2009 February

Banana Bread

February 6, 2009 Leave a Comment

This is a great recipe for when you have those bananas in the kitchen that have brown spots all over them that nobody wants to eat. If not for the name “bread” I would put this recipe in the cake section. It is delicious.

1 ½ cup rice flour

1 ½ cup cornflour

3 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs

5 bananas

1 ½ cup sugar

½ cup olive oil

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

Butter a 9 by 13 by 2” glass pan. Set aside. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees. Combine the rice flour, corn flour, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Mix them together, and form a well in the middle of the mixture. Set aside. Open two of the five bananas, and put them in a small bowl. Mash the bananas up with a masher, until there are no lumps bigger than a centimeter in diameter. Pour the mashed bananas in another bowl, then add the last three to the bowl that you have been using to mash the last two. Mash those three up to the same consistency as the last. Pour those in with the other two. Break the two eggs into the banana mashing bowl and stir the eggs until the yolks and whites are blended. Then add them to the mashed bananas. Pour in the sugar, olive oil, and lemon juice. Blend them in with the bananas and eggs. Pour them into the well in the flour mixture, and stir them in. Pour the banana bread batter onto your prepared pan. Spread it out, and put it in the prepared oven for fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the knife comes out clean. The banana bread will still be a bit gummy when you eat it, but that is because of the bananas.

Filed Under: breads

Basic Brownies

February 6, 2009 Leave a Comment

Picture of gluten-free brownies with coffee

gluten-free brownies make a good snack.

This is one of the recipes my mom gave me. These brownies are gooey, chocolaty, and delicious. They are always the first thing to vanish, at a party. It is a very simple recipe, and i would recommend it for when you want to cook a quick dessert. You can really frost this thing up, cover it in chocolate chips, and make it into a birthday cake as well.

2 cups sugar

½ cup cocoa

1 ¼ cups cornflour

1 cup butter

4 eggs

1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips

Butter a 9 by 13 by 2” glass pan, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Set the pan aside. Combine the sugar, cocoa, and flour in a bowl. Break the eggs in a separate bowl, and beat them with a fork. Melt the butter, then mix it into the flour and sugar. Add the beaten eggs into the mix. Stir them in, until they are well blended. Add the chocolate chips, and stir them in. Pour the mixture into the pan, and place in the center of the oven. Cook for 35 to forty minutes,(depending on wether you like goopy brownies or well done.) until the center seems set. The brownies will still seem not cooked when you remove them from the oven. Let them set for about ten minutes, until they are cooled, and they will have become perfectly light, and delicious.

Filed Under: cakes, gluten-free recipes, Other desserts

Almond Toffee

February 4, 2009 1 Comment

This toffee, like most toffees, is very sweet and delicious. It has become one of our family’s favorite travel foods,(because we can’t eat in restaurants)because not only does it keep well, but it is a nice treat, and is very quick to prepare.

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 ½ cups almonds, (sliced)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2” baking pan. Set aside. Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan, and bring to a boil at medium high, heat.(It is not like watching water boil. It is just little bubbles that slowly rise and slowly fall.) As soon as it starts to boil, remove it from burner immediately. Stir in two cups of the almonds. Do not stir in the last half cup. Pour into the prepared pan, and bake for fifteen minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Note: the toffee will not be hard when removed from oven. Do not put the toffee back in the oven. Instead, let the chocolate chips soften just because of the heat coming off the hot toffee. When the chocolate chips are melted, spread them out over toffee, with a knife. When chocolate chips are spread evenly over toffee, sprinkle remaining almonds over top of the chocolate. Cut the toffee before it is completely hardened. Let it cool completely. Remove it from pan, once cooled, and store it in a airtight container.

Filed Under: candies

Buttermilk pancakes

February 3, 2009 Leave a Comment

This makes enough pancakes to give each person in my family about two. You may want to split this recipe in half, if you don’t have nine people in your family, as we do. This recipe uses buttermilk If you don’t have any, you can substitute by using three cups of milk, with three teaspoons of apple cider vinegar added.

1 ½ cups cornstarch

1 ½ cups tapioca flour

1 ½ cups cornmeal

1 ½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

4 ¾ teaspoons baking powder

¼ a teaspoon cinnamon

¼ a teaspoon nutmeg

Wet ingredients

6 eggs, separated

3 cups buttermilk, cold

6 tablespoons plain yogurt (not fat free)

½ cup melted butter

If you need to make your fake buttermilk, do that first (it needs to sit for at least five minutes). Then, place the cornstarch, tapioca flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl. Stir them together. Add four teaspoons of the baking powder. Do not add the last three fourths a teaspoon. Mix in the baking powder. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, and set aside. Separate six eggs (go to “tips” section, to see how). When you are done doing the eggs, put the yogurt in with the egg yolks. Do not stir it in. Pour in the buttermilk on the yogurt and egg yolks. Stir the three ingredients together, then pour in the melted butter. Stir them all together. Then, pour them into the well in the middle of the flour mixture. Stir them in, then pour in the egg whites, and fold them into the mixture. If there are lumps in the mixture, stir a bit more, until the lumps are all gone. If the mixture seems to wet, add some rice flour. When the mixture is ready, add the last bit of baking powder, and stir it in. Put a normal 7 inch diameter, or larger, frying pan on the burner. Turn the burner on at medium heat, and butter the pan with butter. When the last bit of baking powder is in, pour ¼ a cup of the batter onto the prepared pan. Let cook, until the bottom of the edges are done. Flip with a spatula, and let the other side cook.

