Gluten-free chocolate cake makes a tasty dessert

We have used this recipe many times for birthdays, holidays, and normal desserts. It is delicious with frosting, or without, and it would also be very good with chocolate chips or nuts.

Ingredients:

¼ cup salted butter, melted

¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

½ cup plain yogurt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup cornstarch, potato starch, or half-half potato starch/ rice flour, or cornstarch/rice flour mix, whichever is available. Rice flour will make cake grittier and slightly dryer.

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 inch round or square baking pan.

In your bowl, mix the butter with the sugar and beat with electric mixer. Add the eggs, and beat until lighter and thicker. This will take about two minutes. Add the other ingredients. Beat well. The batter will be a thick cake batter. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick tests cleanly, and cake doesn’t jiggle.

A nice, hot bread with the butter soaking in.

A light, flavorful, sandwich, butter, or jam bread. It will work best in a bread maker, and will turn out like the bread you remember, but better. This is so easy, because you simply spend fifteen minutes putting it in the bread maker, and in three hours, you have a soft, flavorful bread that you will never have enough of!

Wet ingredients:

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup oil

½ cup water

1 cup milk minus one tablespoon

Dry ingredients:

2 cups rice flour

½ cup potato starch

½ cup tapioca flour

3 ½ tablespoons xanthan gum

1/3 cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon yeast

In a small bowl, beat eggs with fork, until whites and yolks are well blended. Once the eggs are beaten, add the oil, water, and milk. Mix the three in with the eggs, until all are blended. Pour the wet ingredients out of the bowl, and into the bread maker pan. Wash and dry the empty bowl. Pour the rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch into the clean bowl, and mix the three together. Add the xanthan gum, sugar, and salt, and the yeast, and stir them all into the dry ingredients. Then, pour the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients, and stir with a rubber spatula. Place the bread pan in the bread maker, on “basic” cycle. Press start, and let cook until bread maker says 0:00

NOTE: You can also make one before you go to bed, and have it done in the morning. Just do not add the yeast right away, instead pour the flour mix into the wet ingredients without it, make an island out of the dry ingredients, then add the yeast. Adjust time on bread maker, to however many hours it will be before you wake up. You can also make this bread in the oven, just proof the yeast, (see “tips” section.) and then add it to the rest of the ingredients, and let the bread rise for at least thirty minutes.

cinnamon roll being used as birthday cake.

Not only are these quick and easy to make, but they have the fluffy, light texture of wheat cinnamon rolls. These are a little less sugary than wheat ones, but I am sure you can add some powdered sugar if you want. The only thing these delicious little rolls are missing is the yeasty flavor, which is very hard to pull together. Other than that, though, you will find nothing lacking.

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar, granulated

5 egg whites

¾ cup plain yogurt

1 ½ cups cornstarch

½ cup rice flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Filling:

4 tablespoons butter, grated

1 cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

Use a large glass baking pan, buttered. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar in medium sized bowl, add the egg whites, beat until very frothy. Add the remaining ingredients, beat well with electric mixer.

Sprinkle a clean counter top with potato starch, tapioca flour, or cornstarch. Flour your hands as well. Place the dough on the floured counter top, and use a rolling pin, (lightly dusted in flour,) to roll out the dough until it is 14 by 12,” but thinner is even better, depending upon the type of rolls you prefer. Slightly lift the dough, just to make sure it will come off of the counter. If not, gather back up the dough, add more flour to the counter, and roll it again.

Sprinkle the sugar and cocoa unto the dough, and then grate the butter on with a cheese grater, or cut into small slices. Now, carefully begin to roll the dough. It should lift up off of the counter. Roll it into a large round log, and then cut across it with a knife for the number of rolls you want. Place each carefully on the buttered pan, and bake for forty to forty-five minutes, until golden brown.

Note: The dough can be made before you make the rolls, just place the bowl of dough in the refrigerate with plastic wrap on top. Refrigerate for two days at most, dough will begin to crumble if refrigerated longer.

Cinnamon Roll Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tablespoons milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl until blended, spread over cinnamon rolls.

chocolate cupcake picture

These are rich, delicate, and sweet. They are good with or without frosting, and would also be great with nuts.

dry ingredients:

½ cup rice flour or sorghum flour

½ cup cornstarch

¼ cup potato starch or cornstarch

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon xanthan gum

2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, optional

Wet ingredients:

1 large egg

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees, line one muffin pan with wax paper cup liners.

