Brownies

Brownies

Brownies

    This was my grandmother's brownie recipe. We have been making this recipe for 20 years. When we went gluten-free, we just substituted our gluten-free flour mix for the wheat flour and we could enjoy our favorite brownies again! So if you aren't gluten-free, you can use regular flour like with most of our recipes. Want it dairy-free? Just use dairy free butter instead of regular butter because the baker's chocolate doesn't have dairy in it. We have made it with all different variations. You can add chocolate chips to it also!nIt is an awesome recipe! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do! These freeze well too!

8X8 pan

Ingredients

½ c butter*

2 oz baker’s chocolate semisweet or unsweetened

1 c sugar

2 eggs

½ c gluten free flour, sifted**

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease the bottom and sides of the baking pan. (We use a cake release recipe we make ourselves and store in the cabinet.) In a double boiler, melt baker’s chocolate and butter. Set aside and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Add vanilla to chocolate mixture. (Don’t add the vanilla while it is hot.)

In a small bowl, lightly whisk eggs.

In a separate bowl, sift (do not skip the sifting step) gluten free flour into the bowl.

Add sugar to flour.

Pour cooled chocolate over the flour and stir to combine.

Pour brownie mix into the greased pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean. Allow to completely cool in the pans. We find it helpful to run a knife along the edge of the brownies to help them release best.

Enjoy! These also freeze very well!

9X13 pan

Ingredients

1 c butter*

4 oz baker’s chocolate, semi-sweet or unsweetened

2 c sugar

4 eggs

1 c gluten free flour, sifted**

2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease the bottom and sides of the baking pan. (We use a cake release recipe we make ourselves and store in the cabinet.)

In a double boiler, melt baker’s chocolate and butter. Set aside and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Add vanilla to chocolate mixture. (Don’t add the vanilla while it is hot.)

In a small bowl, lightly whisk eggs.

In a separate bowl, sift (do not skip the sifting step) gluten free flour into the bowl.

Add sugar to flour.

Pour cooled chocolate over the flour and stir to combine.

Pour brownie mix into the greased pan.

Bake for 35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean. Allow to completely cool in the pans. We find it helpful to run a knife along the edge of the brownies to help them release best.

Enjoy! These also freeze very well!

Gluten-Free Quiche

Spinach & Sausage Quiche

Uncooked gluten-free quiche

Cooked gluten-free quiche

Deliciously Gluten-Free

Ingredients:

(This recipe can be made with a regular pie crust for those not eating gluten free) 

1 Gluten-Free Pie Crust (I used Wholly gluten free frozen pie crust)

4 Eggs, whisked

½ c Half & Half

Red Pepper, chopped

Onion, chopped  

Breakfast Sausage, cooked

Fresh Spinach, chopped

Cheese, shredded (I used cheddar cheese)

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

Olive oil

Aluminum foil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Cook the breakfast sausage in a skillet or sauce pan. (I bought local medium breakfast sausage so I didn’t need to add any spices.) 

Thaw out the pie crust for 10 minutes. 

Whisk 4 eggs in a medium sized bowl. Pour half & half into the whisked eggs. 

Chop red peppers, onion and spinach. (I used a ¼ red pepper and ¼ onion chopped small. About 10 spinach leaves chopped or as much as desired.) In a small sauce pan, add a little olive oil to just coat the bottom. Put onions and peppers in sauce pan and sprinkle salt, pepper, and garlic powder on the onions and peppers in the pan. Once cooked, add the cooked onions and peppers to the egg and half & half mixture. 

Now add the cheese to the mixture. (I used about ¾ c shredded from the block of cheddar cheese.) Add salt and pepper to taste and stir together all the ingredients.

Pour the mixture into the pie crust. (I did not cook the crust before baking the quiche.) 

Place a thin strip of aluminum foil around the edges. This will prevent it from burning. 

Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes. 

Slice, serve and enjoy!

Slouchy Hat Pattern

Slouchy Hat

Notes:

*This pattern fit my 10 year old up to average adults. It didn’t fit my husband’s head. To make it bigger, increase the number of rows of DC and don’t decrease at row 16. The more rows you add, the more slouchy it will be. It was very slouchy for my 10 year old. But not as much for the adults. Which most preferred.

*Always make your joining stitch into the 1^st stitch not the chain.

*The beginning chain does not count as a stitch.

*I have used Caron Simply Soft to make this hat and it makes a much tighter brim. If that happens to you, you may want to not decrease to 60 stitches. At row 16 continue with the 72 stitches but still change to sc to create the brim look.

