The Muffin Experiments Part 1: Sweet Muffins and Apple Pie Muffins

When I asked my boss which desserts we'd be focusing on introducing in the next couple months, as we gradually have more time for experimenting as the bread baking process becomes increasingly streamlined, the main answer was muffins. She told me that she wasn't terribly experienced in the art of gluten free muffin making (this from a woman I swear has done absolutely everything from nursing to theater light design to cooking for 900 people), and so I volunteered to show her the ropes. Since then I've come up with a dozen or so variations on the basic muffin recipe that I had and I tried two last night. In the next few weeks, you'll probably be seeing a lot of muffins, but hopefully, they will be different enough to be interesting and worth reading about.

Sweet Muffins

The first recipe I used last night was one I had done before and had good success with. These are similar tasting to the cinnamon bread I made a few weeks back, but the best thing about them is the smell. The taste is very mild and they aren't overly sweet, but they smell extremely sweet, and you enjoy the muffin much more if you inhale while eating.

What you will need:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Topping:

• 1 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• pinch of ground cinnamon

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease nine sections of a muffin tin.

-Mix the oil with the sugar. Add the eggs. Mix until light yellow and a little thicker. This will take a minute or two with your mixer, or mix by hand until the batter is light yellow with bubbles. Add the other ingredients. Beat well. The batter will thicken a little and be very fluffy. Divide among the nine sections of the muffin tin.

-In a small bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and cinnamon for the topping. The directions say to sprinkle this mixture on top of the muffins, but I find that the consistency is not sprinkle-able, and I usually just divide it up into little glops and put four or five of these glops on each muffin. The butter will melt into the batter during baking, so the odd appearance won't matter in the long run.

-Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.

Notes: I would err on the side of underbaking with these muffins. There is nothing more awful than an overbaked muffin and I kept these in the oven closer to 17 or 18 minutes. These are verty good with breakfast, especially warmed up and with a little additional butter.

Apple Pie Muffins

I had read several versions of this recipe with gluten in them and they seemed fairly simple. I felt the name "Apple Pie Muffins" seemed a bit luxurious for such a simple, normal looking recipe, and thought to call them Apple Cinnamon Muffins or Apple Streusal muffins. After trying them myself, I changed my mind. They are extremely moist because of the apple pieces inside the muffin and the streusal on top adds a richness that is not normally present in a muffin and that's where the "Pie" came in to the title. I used the Sweet Muffin recipe with a few minor adjustments.

What you will need:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup golden brown sugar, packed
  
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup cored and peeled apples, chopped small

Streusal topping:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• a pinch of ground cinnamon
  

-In a small bowl, mix all ingredients until it forms a fine crumb.
-Follow directions as listed above for prepping and mix all ingredients (as directed) except for the apples. Mix well and add apple pieces. Divide among the nine sections of the muffin tin.

-In a small bowl, mix all ingredients for the streusal topping until it forms a fine crumb. Sprinkle over the tops of the muffins.

-Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.

Notes: I am still debating about whether 3/4 cup apples is a bit too much. My 1 apple came out to about a cup of apple pieces, which I was trying to use all of. It looked like enough once I had mixed 1/2 cup of apple pieces in, and at 3/4 cup I realized it was no use. The muffins were extremely tasty but I worried they were a little too moist because of all the fruit.

I listed the streusal recipe (which I finally realized didn't need milk at all, unlike my previous listing of this recipe) in its full amount, which is enough to cover a pie. I used about 1/4 of this recipe (which gets rather complicated when you try to measure 1/16 of a teaspoon) and it covered 6 muffins. These muffins, I realized, after baking, could have been more thoroughly covered. Perhaps 1/2 of this recipe would be closer to what is needed.

Alternatively, if you don't want the streusal, you can take left over apple pieces and arrange them in a flower pattern or whatever pattern you like on top of the muffin. The batter is thick enough that the apple pieces will remain on top. I added a sprinkle of cinnamon on top of this, but it didn't look so good after baking.

(The Sweet Muffins recipe was was the rice based version taken from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free," and a potato starch, oat flour, and corn starch based version of this recipe also exist. The Apple Pie Muffins recipe was a slightly altered version of the Sweet Muffins Recipe, alterations invented by me. )

Ginger Molasses Cookies Experiment

During my graham cracker experiment, it occurred to me that said recipe would work pretty well for ginger bread as well. Instead of going for ginger bread men and the harder type of ginger cookie, I decided to start with a more classic looking soft cookie, as I really don't have much experience with ginger molasses cookies. I tried to imitate a classic cookie recipe, using ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and molasses for flavor.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons yogurt
• 1 1/3 cup rice flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup molasses
• white sugar for sprinkling (optional)
  

-I preheated the oven to 375 degrees F and greased a cookie sheet.

-I creamed the butter with the brown sugar, then added the egg and mixed well.

-I added the remaining ingredients (except for about 1/6 cup of rice flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt) and mixed. The resulting mixture was a little too wet and a little too bland. I added the remaining flour and salt and this seemed to help. The dough was still quite sticky and probably could have used some corn starch (Which goes a long way to help dry out sticky dough without making it taste too heavy) but I was low and I wanted to stick to rice flour if possible.

-I scooped the dough out by the tablespoon, rounded it into balls with my hands, and pressed the balls to 1/4 inch thickness in the pan. It made 26 cookies. For about half the cookies, I sprinkled a little white sugar on top.

-Baked for 9-10 minutes, until they were just barely browning on the edges and transferred immediately to be cooled.


Results: As you can see, the appearance was very like the classic ginger cookie (though the first picture, without the flash captured the pretty brown color and the cracked top better. They weren't quite so orange as in the picture above) and while it may seem silly to be grateful for a round, domed cookie, it is surprisingly easy to come up with cookies that look like misshapen lumps rather than cookies. These looked very much like cookies.

The thing that struck me when I first tasted one of these cookies was that they didn't taste very much like ginger cookies, or like much of anything. They were only slightly sweet and slightly spicy, which was rather disappointing. The ones with a bit of sugar tasted a bit better because the sugar added some of the sweetness that was missing. Secondly, two types of cookies came out of the oven: The ones that were removed from the hot pan first were extremely fragile while still warm and the ones that were allowed to sit on the pan and bake just slightly longer had a little bit of a crunchiness on the outside and retained their structure better while still warm. I found the second kind more pleasant. However, once the cookies had cooled completely, things switched. The cookies that had been cooked slightly longer were a little too chewy, as if they were stale, and tasted rather dry. The first set of cookies were now pleasantly soft (no longer falling apart) and retained more of their moisture.

Notes: The main problem with the cookies seemed to be the flavor. I figure this could be easily fixed by increasing the amount of spices used, and certainly the amount of sugar. Normally, 1/2 cup of sugar is used in my cookie recipes, but I was going off of my graham cracker recipe, which I specifically lowered the sugar amount for in order to get it closer to a cracker.

