Gluten Free Bread Bowl Soup

Soup belongs in a bread bowl.  Period.  Just because I am gluten free does not mean that my days of eating soup this delicious way is over!  I used one package of Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free Homemade Wonderful Bread to form four tasty, you won't believe its gluten free, bread bowls.  After experimenting with their delicious thirteen bean soup mix, I found chorizo to be a great pairing for soup with a kick.

Check out my guest blog post on Bob's Red Mill's site for the recipe and more pictures of the delicious soup! http://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/2012/10/19/windy-city-cooking/  The recipe is gluten free, dairy free and packed with flavor!

Bob's Red Mill and I want you to try this recipe yourself at home!  So much so that WindyCityCooking.blogspot.com is having its first ever giveaway!  Three lucky winners will receive a package of the GF bread mix and the 13 bean soup mix just in time for warming up with a delicious fall soup.  Leave a comment on this entry before November 5, 2012 to be entered.  Let me know what your favorite bean is OR why you love to be gluten free!  Good luck!  And check back on November 6, 2012 for the winners!!

Better Batter Chocolate Cake (Birthday) Cupcakes

Happy Birthday to me!

And what is a birthday without chocolate cake?  (The answer is "pretty sad" if you are a chocoholic with a sweet tooth.)

I previously made a box worth of cupcakes from Better Batter's gluten free and dairy free chocolate cake mix that they sent me to try. I made them for an event and loved the convenience - what a breeze to make for someone who doesn't have all day to spend in the kitchen.  Add water, oil and eggs to the dry mix and mere minutes later, the cupcakes are on their way to the oven.  The cupcakes are wonderfully moist and as I mentioned in an earlier entry about their Yellow Cake Mix, they are a decorator's dream.  The tops bake smooth and are ideal for decorating.  The Better Batter chocolate cake mix tastes so rich - they are a great dessert!  I love making and eating their cupcakes!

At my recent dessert-bringing event, my cupcake versus people ratio was off so I had plenty of leftovers.  I took them home and froze them, hoarding them for future use...like my birthday.  Turns out I can have cake without turning on the oven on a hot July day!

I've read tips from moms from allergic kids that you should cut the cupcake in half and then put the frosting on the inside so it freezes well (and you can make a bunch at once) so kids can have birthday treats with their classmates.  The frosting on the inside is totally unnecessary.  Over the past year, I have been freezing cupcakes - both naked and fully decorated.  With the exception of some squishing of the frosting when I store them in too small containers (as pictured above), there are no issues with freezing decorated cupcakes.  There are a few ways to defrost them:

• Let sit at room temperature for an hour.  This is best for people who have patience, can plan ahead, or want to throw it in a lunchbox.
• Defrost with the 0.1 lb setting in the microwave.  This is great for the warm straight-from-the-oven taste for those of you who normally eat your desserts while the pan is still burning hot from the oven.
• Microwave on high for 1 minute for those of you who want the frosting to slide off and make a hot mess.  This is not recommended if you prefer your desserts to look classy or presentable.  Don't worry - it still tastes great.

Do you freeze your leftover cupcakes?  Or are you asking "what's a leftover cupcake" because they fly off your kitchen counter?

Meringues with an Enjoyable Chocolate Surprise

Lately, Pinterest has become my go-to source for all sorts of inspiration - from organizing my kitchen to planning the lunch and dessert for my brother's wedding shower to quotes that make me giggle and general crafty diy to tempting food.  When I stumbled upon these Raspberry Meringues, I was in love.  They were so beautifully crafted.  But even more tantalizing was the piece of chocolate inside.  How clever!

Darla at Bakingdom wrote a wonderful recipe for the meringues - if you don't have a stand-by favorite, be sure to check hers out!  Simply line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, add a piece of chocolate, and pipe out a kiss on top!  Couldn't be easier.

To make mine dairy free, I used some of Enjoy Life's semi-sweet chocolate Mega Chunks the company recently sent me.  I am not one to keep it small when creating desserts, and meringues are no exception.  The larger size of the chocolate chunks was perfect for my meringues formed with the 1M decorating tip from Wilton.  My biggest problem was keeping the chocolate on the cookie sheet - I unfortunately kept observing the "one for the recipe, two for my belly" rule...  I have had my fair share of semi-sweet dairy-free chocolate chips and Enjoy Life's are some of the best.  Knowing that they are also gluten and dairy free (and top 8 allergen free and vegan and all that good stuff) is especially comforting - I have not found any other chocolate chip labeled even dairy free.  Who knows what the other companies do to make sure that pesky milk chocolate is not co-mingling with my semi-sweet or dark chocolate!  It is always a gamble with other chips, well, they don't list that milk is an ingredient so I should be okay, right?  Right?  *crickets*

Each bite into these meringues were delicious.  Not only did I get the usual egg/sugar mixture, but the addition of the chocolate was such a sweet surprise.  I never would have thought to combine pieces of chocolate into my meringues, but I'm glad I did!  This is an excellent recipe with a superior piece of Enjoy Life chocolate waiting inside.  This recipe is a keeper - it may even make an appearance at my brother's upcoming wedding shower - their colors are brown and pink!  I'll just need to get my hands on some raspberry extract before then...

Pour open bag of Enjoy Life Mega Chunks. Consume a few.

 Evenly space out the chocolate chips.

 Separate the egg yolks from egg whites.

 Put your Kitchen Aid to work! 