Filed Under: breakfast

Gluten-Free Biscuits

February 2, 2009 2 Comments

These are a favorite to eat with soups and when I don’t have time to make rolls. They are quick and easy, and as a biscuit should be—Soft and buttery.

2 cups tapioca flour

2 cups potato starch flour

2 cups rice flour

3 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum

3 tablespoons baking powder

2 tablespoons sugar

3 teaspoons salt

2 sticks butter (cold)

3 cups milk

Butter 2 large 14 by 10” cookie sheets. Set aside. Combine tapioca flour, potato starch flour, and rice flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Blend together. Grate butter into mixture (or cut into small pieces), and stir until blended. Pour the milk into the mixing bowl, and blend it into the flour and butter. Stir it in only until blended. Do not over stir. Cover your hands in flour, and roll batter into 2 inch balls. Place 2” apart on prepared pans. Place in the oven. Cook at 450 degrees.

Filed Under: Biscuits and Muffins, gluten-free recipes

Gluten-Free Cheesecake

February 2, 2009 Leave a Comment

Gluten-free chocolate cheesecake

You’ll need softened (room temperature) cream cheese in this recipe. If you don’t have enough time for it to get soft, you can soften it in a double boiler. This can be a chocolate cheesecake as well as a regular one, simply add 1 tablespoon cocoa powder.

Almond crust:

2 cups sliced almonds

1/3 cup plus one tablespoon cold butter

1 cup rice flour or GF oat flour

¼ a cup sugar

You can use a 9” diameter cheesecake pan, or a 9 by 13” one. The larger one will make thinner cheesecake, but is still good. Butter your choice of pan, set aside. Pour almonds into a separate bowl. Grate the butter (or cut into small slices) into the almonds. Blend them by hand. Pour the flour and sugar in, and blend (by hand) it with the almonds and butter. Make sure all is completely blended, without chunks of butter. Dump mixture into pan, and spread out, mash it onto the bottom of the pan. Cook almonds until light brown. Remove from oven, and immediately pour 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips over the browned almonds.

Cheesecake mixture:

2 pounds cream cheese

1 cup pure, granulated sugar

5 eggs

3 tablespoons vanilla

Place cream cheese into a clean bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium low. As soon as the cream cheese is well-beaten, pour in the sugar. Beat the sugar in. When well blended, add one egg. Beat. Add each other egg, one at a time, beating after each one. Add the vanilla and beat Scrape the cream cheese off the bottom of bowl. Beat one more time, then pour onto prepared pan with almonds and chocolate chips. Put it in the oven at 350 degrees. Cook for ten minutes, then, lower heat to 225 degrees. Cook for another hour. DON’T PEEK! After cheesecake has cooked for one hour, stick a toothpick in the center of the cheesecake. The toothpick should come out almost clean. If you are uncertain about whether or not the cheesecake is done, feel the top with your finger. The cheesecake should feel firm.

If it is not done, cook for another fifteen minutes.

When the cheesecake is cooked turn off the oven, open the oven door a few inches, and let it cool for half an hour. Then, remove it and place it on the counter to cool for another half hour before putting it in the refrigerator. This slow cooling process should prevent the cracking of the cheesecake. If it does not, try this instead:

Remove the cheesecake from the oven when it is done, and place it on the counter. Put a pan lid or a bowl over top of it and let it cool this way for about an hour before refrigerating.

Filed Under: cakes, gluten-free recipes Tagged With: cake, cheesecake, gluten-free cake, gluten-free cheesecake

Learning to Bake Gluten-Free

February 2, 2009 4 Comments

My name is Binner, and I am eleven years old. I have always loved to cook. When my family of 9 (I have six sisters) discovered that most of us were celiacs, I learned to cook the gluten-free way.

When we discovered our celiac disease, my mom had us just eat fruits, meat, and vegetables. She found that many products in the store that were labeled gluten-free still made some of us sick, so for a few months we just ate fresh fruit, veggies, beef (that we raised), chicken and fish. This was a good way to start out because that way you know you are eating gluten-free, and you can start feeling better pretty quick.

But after a while, fruits, veggies, and meat can get a little old. My sisters and I started dreaming of pizza…and brownies…and cookies.

But all these things are made of flour, and the only way we knew how to make these things was with wheat flour. Now, we use all kinds of flours instead of wheat: rice flour, corn flour, potato starch flour, Montina flour, and tapioca flour.

I’ve gotten pretty good at making things out of these flours. Now, whenever I want to, I can make a Pizza. Or I can whip up a quick batch of brownies. People tell me the stuff I make is pretty good. The gluten-free life isn’t so bad once you have some recipes!

Sometimes, I might like it if one of my sisters had some steaming gluten-free pancakes sitting on the table for me when I get up in the morning (instead of the other way around). I just wonder what that might be like. Me, my Mom, and my Dad, are the only ones in this family that cook a lot. But I’m the one that makes all the stuff out of flour.

I have always liked to help people, who, like us, are gluten intolerant. If you need any tips, I would be more than happy to give them, and if you have some recipes or tips I am always excited to try new things in baking gluten-free!

~ Binner.

Filed Under: living the gluten-free diet