For texture, striking a balance with more corn starch to keep the dough dry and light and yogurt to keep the texture moist would be the most beneficial I think, although i am still wondering if there is a way to use only rice flour in recipes such as these which require an additional wet ingredient such as molasses. I think additional xanthan gum may also be required, because, again, a great deal more xanthan gum is typically used in my cookie recipes than I used here, due to using my graham cracker recipe as a guide. I also think that with additional xanthan gum, it would be safe to remove these cookies from the oven a little earlier, say 8 minutes, as the softer texture seemed the better one overall.

Despite the fact that these cookies weren't quite what I was hoping for, I ate them all in a matter of three days. I guess that's what happens when you're alone in a house with a fire, a dog, a good book, and a plate of cookies!

(This recipe was purely of my own invention.)

Cinnamon Bread

I have been dying to try this recipe for ages now, ever since my roommates were given a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread and I had to smell it every morning when they toasted it and ate it with butter. If only I had had raisins when I made this!

This small loaf is astoundingly delicious toasted with butter. I tried it the morning after I baked this loaf and thought about having another slice all day. I think it would be even better with raisins, and could possibly use some more cinnamon too. It's very soft and has a very light texture and a great example of what rice flour can do on its own if treated properly. It is oh so yummy!

What you will need:

• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup yogurt
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a medium size loaf pan.

-Cream the oil and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the egg whites and beat until very frothy. This will take a minute if using a fork. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

-Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for approximately 50 minutes, until golden brown. The bread should test cleanly with a toothpick.


Notes: With gluten free bread, it's very important to not under bake. If you have any doubts, stick in the oven for another five minutes, if it looks like it won't burn. I have taken many loaves out of the oven under-baked, and not only did they fall and look much less pretty, but they were squishy in the middle and inedible, which is a tremendous waste of eggs.

Also, if you want a taller loaf, use a smaller loaf pan and just extend the baking time.

I have also thought about replacing a couple of the egg yokes with whole eggs. Sometimes, in my opinion, gluten free baking gets too light. I tend to like my food a little hardy. Perhaps adding a second flour would also bring that depth to this loaf. Regardless, it is a great treat.

(This recipe is the Rice-based Cinnamon Bread recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Potato flour, oat flour, and corn starch based recipes also exist.)

Homemade Chocolate Cake with Caramel Sauce

This cake is so incredibly delicious, easy, and requires no butter! Which in my eyes is always a plus for a cake, because butter tends to run out quickly. I made this cake the same night the woman I was living with was making an apple cake with caramel sauce, and we decided to try the caramel sauce on the chocolate cake as well. It was incredible. The gluten free cake disappeared faster than the apple cake! This is a really good last minute dessert, as it does not take long to mix, takes only 30-40 minutes to bake, and is delicious even without frosting. If you like a mild cake, eat it plain, or if you like a richer cake, add the caramel sauce, and it transforms the taste completely.

What you will need:

• 1/3 cup oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round or square baking pan

-In a medium-size bowl, mix the oil with the sugar. Add the eggs. Mix until lighter and thicker. This will take a minute or two with your mixer, or build up some muscles in your arms if you are doing it by hand. Add the other ingredients. (I like to mix the cornstarch in some before measuring the remaining ingredients, to prevent clumping.) Beat well. The batter will become quite thick. Pour into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.

Caramel Sauce (optional)

What you will need:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk

In a saucepan, melt the butter, brown sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring with a whisk, then remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla and milk.

Notes: This caramel sauce recipe makes quite a bit of sauce. It was more than enough for two cakes. I would recommend halving the recipe, so as to use less sugar and butter.

That's it! This recipe is so simple, that you can really do anything you want with it: frost it, add fruit, make two of them for a double layer cake, etc. Just make sure not to check on the cake too early, so that it doesn't fall.

(The cake recipe was the corn-based Homemade Chocolate Cake recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Oat flour, potato starch, and rice flour based versions also exist. The Caramel sauce recipe is from "Cooking from Quilt Country" by Marcia Adams.)

Two Pear Pies

Sometimes, I go on a baking craze. I have all the ingredients, time, and energy I need, not to mention a huge bag of pears from my voice student's garden, and I go, why shouldn't I bake two pies in one night? Sure, the first pie didn't go quite as planned, and I ended up baking until 10:00 at night, but the ending result was still quite rewarding.

These two pies compliment each other nicely. My first one, a Pear and Almond Tart, is mild, not too sweet, and nutty. I adapted this recipe to be gluten free by replacing the rather odd crust recipe (which involved grating the dough and pressing it into the pan...) with a regular gluten free pie crust. The tastes worked extremely well together. My second pie, a Rustic Pear and Apple pie, is a great burst of flavors and extremely simple to put together. The tart apples and dried cherries in this recipe go extremely well with the crust, and make a great contrast with the sweet pear tart. Not that you neccessarily have to make both of these pies at once, however.

Pear and Almond Tart

What you will need:

• 1 unbaked gluten free pie crust (Click here for the Rice-based pie crust recipe and instructions)
• 3/4 cup ( 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/6 cup blanched whole almonds (blanching optional)
  
• 2 eggs
• 3-6 ripe comice pears, cored, peeled, and halved.

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare pie crust according to directions (place in 9-inch tart pan if desired) and bake for 10 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

-Place pears facedown in the pan. Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees F.

-For the filling, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and light. Put the almonds in a food processor and chop until fine. Add the butter and sugar into the food proccessor and blend, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Pour over the pears. Place pie on a cookie sheet or other pan before putting in oven and bake approx 1 hour and 20 minutes, until the top is crisp and tests cleanly with a toothpick.



Notes: This was my first time using a tart pan as opposed to a pie pan, and I didn't really know what the difference was, so I thought I'd say for those of you who are also new to tart pans. Instead of pinching the dough to the edge, as with pie pans, you simply press the dough into the crimped edges of the pan and trim off the excess by wiping your finger along the top of the pan. It gives the tart a very professional look, though in this case, the filling tends to obscure the crust.

Also, I had read that working with the pie dough when it is cold makes shaping it much easier, but I had never really tried it. This time, I kept the balls of dough in the refridgerator for about 20 minutes before hand, until they were a little tough to maneuver, and the dough held together magnificently.

It is extremely important to place a cookie sheet or other pan underneath the tart pan. When the butter based filling is still relatively cool, it holds together and forms a mound. This mound liquifies during baking and will spill over the edge of the pan (as you can see in the picture above) and into your oven if you do not place a pan underneath to catch it. I learned this the hard way.