(Not pictured because this part got a little too messy) Add the 1M tip to a piping bag.  Add the meringue.  Make beautiful drops directly on the chocolate. 

Impatiently wait for the meringues to cook (1 hour 40 minutes) before quickly photographing them before gobbling them up.

If you have leftover chocolate (and didn't eat most of the bag like I did...sometimes I have no shame...), the mega chunks are great as a dairy-free ganache!  1 part soy milk, 2.5 parts chocolate heated up in a pot over low heat. Perfect for drizzling on fruit!

Better Batter Yellow Cake

Looking for a tasty yellow cake mix?  Look no further than Better Batter's certified gluten free Yellow Cake Mix.  Better Batter was kind enough to send me a box to sample.  The baking couldn't be simpler: mix plus 1 cup water or milk (I used Pacific Natural Food's hemp milk), 3/4 cup oil and 3 eggs.  Mix everything together, pour into two 8" pans and half an hour in the oven later, you have cake!

I was bringing the cake to my cousin's housewarming party, so I couldn't sample the cake ahead of time.  (That's why I like cupcakes, no one notices if one is missing...I'm sneaky like that.)  From my Wilton classes, I learned how to properly level a cake.  I adjusted my cake leveler and was shocked to discover that the cakes were already level.  In my almost two years baking gluten free, this has never happened.  While I was delighted that I saved a step, I was bummed that again, I couldn't sneak any cake in advance.  At that point, I decided the cake better be worth the wait!

After placing my cake on a foil covered board and carefully positioning one layer, I piped a some frosting onto the cake and spread it around.  Then the next layer was added and the cake went to the fridge to cool to prevent any crumbs from seeping into the frosting.  Once the cake was cool, I plopped a ton of light green thin-consistency frosting on top and began to ice my cake.  I used a stencil to make the decorative swirls on the top of the cake.  I added another two toothpicks worth of green dye to darken up my leftover frosting before adding in some piping gel and a tiny bit more water.  The stencil was outlined using a #3 tip and then surrounding freehand dots were added.  Using a #21 tip, I formed a shell border around the base of the cake in the remainder of the dark green frosting.  A two-tone yellow gum paste Gerbera Daisy (made earlier) found its way in the center of the cake.  Viola!  Beautifully decorated cake without my kitchen turning into a mess!

 

Later that day after toting my cake up to the Illinois-Wisconsin border for my cousin's party, I FINALLY got to try the cake!  Was it a better batter than I'm used to?  You bet!  The cake was deliciously moist, very soft and tasted like cake!  (I've tried some gf cake mixes that felt like I was biting into sand; Better Batter thankfully tastes like a decadent cloud.  And look at those air pockets!  The batter is not too dense.)  At the party, my cousin's other side of the family happily tried the cake and complimented how great it tasted...before they even knew it was gluten free!  Everyone loved it!  I am happy to add another brand of cake mixes to my pantry.  Having a naturally level cake is a huge draw for me since I love to cut corners and find faster ways of doing things without compromising the final product.  The edges of the cake browned a bit too much for my liking, but no one will ever see that after the cake is smothered with frosting.  Better Batter's Yellow Cake is a winner - it even converted my chocolate loving self into a huge fan!

Gluten Free Communion

One of the few times when I don't want to panic about gluten or dairy sneaking its way into my food is during communion.  When I first started attending Urban Village Church in Chicago, I always had a mini panic attack.  What if they didn't have gf communion?  Are they handling it correctly?  Is it really gluten free or does it have minute traces of wheat like wafers from the Catholic Church? (I will not take communion at a Catholic service after reading articles like this and this where the answer to "Is it safe?" is "Probably".)  Every week, with eagle eyes, I would silently watch the celebrant and make sure he or she did not break the wheat bread over the gluten free wafers.  After a year, one day, the unthinkable happened: while walking to the serving station, someone realized he had too much to carry (half a loaf of wheat bread, a cup, and a plate of gf wafers) and he put the wheat bread on top of the wafers.  As he passed me, we both realized what happened.  I rushed to the serving station and said that the wafers were no longer gluten free.  I sat out from communion that day and prayed, thanking God that I narrowly escaped a gluten reaction.

The innocent action (who can blame him?) opened up a new conversation about how we literally handle the gluten free communion.  We decided that the next week, I would make one loaf for the church: gluten free, vegan, and top 8 allergen free.  I had a recipe in mind and made one of my favorites: the house bread from Flying Apron Bakery's book.  I made it with pumpkin, a perfect fall bread.  The bread was a little difficult to tear in half, but the real difficulty came when breaking off pieces for people.  Growing up, I always had wafers.  The whole tear-off-bread-while-people-wait was new to me.  And after mixing that with a dense bread, there were crumbs everywhere on the floor!  Thankfully our church regularly declares that communion is messy - you will bump into other people - there will be crumbs.  Many people were thankfully goodhearted over the bread - they had no idea what to expect from a wheat free bread - but I knew that there was a better fit out there.

I was determined to find a recipe that worked.  As much as I love the idea of everyone sharing one loaf, the cost and difficulty for me to make a loaf a week was too much. I searched the Internet until I found a recipe that met my needs.  Brittany Angell of RealSustenance.com has a super easy gluten free and vegan quick bread formula.  She says it has endless flavor possibilities and she is right!  The formula was there, I just followed it with foods that worked for me and my needs and out came communion bread!  The below recipe is top eight allergen free (wheat free, dairy free, soy free, egg free, tree nut free, peanut free, shellfish free, fish free) and vegan.  Surprisingly, the most challenging allergen for me to avoid was soy.  All of my cooking sprays had soy and I needed the dough to actually leave the pan in one piece.  A quick snip of parchment paper to line the loaf pan did the trick!

