G-F Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Prize-winning pumpkin cinnamon rolls made g-f?  Possible?  YES!

I used my standard bread recipe, lowered the water by 1/2 cup and added 1/2 cup pumpkin puree and proceeded to blend as usual.  And yes, that is my son's vanilla bean glaze.   He is a great glazier!

3 cups healthy grain flour mix  (I really think any reliable g-f flour substitute would work--assuming it is not just white rice and starches.) 

GF REALITY:  Those replacement flours that are only made up of starches and white rice are like handsome men; they look pretty, and are tasty short-term, but aren't good for you and just can't last.  Two hours later they are stale and distasteful.

1 1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 Tablespoon xanthan gum or other thickener
3 Tablespoons sugar (more 'cause it's a sweet dough)
2 1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon dough enhancer (optionally 1 tsp. vinegar)
1/3 cup dry milk powder

3 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup warmest water (approximately--maybe a touch more.)

Add wet to dry ingredients, beating on medium high.  Add just enough liquid to create a dough that resembles a stiff quick bread.

The rolling technique isn't that difficult.  I've used it before for cinnamon rolls and it's a little more challenging than a typical roll, but for we g-f'rs, the effort is well worth it.

Here are the photos of the process.



Beat the mixture until light and fluffy--the same texture and consistency as my usual bread loaf.


  

Pat to flatten between two pieces of "greased" (I spray) plastic wrap. 

Sprinkle dough with cinnamon sugar with a little pumpkin pie spice added. 

 

Use the plastic wrap under the dough to roll the dough by pulling the edge and gently folding it in upon itself.

Voila! 

Slice dough with a "sprayed" butter knife.  

As each is sliced, drop it onto a "sprayed" baking pan leaving plenty of space between for rising.

Raised about 20-30 minutes depending on the warmth of the house.  A view of raised dough ready to bake.

Second pan also ready to bake.  I baked these about 22 minutes per pan at a typical oven temperature, 350 degrees.  

The safe way is to use a thermometer to hit 190 degrees right in the center.   

 Tipped them out to cool and then glazed with powdered sugar, vanilla and a little water.  The teen son says he didn't measure anything.    The texture was good, lightness good, and not the least bit dry.   They were more delectable warm so I expect that I will be microwaving for a few moments before eating.

Reality Bite:  You may wonder what prize these delectable beauties won?  It was my heart.  I know corny, but it keeps me baking.  What?  

#1 METICULOUS MUFFINS #1

Meticulous Muffins 2015 Reposted from 3-30-10 and see 2013 repost from #1 Muffin Mix

Whew! I've been doing this way too long.  But it was just yesterday that a new friend told me she had been lusting after these muffins and needed the recipe.  It must be good.

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I know... more muffins, but this story is inspiring.   I promise. I am the Muffin Man this month.

My sister is making muffins. I'm referring to the graphic artist sister --the one that doesn't cook--but who designs beautiful blog headers.

She called last week, in advance, to tell me that she was planning to make my muffins on the weekend. Four days ahead.

She called again Friday night from the grocery store to make certain she had everything she needed. (She already had one of my mixes, but the instructions had rubbed off the ziplock.)

I couldn't remember what she needed. I bake so often that recipes bungle up in a tangled mass in my head and bounce around like a hoarded ball of rubber bands.

So Saturday morning, I methodically made a batch of muffins. Across the country, 1200 miles apart, she and I made muffins simultaneously. I unearthed my measuring cups and spoons from the depths of the drawer and measured meticulously. I specifically stuck to the recipe. I think that two tablespoons of oil is probably less than one of my big gluggs--more like a small blerp.

It was hard! As I mixed, I had to stop my ADD brain from bouncing off and thinking, "Oh, it needs another glugg of milk." "I should pour in a little green smoothie." "Wouldn't cranberries be good?"

No, I stubbornly stuck to the recipe. And the muffins were perfect! Wow! Not flat, not a dip in the middle, not too much for the pans, not too poofy, just perfection!

I made the college bound son also stick to this recipe with the four batches he's made since, and it's been very successful. (He's working next on dexterously pouring inside the mini-muffin cups.)

1 egg

1/2 cup applesauce, or pumpkin, or banana

1/2 cup buttermilk (1 tsp. lemon juice in any milk should substitute. Oops, there I go again.)

1/2 cup milk (almond, rice, or soy--have substituted nicely before.)

2 Tbs. oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice  

1/4 cup flax (optional, but cut down on milk... See how hard it is for me?)

1 1/2 cup muffin mix (mine or any old brand of sweetened/leavened GF baking mix)  see below

1/2 cup chocolate chips or nuts (optional)

Mix and fill mini muffin tins about 3/4 full, bake 350 for 15 minutes or until the top is tapped and bounces back. Makes 24 mini-muffins.

Whew!



Muffin Mix

1 1/2 cup gluten free flour (I used my wholegrain mix)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon guar or xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp salt.
1/2 cup sugar (I have also substituted 1/4 cup honey in my wet ingredients instead.)

Pao de Queijo (Chebe Bread)

Cheese Biscuits for Thanksgiving?  Everyone will love them, gf and non alike.  Delicious alternative to yeast rolls -- quick and easy, mixes in five minutes and bakes in ten minutes and it's multicultural!



Terina last posted this on 12-12-12 and then again on 10-11-13. 

I just made them with my gal pal Lidia and they are delicious. So here is a new photo:

Quick recipe:

1 1/4 cup tapioca starch (available cheap at Asian stores or Honeyville Grain)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup cheese 

(mozzarella, asiago, cheddar, I've used them all. Or leave it out) 

1 teaspoon seasoning (I've used taco, italian, dill)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of butter/oil

2 eggs

Stir it up and drop/roll into balls.  Bake at 425 for 10 minutes only.