For those of you who don't know how to blanch an almond or what blanching means (I certainly didn't) my fellow baker, Vicki, informed me. This is how I understand it, though the internet may be able to explain more accurately than I can: You take a bowl of almonds and pour boiling water over them. The almonds will begin to slip out of their casings, and after draining the water, you can slip the casings all the way off with your hands. Repeat the process if neccessary. I did not blanch my almonds, as I felt two pies was ambitious enough, and the only effect it seems to have is a slightly bitter after flavor, but nothing drastic.

Lastly, I did not use comice pears, that I know of. I would imagine that if you want to make this recipe to its full potential, you should use comice pears, but any old ripe pears that you have should work fairly well.

Rustic Apple and Pear Pie

What you will need:

• 1 unbaked gluten free pie crust (Click here for the Rice-based pie crust recipe and instructions)
• 3 cups peeled, cored, peeled, and sliced apples
• 1 cup peeled, cored, peeled, and sliced pears
• 1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch or potato starch

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare pie crust following directions listed above.

-In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for the filling. Place in the center of the pie crust, spreading as evenly as possible.

-Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F. Cover the edges of the pie crust or the entire pie with aluminum foil to prevent over browning. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking until the fruits are very tender, approximately 40 minutes. The juices will be clear and bubbly.


Notes: For this recipe, I used the same unidentified pears as in the pear and almond tart and ripe fujii apples. The recipe recommends using Yellow Delicious apples and barely ripe pears, which I have used before, but unfortunately, the pie was a gift, and I never tasted it.

The original version of this recipe recommends rolling out the pie crust dough to about 15 inch in diameter, placing the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet, placing the filling ingredients in the center of it, and carefully folding the edges of the dough over the filling, making a more rustic looking pie. This turns out a little bit messier than a traditional pie crust, but surprisingly well, and if you are looking to break out of the traditional pie crust pattern, I'd recommend trying it.

(The source for the original Pear and Almond Tart filling recipe will be listed soon, which I halved and replaced the crust recipe with a gluten free one, and the pie crust recipe was taken from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." The Rustic Apple and Pear Pie recipe was a slightly adjusted version of Roben Ryberg's recipe also.)

Coffee Cake

I had never made a coffee cake before and was slightly nervous about making my first one when I volunteered to do so for my friend's brunch. I had no idea that making a coffee cake could be so easy, and yet so tasty! This recipe makes a delicious, delicate, not-too-sweet coffee cake, that will make your friends forget they are eating something gluten-free.

What you will need:

• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 1/4 cups cornstarch
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 xanthan gum

Topping:

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round or square baking pan.

-Combine the oil with the sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the eggs. Beat with an electric mixer until light yellow and a little thicker. This will take a minute or two with a mixer, or build up some muscles by doing it by hand until the mixture is extra bubbly. Add the other batter ingredients and beat well. The batter will be very thick. Spread the batter in the prepared baking pan.

-Mix all the topping ingredients together in a bowl, until they crumble. (The sugar will not be evenly mixed with the butter, because in order for this to happen, the mixture reaches a creamy texture). Sprinkle evenly on top of the batter in the pan.

-Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.

And that's it!

If you are looking for a place to start in gluten free baking, this is a great one, because the process is so simple, the baking time is very easy to judge, and the result is so rewarding, for both you, and your friends (gluten free or not!).

(This recipe is the corn-based version of the Coffee Cake recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" By Roben Ryberg. Potato flour and rice flour based versions of this recipe also exist.)

Graham Cracker Experiment

For ages I've been looking for a really good Cheese Cake recipe. I tried several that required no crust and one which I created a chocolate cookie crumb crust which I spent hours slaving over, and turned out only so so. Most of the truly amazing cheese cake recipes required a graham cracker crust, and I had simply never heard of a gluten free graham cracker.

After a little bit of research, I discovered that a graham cracker was essentially a cross between a cookie and a cracker, flavored with honey. But even in the gluten-filled world, graham cracker recipes are scarce. I looked at my gluten free cookie and cracker recipes and began formulating something I thought would turn out like a graham cracker, then compared the recipe to a regular graham cracker recipe, made a few adjustments, and felt satisfied. I wanted something that would become a dough I could roll out, with a small amount of agent so it would not rise, and a lot of flavor.

Here's what I did:

• 7 tablespoons butter (cold)
• 1 cup rice flour
• 2/3 cup corn starch
• 1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

-I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F.
-I creamed the butter enough so that it would be easy to mix in other ingredients. I then added the rice flour, sugar, salt, xanthan gum, baking soda, and cinnamon, and mixed until the mixture formed a fine crumb.

-Next, I added the vanilla, 2 tabelspoons of the yogurt, and the honey. Honey is rather difficult to measure and add to ingredients, and I'm not entirely sure if it's easier when it's cold or warm. I do recommend spooning it into the measuring cup rather than pouring it. Mixed well.

-The mixture was too wet. It was creamy rather than the dough texture I was looking for. After a little more experimenting, I ended up adding the 2/3 cup of corn starch and additional tablespoon of yogurt. The result was a satisfying ball of dough that was a very pretty brown color and very yummy.

-I lightly greased a baking sheet and placed the dough onto the center of it. With a piece of parchment paper on top, I rolled the dough out until it was about a quarter of an inch thick. (There ended up being too much for one baking sheet, so I cut the edges of the circle of dough, making a square on the sheet, collected the excess dough, and rolled it out into a separate baking sheet.) Then, with a knife, I cut the dough into squares, about the size of normal graham grackers, and pricked each square several times with a fork.

-The actual baking process was a little convoluted. The smaller and slightly thinner batch was placed on the center rack, which proved to be too much for it. After eight minutes, it was burnt on the edges. The larger batch stayed on the top rack. After the initial eight minutes, I lowered the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. I checked this batch regularly, and the edges browned slowly. I baked it for about 25 minutes total.

-First out of the oven, both batches were rather soft, though the top was solid enough to tap with my fingernail. However, after cooling, the crackers became increasingly crispy until the entire batch were as crispy and crunchy as normal graham crackers.


The results: The biggest thing I learned with this batch is that if these graham crackers brown at all on the edges, they will taste burnt. The middle crackers, however, that turned the light brown color of normal graham crackers, were delicious, and as far as my memory could tell me, tasted very much like normal graham crackers as well. They were a little thicker, and a little heavier in taste, so they left my thirsty after one or two. I had my boss who is a professional gluten free baker and cook try one and she thought they were very tasty. My boyfriend ate one without knowing what it was and said, "oh! These are the graham crackers you were talking about making!" He grabbed another one on his way out and wanted me to leave the rest to be consumed later.

I feel like the most experimentation needs to be done with the baking time and temperature. I might change the flour ratios around a little bit, so that there is more corn starch and less rice flour, which I think might help with the heavy texture, and I might decrease the amount of cinnamon just a little cause it seemed a little strong, but really, I want to get a batch that is good all the way through, not just the center ones.