Materials

1 skein Red Heart Soft or with Love

H hook (5MM)

Tapestry Needle

Scissors

Round 1: Begin with the Magic Circle. Chain 3 (This does not count as a DC throughout the pattern). 12 DC into the magic circle. Pull the tail and tighten the circle. Join to the 1^st stitch (not into the chain). 12 DC plus the chain 3. (12 DC)

Round 2: Chain 2 (does not count as a DC) in the same stitch as the join stitch. 2DC in the same stitch. 2DC in the next stitch and continue doing 2 DC into every stitch around. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain). You will have 24 DC plus the chain 2. (24 DC)

Round 3: Chain 2 in the same as the join stitch and 1 DC into the same stitch. 2 DC in the next stitch. 1 DC in the next stitch. (I count in multiples of 3. I make my 1 DC, and then in the next stitch I know that I will have to do 2 DC to end on the multiple of 3; for this round.) Continue the 1 DC and then 2DC until the end. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain). You will have 36 DC plus the chain 3. (36 DC)

Round 4: Chain 2 in the same as the join stitch and 1 DC into the same stitch. 1 DC in the next stitch. 2 DC in the next stitch. (I count in multiples of 4. I do 1 DC in the next 2 stitches, and then in the next stitch I know that I will have to do 2 DC to end on the multiple of 4; for this round.) Repeat 1 DC in the next 2 stitches and then 2DC in the next stitch until the end. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain). You will have 48 DC plus the chain 3.

 (48 DC)

Round 5: Chain 2 in the same as the join stitch and 1 DC into the same stitch. 1 DC in the next 2 stitches. 2 DC in the next stitch. (I count in multiples of 5. I do 1 DC in the next 3 stitches, and then in the next stitch I know that I will have to do 2 DC to end on the multiple of 5; for this round.) *1 DC in the next 3 stitches and then 2DC until the end*. Repeat from *. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain). You will have 60 DC plus the chain 3.

(60 DC)

Round 6: Chain 2 in the same as the join stitch and 1 DC into the same stitch. 1 DC in the next 3 stitches. 2 DC in the next stitch. (I count in multiples of 6. I do 1 DC in the next 4 stitches, and then in the next stitch I know that I will have to do 2 DC to end on the multiple of 6; for this round.) *1 DC in the next 4 stitches and then 2 DC until the end*. Repeat from *. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain) You will have 72 DC plus the chain 3.

(72 DC)

Round 7-15: Chain 2 in the same stitch as the join stitch and 1 DC into the same stitch. 1 DC in each stitch around for a total of 72 DC. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain) (72 DC)

Round 16: Chain 1 in the same stitch as the join stitch and 1 SC in the same stitch. SC into the next 3 stitches. SC decrease in the next 2 stitches. (This creates one stitch so you are reducing your stitches.) *SC in the next 4 stitches. SC decrease.* Repeat from * around to the end. Join into the first sc (not the chain 1.)

Round 17-24: Chain 1 in the same stitch as the join stitch and 1 SC in the same stitch. SC in every stitch around until the end. Join into the 1^st stitch (not into the chain). (60 DC)

Finish off and weave in ends. 

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookie Bars

OATMEAL COOKIE BARS 

(Gluten-Free)

INGREDIENTS

  2 cups gluten-free flour mixture
  2 cups gluten- free rolled oats
  1 1/4 cup brown sugar
  ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  ½ teaspoon salt
  2 sticks salted butter, melted and slightly cooled (16 Tbsp)
  12 oz semisweet/milk chocolate chips
35 soft caramel candies
6 Tbsp milk


INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Melt the butter, let it cool, and pour into the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir until a soft dough forms. It should be crumbly. If your dough is too wet and heavy, add a little more flour until the dough is crumbly.
2. Grease* the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish. Press ¾ of the dough into a 9x13 baking dish. Put aside the remaining ¼ for topping. Bake for about 15-17 minutes. (Gluten-Free flours don't brown like wheat flour does.) 
3. While crust is baking, unwrap caramels and melt in the microwave with the cream. Microwave at 15 second intervals and stir until the mixture is smooth and pourable. (You also can do this step in a double-boiler.)
4. Spread the entire 12 oz bag chocolate chips (minus the few you ate :-) over the baked crust. (They will start to melt if you pour them over the hot crust and that is OK.) Pour the melted caramel over the chocolate chips. Crumble the remaining dough with our hands and cover the entire top of the cookie creating a top "crust" (Do not press this crust down). 
5. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, (Remember it won't turn brown like wheat flour does.) Let it sit and completely cool. It needs to be completely cooled off to be able to cut into bars. Eat! Yummy!

