer lemons, of just one lemon if you use regular lemons

4 large eggs

2 egg yolks (freeze whites for use later)

½ tsp. lemon extract

¼ cup butter cut into 4-6 small pieces

Directions: combine sugar, lemon juice, eggs and yolks in heavy bottomed medium sauce pan; 1 quart size works perfectly.  Heat over medium low while stirring constantly with a whisk. Heat until it thickens a lot and coats the spoon thickly.  Will take 8-10 minutes.  Do not stop stirring or it will boil and overcook! No boiling…. An instant read thermometer will be at 175 degrees. Add the cut up butter, as it melts in stir a bit and add the lemo extract. When butter is melted pour the filling into a mixing bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap and cool in fridge at least until lukewarm. It will look a lot like the filling for a lemon meringue pie but soft and almost pudding-like. Spoon into tartlets and chill at least an hour or two before serving; the tartlets should be icy cold when you plate it. Top with a spoonful of high quality Greek yogurt or freshly whipped cream and maybe a thin wedge of lemon. Enjoy!

The filling and crust are out of Annalise Roberts’ great cookbook; The Heirloom Collection. I just adapted it to small tartlet pans.  The flour is King Arthur’s basic blend or you can make it at home; see any pie recipe I have posted for the proportions of flours; easy as there are only 3 ingredients to it.

German Plum Tart, GF 2.0 Version

I love juicy ripe plums eaten out of hand but seldom bake with them.  This is one of the only recipes I make gluten free with blue plums; these are those oval plums, sometimes called prune or Stanley plums that are only available for a few weeks in the early fall.  They are inexpensive, not too sweet and they get soft and purply delish in this simple tart.  It is modeled after some German fruit tarts I had enjoyed in my wheat loving past life.  I think it replicates them quite well.  I posted this last year but wanted to share it again. This time I found really huge Stanley plums and tried them instead of the small ones I have always used in the past. They were great so you can definitely go with either size of oval plum.  I think you could make it with round plums but I do think the oval ones have more flavor and are more suited to baking than round eating plums.

I use my favorite homemade cobbler mix which makes this really simple.  I will put the mix recipe down at the end of this post.  I keep it in my freezer and one cup makes great cobbler or works as this tart base. To this particular batch I added a couple teaspoons of dried lemon peel powder.  This ingredient is made of lemon peels rolled in sugar and dried, leftover after make homemade lemoncello liquor.  They become powder after a few moments in my spice blender. The fine powder adds a subtle lemon flavor but its okay; you don’t absolutely need it to make this recipe work.  It is in the original recipe but I never bothered before to make some even though I had the dried lemon peels.  The addition is great and if you can add it you won’t be disappointed.

A few instructions to assist you if you make this tart: I cut up the plums first and sprinkle them with sugar, let them stand while I mix the dry stuff up and then stir up the wet items in a small mixing bowl.  If you want it lower in sugar just leave off that sprinkle here; it will still taste great.

Be sure to use a 10 inch tart pan; if you made the tart in a 9 inch one it may well spill over and burn on the bottom of your oven which is never a good thing. You could also use a 9-10 inch pie pan as a baking dish.

plum tart 2017

We like it with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. It is fine all on its own.  Makes a great breakfast too with a cup of coffee or tea.

 

 

Fall Plum Tart

1 cup cobbler dry mix; recipe below

¼ c sugar – mix these together

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2 eggs

3 Tbsp. buttermilk

2 Tbsp. melted butter

1/2  tsp. vanilla

1/2  tsp. almond extract

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1 ½ lbs prune plums (enough to cover the entire tart pan) cut in halves or quarters. I used 9 large ones for this most recent tart.

Mix them with 2 tbsp sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix two dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Spray a 10 in deep tart pan with cooking spray, could use a 9-10 inch pie pan as a substitute baking dish.

Beat eggs in medium bowl, add rest of wet ingredients, mix well, add to dry ingredients, stir the batter briefly to fully blend.  Pour into the prepared pan and spread it out with a flexible spatula.  It often just spread great if you tilt the pan a bit – the batter will spread all on its own. Top with plums, cut side up, push each in slightly into the batter and cover the entire surface of tart base. Sometimes I cut up a few plums and fit the chunks in around the halves but this time I didn’t; works either way.

 

Bake 30 min.  Top with mixture of 1 ½ tsp sugar and ½ tsp cinnamon

Bake 3-8 more minutes or until top looks done.

 

Cool somewhat before slicing/serving.

 

Dry Cobbler Mix

 

2 ¼ cups white rice flour

½ cup potato starch

½ cup tapioca flour

1 tsp. baking soda

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp. xanthan gum

1/3 cup sugar

 

Reposted from my blog, originally October 2014, minor changes to text, recipe the same.

