The best gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

Fri Jan 29 2016

The best gluten-free chocolate chip cookies

My word have I made a lot of chocolate chip cookies.  I haven't found a good gluten-free packaged cookie that's worth the price, so I've gotten comfortable sifting through recipes on Pinterst for the best chocolate chip cookie.  This recipe actually claimed to be the best, so I put it to the test.  The person (My Gluten-Free Kitchen) responsible for this recipe was intense.  She laid out expectations of her cookie outcome and detailed notes as to how her cookies came out so well.  I respected that.  I respect people who take their cookie game seriously.

I may have just found it, ladies and gentlemen, the best gluten-free chocolate chip cookies.  They taste like they're full of gluten, so that's a win in my book.

I can't in any way take credit for this recipe.  I didn't change a thing (except I used good ole Bob's Red Mill 1-1, so I didn't need xanthan gum),  They took a bit of time to make, but if you enjoy baking the prep won't phase you.

I loved them!  So let there be #cookiesfordayz.

Thu Oct 22 2015

Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Scones

When you go to make scones, it's always a bit of a commitment.  But are they worth it!  I'm so happy I'm decided to "whip up" this batch after Sunday morning Mass.  I took an original recipe and made some modifications.  I turned the recipe gluten-free, added chocolate chips, and opted out of the pumpkin frosting.  The original can found here. Here's what I did:

What you'll need:

2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup packing light brown sugar
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp pumpkin puree, chilled
3 1/2 Tbsp buttermilk
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp half and half

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp half and half

Directions:

For the scones:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a food processor pulse together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well blended (or whisk by hand).

I then poured the mixture into a bowl and added the diced butter a few pieces at a time and mixed the butter into the flour mixture by hand.  Make sure the butter is no longer visible and well mixed.

Create well in the center of the bowl.  Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together chilled pumpkin puree, buttermilk, egg, vanilla extract, and honey. Pour mixture into well in flour/butter mixture.  Stir mixture with a wooden spoon to incorporate, then knead in bowl by hand several times to bring mixture together.  Dust a work surface with flour then invert dough onto surface.  Pat and shake dough into an even 8-inch round.  Using a large knife, slice into 8 equal wedges.  (You'll need to dust the knife with flour many times as the dough will be very sticky.)

Transfer scones to greased baking sheet.  Brush tops with 1 Tbsp half and half then bake in preheated oven for 13 minutes until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clear.  Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

For the glaze:

In a mixing bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and half and half.  It should be fairly thick.  Spoon and spread mixture on to the tops.  Let sit.

Enjoy!  We sure did.

Fri Oct 02 2015

Individual Gluten-free apple crisps

I'm a big TGIT-er around here.  Meaning come Thursday night at 8PM, I'm relaxing on my couch watching Grey's and then Scandal (haven't gotten into How to Get Away with Murder yet).  And in my opinion, you can't relax without a good dessert (or wine if you're not with child).  I had apples, oats, and ice cream, so I looked up how I could make some delicious apple crisps.

This recipe is not healthy.  There is a time for cookies made with apple sauce and brownies made from beans, but last night was not one of those times.  My butter, sugar, apples mixture baked to a golden-brown perfection and was the perfect TGIT companion.

What you'll need: 

1 medium apple, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon gluten-free all-purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill 1-1)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons gluten-free quick-cooking oats
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To do: 

Place apples in small greased ramekin.  In a small bowl, combine flour and brown sugar; cut in butter and mix until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add oats and cinnamon.  Sprinkle over apple slices.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Thu Sep 24 2015

Gluten-Free Baked Pumpkin Donuts with Cream Cheese Glaze

I so went there.

Fall is among us and I feel like a little kid who is seeing leaves change color for the first time.  I really don't think I could be any more excited to experience Autumn in all its glory, so naturally I'm going a little nuts-o with the Fall decorating and baking this year.

I recently took to my kitchen once again in attempts to make a good, baked (GF) pumpkin doughnut, but I wanted something a little different than a frosting or cinnamon sugar topping, and the next logical step after frosting and sugar was of course cream cheese.

I ended up making a variety of doughnuts -- a few with a chocolate and cinnamon sugar topping, but the verdict was the cream cheese glazed took the cake.

Here's the recipe:

What you'll need:

For the donuts:

2 cups Bobs (1 to 1) All Purpose Baking Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1/4 almond milk
1 tbsp cinnamon

1)  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 2 doughnut pans with nonstick spray.

2)  In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Set aside.

3)  In a separate bowl, mix together brown and granulated sugar, melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree.

4) Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix them adding the milk.  (You may need a little more if batter is too thick.)

5)  Fill piping bag (or gallon size storage bag and cut corner) with half of the batter and fill doughnut tins 3/4 of the way.

6)  Bake for 10 minutes or until cooked through.