The recipe below makes four loaves of bread, perfect for a month of communion.  The bread freezes exceptionally well.  Before baking, I always switch over to clean kitchen towels and make sure there are no nuts or peanuts around (I already have a dedicated gluten and dairy free kitchen).  I bought my mini loaf pans from Michaels during an after Christmas sale.  They are exclusively used for communion bread.  I make sure when I run my dishwasher that no peanut or nut dishes are in the same load, for extra precaution.

The bread itself is quite tasty and breaks apart easily and does not crumble to pieces when dipped in grape juice.  I've enjoyed it outside of church, too!

The mini loaves are at the Urban Village Andersonville location whenever I am there. (1602 W Ainslie St at 10:30am on Sundays)  Other Sundays, they use wafers from Ener-G.  I've previously made Namaste Food's sugar free muffin mix for communion as well with great results.

Gluten Free, Top 8 Allergen Free, Vegan Communion Bread

Makes enough communion bread for 4 weeks.

2 cups gluten free all purpose flour (I use Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour)
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 t of xanthan gum or guar gum
3/4 c sugar

1/3 c vegetable oil
3/4 c of rice milk or coconut milk + 1 t apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 330 degrees.  Line four mini loaf pans with parchment paper.
Whisk together all the dry ingredients.
Add in the wet ingredients and mix with a hand mixer.
Pour in the mini loaf pans and bake for 35-45 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
Let rest in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.  Once completely cool, individually wrap the loaves in tin foil and place in a freezer bag, squeezing all the air out first, then storing in the freezer.

To defrost:
The night before, take a mini loaf from the freezer and store in the refrigerator in a sealed plastic container or bag.  In the morning, move from the refrigerator to the counter.  The loaf will be perfect in time for service!  (Assuming about 2 hours passes from rolling out of bed and communion time.)

Some tips on avoiding cross contamination when handling gluten free communion:

• The standard definition for gluten free is less than 20 parts per million.  Imagine a million grains of rice.  Now imagine that 20 of them are red.  How tiny is that amount!
• Do not handle wheat bread and then handle gf bread!  Make sure your hands are clean (I'm a huge fan of soap and water - it gets any residual crumbs off the hands).
• Have a dedicated gf cup and plate.  It is especially helpful to have separate storage containers and towels.
• If your church literally breaks bread (tears it in half), keep the gf elements out of the "crumb zone".
• When serving, offer the plate to the recipient and have them tear off their own piece.
• Everyone's sensitivities are different.  Just because one person who is gluten free since it helps them feel great does not have an issue with cross contamination does not mean that the next person has the same sensitivity level.  Err on the side of caution: always assume a super sensitive person.
• Now for the hardest one: if despite best intentions, something went wrong and the gf communion was cross contaminated: say something.  Example: someone dips wheat bread in the gf cup.  Not safe for those who need a gf diet.  I'd rather have someone say "no, you can't have that" rather than go home, feel sick, take a nap and take the next day off of work because I'm mysteriously sick.  (It has happened: all of my sick days this past year occurred on Monday after Sunday reactions.)

Every week, I've turned around and caught glances of strangers taking part in the communion celebration with the gluten free loaf.  It seems like every week, one or two new faces try the loaf, and not just because they are curious about gluten free breads!  One thing that brings me great joy is nourishing others through food.  To see so many people being able to participate in something that was previously forbidden due to dietary restrictions really fills me up with such happiness.  This is my contribution to bringing our church community together and growing even stronger as we move through the journey together.

Two great entries from a gf pastor's perspective at GlutenFreeJesusFreak include what to offer for communion and a few different ways of offering gf communion. 

What does your church do?  Do you have any more tips to add on serving gf communion?

Dairy Free Cookie Exchange: Fudge Balls

This year, I was thrilled to participate in a dairy free cookie exchange. Bloggers nationwide were swapping recipes in holiday cards (those travel much easier than actual cookies). My recipe came from Steph at DairyFreeOmnivore.

When I got my card, I nearly cried: I've never made Gluten free cookies before & it took me a while to get this right. A complete stranger was adapting a recipe for me so I could enjoy one of her holiday favorites! That's the epitome of the holiday spirit right there! Receiving the card with a hand written recipe on an index card was a true delight. Along with baking the Fudge Balls. (Steph wrote an entry on this recipe - the instructions are great and are super easy.) She had great success with Gluten Free Pantry's all purpose flour. I used the Silvana Nardone blend from Cooking for Isaiah.

I took this dessert to a New Years Eve party. Since the powdered sugar can get a little messy, each ball was placed in a mini cupcake liner. So simple yet so delicious! Everyone at the party loved it! This is a great way to get a dairy free and gluten free chocolate fix!

GFCF Gingerbread Pound Cake Petit Fours

After drooling over pictures of gingerbread cookies, dreaming about moist gingerbread, and lusting after images Christmas cakes, I got to work in the kitchen. I created a more pound cake like version of a gingerbread cake and turned them into petit fours! Petit fours are simply small cakes - the perfect bite sized treat during the holidays! Making them gluten and dairy free was easier than I thought! Warning - there's a lot of Crisco in this recipe so they aren't the most calorie-light dessert, but since when did we count calories in desserts?