Fig and Goat Cheese Galette

Figs are delightful in the late summer and early fall. This year my fig trees are full of fruit with several dozen figs ripening over about two week’s time. Lately I pick 2-3 dozen every day or two. I made a super delicious fig and yogurt cake the other weekend. Next I put together a figgy dessert in the tart family.  This is my take on the wide variety of fig and custard/honey/cheese tart recipes. FYI: a galette is a free form flat round French tart. Now you know! One of my friends was all “wow you cook stuff I have never heard of and did your mom cook like that?” My response was “nope; Mom never baked a galette. But she was a great cook and I just love trying new things. ” I truly love galettes as they are so easy; just roll out the dough; lay on the filling; crimp up the edges and maybe a bit of egg wash and a sprinkle of sugar and into the oven it goes. Plus I like how they generally aren’t that sweet or tricked out with a ton of ingredients. Simple, tasty, and pretty to look at.  Dessert perfection…

I used my favorite gluten free crust recipe plus some cinnamon.  This crust never fails to impress; it is flaky and tender. Never tough or too buttery. Sweet juicy figs are the bomb! Finally, the herbed goat cheese added an intriguing slightly savory flavor to the overall taste. A big slice was just delicious with a glass of lemony iced tea. Enjoy!

 

 

Fig and Goat Cheese Galette

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

¼-½ tsp. cinnamon

6 Tbps. cold butter cut into 6 chunks

1 lg egg

2 tsp fresh lemon juice (use juice from zested lemon; below)

Line a 15 inch pizza pan with parchment paper.

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.  Then roll out and put on the parchment lined pan; put back in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Goat Cheese filling:

4 oz package herbed goat cheese, room tem

2 oz light or regular cream cheese, room temp.

2 tbsp. local honey (good stuff)

1 egg beaten well, mix in 1 tsp. water

2 tsp. rough brown crystal sugar for topping

Fruit part:

7-9 ounces of ripe figs: 8-10 large or maybe 14-16 small

Directions: Zest a small lemon. I do this onto wax paper for ease of picking up later. Use some of the juice for the crust.  You can leave the zest out if you are not a big fan.  You do need the juice in the crust; can use fresh squeezed OJ too.

Get out the tart crust and roll out to a large circle. Place on the parchment paper; I unpeeled one side of the rolling plastic and flopped the whole thing onto the parchment and then peeled off the other side of plastic leaving the crust on the parchment. Blend the goat cheese, cream cheese and honey using a whisk. Add half the beaten egg, beat some more until well blended Spread the mixture out on the crust.  Leave 1.5-2 inches of crust around the filling. Top with halved or quartered figs; mine were small; halved them, cut side up. Fold up the edges of your crust and pinch together to create the galette shape.  Use a pastry brush to brush the crust with the remaining egg wash. Sprinkle the sugar crystals over the crust and some on the figs. fig galette with sugar sprinkled onBake for 30 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Sprinkle the lemon zest on before you bake it or half way through the baking.  Let your tart rest a bit on a cooling rack; don’t serve hot but a slightly warm slice will taste amazing.  It was still great the next day although the crust wasn’t quite as crisp due to high humidity. Enjoy!

fig galette baked

 

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

fig galette slice

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

Blueberry Peach Almond Crisp

We are still enjoying fresh blueberries and juicy ripe peaches. I had just a few peaches left from that basket I bought a week ago so I wanted to combine them with blueberries; giving enough fruit for this crisp and so I could enjoy the combined fruit flavors.  I used my pie crumb topping as the jump off recipe for this dessert. Adding almonds adds a lot of crunch. I loved how quickly this came together; no precooking of the fruit and if you have crust crumbs in the fridge you are ready to toss it together in about 5 minutes. There are twice as much blueberries as peach slices but the blueberries do become the predominant flavor.  If you want more peach flavor; use less blueberries and more peaches.

blueberry peach mixture

Notes: You need to peel the peaches; I heated water to a boil; dropped the peaches in and cooked them for three minutes, let cool a bit and peel then slice.  Chose a baking dish that has room for the fruit and ½ inch of topping plus at least another inch for the hot fruit to bubble up and not spill over.

blueberry peach crisp baked

Angie’s GF Blueberry Peach Almond Crisp

Filling:

1 cup fresh blueberries, rinse, drain and place in medium bowl

2 ¼ cups sliced peaches, peeled before slicing into bowl with blueberries

Add and mix with:

3-4 Tbsp. sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. quick tapioca

Let stand while you prepare the crumb crust. This is important so the tapioca can soften and absorb some juices before baking.

Crumb topping

3/4 cup brown rice flour mix

½ c sugar

½ tsp xanthan gum

1/3 c cold butter cut into six chunks

Put all four ingredients in a stand mixer bowl and mix well with mixer paddle until crumbs form. If you let them go extra long you get big fat crumbs if you like.

————-

Measure out 2/3 cup of the crumb mix into a bowl

Add to it: ¼ cup slivered almonds, ¼ cup old fashioned oatmeal (uncooked) and ¼ tsp. cinnamon.  Mix well.

Store the rest of the crumb topping in a tightly closed container in the refrigerator until you need to top a pie with crumbs.

Pour the fruit mixture into a 1 quart glass or Pyrex baking pan sprayed with cooking oil and top with the almond crumb mixture.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes until bubbly and the crumb crust is light brown.  Cool at least 15 minutes before serving at room temperature. Serves four.  Would be great with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy! blueberry peach crisp in dish

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

2/3 c potato starch – Not potato flour

1/3 c tapioca flour

Note: the crumb recipe is out of Annalise Roberts cookbook, Gluten Free Baking Classics, Second Edition. Adaptation and filling recipe are mine.