*Gluten-free baked goods tend to stick to the pan. We use a homemade "cake release" recipe to grease our pans. You mix together; 1 cup gluten-free flour mixture, 1 cup shortening, 3/4 vegetable oil. Mix together and store in an airtight container. Coat the bottom the sides with this release.

 Step 1: Gather all the ingredients

(forgot the salt in this picture)

Step 2: Add the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Be sure to sift flour first.

Step 3: Pour melted butter over dry ingredients and stir together.

Step 4: Grease the bottom of the pan with "cake release."* 

Press mixture into the bottom of the pan to make crust. Bake crust.

Step 5: Cover entire crust with chocolate chips

Step 6: Melt caramels and pour over top of chocolate chips

Step 7: Cover the entire top with crumbled dough as a top crust 

(Do not press it down)

Step 8: Let it completely cool before cutting. 

ENJOY!!

Home-made Gluten-Free Pancakes

Home-made Gluten-Free Pancakes

Do you miss delicious pancakes? Now you can easily and quickly make gluten-free pancakes at home. 

Gluten-Free Pancake Recipe

1 1/3 cups All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Mix
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (whichever milk product you use) or as much as you need to make it thin enough
2 Tbsp oil (I used olive oil) OR you can use 2 Tbsp melted butter

-Sift all dry ingredients together into a bowl.
-In a seperate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and oil/butter.
-Add the the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk together with a whisk.
-If you like them thinner, add a little more milk until you get the consistency you like
-Pour a small amount of mixture into a skillet or pan and cook. Flip when bubbles start to form on the top of the pancake.
~Enjoy deliciously gluten-free pancakes

I have a big family so I doubled the recipe. Everyone loved the pancakes. I made them while our friends were visiting for Spring Break and one of them is also gluten free. He was thrilled to have delicious gluten-free homemade pancakes. It always makes me feel so good when I make a fellow gluten freer happy with our food!

12 Days of Gluten-Free Desserts: Day 2 Lemon Pound Cake

Lemon Pound Cake

 
   One thing I really missed being gluten-free was pound cake. So we set out to find a delicious recipe for pound cake. As I've mentioned before, it is all in the flour mix. Once we found the perfect gluten-free all-purpose flour mixture recipe, we could take any recipe and make it gluten-free. Hope you enjoy this recipe!

Lemon Pound Cake

1 c. salted butter, softened (2 sticks)
2 1/2 c all-purpose gluten-free flour 
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 c granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
6 large eggs, room temperature
4 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. sour cream
1 c. confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a bundt pan. Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a separate bowl.

I use a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. Beat butter for 1 min. Add sugar, vanilla, and zest and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy for 2-3 minutes. Add lemon juice. Mix in one egg at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Reduce mixer to low. Add half the flour mixture, then the yogurt, and then the rest of the flour mixture. Mix well but don't over mix.

Pour batter into your prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean about 65 to 75 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan for 30 mins and then turn it out onto a wire rack to completely cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together confectioner's sugar and 1/2 Tbsp. of lemon juice. Add cold water If needed) a little at a time to create a thick but pourable glaze. Pour glaze over the top of the cake and ENJOY!

12 Days of Gluten-Free Desserts: Day 1- Gluten- Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

     When I was a kid, my Mom sometimes had Chocolate Chip Cookies or Rice Krispie treats waiting for us when we got home from school. To this day, those are two of my favorite desserts. My older brother served in Desert Storm in Bahrain. I knew how much he loved Rice Krispies treats so I made him some and sent them to him, but had to make like 6 batches because I kept eating them!

     With our all-purpose flour mix, we now can make homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies for the whole family. When we send these cookies in with our gluten-free daughter to a class party, none of her friends know they are eating a gluten-free cookie; they are that good!!

     So this classic cookie recipe is our first dessert recipe in our "12 Days of Gluten-Free Desserts" blog. Remember if you have an old recipe that was passed down to you, you can substitute our all-purpose gluten-free flour mix for the regular flour and it will taste just as good, but now it will be safe to eat!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks salted butter, softened

3/4 c. + 1 Tbsp. brown sugar

2/3 c. sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3/4 tsp. xanthan gum

3 c. all-purpose gluten-free flour mix

12 oz. bag chocolate chips

Preheat over to 375 degrees. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Mix butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla. In a seperate bowl sift* together flour, baking soda, and xanthan gum. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture one cup at a time. Blend in flour slowly. Add chips just incorporate. 