All in all, I feel like this recipe was a success. It produced graham crackers that are extremely similar to the original gluten filled ones that were tasty and enjoyed by non gluten-free citizens, and they made very suitable crumbs which could be used for a Cheese Cake, which was in truth, the original goal.

(This recipe was completely of my own invention. )

Bagels

There are some baked goods in the gluten free world that you fear you will never eat again once you have removed gluten from your diet. Bagels used to be one of my favorite foods, eaten with hummus or cream cheese or just plain butter, and I missed them dearly. Finally, I decided to try this Bagel recipe, no boiling water required. They turned out gorgeous, and I ate one the second it was cool enough to handle. The salt water spray gives a delicious flavor while also giving the bagels a nice chewy outside. I love to make a batch or two of these and eat them for the rest of the week. They make such an easy, tasty meal. I recently made them for a brunch where there was a mountain of normal bagels, and they were a big hit for the few gluten free guests there. Feel like a bagel is too difficult a project for you to undertake? The baking process is not too complicated at all!

What you will need:

Water spray:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Bagels:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup yogurt
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup rice flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

-Mix the warm water and salt in a small spray bottle. Set aside.

-Place the egg whites in a medium-size bowl. Beat until very frothy, with big and little bubbles. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well until very thick. (If you are mixing by hand and not with an electric mixer, I highly recommend mixing after adding the corn starch until it is fully blended with the first four ingredients, and then adding the rest. It makes for less lumps). The dough will appear soft, with many very small air bubbles.

-Place the dough in a resealable plastic bag. Cut 1 inch diagonally off one lower corner of the bag. Pipe the dough into three large or four small circles onto the prepared baking sheet. This sounds difficult but it's really quite easy. Squeeze the dough into one corner of the bag, leaving a little space at the bottom where you will cut the tip of the bag off. Cut the tip, and start squeezing the dough out. Try to keep squeezing the dough out as continually as possible for each bagel, so that the shape is more even. The pipe of dough will naturally curve to one side or the other, so follow that curve. When you complete the circle, let the dough overlap just a little and break the pipe of dough so you can start on the next one. With wet finger tips, smooth the overlapped bit of dough into the body of the bagel. Shape it however you want.

-Spray liberally with the salt water. Bake for 5 minutes. Spray again with salt water.

-Continue baking for 15 to 20 more minutes, until nicely browned.


They seem to turn out perfect every time.

Notes: Spraying the bagels 5 minutes after baking is very important. This allows the crust to form. If you forget and spray them later in the baking, they will still form the chewy crust but will not be as golden grown on the top. It also pays to measure the amount of warm water and salt, rather than estimating the measurements.

With the piping, you have a lot of say in what kind of bagels you are making. Typically you will want to make smaller circles than you think you should, because they do rise during baking. If you want more bagels out of your batch of dough, make the cut in the bag 1/2 inch wide, making for a thinner bagel. For thicker bagels, make it an inch wide as in the instructions and pipe them into tighter circles, however, the bagel count probably will go down. If you have some leftover dough that doesn't seem like it will be enough to make an entire bagel, make a mini bagel or just pipe little blobs onto the baking sheet to make bagel bites. Experiment to find the size and shape that you like best.

These bagels are at their best fresh. Freeze them over night and, to get some of the moisture back in the next few days, toast them before eating. Thawed, they are still good, but a little dry and grainy.

(This recipe was the Corn and rice-based version of the Bagel recipe in Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." A potato flour and sorghum flour version of this recipe also exists.)

Cheese Crackers

One of the more frustrating aspects of living gluten free is the shocking number of snack foods that contain gluten. Even if they are not a wheat based snack, a large number of these snacks contain maltodextrin, a malt based preservative, or they have been processed in facilities using wheat. And sometimes, when you are socializing with friends, or when you just need something quick before you run out the door, you get tired of plain old salted potato chips.

Every person i know who has tried these crackers has become instantly addicted, and so they make a great gift. Once your friends are hooked, they will think you the most generous person on earth for baking them a batch of their new favorite crackers. The corn starch base makes for a melt in your mouth texture, while the crackers themselves are very cheesy, crispy, and with just enough salt. And they are quite simple to make! (Apologies to my dairy free friends. This is one I don't think we'll be converting. I might be able to make my saltine recipe dairy free, however.)

What you will need:

• 4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup corn starch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons milk

Topping:

• Salt, dried herbs, or spices, as desired.

-Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

-Combine all the ingredients, except the milk, in a medium-size bowl. Mix until the mixture resembles a fine crumb. Add the milk and beat well. (Use your hands if you're having trouble getting all the dry ingredients incorporated into the dough).

-On a lightly greased surface (or just the baking sheet), pat or roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 3/4 inch squares or another small shape that you like. You can also cut the dough into larger round or square cracker shapes, if desired (just extend baking time).

-Prick the tops of the crackers with a fork and sprinkle lightly with your desired topping.

-Bake on the prepared baking sheet until golden brown and crisp, approximately 10 minutes. The crackers will be light and crispy, although barely browning at the edges. The bottom of the crackers will have a bit more color.

My mouth waters just looking at these guys.

Notes: It's important to shred the cheese as opposed to grating it. Grated cheese is too thick to be thoroughly mixed with the other ingredients. Simply use on of the sides of your cheese grater with the small holes.

This recipe says you can use cookie cutters and the like to shape your crackers however you want. I didn't have a large amount of success with that, as I found the dough too greasy and sticky. However, if you experiment with adding a little more dry ingredients and handling the dough correctly, it may be possible. My method is to pat the dough out directly onto the baking sheet and then use a knife to cut a grid pattern into the dough. The edges look rough and ragged, but this lessens with baking. Once they are done, I use the old knife lines like a perforated edge and cut the crackers apart with my spatula.

Also, to retain freshness, these crackers should be stored in air tight containers. If they start seeming a little soft, you can re-crisp them by putting them in a hot oven for a few minutes.

(This recipe was the corn-based version of the Cheese Crackers recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Rice flour, out flour, and potato starch based versions of this recipe also exist.)

Chocolate Cookies

A couple weeks ago I suddenly remembered my first days in my new apartment. The fridge was completely empty except for an oreo cream pie that my room mate's mother had made for us. We feasted on it whenever we were hungry until we managed to go grocery shopping. The memory inspired me to work towards a gluten free oreo cream pie. Unfortunately, my first experiment with oreos did not give me the hard crispy cookie I was hoping for, but it still turned out quite yummy, chewy, very chocolatey, and absolutely delicious when topped with whipped cream.

The following recipe is only slightly adjusted from the original. My thought was to increase the cocoa powder to make them a bit more chocolaty, and cut out a lot of the baking soda and baking powder, so they would rise and bubble less. However, it seems that even a little leavening agent in what I wanted to be a flat cookie was too much. I will try again! But for the mean time, here's a very yummy chocolate cookie recipe:

What you will need:

• 1/4 lb butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 2/3 cup rice flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 tsp xanthan gum

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet.

