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.)

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. )

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.

Peach Cobbler

Normally when I hear the word "cobbler" it speaks to me of dedication and of serious baking. However that doesn't have to be true! This easy dessert is pretty, quite sweet, and homey. It will leave you wanting more.

When I inevitably end up with several cans of peaches "in light syrup", I like to make this recipe, because it gives me an excuse to bake while feeling resourceful. You can make it with fresh OR frozen peaces too, but canned turns out delicious, and they are extremely cheap. I added lemon juice to the original recipe, as canned peaches are already quite sweet, and I like to have a little bit of tartness in my baked fruit. Because the batter is rice flour based, simply substitute frozen peaches for canned, and you've got yourself a corn free, gluten free cobbler! (Rice milk could also probably be substituted for cow's milk, in the case of a dairy allergy, though I haven't tried it.)

What you will need:

Fruit layer:

• 16-20 ounces canned peaches (about two 15 oz. cans)
  
• 2-4 tablespoons sugar, to taste
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice flour
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice (optional)

Batter:

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup rice flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Scant 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a pie plate or casserole dish.

- Drain the corn syrup from the peaches and place in a bowl or in the baking dish. Add remaining ingredients for the fruit layer and mix well. Adjust the lemon and sugar measurements to your taste, keeping in mind that the lemon flavor will fade during baking more than the sweetness. If your peach pieces seem large, cut them into smaller pieces with your spoon or fork. Place in the bottom of the baking dish if you have not already done so.

-In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and egg white. Beat until light and smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients. If you're like me and you're equipped with only a fork for mixing, beating works very well in eliminating those pesky rice flour lumps.

-Pour over the fruit. It does not matter if all the pieces of fruit are not fully covered, but in my experience, there's enough to go around.

-Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the crust tests cleanly and the top is a dark golden color and is slightly firm to the touch. Any visible juices will be opaque and bubbly.

**If using frozen peaches, adjust baking time to about 55-65 minutes, to account for the peaches being rather cold :-P

The result?



My favorite way to eat this sweet, homey dessert is to heat it (either in the oven or microwaved for about 40 seconds), and then add a tiny handful of semisweet chocolate chips and allow them to melt for about 30 seconds, and then top it with a heaping scoop of french vanilla ice cream. Delicious!


**A note for those new to gluten free baking: There are two ingredients in this recipe you may not have worked with before.

• Rice flour is a fantastic gluten free baking flour and pretty easy to find. Bob's Red Mill sells it by the bag, for $2-$4, and stores such as Winco that sport a large bulk section usually have rice flour for about $0.76 a pound. I like to buy a huge bag of the stuff and it lasts me for weeks.
  
• Xanthan gum is a binder, which is what gluten would normally do in wheat flour, etc. and is extremely crucial for gluten free baking. It is also sold by the bag by Bob's Red Mill, but it's a little trickier to find. Here in the Eugene/ Springfield area, I buy it at Capella market, where they have a very large selection of gluten free foods. It is about $12 per bag, but do not despair! At the most, two table spoons of xanthan gum is used at a time, and usually much much less. Since I began baking about 10 months ago, I have only had to buy xanthan gum twice, once initially, and one refill, and I'm still working on my second bag. If you plan to do gluten free baking, it is worth the investment.
  

(This recipe was an adjusted version of the fruit layer from the corn based peach cobbler and the batter from the rice based blueberry cobbler from Roben Ryber's "You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free." Recipes for a cornstarch based batter, a potato starch based batter, and a blueberry fruit layer exist as well. )