Author Archives: baxterandmain

gluten free brownies

Posted in brownie, gluten free by

Well, I made it through Lent gluten-free as planned.  At least I’m pretty sure I managed to avoid it almost entirely.  It sneaks up in places you don’t expect, like as a thickener in soups and is apparently sometimes used to keep pre-shredded cheese from sticking together in packages in the supermarket.  Hmm.  At any rate, I am back on the stuff but am trying to keep it in moderation and as previously mentioned will still be baking gluten-free items on occasion, since I have oodles and oodles of gluten-free flours in my pantry.  Fortunately I found a gluten-free cookbook that I really like: Blackbird Bakery Gluten Free.

The recipes in this book taste like the traditional baked goods I was used to and these brownies were no exception.  They were rich, dense, and sweet.  Totally brownie-like in every way possible.  They were even better heated up and served with a little Salted Caramel Ice Cream which I will share with you later in the week.  Until then, happy Monday!

Gluten Free Brownies (from “Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free” by Karen Morgan)

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 4 ounces high-quality chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger, chopped
  • 2 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, such as Scharffen Berger, chopped
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¼ cup almond meal
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • ¼ cup tapioca flour
  • ¼ cup glutinous rice flour (Bob’s Red Mill Sweet White Rice Flour will work)
  • 1 ¾ teaspoons guar gum
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 5 large eggs
  • 2 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Take a piece of parchment paper and using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut 2 inches into each corner (right where the two edges of the paper meet) at a 45 degree angle.  Press the parchment into the greased 9-by-13-inch pan.  The slits you cut into the corners will allow you to fit the paper into the pan with perfectly smooth edges.

In a large stainless-steel bowl set over a saucepan with 2 inches of barely simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water), melt the butter and chocolate, being careful not to let the chocolate scorch.  Whisk in 1 cup of sugar.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir with a whisk to blend.  Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs with the remaining 1 cup sugar until the eggs have doubled in volume.  Stir half of the egg mixture into the melted chocolate mixture, then stir in half of the dry ingredients.  Repeat this process and stir until the batter looks like chocolate pudding.  Fold in the vanilla.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the brownies are cracked around the edges.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.  Lift the brownies out by grasping the two sides of the parchment paper.  Transfer to a cutting board and remove the paper.  Cut into 16 bars.

Happy Easter from Baxter & Main!

Posted in cookie by

Today I bring you a very simple (and delicious, duh) sugar cookie recipe.  This recipe came from my mom’s friend Judy and my mom has been making it for years much to the delight of any small child who is lucky enough to sample the results.  (Grown-ups enjoy them too.)

The ingredients are few and there is not much sugar in the cookie itself (the frosting is another story…) but they are soft and light and they have a hint of nutmeg in them which is a nice touch.  In short, they are delightful.

And better yet they can be easily rolled out and cut into all sorts of fun shapes!  I accidentally bought Easter-shaped “pancake molds” thinking they would be the same as cookie cutters but they are made of silicone and flimsy so some of my bunnies came out crooked and had wonky ears but they tasted just great and that is all that matters.  Happy Easter!

Judy’s Sugar Cookies

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or handheld mixer; add eggs & vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients and add to mix.

Roll dough out, cut into shapes and bake at 425 degree oven for 7 minutes.

Simple Frosting for Sugar Cookies

  • 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 4 cups powdered sugar, add more to thicken

Mix all ingredients in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or use handheld mixer on low until combined.  Stir in food coloring if desired.

flourless chocolate cake

Posted in cake, dessert, gluten free by

Ah, spring.  You have arrived!  Over the past week I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the overgrown bush outside my front door is in fact a lilac bush.  Nice!  I am going to trim it a bit this week so I can enjoy the lilac fragrance indoors.  (Don’t tell my landlord.)

In other spring news, I baked a flourless chocolate cake for you.

This recipe is so simple.  It can be made from scratch to finished product in 45 minutes.  And also its delicious.  And gluten-free!

If you are making this for a birthday, as I did, don’t expect it to be birthday cake-like.  We took to referring to it as the “brownie-cake.”  It is rather flat and is so rich that no frosting is required so does not resemble a typical cake but it will still knock the socks off of all who eat it.  I converted a few naysayers who were skeptical of gluten-free baking with this cake.  It’s magical.  Just like spring.

Flourless Chocolate Cake (recipe found at www.epicurious.com from Gourmet magazine, November 1997)

  • 4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus additional for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375°F and butter an 8-inch round baking pan. Line bottom with a round of wax paper and butter paper.