-Cream the butter and sugar in a medium-size bowl. Add the egg. Mix until light and thick. Add the other ingredients. Beat until thick and creamy. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared pan. Press to a 1/4 inch thickness with moistened finger tips (or thinner if you want a thinner cookie as pictured). Bake for approximately 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack and let cool completely.

They are just like normal cookies!

Note: When it comes close to taking these out of the oven, watch them closely. It is more difficult to tell when a chocolate cookie is done because they are supposed to be really brown, but it means that if they burn, it's harder to tell. Take them out erring on the early side. Straight out of the oven, they may seem a little moist, but they settle to a normal cookie texture after cooling.

Also, the recipe says that it makes 36 cookies, but this is only if you follow the directions of 1 teaspoon of dough per cookie. That may seem really small, but the cookies do expand a little upon baking, and I have grown fond of eating multiple small cookies at a time, rather than one large one. You can make them a little bigger, but your cookie count will go down, so be prepared.

As far as my oreo development plotting, here are some of my plans: 1. I may remove the baking soda and powder entirely so that the cookies don't poof up. 2. I have heard that adding eggs makes dough stiffer and better for hard cookies. 3. Adding extra flour is also a method for stiffening the dough.

(This recipe was of my own invention, adjusted from the rice-based Chocolate Cookie recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Corn starch, oat flour, and potato starch based versions of this recipe also exist.)

Fudgy Brownies

When I first tried one of the brownie recipes in my beloved gluten free cook book, I thought, "great! Just basic ingredients, easy preparation, no sweat!" Then when I pulled them out of the oven, they were thin, a little too chewy, and not terribly exciting taste-wise. I longed for the Chocolate fudge brownies that you had to eat over several sittings because they were so rich. Then, when a friend of mine gave me some sugar-free baking chocolate I though, "Hey! Maybe if I add real chocolate instead of cocoa powder to this recipe, the brownies will turn out richer!" So I took one of the recipes and replaced ounce for ounce cocoa powder with baking chocolate. The result was mixed. Once cooled, refrigerated, and reheated slightly, they were delicious. But there was an inch thick edge that had over-cooked and was much too chewy, and right out of the oven, the entire dish was fragile and fell apart in my hand.

Watching the thick batter bubble and bake in the oven reminded me very much of a time I tried to add milk to my scrambled eggs, added too much, and the result was a strange, over-fried mess, with more milk than egg to fry. I decided the problem was a dry/liquid ingredient ratio problem. Some fat was being added with the baking chocolate, and some flour like substance removed. I therefore decreased the amount of butter in the recipe and increased the amount of flour.

The result is a very tasty, rich brownie. The bottom is fudgy, slightly cakey and slightly moist. The top is crunchy and resembles the cracked top of a traditional gluten filled brownie. Delicious! I was foolish enough to leave them unattended at my friends' house and I doubt there will be any left by the time I come back! Also, this recipe preserved the simplicity and speed of the original version. You'll spend more time waiting for the brownies to bake them than mixing the ingredients!

Here was the fairly successful resulting recipe:

What you will need:

• 7 tablespoons butter
• 4 oz baking chocolate (unsweetened)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch square (or circular) baking pan.

-Melt butter and chocolate together in the microwave or slowly over stove top. Stir regularly to encourage the chocolate to melt.

-In a medium- sized bowl, combine chocolate/butter mix and remaining ingredients and mix well. The batter will be almost dough-like.

-Press into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly and the top appears dry. Let cool before devouring.

That's it!

Notes: I considered adding a little milk or other liquid to this recipe to make the mixture a little more batter like. It is a little disconcerting to press the mixture into the pan rather than pouring it. However, the resulting brownies were so tasty that I don't think the recipe really needs it. Also, keeping milk out of the recipe and using margarine instead of butter would make this recipe dairy free!

(Pictures to Come)
Update: Apparently no photos on this one, at least not until I make this recipe again, as my friends ate all the brownies before I could take pictures of them. Speaks highly of their quality though!

(This recipe was of my own invention, adjusted from the Corn-based Brownie recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg. Oat flour, Potato starch, and rice flour based versions of this recipe also existed, but mine is better :-p)

Country Pear Pie with Streusel

I thought that gluten free pies would be one of the most difficult things to come across or make, and even more difficult to make ones that really tasted like pie. The truth is, pies are one of the more involved desserts to make, but they are extremely worth the effort. This recipe (which was inspired when my voice student gave me a huge bag of fresh pears) is one of the more advanced ones, in that there are three parts to this recipe and pie crusts are a little challenging. However, the result is extremely rewarding and delicious and had all but disappeared between just me and my roommate in a few days. The pears are slightly sour, the streusal has a nice sweet and nutty taste, while the fresh ginger adds a nice bite and surprise to the filling. The crust is slightly sweet and a wonderful substitute for real pie crust. It is also a great recipe to make with a friend, so that one can be responsible for the pie crust, one for the filling. The streusel, which is optional, produces a very pretty finished product and a little extra sweetness to this mild pie, and is very easy to make.

What you will need:

Pie Crust:

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup rice flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Filling:

• 4 cups sliced and peeled pears (takes about 1 pear per cup)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoon rice flour
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoonfresh minced ginger (or 1/4 tsp ground ginger or 1 tbsp crystalized ginger)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sliced or chopped almonds (to sprinkle on top)
  

Streusel topping: (optional and delicious)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon milk
  

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

-Combine all the ingredients for the pie crust in a medium sized bowl. Make sure butter and cream cheese are cold, not softened. The mixture will first become a fine crumb, then finally a ball (clump) of dough. Using your hands helps.

-Place the dough on a sheet of baking parchment (or two sheets of wax paper). Cover with another sheet of paper and carefully roll out into a large circle, 12 to 13 inches in diameter.

-Pull off the top sheet and carefully flip the dough upside down into a 9-inch pie plate. It's okay if it ends up off center. Peel off the remaining sheet of paper. Gently adjust the dough so that it is touching the pan as much as possible. Trim, tuck, and pinch the dough at the edge of the pie plate. Pinching the dough between your fingers will help adhere it to the pie plate and reduce the chance of the crust's slipping into the plate during baking. If you have some gaps in some places in extra dough on some edges, trim the extra dough off, roll it into a ball, place it between the parchment papers again, and roll it out a second time, using the new piece to patch the gaps. Simply pressing the dough together with your fingers will smooth out the edges enough.

-Prick the crust all over with a fork to deter air bubbles and slippage.

-Bake for 10-15 minutes until slightly solidified and golden in color.