The white cakes provide a blank canvas for decorating. I finished these late at night so my creativity at that point boiled down to green zig zags in thinned icing with the cakes nestled in holiday cupcake liners. I brought them to work and everyone in my gluten-eating office loved them! Warm up the oven and get baking! These are magical little cakes that are sure to brighten up your holiday! I'm so excited to share my recipe with you!

GFCF Gingerbread Pound Cake Petit Fours

Ingredients

1 c Crisco

1/2 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1 c molasses

1 cup buttermilk (1 T of lemon juice plus enough rice milk to make 1 cup. Let sit for 5 minutes.)

Dry Ingredients

3 cups Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour

2 t xantham gum

1 1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t sea salt

1 1/2 t ground ginger

1 1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/2 t ground cloves

Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a stand mixer, combine the Crisco, molasses and sugar until smooth.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

With the mixer on a low speed, alternate adding the buttermilk and dry ingredients together, until everything is thoroughly mixed.

Pour the batter in the parchment paper lined pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted is clean.

Cool for 20 minutes in the pan. Then cool on a wire rack. Once totally cool (placing the cake in the refrigerator or freezer helps), slice the cake into bite-sized pieces.

White Chocolate Icing

3 lbs white chocolate bark, divided

1 1/2 c Crisco, divided

In a double boiler, melt 1 lb of chocolate bark and 1/2 cup Crisco. Mix together. Dip the cake pieces in the chocolate. (Watch this video! I love her technique!) Let dry on a wire rack. If crumbs appear, cool the cake in the refrigerator and give the cake another coat. Make more icing as needed.

Decorate with thinned royal icing or sprinkles or wherever your creativity takes you!

GFCF Gingerbread House

Last year, I bought a gingerbread house kit from the store and called it my most stressful decision ever. I nearly had a panic attack from working with wheat and dairy-filled icing. In the end, the gingerbread house was built with a hot glue gun and sat throughout Christmas on the far corner of my table - away from anything I would eat. This year, I wanted to put my Wilton skills to use (I took the first course and went from horrible to terrific very quickly) and that meant making a gingerbread house that could proudly take center stage on my kitchen table and I wouldn't be flipping out over touching a wheat-filled kit and then touching everything else in my kitchen. No gingerbread house is worth getting sick over!

Pamela's Products held the answer to my gf Christmas wish! Her website has a recipe that uses Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Mix to create a gingerbread house! And it even included templates for the house! Before work one morning, I quickly mixed together my dough, using Crisco as my butter, and refrigerated it.

When I came home, I laid out some parchment covered cutting boards and got to work. Since I don't have wooden bars for consistent dough rolling (this is on my Christmas list, Santa!), I laid down two square chopsticks and was mindful of where they started to taper down. I cut out the templates with scissors and then gently placed them on top of the dough to cut out the shapes with a dough cutter/scraper.

Only problem was the paper was sticking to the dough! Since these were rolled out on parchment paper, I simply picked up the paper and flipped the dough over onto my parchment paper covered cookie sheets. Voila! Problem solved! The nice, smooth side was face up. The dough gave me just enough for the house and three small gingerbread trees. Before cooking my house, I used some stencils that my mom and I found (unopened) in her kitchen (similar to these) and drew out the shapes I wanted to draw in an attempt to minimize any free-handing the cake needed.

The pieces ended up baking for about 20-22 minutes. When they came out of the oven, there were several bumps in the dough. I've never done proper gluten free cookie cutter cookies so I don't know if this is normal, the dough, or me. The lumps are barely detectable now that the house has some distracting decorations on it.

This year, no glue gun was needed to put this house together! I made Royal Icing from Wilton's website (naturally dairy free) and used almost a dozen tips and three colors (white, red, and green) to decorate my house. I had a lot of fun putting this house together this year. The stress was off and I was in my element decorating with swirls and flourishes. Having the stencils imprinted with the designs helped immensely! All of the decorations were made from royal icing, so I had no additional labels to read. Wilton has been great about responding to my e-mailed requests about their products being gluten and dairy free - I know my colors are all safe for me!

Are you building a gingerbread house this year? Will yours be gluten free or gluten full?

Mummy cupcakes

Cupcakes aren't just for kid's parties! They are a giant hit with adults as well!

I made these mummy cupcakes for work and a party and everyone loved them. These cupcakes are very easy to transform into a spooky Halloween treat. These were made gluten free and dairy free, much to the surprise of some of the eaters - they could not tell that anything was different!

To make, you need:

Baked, unfrosted, and cool cupcakes (I used a devil's food cake mix)

1 recipe of buttercream frosting (I used the Wilton classroom recipe with water, powdered sugar and Crisco)

Two decorating bags or freezer bags

No taste red icing coloring (or whatever color eyes you want for your mummy)

Toothpicks

Decorating tip 104 for the white mummy wraps

Decorating tip 10 for the eyes

Coupler for your decorating bag

Sprinkles for the center of the eyes

Put about 1/4 cup of frosting into a small bowl. Using a toothpick, add about 2-3 "dips" of the red icing coloring and mix well. Add to a decorating bag with tip 10, using a coupler if you prefer

Put the rest of the frosting into the other decorating bag with tip 104, using a coupler if you prefer.

Pipe two eyes on the cupcake in red.

