G-F Ranger Cookies

It's the dregs of winter coming on and I'm craving the chewy, crisp, texture of a ranger cookie. So for this month's ladies mix-n-mingle I'm taking tapioca pudding and ranger cookies! I hope that a craving comes upon me for something healthy to take too!

Posted first on 3-3-09.

This is the standard chewy ranger cookie filled with oatmeal, coconut and rice crisps, but I've adapted it for our GF/CF needs and it tastes great!

1 cup butter, shortening or margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups GF flour (I used my 8 flour mix-but a 1/4 cup less)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups quinoa flakes or gf oatmeal
1 cup rice crisps (I use Erewhon)
1 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Cream sugars and chilled fat and then add eggs. Add remaining ingredients but fold rice crisps in last. Wait 10 minutes for maximum absorption (is that a word)?

I formed balls and baked for 10 minutes til light brown. These might require a little more flour if they bake too flat for your tastes. Mine did.

**Don't be put off by the strong smell of quinoa flakes. I have found that the flavor bakes off and these really are good! If you want to substitute GF oatmeal, that works too.

G-F PB Granola Bars

We were in Utah this year--in a Winter without snow? No skiing, so the kids took the men and went camping down South instead. It is the perfect state for outdoor entertainment, whatever the weather.

I'm making these for the upteenth time for another backpacking trip. If I am a party girl, the hubby and children are rockin' guys. Whenever I make and send these on the hiking trip, the conversation goes something like this...

Packer, who is flipping the plastic-wrapped bars from hand to hand, "Dang these are heavy."

Me: "If you don't want them, I can keep them here and freeze them."

Packer, (continuing to squeeze them into every open slot, "Did we eat this many before?"

Me: "Yeeessss?"

Packer, "They are pretty bulky."

Me: (Walking away.)

After the trip:

Me: How was it?

Packer, (whose wartorn body, while exhausted, still exudes a scented hiking glow from every pore,) "Well, we ran short of granola bars..."

The boys call this lembas: LOTR reference: "A full grown man could live for days from a single bite of it."

Yeah, I can't find the link (on my own blog) so here it is again.

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup white corn syrup or honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

Microwave these ingredients 2 minutes and then pour over five cups of any kind of cereal. Press into a greased 9x13 pan or if you want them thinner, a jelly roll pan.

For this batch I used a 6 oz bag of millet puffs, 2 cups rice krispies and 1 cup g-f oatmeal and doubled the sauce on top. I pressed it with a lot of force into a jelly roll pan for good back-packing density (plastic wrap over top to prevent my literally being stuck with going with them.)

I have used rice chex, corn flakes, oatmeal, rice krispies, puffed quinoa, puffed millet, puffed rice, all kinds, all flavors, it's GOOD!

Standard recipe:

5 cups rice krispies

raisins, peanuts or chocolate chips

Wait until the mix cools slightly to add the chocolate chips or they become smero-chocobutter granola bars. Which are also very good.

These freeze great in snack bags and make a great breakfast/lunch supplement for children.