Glass Jar Storage for Baking Ingredients

Luv these jars!  I picked up all 3 for less than $15 at our local TJ Maxx.  A wide mouth container makes scooping out a teaspoon or tablespoon much easier. But mostly, I love how they dress up my pantry and make me feel fancy when I'm baking in my pj's.  If your TJ Maxx doesn't carry them, check out these jars from Sur La Table - fantastic!

Gluten Free Molasses Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Flour
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP Bob's Red Mill Sorghum Flour
2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t xanthan gum
1 t bround cinnamon
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground ginger
1 cup organic granulated white sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter - MELTED
1 large brown egg
1/3 cup molases
small bowl of sanding sugar

makes 24 delicious cookies

THIS DOUGH MUST CHILL FOR 4 HOURS BEFORE BAKING

In a medium bowl mix all dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine melted butter and sugar.  Blend in the egg and then the molasses.  Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop out a tablespoon of dough, roll it into a ball and roll in the the sanding sugar.  Repeat with remaining dought.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are crackled and set.
Let the cookies cool fro 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy

The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free

If you're looking for a way to simplify your gluten-free baking, The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free by best-selling baking author, Anne Byrn is perfect for you.  With over 50 recipes from layer cakes to wedding cakes, bundts to bars, cupcakes to cookies, Byrn provides a variety of ways to "doctor" boxed gluten-free cake mix.

The cookbook provides basic information regarding gluten, baking equipment and accessories, helpful tips for gf baking, recommendations for substituting ingredients, and even information on high altitude baking.
The recipes are simple and easy to follow, but some are extremely sugary and high in fat.  Many recipes call for the addition of instant pudding mix, sugar, brown sugar and sticks of butter to a boxed gluten-free cake mix.  However, many recipes also call for the addition of naturally gluten-free ingredients such as fresh berries, shredded coconut, almonds, lime zest, and cocoa powder. They are desserts after all and as an occasional treat, you can enjoy guilt free.
I like the format of the book, the advice sprinkled throughout, the space for notes included as a side-bar for each recipe, the reminders and the dairy free options.  

The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free is a fantastic gluten-free baking guide and cookbook.  Happy Baking!

Amazingly Delicious GF Choco-Chip Cookies Recipe!

These cookies are seriously the BEST gluten-free cookies I have tasted in over a year!  Don't be overwhelmed by the 3 different flours - order them on-line or find them in your favorite market.  You'll be happy you did - I promise!

Ingredients

1 cup(2 sticks) butter softened
1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
1/2 cup organic granulated sugar
2 t gluten-free vanilla extract
1 t sea salt
2 large brown eggs
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Sorghum Flour
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Garbanzo & Fava Bean Flour
1/3 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All Purpose Baking Flour
1 t xanthan gum
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

*Please note - this batter must be refrigerated for 1 hour before baking

Beat the butter, sugars, vanilla and salt until creamy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda.

Beat the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.  Blend in the chocolate chips.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour, or for up to 2 days.
Preheat the oven to 350degrees.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Scoop tablespoon sized balls of dough onto your prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

Makes approximately 3 dozen amazingly delicious cookies

Gluten-Free Nut Butter Cookies

Flourless Nut Butter Cookies

1 cup creamy peanut butter, Barney Butter Almond Butter or I.M. Healthy Soy Nut Butter
1 cup I.M. Healthy Creamy Soy Nut Butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large brown eggs
2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper(my favorite baking accessory!).  Makes 36 cookies.
In a large mixing bowl combine peanut/soy nut butters, sugars, eggs, baking soda and salt until smooth.
Shape dough into balls(about 1 heaping TBSP each) and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.

Using a fork, flatten each ball creating a criss-cross pattern.

Bake 10-12 minutes until puffy and golden.  Cookies will "fall" as they cool.
Cool slightly, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

These cookies also make awesome ice cream sandwiches!  My kids were thrilled to make their own ice cream sandwich for dessert!

Pamela's Zucchini Cake

I headed out to my vegetable garden once again to pick some zucchini.  Our veggie garden isn't big - about 3ft x6ft.  But, it's just big enough to fit 1 zucchini vine, 1 beefsteak tomato, 1 cherry tomato, 1 cucumber vine and some herbs.  1 zucchini vine provides enough zucchini for our family for the entire summer.  If you don't have a veggie garden don't worry, head to your local farmers market instead.

Pamela's Gluten-Free Pancake and Baking Mix has a zucchini cake recipe right on the back of the package.  I simply followed the recipe.