Then, using your white icing bag, pipe a circle around the edge of the cupcake. This will provide maximum mummy coverage.

Then pipe a large X below the eyes, making sure the wraps extend the entire width of the cupcake.

Continue piping wraps over the mummy.

For an extra spooky (and even creepy) effect, carefully place sprinkles in the center of the eyes.

Get creative! These had red eyes, per the request of the party host. In no time, you can have custom made cupcakes for Halloween! Making mummies was so easy - this project would be great for little hands as well!

Wilton Decorating Basics - Class 1

While my cupcakes with powdered sugar dusted on top are pretty, at some point in my gluten and dairy free life I need to put a little more work into the finished product. And learn how to decorate a cake without resorting to the decorate-while-warm-for-the-melted-frosting look. I've known about Wilton cake decorating classes forever - there is a Michaels store in my hometown and I've always wanted to go but never really felt like it was the right time for me or it did not fit in my schedule. This past birthday, my aunt went to the Wilton tent sale and bought me some new brownie and loaf pans (with rounded edges so no crumbs stick) to upgrade my gear and surprised me with a 25 piece decorating set with some piping gel. She obviously thought more highly of my decorating skills than I did... When I was a prop designer, I decorated three cakes in a year - all of them looked horrible. But that's going to change! I signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating Basics course at my local Michaels craft store and now I'm going to be a decorating extraordinaire!!!

For the first class, our supply list included the kit, ready made icing and cookies. After a few e-mails back and forth with Wilton, I learned:

White Decorator Icing, 710-118: no dairy or gluten in this product but there was dairy and gluten in the plant. This means our lines are cleaned for cross contamination but we let customers know this for air born allergies.

Most of our icing colors are gluten and dairy free but the only way to be sure is to check each stock number such as 610-256 in order to know for sure. I hope this helps and I apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any other questions or stock numbers you would like us to check, please feel free to let us know! We appreciate your business,

So far, so good! I'm still not a fan of needing to e-mail the company with stock numbers of already purchased products (that seems to be the only way to get a solid answer), but am happy to know that Wilton is on top of the cross contamination issue and declares allergens on their labels. (The white decorator icing is made in a facility that also processes milk and wheat products.) They were also quick with their responses.

I'm always going to be the special kid in class because I'm left handed. But I can't eat wheat or dairy? And I need to make buttercream icing? Fun fact: Wilton's class buttercream icing is butter and cream free. It uses shortening (Crisco), milk or water, confectioner's sugar and the optional flavor, meringue powder and salt. Helpful hint: Crisco doesn't change consistency with temperature. Butter does. Keep it dairy free. No problem!

For the first class, we were supposed to bring in cookies. Since I'm super excited about baking these days, I made up a recipe to make six very large, chocolate cookies. Recipe at the bottom. I was ambitiously over-prepared for the first class (I found the supply list online) so was able to buy some things with 40% off coupons first (you get a 10% off class supplies coupon, but 10% off is kind of a joke when you are looking at all the toys you need/want. At the first class, we started late because people needed to still buy their kits and icing (do this in advance!). Our instructor went over how to bake a cake (no new info for me), recommended using box mix (too expensive for me), how to make the icing and how to water it down for the right consistency, how to fill a decorating bag, leveling and torting a layered cake, how to ice a cake and how to make a piping gel transfer. Seems like a lot of info, but a lot of the class was very basic.

When we did get our hands into the action, we pretty much just piped stars using tip 18 on the practice board and then class was over. I wasn't leaving until I decorated at least one cookie, so I piped some stars in a swirl on one and took a picture. I decorated the rest when I got home. The next night, I took out the practice board and kept going with the stars. They are getting closer to consistent the more I practice.

Next week we need to bring in an 8" cake to level and tort. Gluten free cakes don't rise too much, so this means I'll be making two 8" layers and leveling off the tops. I still need to decide on the filling... And find a recipe! And buy more things! Yeah...I'm going to be that awkward girl on the train next Wednesday during rush hour juggling a cake, plastic tool box and backpack, aren't I?

Michelle's First Ever Cookie Recipe

1 stick vegetable oil spread/dairy free butter

1 c gluten free flour mix

1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 c sugar

1/4 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

2 t vanilla

1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a stand mixer, cream the butter. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Slowly add to the butter mix. Then add in the vanilla and egg. Mix well. Place cookies on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake in oven for 8 minutes. The cookies should expand quite nicely and give you PLENTY of room to add as many stars as you desire.

Introducing Rawr-y

Getting a Kitchen Aid Mixer was one of my life goals. Growing up, my mom always promised me that she would buy one for me when I got married. As a kid, I always thought that I would get married right after college. But when I came out in college, I was paranoid that I would never have a proper wedding ceremony therefore would never get the proper gift I dreamed of as a baking-loving kid. I started saving up my credit card points and was counting down the months until I "earned" the Kitchen Aid (even though my mom is supportive and would have still bought me a mixer when my happy day arrived). Then I saw it on sale on Black Friday and the amazingly low door buster price was much more cost efficient than the points. I bought it on the spot and took it out of the box at my mom's house and sat on her living room floor while making sure all the parts were there and it worked. Then, reality sunk in. The Kitchen Aid didn't fit into my tiny studio apartment kitchen (the microwave ended up taking over most of my desk when I began cooking more), so the Kitchen Aid would need to stay at my mom's until I moved. I took pictures of my greatest kitchen purchase and put them as the background image on my laptop to remind me that I made it into adulthood - I had my own mixer and just needed to find the proper home for it. I e-mailed a picture of it to Eliot:

Michelle: I feel like it needs to have a name. I feel bad for leaving it alone in my childhood bedroom, but I think it will manage... I don't know how I'll manage, however.