Whisk flours, cocoa, baking powder, sugar, salt, and xanthan gum in a medium sized mixing bowl. I just whisk the ingredients by hand with a little metal whisk, but you can always whisk with an electric mixer. After whisking, add chocolate chips.

In another mixing bowl whisk egg, milk, oil and vanilla until well blended.

Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients, and stir until blended, don’t over beat. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan and bake for about twenty minutes, until toothpick comes out clean, and cupcake top feels springy but solid on touch. Remove from pan and cool, I put them in the refrigerator, because I am always impatient to put the frosting on. When cooled, put frosting on. You can use your own recipe, or the one on this site. I usually decorate them with chocolate chips after they are frosted. You can do this, or come up with your own nifty decorations.

frosting on cake

This is my mom’s frosting recipe, and it tastes perfect on every type of cake. But when you are making it, be sure you don’t leave the kitchen. When you return, it will be half gone!

Ingredients:

4 ounces, (½ a stick) cream cheese

¼  cup (½ a stick) butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups powdered sugar, more or less

In a double boiler, melt the butter and cream cheese, the butter until it is completely melted, the cream cheese until it is soft. Beat with electric mixer, then add vanilla extract and one half a cup of the powdered sugar. Beat, add another half a cup of powdered sugar. Beat that in, then taste it. If frosting tastes right to you, then use as it is. If not, add the remaining half a cup, and beat again. Taste, if it isn’t quite right, add a bit more. Once frosting is at its perfection, you can add food coloring if you like. If you want chocolate frosting, add a tablespoon of cocoa. Spread onto your cake, cookie, or cupcake, with a knife or small rubber spatula.

Gluten-free sourdough starter can act like a volcano

Do not be scared away by the long list of directions, I had to make them precise, because one time, I checked on my sourdough starter to see that the lid, (I had the ring on,) had been completely blown off, and sourdough starter was everywhere. These careful directions should stop the same thing from happening to you, but please tell me if anything unexpected happens, I would be pleased to make some changes. The blown-off-lid incident may have been caused by our high elevation, and may not happen to you. As it is, this starter is a MUST TRY! It is easy, and it makes your breads rise sky high, like they have never done before!

2 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast granules

1 cup water

1 teaspoon tapioca flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup rice flour, brown or white

Use a regular one quart jar for this, place all ingredients in jar, stir well, and sit out until fermented, (1-3 days,) Stir every few hours at first, or whenever mixture rises too high. Do not place ring around lid of jar, just the top part, so if mixture blows up, nothing will happen. I also advice you place jar in a bowl, so that your cupboard or shelf doesn’t get covered with sourdough starter. Every time this starter starts to lift off the lid, stir, and it will die down again. After the first six hours or so, it will stop altogether, and sit still for a bit. Stir well before using, and consistency should be like a pancake batter. Replenish starter after using with ½ cup or 1 cup lukewarm water and ¾ cup or 1 ½ cups rice flour, as needed, each time you bake. I would advise you did not use the higher quantity, even if the amount of starter looks low, because the second time you use the starter, it will rise a little bit, at which point you should stir it. After the first replenish, when it seems to have died down, it is safe to put the ring on the jar, but put it on loosely, just in case.

Sourdough Gluten-Free Bread

I made this bread without thinking it would do anything, because yeast hardly ever does. I have tried quite a few bread recipes, and almost all of them were failures, except for this bread, and bread maker bread. I did not expect this bread to rise high, -which it did- and I especially did not expect this bread to overflow. It did that too. Without the Sourdough starter, though, it will be hard to make this bread rise well. This bread is hard too ruin, because at our house, my sisters were running around, and making noise, and the breads had to be moved onto a pan when they started overflowing. But, it didn’t even fall a millimeter. Not only is this one of the easiest breads I have made gluten-free, it is also the tastiest. Enjoy!

Note: Please put foil or cookie sheet under this bread before you even start to rise it, because it might overflow.