Everyone loved the warm, cinnamon flavored cake.  The only criticism came from my toughest food critic who declared, "just take out the hard lumps".  Meaning - the walnuts.  Well, I love walnuts so they're staying in.

Stonewall Kitchen Gluten Free Brownies

Delectable! Delightful! Delicious!

My parents recently hosted a family dinner for our family of five and my three siblings.  Although we were in the middle of a heat wave, and it was 93 degrees outside, I chose to bake Stonewall Kitchen Gluten Free Brownies to bring for dessert along with coffee ice-cream.

I like to modify boxed mixes to create semi homemade treats.  The Stonewall Kitchen gluten-free brownie mix calls for 7 tablespoons of melted butter.  I substituted 4 tablespoons of coconut oil 
and 4 tablespoons of Sunsweet Lighter Bake.  Sunsweet Lighter Bake is essentially pureed prunes.  It can be difficult to find.  It is located in the oil section at my grocery store.  If you can't find it, you can boil and puree your own prunes - or just purchase a jar of organic baby-food pureed prunes.  I have used baby-food prunes many times and it works great!  I also added 1/2 cup of gluten-free milk chocolate M&M's.

The brownies were delicious!  A huge hit with everyone - g-free or not!

Babycakes: Raspberry Scones

When researching g-free cookbooks at our local library, the selection was minimal - 2 cookbooks.  I like to borrow a book before making a decision about purchasing.  So, I requested Babycakes by Erin McKenna based solely on the book jacket.  I have to admit I thought the title was cute, the cover photo even cuter.  I waited for the book to arrive and headed to the library as soon as I got the call that it had arrived!  Immediately, I scanned the book which has delightful retro-style images.  But, as I scanned the ingredients in multiple recipes, I quickly became discouraged.  Although I'm an "avid" baker, I tend to use boxes and mixes that I happily and confidently modify.  I was scanning ingredients such as spelt flour(which is not gluten-free), coconut oil, fava bean flour, agave nectar, brown rice flour, coconut flour and dry soy milk powder!  At first glance I was overwhelmed, closed the book and thought - forget it.  But it sat on my kitchen counter not due back at the library for another two weeks, with that cute cover beckoning me.  So, I opened to the forward and began reading the author's story.  She acknowledges the somewhat daunting list of ingredients, so, I thought, "Well, ok at least she gets that this could be overwhelming".

Now, to find these unusual ingredients.  I checked with my preferred supermarket(25 miles away) for these ingredients with NO LUCK:(  I checked the "local" (20 miles away) organic supermarket.  I was in luck - they had the coconut oil ($8.79 for a 14oz jar) and the fava flour ($5.59 for 1 1/2 pounds).

I decided to start with the Raspberry Scone Recipe.  Unfortunately, it's not a g-free recipe so I had to substitute Bobs Red Mill All Purpose Flour for the Spelt Flour.  This was my first foray using coconut oil and using Agave Nectar as anything other than pancake syrup.

The recipe was painless - actually it was fun!  The baking scones smelled delicious, looked beautiful and tasted (in the words of my 9 year old) "Scrumptious"!

Yum!

King Arthur Flour

I am an avid baker and when I began to look for g-free recipes for cake, cookies, muffins and brownies, I quickly became perplexed and overwhelmed.  Almost every recipe called for combinations of rice flour, potato flour, almond flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum....  I certainly didn't have those ingredients in my pantry and hadn't even heard of a few.  When I looked into purchased them, I was dismayed by the cost.   Although I love to bake, the thought of having to mix my own flour blend was just too daunting.  It's difficult enough to care for the needs of 3 children, manage the dog, keep the house clean, and run my kids yoga business, let along accurately measure and properly mix a combination of ingredients to create my own g-free flour.  

Thankfully, I discovered King Arthur Flour in Norwich, VT.  KAF turned out to be an invaluable resource full of useful articles and tips on g-free baking.  

KAF offers a wonderful assortment of high quality gluten free baking ingredients.  I initially purchased their bread mix, muffin mix, SAF yeast, g-free multi purpose flour, Buttery Sweet Dough extract, Princess Cake & Cookie extract, Cake Enhancer and Xanthan Gum.  

I was impressed with the quality of their ingredients, the overall flavor, and the texture of my baked goods.  

My absolute favorite products that I continue to use with other mixes and recipes are the Xanthan Gum, Buttery Sweet Dough extract and the Princess Cake & Cookie extract.  Each adds a fuller, richer flavor to any bakery item.