Here's a pie crust before it has been baked:

For the filling:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

-Combine sugar, rice flour, nutmeg, and ginger in a medium-sized bowl. Add pear slices and lemon juice and toss until coated well.

-Once pie crust is baked (it does not necessarily need to be cooled), place filling inside crust, spreading the pears as evenly as possible.

For the streusel:

-Combine all the ingredients except the milk, and mix until crumbly. Add the milk and mix. Streusel will be slightly creamy.

-With your fingers, take small clumps of the streusel and cover the surface of the pie generously with them. (The clumps will look a little strange at this stage, but they will solidify into more normal looking clumps after baking).

-Sprinkle the top of the pie with the chopped almonds.

-Before baking, cover the exposed edges of the pie crust with strips of tin foil. This will prevent the crust from over-browning.

-Bake pie for 40-45 minutes until the filling is bubbly and the crust golden brown.


Notes: In most of my pie recipes, the pie crust and filling are fully cooked separately and then combined. If you are inventing a pie recipe based on one of your old gluten-filled favorite, it is necessary to pre-bake the pie crust at least most of the way, to prevent the filling from leaking through.

Making gluten free pie crusts takes a little practice and a lot of patience. Only once have I managed to flip my crust onto the pan and not use any dough patches and I often collect all the dough into a ball and roll it out a second time if I want better results.

Some tips: If the dough feels a little warm after being mixed, put it in the fridge for a bit until it is cold again. Using baking parchment is advantageous in that it is wide enough to only need one sheet for either side of the dough, however, while you need two sheets per side with wax paper, it does not wrinkle like parchment paper does, which lessens the likelihood of cracks breaking out in your circle of dough. When you secure the dough to the edge of the pie pan, you can simply pinch it between your fingers wherever you want, or if you want a more regular look, after you have initially secured the dough to the pan, carefully pinch it between your thumb and your fore finger at regular intervals to make peaks, careful not to disturb your previous peak and depression as you go around.

Also, the recipe for stresel that was in my book clearly had a few problems. It's first direction was "Combine all the ingredients except the milk..." and no milk was listed in the ingredients and even with a little milk, what I made did not come out the way the book described. I have adjusted the recipe here to say what happened when I made it. I am on the look out for a more traditionaly functional version of a gluten free streusel recipe.

And for the dairy intolerant, I am interested in trying this pie crust recipe using margarine and a dairy free product called "Better than cream cheese" which I enjoyed as a kid.

(The pie crust was the rice-based pie crust recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg. The filling was a gluten free converted and slightly adjusted version of the Country Pear Pie filling recipe from "Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 14th Edition." The streusel recipe was a halfed and corrected version of the rice based streusel recipe, also from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free.")

Allergen Free Chocolate "Icecream" Cake Experiment

A friend of mine came to me, having newly started trying to improve her diet and remove all the many things she was allergic to, and told me she wanted to have a chocolate cake for her birthday party. But not just any old gluten free chocolate cake, which I already have a dozen recipes for. She wanted a gluten free, dairy free, egg free, sugar free, corn free chocolate cake. My thought was of course that those are essentially the things that go into cakes and I wasn't quite sure what would go in it, but I accepted the challenge.

The trickiest bit seemed to be making something without eggs, so I studied a biscuit recipe which was egg free. Margarine could easily be substituted for the butter in the recipe, and, I hoped, soy or rice milk could replace the cow's milk without too much trouble. Furthermore, I was told that my friend had a supply of sugar substitute which worked well. So, I figured: Take the biscuit recipe, make the substitutes, increase the amount of sweetener, add cocoa powder to make it chocolate and voila! An allergen free chocolate cake.

I decided to take this project one step further. I remembered that as a tradition, my friend had always had an icecream cake on her birthday. I did a little research and discovered it would be entirely possible to find a type of sorbet that was corn free, sugar free, and gluten free, and would function similarly, and, with the use of a spring form cakes, ice cream cakes are a cinch to make.

We ended up making a few adjustments. Firstly, semi sweet baking chocolate (which contains sugar) was purchased instead of cocoa powder. Secondly, the mixing process was a tad convoluted and we ended up adding more margerine than the original recipe asks for. And thirdly, the sorbet purchased did have some sugar and corn in it and one was manufactured in a facility with wheat (which, if you are like me, makes a difference).

Here's what we did:

• 10 tablespoons margarine, softened
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 1/4 cup xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup xylatol (or sugar substitute of your choice)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup soy chocolate milk (just to be extra chocolaty)
• 1 teaspoon vinegar
• 4 oz semi sweet chocolate
• 1 pint raspberry and chocolate sorbet, each
• extra chocolate for drizzling

-Starting with 8 tablespoons margarine, we blended it with all the ingredients except for the soy milk, vinegar, and chocolate. This formed a fine crumb.

-We mixed in the soy milk and vinegar until the mixture formed a batter.

-We melted the chocolate in a bowl with the remaining two tablespoons of margarine in the microwave (though this can be done slowly over stove top as well), and added it to the batter. We found that melting margarine with the chocolate helped it from solidifying once it hit the batter and forming tiny chunks, rather than the smooth and chocolaty texture we wanted.

-We lightly greased an 8 inch spring form pan, poured the batter into the pan, preheated the oven to 375 degrees F and baked it for approximately an hour, until it tested cleanly with a tooth pick.

-In order to make it an "icecream" cake, we allowed the cake to cool completely. Then we cut the cake in half so we had two slightly thinner cakes. Placing one of the thin cakes on the bottom of the same spring form pan it was baked in, we spooned already softened raspberry sorbet onto the cake. Once the sorbet layer was relatively even, we placed the second thin cake on top and put it back into the fridge to freeze.

-After a few hours, we placed softened chocolate sorbet on top of the entire cake and smoothed it. And, on my friend's suggestion, we drizzled the extra chocolate (melted again in the microwave) over the top of the cake, and froze the entire thing over night.

Wow!

Results: The cake was a hit! The guests loved every bite of it. It was chocolaty and delicious and the sour raspberry taste really made a nice contrast. The melted chocolate on top added an extra texture and was really decadent. And it tasted like cake!

While baking, this cake rose much more than I expected it to. It was very light and fluffy looking, though for a while, the only way to tell it was not yet done was that it jiggled alarmingly when disturbed.

After cooling and freezing, the texture of the cake was a little bit dense. This could be because it fell slightly during baking, or perhaps, because of the soy milk replacing the cow's milk, there was not enough chemical reactions producing bubbles. I was also informed that if you pour your cake batter into the pan to be baked while there are still lumps in it, it makes for a much more fluffy cake than if you pour it when it is smooth, as ours was.

Ideas and options for the future: This cake does not necessarily need to be made with ice cream, although it was quite tasty and a nice alternative to frosting. It could easily be baked in a normal 9 inch pan with, I think, good results.

