huzzah for the baker!

So much going on! We're preparing for an event our church is having this weekend for the neighbors in celebration of Easter, we have Easter with our families, and then Renaissance Faire. All in a week's time. Oi. So much to do, so little time!

The recipe I'm going to share is one that I specifically tried in preparation of Ren Faire, so I'm going to focus this post on the Faire.

I'm working on making a cotehardie for the Faire. I wanted something new to wear this year, and a dress sounded fun. (ie, flowy) I found this gorgeous pattern and decided to give it a try. My Mom and I found a whole bunch of light green linen at Salvation Army for an absurdly cheap price, so that's what it'll be made of. The gal who wrote out the pattern and blogged it called one part of the 'never ending eyelets of doom'. Yep, aptly named! That's where I am right now and I'm only 4 in! Ahh, but it'll look good when it's done... If you want to know what it looks like and how to make one yourself, here's the blog that I'm stalking following. ^_^ http://romantichistory.blogspot.com/search/label/cotehardie

We always brought our own lunch instead of buying food at the Faire. Mostly just because it's cheaper, and it's rather fun to walk back to the car, pull out our ice chest and find a picnic table with a group of friends and break bread together in the shade. It's just a lovely experience. Since I've been gluten free, it's more of a necessity than anything else. Get a rotisserie chicken (or roast one the night before), get some cheeses and some bread, some grapes...modern day Renaissance feast! Each year I've looked for a Renaissance-esque bread that I could bake and bring. And today, I've found it!

The original recipe is your normal bread. (ie, glutened) But I've tried making it now gluten free style, and it worked! Huzzah!

First, here's the link to the original recipe, and then I'll tell you what I did: http://www.simplysogood.com/2010/03/crusty-bread.html

Crusty Bread

3 cups TG's All purpose floud

1 3/4 teaspoons sea salt

1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 1/2 cups water

I followed the directions as she listed, mixing the dry ingredients together, adding the water, setting aside with plastic wrap to rise for at least 12 hours. (I waited 16 hours, as I had to wait for my little guy to go down for his nap) I used my Deep Covered Baker (from Pampered Chef) as the tool for baking. I heated the oven to 450 and let it heat in there for 30 minutes as instructed. I deviated from the instructions here. GF will not handle well in the sense of rolling into a ball and being all dandy like glutened stuff is. So I left it in the bowl it had been in, sprinkled flour over it while there, and waited. After 30 minutes of the DCB being in the oven, I took it out, took off the lid, dumped a good spoonful or two of flour on my dough, lifted it and dropped it into the hot DCB. Covered with the lid and put in to bake for 30 minutes. Just shy of 30 minutes into it (27 minutes, to be exact) I took the lid off and let it bake for 15 minutes un-lidded. Took it out of the oven, flopped it onto my cooling sheet, debated for a minute, then tore the bread in half and started taste testing. 

For having only 4 ingredients, it was really good! Wow! It was great with some Earth Balance butter on it. We're going to make some again (after Easter, methinks) and try adding some Daiya or other cheese-like stuff in it to see how it'd be with cheese. So exited for such a simple bread that I can make! Super simple for every day life AND for Ren Faire! Huzzah! Huzzah for the Baker! 

Seriously, you've gotta try it. I'm seriously impressed! If I remember to try it with the cheese sub and it turns out good, I'll do my best to post a note here!

Muffins!!

We've been enjoying any type of easy breakfast possible since that That Boy has arrived. ...which means now that these awesome gluten free boxed muffins are around, we've been making blueberry or chocolate chip boxed muffins almost weekly. And boxed muffins are expensive! $5.99 a box! (unless they're on sale, but still!) After so long of coughing up money for a box mix, I finally had the time to sit down and figure out a recipe for muffins. No more box mixes!

What I basically needed to do was mix a flour blend that I could use as all purpose flour to sub into a pre-exsisting muffin recipe. I looked at the box mix, wrote out all the ingredients, and figured which ones I wanted in my recipe. My flour blend is (what I think of as) simple.