Eliot: Haha, it looks like a baby dinosaur. We'll think of a name for it.

I loved his response and couldn't help but think "Rawr!" so Rawr-y was christened!

A month after moving, when all my flours were properly put away and my kitchen was organized, Rawr-y came to life. Her first creations were chocolate cupcakes for my birthday. I used a recipe from You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free! Those recipes are extremely simple and tend to be one-flour recipes, which is rare for gf baking. I was a little concerned about the amount of sugar compared to some of the other ingredients (1.5 cups sugar, 1 cup potato starch, 3/4 cup oil, 3 eggs, among other things) as the recipe only made 15 cupcakes, but I was sharing them with adults who could responsibly handle a sugar overload better than kids - right? While the cupcakes were baking, Rawr-y got a handwash so I could make the frosting. Bring on the sugar!

Michelle's Frosting

6 T Crystal Farms Vegetable oil spread (non-dairy "butter")

pinch of salt

2 cups (plus more) of powdered sugar

3 t vanilla (plus more) rice milk

Cream together the vegetable oil spread and pinch of salt. Then add the 2 cups of powdered sugar and 3 t vanilla rice milk (alternatively - use original rice milk and add a splash or two of vanilla) until smooth. Slowly add additional powdered sugar or rice milk until the desired consistency is reached. Do not settle for mediocre frosting! Adding a little bit more of one ingredient can make all the difference between "meh" and "holy cow!" frosting! I tend to average 2.5 to 3 cups of powdered sugar.

See? Just as easy as opening a tub of over-processed frosting!

Valerie's Mexican Fiesta

For my sister's birthday this year, she wanted a Mexican Fiesta. Having themed family parties is always fun - there's a variety of foods to eat all fitting neatly under one theme. And having a party at my mom's house means I can have some say in how much gluten there will be. There was only one offending item: flour tortillas. For appetizers/munchies (my family is big on grazing on food throughout the afternoon, so much so that on family party days, my siblings and I never really ate a proper lunch), we had veggies, fruit, and corn tortilla chips with five different kinds of salsas and a few dips, guacamole, and hummus. Since nothing contained gluten that was out, I was free to dip my food from the bowl like everyone else.

For the main course to our fiesta (yes, I appreciate the irony that in celebration

of my sister's Independence Day birthday we had Mexican food - even if it was watered down Mexican) we had tacos - there were two different kinds of corn shells - tostadas and the traditional crispy corn variety - and soft shell flour burriotos. I was in charge of cooking our rice - I used Guy Fieri's Mambo Rice recipe from foodnetwork.com to great fanfare from the family. It was made with basmati rice, gluten free chicken stock from Sam's Club and loads of fresh ingredients finely chopped. This was an easy rice cooker dish - the ratio of liquid to rice was spot on! My mom meanwhile grilled the meats and my sister made her "spicy corn" dish - made two ways - with or without butter. Everyone loved the build your own taco idea and the easy dishes naturally lent themselves to more time with the family and less time in the kitchen.

My sister decided that she didn't want a cake this year. My mom wanted me to find a recipe with rhubarb that I could eat since she harvested some from her garden. After twenty minutes of surfing the internet, I only found gluten-free recipes rather than naturally gluten free options (except for the compote). Another trip to foodnetwork.com and we were eating Mexican Brownies, again from Guy Fieri. Brownies were the easiest since I was able to buy Bob's Red Mill mix and dump the bag into the bowl rather than try to measure everything out (I have a lot of dairy-free substitutions at my mom's house but not that many flour options other than white rice flour.) I did my best to combine the two recipes, always defaulting to Bob's instructions when there was a discrepancy. The required about 5-10 minutes longer than recommended and due to the liquid from the rhubarb compote, I omitted adding water. For the brownies, you could really taste the chocolate - I used Baker's chocolate - and they turned out to be very rich and decadent. We even successfully passed them off to some of my sister's friends and no one noticed that they were gfdf (made with a vegetable oil spread stick to keep it dairy free) - they just tasted different because of the extra chocolate, rhubarb, and cinnamon. This must be the way to go with gf baking! Make something so different that no one can compare it! Overall, it was a great party with lots of delicious food and company to celebrate my sister's latest trip around the sun! Happy Birthday, Valerie!

Snowmageddon '11 Baking

Most of Chicago shut down completely today. I worked from home and spent my "lunch hour" making gingerbread dough and then photographing the beach and park and Lake Shore Drive. Chicago was eeirely calm and it was bizarre to walk in the middle one of the busiest roads with snow drifts almost as tall as me.

The snow day afforded me the time to make the cookie dough, refrigerate it, and roll it into cookies. And in honor of the Snowmageddon, why not snowmen cookies?

It took me a while to find a gingerbread recipe WITHOUT almond flour. Finally, I found this one. The cookies were easy to make. I made two substitutions: I used an egg instead of applesauce and I used Crisco since I couldn't find palm oil shortening. The cookies are great tasting and the dough is easy to manipulate and roll. I still need to work on my rolling technique - growing up we had small boards to ensure our dough was evenly rolled. I may have to find my own...