Substituting cocoa powder in place of the semi sweet chocolate would be a very interesting experiment (not to mention making it truly sugar free). It might even help some of the density issues of the cake, as chocolate has a tendency to throw off liquid fat ratios. Or, you could simply substitute regular baking chocolate (without sweetener) for the semi sweet chocolate and add sugar-substitute until the batter was to your taste. If you do stick to melted chocolate, I recommend melting it with the margarine in the beginning of the recipe, rather than at the end as we did.

Lastly, increasing the vinegar slightly might help produce more bubbles while baking. And plain soy milk could easily be used in the place of chocolate soy milk.

Note: The process for making an ice cream cake is the same in most cakes as it is here. If you have a cake recipe that is to be baked in a 9 by 13 inch pan, use a 10 inch spring form pan to produce a large ice cream cake, and make sure you have around 6 cups of softened ice cream to go in the middle. It helps cool the cake faster if you take the top of the spring form pan off once the cake is out of the oven.

(This recipe was of my own invention, adjusted and inspired from the rice based Biscuit recipe from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free!")

English Muffins

I have been sitting, working with the pictures I took of these beauties for the last ten minutes and the pictures are so incredibly appetizing, I feel like I can smell them just by looking at them! These english muffins are, without fail, gorgeous. That golden brown color, the springy texture. It's irresistible. And all you need to make them are the basic ingredients, a little extra flour and water, a baking sheet, and an oven.

I also love this recipe because one of the difficulties of living gluten free is that it's really hard to have food on the go. I find it extremely difficult to find food for pack lunches, something that doesn't require a microwave to heat up. This is perfect. As of now I have one of these goodies in a plastic bag, a jar of peanut butter, and a butter knife in my book bag.

What you will need:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/3 cup apple juice
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons rice flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

-Place the egg whites in a medium-size bowl. Beat until very frothy, with big and little bubbles. Add the remaining ingredients except the 2 tablespoons of rice flour. Mix well until the batter thickens. (Caution, the corn starch WILL clump once left to set on the eggs and oil. Mix the corn starch in early if you are using a fork and don't want to wrestle with many frustrating clumps).

-Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the remaining rice flour on the prepared baking sheet.

- Drop the dough by 1/3 cupfuls onto the sheet. Gently shape the dough with wet fingertips into a flat disk approximately 1/2 inch thick and 3 inches in diameter. Easier said than done I know. Here's my process: Drop the dough on the sheet. Keep a cup of water nearby and dip your fingers in often. The dough should be slippery to touch. Flatten the cup of dough into a roughly circular shape. Mend any large gaps with your fingers. Then, smooth the edges with your pointer fingers and thumb. Flatten the disc again, evenly, and add a small depression in the center of each muffin to avoid a dome shape when baked. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining tablespoon of rice flour.

- Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until just golden brown. Test with a toothpick if you are uncertain of doneness. Let cool well before splitting each muffin in half.

Yum!

Notes: In a slightly hotter oven, I have seen these muffins finish in less than 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them just in case. They are very easy to identify as done. This recipe makes 5 muffins, so keep your cupfuls of dough relatively small. They will rise while baking.

Also, I believe this recipe could use some improvement. I have two ideas of where that improvement might lie: Firstly, I consistently use a fork instead of an electric mixer. When maximizing the number of bubbles in a recipe is important, a fork is not the best tool to use, and I tend to spend a lot of time just working out the lumps. My muffins often come out a bit dense, and I have a feeling the lack of a mixer has to do with this. Secondly, this may be a recipe where you'll want to use real apple juice, rather than juice from concentrate. I think it might produce more bubbles.

And lastly, I typically freeze these muffins over night and toast them in the oven before eating. Toasting for a short time helps renew their texture.

(This recipe was the Corn and rice-based version of English Muffins from Roben Ryberg's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free!" Thanks to her for developing the recipe. A Potato and sorghum flour based version of this recipe also exists. )

Stir Fry

Normally this blog is dedicated to gluten free baked goods, however, as the description says "cooking" and not "baking", occasionally I will indulge in real food as well. As much as I would like, one cannot survive on baked goodies alone.

This stir fry recipe is so easy, full of flavor, and healthy! It used to be one of my favorite quick fixes for dinner. My version uses frozen vegetables, for a faster meal, but you can mix and match
the vegetables, meat, and sauces used to your own tastes.

What you will need:

• Three or four frozen chicken tenders (or 1 frozen chicken breast)
  
• 2 tablespoons oil
  
• 1 16 oz package of your favorite frozen stir fry vegetables
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon herbs, such as parsley or oregano
• Wheat free soy sauce (or tamari sauce) (1-2 tablespoons, or to your taste)
  
• 1/2 tablespoon corn starch
• 1/2 cup water

-Thaw the chicken tenders until they are easy to slice into bite sized pieces.

-Heat the oil in a medium sized frying pan (non stick is best), and fry the chicken pieces over medium high heat, until they are white all the way through. Stir often to avoid browning.

- Add the frozen vegetables to the pan, and sprinkle the salt over them, concentrating on the frozen chunks to aid thawing. Mix the vegetables in with the chicken as they come lose. After a few minutes, add the herbs. Once vegetables are thawed, continue cooking for several minutes before adding the soysauce.

-At this point there should be a fairly substantial amount of liquid at the bottom of the pan. Mix the cornstarch in with the half cup of water (a fork works best) until it is dissolved and no lumps remain. Push all the chicken and vegetables to one side of the pan and tilt the pan so that the liquids collect in the empty space, and this section is over the stove top. Add the cornstarch-water mix to the liquids, and keep the pan tilted over the heat until the liquids begin to boil. The cornstarch will form a solid looking layer under the surface, which looks a little strange but that means it's working!

-Once the liquids are thoroughly bubbling, set the rest of the pan down and mix the now thickened liquids with the rest of the stir fry. Cook for an additional minute or two and it's ready to serve!

Note: Be careful not to overcook your vegetables. They should still look fresh and colorful, but be hot all the way through.

And, if you're new to using corn starch in cooking, take note that the above process can be replicated in lots of other foods. Any sauce that needs thickening, dissolve corn starch in some water or milk, add it to the mix, and bring it to a boil. One of my favorites is a cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese, soon to come.

There are two things that can make a simple stir fry like this really special:

-Rice! Recently I've taken to eating my stir fry without rice, because, while rice is delicious, it's very filling, and I eat more of my veggies if I leave off the starch.

-Teriyaki Sauce. It's delicious and just really adds excitement to a stir fry. There are some delicious gluten free store-bought teriyaki sauces out there, but they are expensive, and I found that it was one of the only store bought gluten free items that I was still buying. So!

What you will need:

• 2/3 cup pineapple juice
• 1/3 cup molasses or dark honey
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp corn starch (or potato starch if you are corn free)

-Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan, mix, and bring to a boil. Set aside. That's it!

