Category Archives: gluten free

vegan gluten-free cupcakes are pretty good, it turns out

Posted in cake, gluten free, vegan by

Gluten-free baking is a bit of a challenge, I’m not going to lie.  You have to buy a lot of different kinds of flours to blend together and then add a gum (like xantham or guar, not Wrigley’s) to take the place of traditional wheat flour.  And these other flours and gums are not cheap.  It makes sense, since wheat is subsidized in this country, but still.  You better believe I will use every last tablespoon of these flours even after Lent is over…  But I digress.

A few weeks ago when I knew I was giving up wheat I decided to order a few gluten-free baking cookbooks I had been eyeing on Amazon.  One of them was from a very well-respected gluten-free vegan bakery in NYC.  Vegan bakery?  Say what?  Seems kind of counter-intuitive, right?  Even though I never got around to visiting this bakery when I lived in New York (a wrong I intend to right on my next visit) I always heard great things so decided to test it out.

And you know what?  The results were pretty darn good.  I even had a few coworkers say they were the best cupcakes they ever had.

Even though the cookbook provided dairy-free frosting recipes I opted to thaw out some leftover strawberry mascarpone frosting from an earlier baking experiment that is decidedly not vegan but you can frost however you see fit.

Vanilla Cupcakes (from “Babycakes” cookbook by Erin McKenna)

  • 2 cups garbanzo-fava bean flour
  • 1 cup potato starch
  • ½ cup arrowroot (I substituted tapioca flour and it worked just fine)
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2/3 cup coconut oil
  • 1 1/3 cups agave nectar
  • ¾ cup homemade applesauce or store-bough unsweetened applesauce
  • 3 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt.  Add the oil, agave nectar, applesauce, vanilla, and lemon zest to the dry ingredients and combine.  Stir in the hot water and mix until the batter is smooth.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into each prepared cup, almost filling it.  Bake the cupcakes on the center rack for 22 minutes, rotating the tins 180 degrees after 15 minutes.  The finished cupcakes will be golden brown and will bounce back when pressure is applied gently to the center.

Let the cupcakes stand in the tins for 20 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely.  Using a frosting knife, gently spread 1 tablespoon vanilla frosting over each cupcake.  Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Strawberry Mascarpone Frosting (NOT vegan, clearly)

  • 2 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 4 oz mascarpone cheese, softened
  • 2 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ strawberries, cleaned and pureed in food processor or blender

In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat butter and mascarpone cheese until smooth.  Add confectioner’s sugar and vanilla, beat until light and fluffy.  Stir in pureed strawberries with a spatula.

not your mom’s meatloaf

Posted in gluten free, meat by

Last night I was not feeling super motivated to cook supper.  (PS- it’s only called supper on Sundays.  The rest of the week it’s just referred to as dinner.)  I wound up leafing through the most recent issue of Bon Appetit looking for some inspiration and found recipes for parsnip and Brussels sprouts side dishes and since I happened to have both on hand (and also love both) the meal was starting to take shape.  (Check back later in the week for the side dishes.)  But what to do for a main course?

A few weeks ago when I was home my dad sent me back with a cooler full of beef from his farm.  Grass-fed goodness right there in my freezer.  I’m not even a big meat-eater but this is definitely the way forward if you’re going to partake.

I started researching meatloaf recipes because that is always a great way to stretch out a small amount of meat into a proper dish.  Problem is now that I am off the wheat I was having a hard time finding a recipe that didn’t involve breadcrumbs and then I found not one but two recipes where oatmeal was substituted for breadcrumbs.  Eureka!  Better yet the recipe I landed on had lots going on in it including prunes and bacon.  Sold!

This loaf is moist and a little salty with a touch of sweet and I dare say it’s the best meatloaf I’ve ever had in my life and my dining companion (who doesn’t hand out compliments freely) agreed completely.  The perfect main dish for a Sunday supper.

Meatloaf (adapted loosely from Gourmet magazine recipe from 2008 found at www.epicurious.com)

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 medium celery rib, finely chopped
  • 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
  • ¼ pound bacon (about 4 slices), chopped
  • ½ cup pitted prunes, chopped
  • 1 ½ pounds ground beef chuck
  • ½ pound ground pork (not lean)
  • 2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Soak oats in milk in a large bowl.

Meanwhile, cook onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in butter in a large heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Cover skillet and reduce heat to low, then cook until carrot is tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, allspice, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper. Add to oat mixture.

Finely chop bacon and prunes in a food processor, then add to onion mixture along with beef, pork, and eggs and mix together with your hands.

Pack mixture into a 9- by 5-inch oval loaf in a 13- by 9-inch shallow baking dish or pan.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meatloaf registers 155°F, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Cooks’ note:
Cooked meatloaf keeps, chilled, 3 days.

a souvenir for you

Posted in cake, fruit, gluten free by

I did not do much shopping on my recent trip.  I think this partially has to do with the fact that I work in the retail industry and the last thing I want to do most days is shop for stuff after being surrounded by it all day.  Sure, I still do my fair share of shopping, but it just doesn’t hold the same thrill it once did.  This is probably why I now measure most trips (and even just my daily life, for that matter) on food eaten and enjoyed.  And much food was eaten and enjoyed on this trip.