3 cups white rice flour
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup oat flour
3 cups tapioca startch
1 1/2 cup potato starch
2 TBSP xanthan gum
1 TBSP salt

Mix it all together, and you have ready made AP flour for these muffins! Sooo good!

Chocolate Chip Muffins of Yum

1/2 cup (8 TBSP) non dairy butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups AP gluten free flour blend
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Cream non-dairy butter and sugar, add egg one at a time
3. Sift together flour, b. powder and salt. Add to the creamed sugar, then add the milk and vanilla.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips. Eat a few chips on the way into the bowl.
5. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray, then pour in muffin batter. 
6. Cook for 20-25 minutes (mine took 18 minutes, actually) Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn over onto a cooling rack. 
7. ENJOY!

We're looking forward to trying this recipe with blueberries soon. The chocolate chip muffins turned out amazingly good. Just the right bit of firmness on the outside, soft melty-ness on the inside, ooh, they are good!

 In other news, That Boy is a little over a week away from being 4 months. Where did the time go!? I'm amazed with how time is flying by. He's smiling, 'talking', rumor has it tonight that he giggled at the grandparents house...That Bearded Guy and I were at a wedding while he was at my parents house, and during the wedding I was struck with the thought that's going to be so very soon until his wedding. He's already almost 4 months. I can't blink, or he'll be in grade school, high school, college, married, giving us grandkids...

OOh! Thinking of grandkids! That Bearded Guy told me he *thought* he saw a silver hair in my hair! Yay! I hope so, I'm sad that since we dyed our hair for the Anime Expo this year, my few silver hairs got dyed too. Unlike all the crazy people who have gorgeous hair of wisdom, I LIKE my silver/gray hairs! And I welcome them as friends. ^_^

Learning to pet and be gentle with Malificent

A bit uncertain about the music playing at the time. I think it was something 'pop' like...

There's only 940 Saturday's from birth to age 18. I plan to enjoy each Saturday as much as possible!

A week of yummy!

On Monday, I weighed myself. I then decided to start a little purge and avoid as many carbs as possible and eat healthy for the next couple weeks. My only exceptions to making and eating anything would be for special occasions, ministry events or if someone asked me to make something specific. I figured those would be safe exceptions, because nothing was on the calendar. So I could do my best to lose the holidays that are sticking with me, ya know? Sounds great, right?

It could have worked. It really could have.

But then, to our great surprise and joy, my little sister in law got released from the hospital and was free to return to home! Huzzah! The two catches-she is now gluten free, and no one would be home to stay with her from Thurs-Sun, because they were going on a pre-planned vacation. (planned since last Summer, and we all agreed they should take a brief break) Sooo...TBG and I came over to hang out with her and make yummy foods she could eat. Which constitutes as a special occasion-she's out of the hospital- it's a ministry-helping take care as needed- and she's asked me to make a few specific gluten free foods.

Even when I try to eat healthy and do what I can, I fail. I'm stuck in a house with my hubby and my awesome sister in law, making delicious foods for several days. Oh darn.

^_^

Thursday night we had pizza. For a post-lunch snack yesterday we made brownies. Last night we had soup. This morning we made and inhaled caramel nut rolls and cinnamon rolls. Tomorrow we're having lasagna. What a hard couple of days! I think I've gained about 3 pounds already. Gonna be hitting up the gym every day for the next couple weeks! *laughs*

The pizza and the rolls are amazing. Plain and simple. The pizza was superb-we didn't know what to expect, and we three ended up finishing the two pizza's ourselves! And the beautiful thing? We could eat all of it without getting sick. Life is grand!

It has been such a lovely time, all of us together, hanging out, enjoying each others company and eating good food. We've sat around and chatted, watched movies, played video games, we've made foods together and eaten together. Gluten free in the kitchen has never tasted so sweet!