Some notes about teriyaki sauce: I typically use pineapple juice from frozen concentrate, which produces a very sweet sauce that really needs soy sauce to balance the flavor. This recipe would probably be better using a higher quality type of pineapple juice, but either works.

Also, it's really worth it to buy a jar of molasses or dark honey for this recipe, even if it's the only thing you use it for. It will last a long while and that way, you can make teriyaki sauce anytime you want.

(This stir fry recipe was of my own invention, combined with the Teriyaki sauce from the Teriyaki Chicken recipe from "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg.

Carrot Cake

I've often said that I love baking so much that if I had unlimited energy, time, and ingredients, I would bake forever. More accurately, if I had unlimited ingredients, I would bake every day. However, there are certain ingredients that run out faster than others, and sometimes you run out of exactly what you wish you had.

Specifically, I tend to run out of butter. There are only four sticks in a box and many recipes require an entire stick, such as cookies, brownies, and of course, cakes.

And that is why I love this recipe. Not only is it a cake that does not require butter, but it uses several carrots, which is something I always have too many of. This time around, I ended up using olive oil in the place of canola oil, having run out of that too, and it STILL tasted delicious. This is also a great recipe to make with a friend, so one of you can assemble the typical cake ingredients, and the other can be in charge of grating the carrots, which takes a bit of time and effort.

What you will need:

• 1/2 cup oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 1/3 cup apple juice
• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 cup grated carrots, packed (about two carrots)

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round or square baking pan.

-In a medium-sized bowl, mix the oil with the sugar. Add the eggs and egg white. Mix until light and thick. This will take a minute or two with your mixer, and a little longer with a fork. Add the other ingredients. Beat well. The batter will thicken a bit. Pour into prepared baking pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.

Voila!

This cake is mild, not too sweet, and the golden brown top and edges have just a tiny bit of resistance, giving it a delicious texture. This cake is wonderful frosted or plain, warm or cold. If you need frosting, I recommend using a classic cream cheese recipe such as this one: Cream Cheese Frosting. This one recommends the use of a couple tablespoons of milk for easy application, but in my experience, it's not really necessary.

Note: If you want a slightly taller cake, you can bake it in a 8-inch pan. If you are low on ingredients in general and only have two eggs, the corn starch version of this recipe is very similar, but does not require the egg white.

Also if you are new to cake baking, hold off on checking on the cake until at least 28 minutes into baking, when your cake looks pretty solid. Otherwise it will "fall", which happens when the inside of the cake is not yet baked enough to hold up the top, and, when it's disturbed in any way, it will collapse upon itself. It still tastes good when this happens but doesn't look as pretty.

(Thanks again to Roben Ryberg for writing "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free" and to the creator of the Cream cheese frosting recipe on recipezaar.com. This recipe was the rice based version of the carrot cake recipe. Corn starch, oat flour, and potato starch based versions of this recipe also exist.)

Chocolate muffins

I have several muffin recipes, all of which are easy and delicious, but this is one of my favorites. These chocolate muffins are cakey and fluffy and have a wonderful chocolate flavor, and they taste just like regular muffins. It let's "you won't believe it's gluten free" live up to its name.

What you will need:

• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup rice flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional but quite tasty)

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line or grease nine sections of a muffin tin.

-In a medium-size bowl, mix the oil with the sugar. Add the eggs. Mix until light yellow and a little thicker. This will take a minute or two with your mixer, or, if you've only got a fork, it's a chance to build up a little arm strength. Add the other ingredients except the chips if you are using them. Batter will be quite thick. Divide among the nine sections of the muffin tin. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle tests cleanly.



Note: If you are using the chocolate chip option, I would recommend against using semi-sweet chocolate chips, and opting for more classic chocolate chips. The semi-sweet flavor just doesn't quite meld with the chocolate taste of the muffin.

Also, the only reason all of my recipes to date have been rice-flour based is because I have more rice flour than corn starch and I'm trying to be resourceful :-)

(Thanks to Roben Ryber, author of "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free". This recipe was the rice-flour based version of Chocolate Chip Muffins. Corn starch, oat flour, and potato starch based versions also exist.)

10 minute Pancakes

My old room mate worked at a pancake house. If I ever visited her there, I was tortured with plate after plate of every kind of pancake sailing right under my nose, while I poked at my eggs and ham. Eventually I stopped going because, even the possibly contaminated eggs were a risk. Even if you aren't the go-out-for-breakfast type, pancakes are a special breakfast need I think many of us have.

Fortunately, pancakes are one of the easiest gluten free recipes, and perfect for someone who is just starting out. I love this recipe because, as long as I have all the basic ingredients, I can make it at a moment's notice! The preparation for this recipe only takes about 10 minutes, and they are very easy to flip once on the frying pan.

What you'll need:

• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup rice flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 cup milk

-Place all the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Mix very well. It works best if you add the milk last, as it will help thicken the batter. Heat a pan or griddle to medium heat, (A drop of water should "dance" on the surface) and if you like your pancakes golden brown, melt some butter in the pan. Pour the batter in the pan to your desired size of pancakes. Cook until small bubbles appear on the surface and the bottom is lightly browned. Flip and continue to cook until lightly browned on both sides. It's so easy!

And Yummy!

Note about cooking: It's important for these rice based pancakes to make sure they are cooked all the way through. I prefer smaller thinner pancakes to large thick ones, because they are more likely to cook thoroughly and much less likely to splatter when flipped. Cooking these pancakes slowly will have a prettier and tastier outcome than cranking up the heat and browning them quickly.

Also, if you are just making pancakes for yourself, half this recipe is plenty. If you have extra batter, put it in a container or put plastic wrap over the top of your bowl and put it in the fridge. You may want to add a little extra milk when you take it out again, to thin the batter. It is more difficult to get a thin pancake with thick batter.

And have fun! Experiment. This pancake is very yummy with fresh blueberries added, or chocolate chips, or just butter and maple syrup. It's extremely versatile in terms of taste. When I've got nothing else, apple sauce or jam work well too.

And just in case you have already mastered the art of gluten free pancakes and you want something new and exciting, I recommend this recipe: Sour cream Pancakes. The first time I made this recipe I ate two huge pancakes with jam (fruit and jam go amazingly well with the sour cream base) and then I ate another two for lunch! Simply substitute rice flour for the "cake flour" and you've got yourself an exotic, new, gluten free pancake recipe. I usually half the recipe because I don't need that much batter and I use low-fat sour cream because I think it's delicious.

(This rice-based pancake recipe came from "You Won't Believe it's Gluten Free" by Roben Ryberg. Versions using cornstarch, oat flour, or potato starch also exist. Thankyou again Roben and thanks to the recipezaar member who formulated the sour cream pancake recipe.