DO NOT OVERBAKE--If these aren't to die for, it's due to overbaking.

Makes about a dozen.

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This recipe had it's beginnings in 2008 - It's also called Chebe Bread or Pao de Quejo and sells for big bucks in the grocery stores.  Really a delicious g-f alternative.  

I trust GF Gobsmacked because her oreos are directly from a heavenly planet, so I tried her recipe for Brazilian cheese bread (chebe) and like she indicated, I found it happiness personified--in only 15 minutes and using only one flour.

The whole story follows so skip to the end if you must:

"ancient file photograph--2010"

When you are on a ski vacation, there is not much time for making or baking food of any kind, so the original plan was to order pizza from Park City Pizza whose owners, Jeff and Nikki Keye have worked to develop gluten-free recipes as good as the original. Jeff was diagnosed with CD six years ago, and is dedicated to preventing cross-contamination.

But I'm a 30 year skiier, who really hates skiing (see blog excerpt below).

"Skiing has its own unique verbiage to disguise its inherent wretchedness. The ski term off-piste means to glide rapturously in deep powder off trail, through snow-covered trees. When I ski off-piste, it happens accidentally, flailing frantically out of control, dodging and ducking trees, ditching skis and poles, and any sharp object that could imperil my ungainly finish.

Most of the time, I ski “piste-off,” fighting the ski position, half bent over, leaning precariously forward, sliding and slipping while all the way screaming, and wildly zipping past signs that say slow."

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Aug., 2012 update
The new SIL (son in law) tried this recipe and loved it, but recommended that when it says tapioca that one uses flour, not the tapioca that most American's are familiar with, the one that makes it taste like graveled buns.)

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Long story short, I convinced the husband that I would be so much happier staying in at the homey chalet, keeping the fires burning... and baking.

I recipe experimented over the holiday weekend. First I viewed a standard non-gf recipe at allrecipes, but their Brazilian cheese bread was more a pate choux recipe, like the cheese gougeres (a savory cream puff) that I already make. Delicious, but not new.

So I dug out and snowshoed (obvious hyperbole) to the library and searched the "tried and true" gluten-free community blogs and found this one--another keeper from GF Gobsmacked ( I feel I know her well enough to abbreviate.)

I had to modify (no chives fresh or dried in the country store) and I added an extra egg when I could not get the crumble to stick together in balls. It's a keeper, delicious and cultural--and freezable in balls prior to baking. See this article from the S.L. Tribune if you missed it last week.

GF Gougères

A gougère, in French cuisine, is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough. There are many variants: add some sugar and they're cream puffs, add some cheese and they're ...um, cheese puffs.

In GF cuisine, it's an impossibly easy single flour win that's gonna ruin your calorie count for the next fifteen years. STILL DO IT.  I made them plain and ate them filled with tuna while standing over the pan. I had to hide them from myself to keep some for hubby and some for a friend! 

So simple it's magnifique: 

Melt together 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1 cup water
1 tsp salt in a pot.
When it's boiling, turn off the heat and add one cup rice flour all at once.
Stir it together with a big wooden spoon (or something else strong), then add one egg at a time, stirring between eggs, until the batter is doughy but not runny (usually about three eggs). 
Plop onto a cookie sheet (metal, not glass) and cook them in a hot, hot oven (425*) for 20 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350* and cook for 5 more minutes.

Time: 30 minutes.
Makes: not enough.

G-F Reality Black Bean Chocolate Muffin

Conclusion:  Black bean chocolate muffins made gluten-free are the Wow Recipe of the Week.  

Hypothesis:  If  brownies can be made from black beans, I can make morning muffins just as deliciously.

Proof:  Homeschooling chemistry and the scientific method isn't hard when yum food is involved.

1/2 cup black beans (canned, rinsed, drained, blended)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup cocoa (dutched)
1 1/2 cup of a gf flour mix ( I used this one)
1/2 cup sugar  (or 1/4 cup honey)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 teaspoon xanthan or guar gum
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Bake time:  I cook most everything at 350 degrees, unless I'm in a hurry.  And I usually bake it for 12-15 mintues.  Until a tap on the top doesn't sink in.

One more day of the test kitchen (muffins to teenagers) and then I can publish with total assurity that they are a success.

Voila, two days of recipe success!

Hints and tips, when I blend the beans, I add the other wet ingredients and give it a spin.  That may be why the muffins are baking so high, the egg gets extra whizzed.  The total wet ingredients equal 2 cups.

My husband made me sit down and try to figure out calories as he is taking them to work and people seem to be concerned with the fat and sugar content--I've halved the sugar of typical muffins and two tbs of fat is amazing for such a great muffin.  I'm estimating about 56 calories each as they are minis.

Reality Bite:  The teens I make them for are swimmers, so they can bulk up on the extra calories and protein.   Oh to be Young!

G-F Peppermint White Chocolate Muffins

When early-morning muffins in the morning become monotonous, I ask the kids for ideas to shake things up a little.  Today's recommendation was white chocolate peppermint.  They were good; so yum that the seminary group got off with only four because I ate two before I could drop them off.

I start with my standard muffin recipe mix:

1 1/2 cup  g-f flour mix (I use my wholegrain mix)
1/2 cup sugar (more cupcakes than muffins I'd say, but all my muffins start this way.)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon baking powder
a dash salt

No spices in this mix.

Wet ingredients mixed in a large measuring cup.

1/3 cup plain yogurt (sub. for my standard banana or pumpkin)
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons oil
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 drops peppermint
1/2 tsp. vanilla
about a 1/2 cup milk (fill cup up to 1 1/2 cup liquid)

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

I bake them in mini muffin pans at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.