The pizza crust recipe I used is from a new cookbook that I recieved for Christmas. A great cookbook! Dairy free and gluten free! I highly recommend this book-it is so great! It's called 'Cooking for Isaiah' by Silvana Nardone, the ISBN is 978-1-60652-165-6. I used her pizza crust recipe and her all-purpose flour mix, so I'll list her flour mix and her crust recipe for those who don't have it yet. ^_^

Silvana's all-purpose flour mix
6 cups white rice flour
3 cups tapioca starch
1 1/2 cups potato starch
1 TBSP salt
2 TBSP xanthum gum

Pizza Crust
2 cups Silvana's all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 large egg whites, room temp, beaten
2 TBSP EVOO
3/4 cup warm water

1.  Whisk together flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Add egg whites, olive oil and water. Combine well.
2. Divide the dough into two equal-ish pieces. Roll both into rough balls, and place on two lightly floured parchment papers. Cover with plastic wrap, and roll the dough to about 1/4" of thickness, keep the plastic wrap on and let it sit for about 30 minutes.
3. If you have a round baking stone, put in the oven and preheat both to 450. Choose one of the rolled out doughs. Remove the plastic wrap carefully and slide it into the oven. Bake for about 8 minutes-when the crust gets puffy and crisp, it's ready. Repeat with the other crust.
4. These can be made and frozen for later if desired-good for about 1 month in the freezer.

Now there's an alteration to this original recipe. This is what I used, the alteration. And it was GOOD.

Replace the water with 3/4 cup rice/coconut/almond milk, room temperature and with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar. Use 1 3/4 cups plus 2 TBSP all purpose flour mixed with 1/2 cup cornmeal instead of the 2 cups flour, and mix as before.

For the pizza itself, I used a generic pizza sauce, added some red pepper flakes to the sauce and then grated goat mozz. cheese and grated cheddar almond cheese. Top it with pepperoni's and bake it at 450 for 8 minutes. The second pizza I added pepperoni's and flakes on the sauce directly and sprinkled the cheese on top. Both turned out great! We'll be having this recipe again soon.

We had two breakfasts-the first breakfast was the healthiest. Scrambled eggs, bacon and a fruit smoothie. (Lizzie had a great idea for the smoothie's, we add a handful of spinach to the fruits and juice in the blender, then add whey protein. You can't taste the spinach, but it helps make it a more balanced and healthy. And it tastes so good!) So that was our first breakfast. Second breakfast was MorMor's caramel nut rolls and Shauna's cinnamon rolls.

1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons active-dry yeast
4 ounces almond flour (1 1/4 cup)
4 ounces corn flour (3/4 cup)
4 ounces sweet rice flour (3/4 cup)
4 ounces potato starch (2/3 cup)
4 ounces tapioca flour (1 cup)
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk powder
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 tabelspoons cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

MorMor's Carmel Glaze
1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP corn syrup (or brown rice syrup)
2 TBSP coconut milk

1. Prep the yeast in 1 cup of warm water. It will take awhile, roughly 15 minutes-ish.
2. Mix all the flours, salt and xanthem gum together, and if you have a blender, food processor or stand mixer, whisk them in that. You want them to be light and airy. Add the sugar and milk powder.
3. Warm the last of the water to about 110 degrees.
4. Add the yeasty water, and add the eggs one at a time. If the dough seems dry, then add more water as needed. Let it rise.
5. It's best to roll the dough in two batches, and try to shape and roll it into a rectangular shape. Before you roll it, place it on a silpat or or wax paper. Put plastic wrap on the top and then roll it out to about 1/2" thick or so. Take off the wrap.
6. For MorMor's caramel rolls, sprinkle on cinnamon and a tiny bit of sugar. Roll into a log and cut into rolls.
7. For cinnamon rolls, add butter chunks, cinnamon and sugar. Roll into a log, cut into rolls and place in a baking dish that has a lightly buttered bottom. Cover with a warm tea cloth and let rise for an hour or so.
8. Make the caramel sauce! Melt the butter, sugar and corn syrup. Stir together and after it's boiled, stir in the coconut milk. Pour into a 9x12 and sprinkle in chopped nuts if desired. Lay the rolls in. Cover with a warm tea cloth and let rise for about an hour.
9. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.
10. Make the cinnamon icing. Cream the butter and cream cheese in a food processor or blender. Add the vanilla slowly. Bit by bit, add in the powdered sugar. It will most likely take all 2 cups of sugar, but bit by bit is best for the consistency. Frost the cinnamon rolls once they've cooled suffiently.
11. ENJOY!