Drop a spoonful of cookie dough on the cookie sheet with the parchment paper on it. Bake 375 degrees for 10 mins or until light brown.

*It is very important to sift gluten-free flour to make sure baked good doesn't become lumpy.


Day 2: Gluten-Free Lemon Pound Cake

12 Days of Gluten-Free Dessrts

Welcome to the 12 Days of Gluten-Free Desserts

     Tomorrow December 9th, 2013 starts our First Annual 12 Days of Gluten-Free Desserts! My daughters and I are looking forward to baking and sharing with you 12 delicious gluten-free dessert recipes. When you bake these desserts and share them with your family and friends, they will never know that they are eating gluten-free! Our friends are always surprised, even though they know we ONLY bake gluten-free, that what they enjoying is actually gluten-free. THAT is what we like! We want ALL of our friends and family to enjoy our baked goods whether they are gluten-free or not.

MONDAY: December 9th

           Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free Biscuits

GLUTEN-FREE BISCUITS

Gluten-Free Formed Biscuits

     I admit I miss the ease of the pop-out of the can, pop into the oven biscuits. They are so convenient. But they are not gluten-free and they have all kinds of other ingredients in them.

     My husband is an excellent cook. I never liked biscuits and gravy until my husband made it homemade. Yeah, it is so much better than the stuff from the can. So since being gluten-free I couldn't use my pop-out of the can biscuits anymore. We needed to come up with a gluten-free biscuit recipe. Albeit it takes longer to make these, but it is worth the time to make it homemade and my daughter and I can eat them! 

     These can be made as a drop biscuit or a formed biscuit. I like mine to look like the regular biscuits and it makes a flatter surface for gravy. I use the English muffin rings I purchased online. They are very inexpensive and very helpful to make formed biscuits.

English Muffin Rings

     You can use this basic recipe and add cheese and garlic powder to it and spread melted butter with fresh garlic on top and you have gluten-free Red Lobster biscuits! ENJOY!!

Gluten-Free Biscuits

2 c. gluten-free flour 

2 c. corn starch*

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp xanthan gum

1 stick butter (chilled in freezer)

1 1/4 c milk

1 1/4 c water

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 

1 egg, beaten 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper to insure biscuits come off the sheet. Grease biscuits rings.

In a mixing bowl combine flours, baking powder, salt, baking powder and xanthan gum. (Gluten-Free flours do best when sifted.) Grate butter into the flour with a fine cheese grater. Mix the butter into the flour so not large ball of butter are left. 

Add apple cider vinegar with the milk before added the milk to the mix. Then add milk, water, and beaten egg to the flour mixture and mix.

Place enough batter in to fill the ring half way. Wet fingers with some water and lightly flatten the top of the batter to make a flat top which will create the formed biscuit. OR drop a large spoonful of dough on the parchment paper to make drop biscuits.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 mins until the biscuits don't look shiny anymore. They won't get that golden brown look like wheat biscuits do. Refer to the picture above to see the color of the finished biscuit.

*If you can do corn starch, you can substitute potato starch

Chocolate Chip Cookie Crunch

We make gluten-free treats and bring them with us to events. Everyone tells us how good they are. Many people ask us for the recipes. So we decided that we would start collecting our recipes into a cookbook. But I wanted to start sharing our recipes with you all and you can try them and see how they work out for you. 

With that being said, my 12 year old, almost 13 year old, daughter is the best baker I know. I give her a recipe and how to doctor it and she is able to make some delicious goodies. One day she wants to open her own bakery. Maybe even a gluten-free bakery!

This has got to be one of the best cookies we have eaten. We took a recipe from a book I am reading and doctored it for gluten-free and it turned out wonderfully. I am addicted.

                 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Crunches

1 cup salted butter (2 sticks, melted)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (omit if you use salted butter like us)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour mix, sifted
2 cups crush corn chex (crush them with your hands, crumbles not dust)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

     Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter, add the sugars and stir. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together, baking soda and flour and sift. Add flour and stir in. Crush corn chex in a bowl with your hands. Add crushed chex and chocolate chips and stir. Form dough into walnut size balls with your fingers and place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes on the middle rack.

     Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes. Then remove to a wire rack until they are completely cool. The wire rack is important it makes the cookies crispier. If the cookies spread out too much in the oven reduce to 350 degrees. Do not flatten cookies before baking. They will flatten themselves.