One of the best things I ate while in England was lemon polenta cake.  Polenta cake?  Craziness.  Polenta is often associated with savory Italian dishes, but it can also be used in sweet dishes too.  Love the versatility.  I also am growing to love lemon desserts more and more as I get older.  They are refreshing and usually not overly sweet and therefore the perfect ending to a large meal.

So when I returned from my trip I immediately started researching recipes and found one for this very cake and it just happened to be from an English foodie: Nigella Lawson.  I used to watch her program on the Food Network and loved how she never measured things perfectly and unapologetically licked spoons after mixing batters.  Sort of like an English version of Paula Deen who I also think is the bee’s knees.

I read recipes like I read books and I could tell that this one was going to be good.  I was also pleased to see that it does not contain wheat flour as I have been meaning to experiment more with gluten-free baking because I have a sneaking suspicion that I might have a wheat sensitivity.  Apart from the polenta (or cornmeal as many of us know it here) there is also almond flour which is very light and surprisingly easy to find even in conventional grocery stores.

The result?  At the risk of sounding immodest, I’d say it was just as good as what I ate across the pond…

Lemon Polenta Cake (adapted very slightly from a Nigella Lawson recipe found at www.foodnetwork.com)

Cake:

  • 1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 3/4 cup superfine sugar
  • 2 cups almond meal/flour
  • 3/4 cup fine polenta/cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if required)
  • 3 eggs
  • Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)

Syrup:

  • Juice 2 lemons (see above)
  • Heaping 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the cake: Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper and grease its sides lightly with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer.

Mix together the almond meal, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs.

Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour the mixture into prepared pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. It may seem wobbly but a cake tester should come out with just a few crumbs and the edges of the cake will have pulled away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.

For the syrup: Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar in a small saucepan. Once the confectioners’ sugar has dissolved into the juice, you’re done. Prick the top of the cake all over with a toothpick, pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its pan.

Make Ahead Note: The cake can be baked up to 3 days ahead and stored in airtight container in a cool place. Will keep for total of 5 to 6 days.

Freeze Note: The cake can be frozen on its lining paper as soon as cooled, wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil, for up to 1 month. Thaw for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

i scream, you scream, we all scream for…

Posted in gluten free, ice cream by

One thing you should know about me before we get too far into our blog/reader relationship: I love ice cream.  I mean I love ice cream.  I love it so much I have been known to eat it twice a day and yes, maybe even three times a day during a particularly hot summer.  (Don’t judge.)  In fact, my first job was at a soft serve joint and fifteen years later I still say it was still the best job I ever had… Ice cream just makes people happy.

A few years ago I started making ice cream with my mom’s Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment and discovered that much like everything else in life, ice cream is even better when it’s homemade.  And what’s better still– my mom gave me the ice cream maker attachment because I was the only one using it.  Suh-weet.

This batch starts with espresso beans.  Espresso beans and a meat tenderizer.

After showing those espresso beans who’s boss you put them in a pot with whole milk.

Next you beat egg yolks and sugar until light yellow and fluffy:

Meanwhile you strain the espresso beans and return the espresso-flavored milk to the pot over low heat and then add the egg yolk/sugar mixture in parts while stirring constantly until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  It is very important to stir constantly otherwise you might wind up cooking the eggs… Not good.  I’ve done that before.  No one wants cooked egg bites in their ice cream cone.

It is important to completely cool mixture before adding to ice cream maker so you can either refrigerate it for an hour or so or put in a mixing bowl that is submerged in a larger mixing bowl that is filled with ice to cool.  This is also the stage in the game where you add heavy cream and instant espresso.  Once cool, you stand back and let an ice cream maker do the work.

Another great way to enjoy this ice cream?  Well, do you remember those Mexican Chocolate Chip Cookies from earlier in the week?  You might be thinking  “Oh no you didn’t…”  Oh yes I did.

Espresso Gelato (from www.marthastewart.com)

  • 1/3cup espresso beans
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons instant espresso

Place espresso beans on a cutting board, and gently crush them using a heavy saucepan or a hammer (be careful not to pulverize the beans). In a medium saucepan, heat milk and coffee beans. Bring to a gentle boil, cover, and remove from heat. Allow to steep for 30 minutes. Strain mixture, and reserve milk; discard solids.

Combine egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow, 3 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, return milk to heat, and bring to a simmer.

Add half the milk to egg-yolk mixture, and whisk until blended. Stir into remaining milk, and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Remove from heat, and immediately stir in cream. Pass mixture through a strainer into a medium mixing bowl set in an ice bath until chilled, stirring from time to time. Stir in instant espresso, then freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. (Note: I added chocolate chips 2/3 of the way through the churning process in my ice cream maker but it would be great without them or with other mix-ins.  Oreos?  Genius.) Transfer to an airtight plastic container and store up to 2 weeks.  (I read somewhere that it’s a good idea to cover the top of the ice cream with plastic wrap before putting the lid on the container to prevent ice crystals from forming.  Not sure if this is always true, but so far so good for me.)