Coffee Cinnamon Scones

So I've finally found something I can make for breakfast! I got these lovely magazine's called "Delight" from a friend, and I'm starting to play around with the recipes in it... (Delight is a gluten free magazine, for the record)

I've been dying over how I can't make coffeecake anymore, or pumpkin muffins, or pumpkin bread, or french toast, or any of those other yummy-licious baked goods for breakfast. Well. I've found something that works for now! Coffee Cinnamon Scones! Granted, if I could make the glaze like the recipe itself, that'd be so much better, but for now, I'm content. ^_^ I used the carob glaze from the brownie recipe, and drizzled that over the scones for a coffee/cinnamon/chocolatey-ness. And it was good! ...I do need to take lessons in drizzling though....when you see the pictures, you'll understand why I say that. My drizzling skills are poor. More like, slopping skills. >_>

They may not look the best, but they are in fact yummy!

The original recipe called for All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour, which I don't have on hand. So I improvised with some research and made my own. When I made it myself, I had extra flour that is now stored safely away in the fridge until I come up with my next devious gastronmic delight scheme. The flour is a mix of four other types of flour. 3 parts brown rice flour, 3 parts tapioca flour, 2 parts sorghum flour and 1 part almond meal/flour. I used a 1/4 cup for my measurements. (ie, 3/4 cup brown rice flour, 3/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour and 1/4 cup almond meal flour) As a note, you can also use corn starch instead of tapioca flour, soy flour instead of sorghum, and masa harina instead of almond) Now, so armed with the knowledge of that flour recipe, here's the actual scone recipe:

Coffee Cinnamon Scones That Girl Style!

Ingredients-
2 cups TG's all purpose flour mix
1/3 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
6 TBSP cold, UNSALTED butter (if you only have salted butter, omit the 1/2 tsp salt)
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey or agave nectar (or sugar)
1/4 cup original rice milk (or real milk)
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Stir TG's flour mix, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Cut butter into pieces and drop into dry mixture. Combine until the butter is pea sized or so, if the butter starts to get warm-fridge it. It needs to stay cold.
4. In separate bowl, comibe eggs, milk, coffee and honey.
5. Add wet and dry together until it starts to hold together.
6. Shape dough into golf ball size or so-mine were a bit small, so make them kinda large-ish golf balls-drop onto ungreased cookie sheet and press slightly, so they don't roll off!
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes, check the doneness with a toothpick. Scones should look slightly cracked on top.

Let them cool for a bit before adding a glaze. The original recipe called for 3/4 cup coffee liqueur and 2 cups confectioner's sugar to be blended and then drizzled on. I can't have the sugar, so that just wasn't going to happen. But the brownie glaze was good!

That Bearded Guy and I enjoyed some scones with our scrambled eggs this morning. Huzzah for finding something that we can enjoy together! I have a few more recipe ideas bouncing around in my head, but I'll need to wait until next weekend to test those out. I'm excited that I'm working a temp job right now, but I don't have the time of the day anymore to play in the kitchen. *tear* Oh well, now I have some income to pay for all the expensive flours and whatnots!

An excellent breakfast!

Roughly 95 calories per scone...makes about 18 or so of that size. And out of curiosity, is it that no one posts comments-or is it not allowing comments?...