Dry Ingredients

1 cup sorghum flour, -i use Bob Red Mill sorghum flour

½ cup bean flour of any kind, -also available from Bob’s Red Mill

1 cup tapioca flour

1 ½ cups cornstarch

3 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup almond meal, -Bob’s Red Mill

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons dry yeast granules

Wet ingredients:

1 egg and 3 egg whites

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

1 cup sourdough starter, -in “breads” section

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 cups lukewarm water, as needed

Place wax paper in two 8 ½” by 4 ½” loaf pans and dust lightly with rice flour.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Set aside. In the bowl of your electric mixer, whisk all of the wet ingredients except for ½ cup of water, which you set aside. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients. The dough should be like a very thick cake batter. If it is not, add some or all of the remaining water, as needed. Turn the mixer on high, beat for three minutes. Spoon the dough into prepared pans, and let rise for about 60 minutes. If you have rapid rising yeast, rise for 35-45 minutes. Rise in warm area, (your oven, perhaps.) if you rise them in your oven, and the oven is not warm, turn oven to warm and leave on warm for five to ten minutes, then turn off. Rise until bread is about half an inch above the top of the pans, then turn oven to 400 degrees F, and bake for an hour or more, until surface of bread is medium brown, and knife inserted in center comes out clean.

These can be made into buns, simply spoon dough into muffin rings with wax paper muffin containers inside of them.

These are a favorite in our family. Add dried currants or raisins to add more flavor!

dry ingredients:

3 cups rice flour

1 ½ cups cornmeal

2 ½ tablespoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons xathan gum

¾ cup sugar

wet ingredients:

6 eggs, beaten

3 ¾ cups milk

1 ½ cups melted butter

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter or oil three twelve hole muffin pans. Set aside. Mix the dry ingredients all together, in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Crack the eggs into another smaller bowl, and beat them with a fork. Pour in the milk, and stir it in. Pour in one half cup of the butter into the eggs and milk, and stir it in. Pour another half cup of the butter, and stir it in once again. Add the last half cup of butter, and stir it in also. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and mix them together. Spoon dough into the buttered muffin tins. Fill about 2/3 full.

Gluten-free strawberry pie made with pie crust.

This crust is used a lot in our family. It is an all-purpose pie crust.

Dry mix:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/3 cup potato starch

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Wet mix

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons butter, cold

Heat the oven to 325 degrees, and position rack in center of oven. Use a glass unbuttered pie pan. Stir the rice flour, potato starch, sugar, xanthan gum, and cornstarch together in a small mixing bowl. Set aside. Place the melted butter in a separate bowl. Crack one egg in another separate bowl, and beat it with a fork. Beat in the apple cider vinegar. Pour the beaten egg and vinegar, into the dry mixture. Stir them in. add the melted butter. Stir. Grate the cold butter into the mix. Flatten the crust out on the pie pan. Pour your choice filling in, and put in the oven for an hour, or until crust is lightly browned.

Note: this pie crust only makes enough dough to put a crust on the bottom. If you want to have one with a top, you may want to double the recipe.

If you want a seasoned pizza crust, add 2 ¼ teaspoons pizza seasoning to the dry ingredients. You have a choice between a thick crust and a thin crust. If you want a thin crust, use by 12” pans. If you would rather a thick crust, use 16 by 12” pans.

Dry ingredients

2 ¾ cups rice flour

1 ¾ cups tapioca flour, plus two tablespoons

3 teaspoons xanthan gum

4 ½ tablespoons dry milk powder

1 ½ teaspoons salt

yeast mix

½ cup sugar

1 ½ tablespoons yeast

2 ¼ cups warm water

wet ingredients

6 egg whites

½ teaspoon xanthan gum

Heat oven at 400, and position rack in the center of the oven. Grease two 14 by 12” (optional) pans. Set aside. Mix the flours, xanthan gum, milk powder, pizza seasoning (optional), and salt, together in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

Place the sugar, yeast, and water together in a small bowl (see “tips” section for further explanation). Let it rise until the yeast has risen at least an inch. While the yeast is setting, separate the eggs into two small bowls (see “tips section for further explanation). Do not use the egg yolks. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy. Add the xanthan gum. Pour the egg whites and xanthan gum into the dry ingredients. Mix it in. Slowly pour the yeast mix in, and stir. Spread the dough out on your pans, and let set for an hour, while you are preparing the pizza toppings. Once the pizza is all topped off, place it in the oven, and let cook for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until crust is lightly browned.