Chop chocolate into small pieces. In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth. Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture. Add eggs and whisk well. Sift 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.

Dust cake with additional cocoa powder and serve with sorbet if desired. (Cake keeps, after being cooled completely, in an airtight container, 1 week.)

travels

Posted in city eating guide by

I apologize for my infrequent posts over the past few weeks!  I have been traveling a bit for work including a week to NYC and a day trip to San Francisco (not recommended if you live in the eastern half of the US as I do…) so that has taken away from my baking/cooking time, but not from my eating time.  Here I share with you the best of what I ate on my travels.

New York

A scoop of Taro and a scoop of Black Sesame ice cream at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.  I can’t believe I used to live within walking distance of that place and somehow didn’t put on 50 pounds.  The Black Sesame is the best.  Look for me to attempt to recreate it with my ice cream maker one of these days…

Fancy Italian coffee at Eataly.  The market at this place is out of site.

The whole gluten-free-for-Lent thing was not the most fun to keep up with while in New York but fortunately I discovered macaroons are made with almond flour and proceeded to eat like twenty of them.  From Macaron Cafe which is both delicious and conveniently close to my company’s NYC office.  Score!

Korean food in Koreatown.  Bibimbap, seafood pancake, and the “free” pickled stuff that comes before the meal were all amazing and are a much missed ethnic food that is nonexistent in my current neck of the woods.

Flourless chocolate cookie from Dominique Ansel in Soho which is both a beautiful space and a tasty bakery.  Sometimes you get one and not the other, but rarely both.  What a treat.  This cookie was thoroughly enjoyed on a bench in the sun with a good friend.  What more do you want out of life?

Not pictured but worth mentioning: Peruvian chicken and Salchipapas at Pio Pio.  Salchipapas are basically French fries with chopped up hot dogs in it.  If I would have known about this dish as an eight-year-old  it would have been my favorite thing to eat, but even as an adult it’s pretty stinking good.

San Francisco

I was literally in San Francisco for all of 13 hours and about 7 of them were spent working but I was happy to have been able to meet up with an old friend for dinner in the Mission.  Unfortunately I neglected to photograph any of our food but I can guarantee you it was all delicious.  We ate at Lolo which is a Mexican/Turkish fusion tapas place.  My favorites were the fried Brussels sprouts, asparagus with Turkish cheese, and the carnitas tacos with blue corn tortillas.

We tried to get ice cream (my favorite food ever) at Humphry Slocombe but unfortunately they were already closed by the time we hoofed it over there.  Next time.  Their Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee and Peanut Butter Curry flavors sound awesome.

I have done a bit of baking and a little ice-cream-making this weekend so will be back in the swing of things later this week!  Check back in later.

awesome gluten free pumpkin muffins

Posted in bread, breakfast, gluten free by

Yesterday it was sunny and in the 70’s.  I sat in a backyard and enjoyed the sun whilst food grilled behind me.  There was frisbee tossing and cold drinks and small children running around in shorts.  What a difference a day made… today it was gray and in the 40’s.  I had to turn my heat on for the first time in over two weeks!  Boo.  But I also made you some weather-worthy pumpkin muffins that almost make the return to typical spring temps worthwhile.

A few months back, before Thanksgiving, I roasted some pumpkins from my parents garden and pureed them up.  I then conveniently froze the pumpkin puree in one-cup portions so that I could thaw them out whenever I felt like baking up a taste of fall.  (You can certainly use canned pumpkin here, I’m just bragging because my foresight was pretty awesome last November, though it was kind of a pain to puree up the pumpkin to be honest.  Do yourself a favor and buy it canned… unless of course you grow pumpkins in your garden and have a few spare hours next fall.)

These muffins are the perfect antidote to gray days like today.  A little spicey, sweet, and best served warm with butter.

Pumpkin Muffins (adapted slightly from Apple-Pumpkin Muffins recipe from “Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free” by Karen Morgan)

  • 1 cup sorghum flour
  • ½ cup cornstarch
  • ½ cup tapioca flour
  • 2 teaspoons guar gum
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
  • ½ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • One 15-ounce can solid-pack unsweetened pumpkin (or 1 ½ cups pureed pumpkin)
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line muffin cups with paper liners.  (Makes about 18 to 24 muffins.)

In a medium bowl, combine all the dry ingredients, including the sugars and spices, and stir with a whisk to blend.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed until soft.  Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.  Using an ice-cream scoop, fill the prepared muffin cups three-fourths full with batter and bake for 25 minutes, or until cracked on top and browned on the edges.  A wooden skewer inserted into one of the muffins will come out clean.