Bacon Soup and Chocolate Mousse Pie

Yeah...my blog doesn't lie. My last entry talking about what 2011 will bring ended with: And if Eliot has any influence, more bacon.

First meal we cooked together in 2011? Parsnip and potato soup with bacon. And a side of bacon.

Bring on the new year!!!

I think the only way to ever share an Eliot recipe will be if I write down EVERYTHING the boy grabs and hold out measuring cups and spoons before the ingredient makes it into the pot or pan. So at minimum, this soup had five parsnips, three carrots, a few potatoes, some celery, 4 cups of my homemade turkey stock, an onion, kosher salt, garlic cloves, freshly picked parsley, sherry, and some random spices he found, cooked in a stock pot, combined with an immersion blender, and topped with bacon. With a little dish of bacon on the side.

Eliot cooks. I bake. He can look at recipes and then walk away and make magic happen in the kitchen. Me? I follow recipes exactly and expect them to turn out perfectly since someone already figured out the science behind making these dishes.

And what happens when I don't follow recipes exactly? I fail and end up throwing out a dozen eggs. When Eliot and I each got our own copies of Cooking for Isiah, we decided that with every promotion he gets, I will bake him a dessert to celebrate. His first promotion was the ever simple chocolate cake. With every promotion, the desserts will get more complicated as I also develop into a better cook and baker. I made some smart decisions by at least skimming the pre-chosen recipe earlier in the week, so I knew I would need to make cookies for the crust and at least two double boilers or heat safe bowls. I figured I could beat the system and use the same bowl twice. And I failed to correctly save my egg yolks the first time around. So this recipe that needed six eggs, actually used a total of 19 (one was for coating the cookie crust) under my careless eye. ALWAYS READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS FIRST. Eliot saved the day when he came with two glass bowls and I was finally able to follow the directions properly and make something wonderful in the kitchen. Just over three hours later, the chocolate mousse cloud pie with a chocolate cookie crust came out of the refrigerator and I used my microplane to add some dark chocolate to the top. Yum! I'm (slowly) getting the hang of making mousse desserts since those are popular among the dairy free crowds. I am looking forward to the day, however, when I can don't have to hold my electric mixer for almost ten minutes as my eggs are beat. When can I get a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer in my kitchen? Patience is a virtue I don't have time to wait for - which can be problematic at times in the kitchen. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep learning from my mistakes and continue to grow as a cook. And eat LOTS of chocolate!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

This year, Santa is getting rice milk and Chocolate-Covered Coconut Cookies!

The coconut cookies are easily gluten and dairy free with a simple butter substitution (we used Crystal Farms again) and gfdf semi-sweet chocolate chips! These taste just like a Mounds Bar and are quite delicious! Check out the Rachel Ray recipe to make your own delicious cookies. Kudos to my mom for finding this recipe and making them for me for Christmas! It is so nice to have a chocolate dessert in the house!

Christmas Cupcakes

Until I have a few hours to master a gluten free Christmas cookie recipe, I'm settling for cupcakes. They are a breeze to make (remember how much I raved about them early on in my gluten and dairy free baking?) and bring to a holiday party. The frosting I made was with dark chocolate chips, some powdered sugar and a little bit of water. It was like someone plopped fudge on top - delicious!!! And holiday sprinkles? One of the best parts about baking! (That and the leftover frosting in the fridge...)

Happy Holidays!!!

Pie #1

Chicago has officially welcomed in fall and nothing says fall better than homemade apple pie.

Thursday lunch hours are almost always dedicated to the Daley Plaza Farmer’s Market. My cousin joined me and we browsed the finest in-season fruits and veggies. We both bought an acorn squash and I found myself intrigued by the variety and quantity of apples available. I bought a small basket and decided I was going to make apple pie that night. After arriving home, I opened up Cooking for Isaiah and went to work on making the pie crust. For the record, I’ve had this book for two weeks and made the 10 cup flour mixture right away. I now have about ½ cup left in my flour container.

Making pie is a bit challenging for me since my pie experience is really limited and is years old: apple pie at a friend’s house and an open-face shoo-fly pie. So I did not really know what to expect with making a gluten-free pie. Since the binding ingredient is shortening, whenever the dough broke apart, all I had to do was push it all back together and smooth it out with my fingers. I found it easiest to transport the dough into my pie tin by simply lifting it up while still on the parchment paper, turning it over and letting it fall. I had to do the same for the top crust of the pie. I still need to learn how to properly make a beautiful and delicious pie (my mom has since promised to let me come to her kitchen and make some with her), but for my first gf pie attempt, this was pretty good! I wish I had rolled the dough a bit thinner, but the filling was perfect and the apple mixture was sweet.

The biggest lesson with this pie is to not make it before eating dinner. (Note the time the pie finally came out of the oven.) By the time the pie was going into the oven, I was starving and I had dirty mixing bowls and dishes all over my stove and counter. Once I settled on a boxed risotto and cleaned off the stove enough to cook that and add some frozen homemade meatballs on top, I couldn’t even taste the food I was eating since I ate it so quickly. I was able to slow things down when I had my dessert and once again taste my delicious food.

Back to Baking: Cupcakes

The last time I made cupcakes, I opened a box. Now, I turn to Silvana Nardone's Cooking for Isaiah and scoop out some of my flour mixture. Oh. My. GOD!