For the glaze: 

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1 - 2 tbsp cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Splash of almond milk

Add all ingredients and mix well.

When doughnuts are cool, dunk 'em in the glaze and let sit.

Enjoy!

Fri Aug 14 2015

Donut town

One of the things I've missed most ever since I had to go gluten-free is doughnuts.  They're one of my favorite breakfast treats and hold so much nostalgia as I used to go out with my Grandpa and pick up a dozen on the weekends.

There isn't much to offer in the gluten-free doughnut market.  They're either overpriced, sub par, or both often leaving me questioning where have all the good gluten-free pasties gone?

I'm always looking to improve my gluten-free baking game, so I took to my kitchen in efforts to make some good, these-taste-like-they-have-gluten-in-them doughnuts.  I was originally inspired by the gigantic container of rainbow sprinkles I had just bought, and I got to it.

What you'll need: 

Makes 6 doughnuts

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

6 tablespoons coconut milk

Gallon size Ziploc bag

Scissors

Chocolate glaze: 

4 ounces chocolate chips (vegan if you want to keep the recipe vegan)

1/4 cup coconut milk

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

Topping: 

Bowl of sprinkles!

To do: 

Lightly grease your doughnut pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients, then combine with dry ingredients.

Add batter into gallon size Ziploc bag, and cut off a small piece of the corner.  Add batter to doughnut pan, and bake for 13-15 minutes.

For the glaze:

In a small saucepan heat coconut milk until it simmers.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, stirring until completely smooth.  Whisk in confectioner's sugar.  Dip each cooled doughnut into the warm chocolate topping, then into the bowl of sprinkles.

Let cool and enjoy! 

Notes:

• The original recipe can be found here.  I use this recipe as a base for a chocolate doughnut.
• The original recipe calls for xanthan gum, but I wanted to test if I could get away without it. Xanthan gum tends to be expensive and I can't go through a whole bag before it goes bad.  The doughnuts turned out great without it!

Thu May 21 2015

Gluten-free Spring cupcakes

I was inspired by Emily Schuman's (from Cupcakes and Cashmere) recent cupcake post to get in the kitchen and whip some up myself. (Or, a pregnant lady saw a cupcake on Facebook, then craved one herself.)  I'm typically a chocolate on chocolate on chocolate person, but I wanted to experiment with different flavors.  I ended up going with a simple recipe -- the one on the back of Bob's Red Mill Vanilla Cake Mix.  And they turned out oh-so-delicious.

Want to recreate this recipe?  Simple.  Here's what'll you'll need:

1 package Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix (linked above)
Duncan Hines Cream Cheese Frosting
Decorative white sprinkles

Enjoy.

Tue Feb 10 2015

Gluten-free Lemon & Blueberry Bread

I've been craving lemon lately.  I've never made lemon anything and had never tried the lemon-blueberry duo.  So I decided to give this recipe a whirl.  This recipe was fun to make, because it called for fresh ingredients like blueberries and lemon zest.

The original recipe can be found here.  In order to make it gluten-free, I used 1 1/2cup all-purpose flour (from Trader Joe's) and 1/2 cup coconut flour.  The texture came out light and decadent.

I'll definitely be breaking out this recipe again in the future!

Especially if I'm ever invited to a fancy brunch.

Thu Jan 29 2015

Meal-spiration

I love chicken tenders.  A little bit of ranch, a little bit of bbq, some fries (or mashed potatoes) and I'm in food heaven.  Since having to go gluten-free though, it's rare to find them on a menu out at restaurants.  So I've done a little experimenting of my own in the kitchen.  They turned out particularly well last time, so I thought I'd share!

Buying gluten-free breadcrumbs can get expensive quickly.  And I don't know about you, but I don't bread enough to go through one of those packages.  I had some Udi's bread that was going stale (#classy), so I baked a few pieces at 350 degrees  until the bread was almost crisp.  I then put the bread in a food processor with a little (gf) flour, garlic, paprika, and pepper.  When the ingredients were well mixed, I made sure to fully cover each chicken tender with the mixture and put them in the oven (on a greased cookie sheet) to bake.

We made some sweet potato fries, threw together a salad and called the meal complete.

This one is going in the recipe books.

Tue Jan 13 2015

Triple chocolate raspberry cookies

The gluten-free baking ventures continue!  We were recently invited to a Christmas party that required everyone to bring a dish.  I've never brought a dish to a potluck as married woman, so I wanted to bring a little more of a sophisticated dessert.  My best friend turned me on to the white chocolate/raspberry duo and I thought it was the perfect taste to take to a holiday party!  But as they say, you should never take something to a party you haven't made before.  But to that I said whatever as I usually stick to the basic chocolate cookie.

Is this too much back story for a recipe?  Probably.

Anyway.  The cookies turned out greeeaaat.  At least I liked 'em.  And so did a couple other people. I've been asked for the recipe a few times, so I thought I'd write a post on them.

The original recipe can be found here.  I cut the recipe in half and made some changes.  I also made them gluten free.

Here's what you'll need: 

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
3/8 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/8 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/8 white chocolate chips
A few frozen raspberries.*

What to do:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 F.
2.  Cream cold butter until smooth.
3.  Add sugar, vanilla.  Cream together.
4.  Add eggs.  Mix well.
5.  Add flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda.  Combine.
6.  Stir in chocolate and white chocolate chips.
7.  Roll into balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake 10-13 minutes.  (The GF dough may take a little longer to bake.)

*I made the original recipe where the raspberries are mixed into the dough, but I had some trouble with the cookies sticking to the cookie sheet.  My husband had the idea of taking a teaspoon, pushing a little divot into the balls of dough and place a couple frozen raspberries in the middle of the balls of dough.  They turned out great!

Thu Nov 20 2014

The peanut butter cookie

I'm always working to perfect gluten-free recipes.  Gluten-free baking is hard.  You often need a variety of flours to get that fluffy, gooey cookie that everyone loves.  And finding that balance of flours (or perfect all-purpose flour) can be a process.

Recently, I found a peanut butter cookie recipe on Pinterest and decided to make it gluten-free. Acknowledging my most recent baking ventures have been some big fails, I wasn't expecting much.
But this recipe turned out so well that I had to share it with you.


I linked the original recipe above for those who aren't gluten-free.  Here's the adapted recipe:
Looking for dairy-free? Simply use dairy-free chocolate chips.

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 cup Trader Joe's Coconut Flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

From original recipe: 

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together peanut butter, butter, white & brown sugar until blended.  Beat in egg, almond milk, and vanilla.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in separate bowl.  Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture and mix.  Scoop tablespoons of dough and roll into balls.  Place cookies 2 inches apart on baking sheet.  Press each ball with fork.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tue Nov 04 2014

An AM dish

Having a baby who likes to rise before the sun, I tend to prefer breakfasts that take little prep. Granola, greek yogurt, and berries is usually a convenient go-to.  But lately, I've been all about this morning dish.  It takes more time than throwing some yogurt in a bowl but the extra few minutes are well worth it.

It's easy.  Here's what I do:

1)  Fry an egg for a couple minutes.  For this recipe, I like the egg over-medium.

2)  Toast some bread.  (I use Udi's, gluten-free whole grain bread.)

3)  Spread some honey and goat cheese on said toast.

4)  Smash some avocado on said toast.

5)  Top off with fried egg.  Add some salt and pepper.

I sometimes have a side of bacon with it, but it's perfect on its own.

Mon Sep 01 2014

Foolproof nachos

I'm a big fan of this recipe.  Cheap, easy, healthy, fresh and nearly impossible to mess up.

What you'll need:

1 chicken breast 

1 can Cuban Style black beans (Trader Joe's)

Salsa (or fresh tomato)

1 Avocado 

Honey goat cheese

1 Lime

Greek yogurt 

Cayenne Pepper

Red Pepper

Cumin 

Salt 

Pepper

Tortilla chips

Black olives

Serves 3-4

What to do:

1)  Chop all fresh ingredients and set aside.

2)  Season chicken with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper, and cumin; cook on medium heat until golden brown.

3)  Shred chicken.

4)  Warm beans on stovetop on low to keep from burning.

5)  In baking dish, line chips and top with black beans, chicken, and goat cheese.

6)  Add another layer of tortilla chips and put rest of chicken and black beans on top.

7)  Put in the oven until the cheese is starting to melt

8)  Top with fresh ingredients, salsa, lime, greek yogurt.

Best served with Strongbow.

Sun Aug 17 2014

Thai Peanut Chicken with Broccoli

I have quite the love for Thai food.  And I enjoy making Thai dishes from scratch.  Why?  The recipes call for so many fresh ingredients.  A lot of times eating healthy can taste bland.  With Thai cuisine, all these fresh ingredients like ginger root and chopped garlic come together to make those most delicious, flavorful dishes.

This is the latest Thai dish I tried.  And it was so good.

The original recipe can be found here.

Mon Jul 21 2014

Some good ole pasta salad

Food cost a lot of money.  And if you want to eat healthy, it takes a lot of time and money.  Sometimes I just don't feel like taking the time to make a good lunch.  Knowing this, I was trying to find a solution.

This pasta salad was my solution.  I made a huge batch Sunday night and it was lunch for both my husband an me for 3 days. 

What you'll need:

1 box of pasta (TJs corn pasta)

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

Some cherry tomatoes

Olives

Salami

Goat cheese

Dressing:

Olive oil

Apple cider vinegar

Pepper

Enjoy!