Her "chocolate birthday cake" recipe is AMAZING! I made it without instant espresso powder because I hate all things coffee-flavored. Still amazing! Cakes are hard to share, so I took out my cupcake tins and lined them with my dwindling supply of cupcake papers and got to work. Last time I made a cake, I had lumps in the batter, which contrary to my wishful thinking, did not disappear in the baking process. I encouraged my poor taste test subject to "eat around the lumps" and I did the same. This time, I whisked together the dry ingredients THEN I took out my handy five-cup flour sifter and sifted out every blessed lump. I had perfectly smooth batter that lead to the greatest cupcakes ever! Silvana's recipe is for making a cake and I am trying to hold myself to following recipes to the letter for my first attempt, but I cross-referenced with a box of cupcakes and changed my baking time to 19 minutes and had a delicious, moist chocolate dessert. I'm pretty sure this is one of the best chocolate cupcakes I have ever had and I know my cupcakes!

I did not feel like making frosting as well, since I was baking after work and my time was precious (translation: I had too many dishes to do already), so I decided to sift some powdered sugar onto the cupcakes. The result? Picture-perfect cupcakes that had the powdered sugar disappear an hour later. Note to self: do not add powdered sugar to a warm baked good.

And then the ultimate test came the next morning: bringing the cupcakes to work. I only brought 10 cupcakes into the office (enough for half of the people since I figured people might be scared to try gluten and lactose free cupcakes; many people were weirded out by the soy ice cream bars one girl brought in for my birthday the year prior) so did not bother with the office-wide e-mailed invitation to try my baked goods. I set them on the empty desk next to me and let people grab them if they liked. Everyone who tried one said they were delicious and really good. I asked one guy what he thought and if he could honestly tell me if they tasted like real cupcakes to him. He said he had no idea that they were special cupcakes and asked if he could have another. Three different people all went back for seconds! Now if that doesn't boost my baking confidence, I don't know what will!

Cooking for Isiah

My rule when purchasing a cookbook is I need to be able to make (or have the desire to learn to make) at least three recipes. I have started checking out cookbooks from the library first to make sure that the recipes match my cooking style and eating habits. The latest find is Silvana Nardone's Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes for Easy, Delicious Meals.

I'm ordering my own copy on amazon before the book is even due.

Most of her recipes include her flour-blend so I bought another bag of rice flour and bought a container large enough to hold her just-over-ten-cup mixture and dove right in. A flour mixture of that size is quite the investment, especially since I have only worked with smaller mixtures for individual recipes. I went in completely trusting Silvana and it was worth it.

Last Saturday, I bought some ribs (conveniently labeled gluten-free on the back of the packaging - thank you, Hormel!) http://www.hormelfoods.com/brands/glutenfree/default.aspx I made her delicious pineapple-brown sugar barbecue sauce (omitting the hot sauce since my taste buds are not a fan) and made ribs. I have always loved ribs - they are very easy to make. At their simplest, you pour bottled sauce over the ribs on a cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil. But these were amazing! Once cooked, the barbecue sauce just exploded with flavor and richness.

For my side, I made double corn cornbread and hit another home run. This bread tastes like normal bread!!! My recommendation is to make sure that the corn kernels are fully cooked because otherwise they can be a bit chewy while eating. I was particularly excited by this recipe because now I have a bread to eat for Thanksgiving.

And since no meal is complete without dessert, I kept my All-American Traditional theme going with her chocolate chip cookies. When I opened the oven door, I loudly swore in complete shock: the cookies came out of the oven just like cookies are supposed to!! They rose and grew and were everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. When I gave one to Eliot, he proclaimed, "This is how a cookie is supposed to taste." This could easily be passed off as a traditional cookie.

This book is hands down the one book any lactose and gluten free cook NEEDS propped up on their counter. The book is one giant YES! If I ever have the Julie and Julia goal to work my way through an entire cookbook, this would be chosen with no other book even coming in second. Every recipe already takes into consideration the different types of milk and shortenings for cooking. The recipes are all kid tested (her son Isaiah is gluten and dairy-free) and range from traditional favorites to delicious splurges, such as s'mores pancakes. And honestly, only a mom would think to use Fritos to coat chicken tenders. Brilliant!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Isaiah-Gluten-Free-Dairy-Free-Delicious/dp/1606521659/ref=sr_1_1?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285441129&sr=8-1

Bread Attempt #1

After my Betty Crocker disappointment, I knew I needed to start even simpler with baking. Originally, I thought all of the gf advice for baking was for people that did not know how to bake period when it really was for the people who knew how to bake with gluten who need to learn baking all over again. I was very excited when I saw the number of recipes in Bette Hagman's Living Well Without Wheat: The Gluten-Free Gourmet - Revised Edition. I used this book when I was stocking up on flours, thanks to her helpful descriptions. My first bread recipe came from her book exclusively because of its introduction:

Easy to make and impressive. This better is very forgiving and always turns out.

Sign me up! Her ingredients for "Popovers" are simple - water, shortening, potato starch flour, rice flour, salt and eggs. The batter was really fast to make. And guess what - they looked like bread. I may or may not have had four of them straight out of the oven... (Translation: they were just that good!) The popovers had a delicious texture and were just the slightest soft and gooey on the inside. I would never have known that these were gf. Success! I have a bread recipe! This alone is reason enough for me to add her book permanently on my bookshelf rather than just as a borrowed library book. We'll let the pictures speak a thousand words here: