Valentine GF Peanut Butter Cups

2-12-13  update 

This is a fast, fun and delicious Valentine idea. The younger Mr. Darcey (he's 13) made the recipe and pressed it into a heart shaped pan. It cooled well and dropped nicely out of the pan.

First posted 11-9-11

I want to thank the group of people who fed my g-f missionary. He loved all of the food that he enjoyed in Chugiak and I am grateful to people who care.

The Man-On-A-Mission in Alaska has requested a batch of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

Yes, I know, that candy is typically gluten-free and I'm sure he would be happy with a package from the grocery store. But there are a multitude of lessons to be learned in this simple task.

When I was younger, the family suffered through my baking artistic blue period--the time of replicating recipes just to see if I could. While they ate through my failures, eventually they discovered there were recipes that were as good as store bought.

After such heady success, there was waning of the need to accomplish this. But, the youngster wants to make homemade candy so Mr. Darcey Jr. will get the chance to learn the intrinsic value of making food from scratch.

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix together and knead with hands until well blended. Form into balls and dip in chocolate or press into foil pans lined with chocolate.

Melt chocolate chips in a bowl over warm water, stirring often or nuke in the microwave on low twenty seconds at a time. If you cook it too fast and it gets too hot, it will seize like an Alaska glacier.

Cool the finished product in the refrigerator.

Delicious.

I know why the Alaska man requested homemade. He can't buy these in Alaska because the store cashier doesn't hand them to him with the words, "How are you? and I love you."

And that is why I am making them from scratch today. And I'm making them big and delicious and shipping them off to the frozen tundra in his Thanksgiving holiday package.

I Am What I Eat--Birthday Cream Puffs

Once again, easy g-f deliciousness. This is a one-flour recipe that turns out delicious every time.

last posted 9-09-09

If you watch my blog much, you know I remake food so often, but I get requests for the same recipes over and over again. I'm relabeling them as Terina's Tops.

This is one of my favorite foods of all time.

reposted from 9-08-08

In the preCD days I made creampuffs, and the standard recipe still works in gluten-freeville.

If I am to be defined by what I can eat, I picture myself as a cream puff. Soft, fluffy and sweet under a crusty, somewhat flaky, exterior. And as you will read from the recipe, like a creampuff, if I'm messed with, I'm very forgiving!

Cream Puffs (Hey, I botched this recipe and still it turned out great!)

1 cup water

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat together until boiling.

1 cup rice flour and 2 Tbs sugar (for sweet dough) (Unless you confuse rice flour with potato starch.)

Dump the rice flour mixture in all at once and stir over heat until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and comes together in a ball. When the mixture begins to form a ball, remove from heat and beat eggs in by hand, one at a time.

(OR BY MIXER if you have used potato starch and it is making a weird glutenous ball)

4 eggs added one at a time, beating between each additions until egg are completely incorporated into the dough. In between additions, dough may separate, but continued beating will combine the dough.

Then place by spoonsful onto a cookie sheet with space for raising and fluffing.

Bake at 425 20 minutes and then turn oven down to 350, and bake 10 minutes more.

Poke a small hole in side while cooling and then slice and fill with whipped cream or custard or chocolate pudding or tuna for sandwiches.

My aunt spreads the dough out over a cookies sheet, bakes it, covers it with pudding and coolwhip and voila! Dessert bars.

YUM! Then eat ten all by yourself! After all, it's your birthday! I DID!

GF Sweetheart Tea Cookies

Two days off school for weather issues and everyone is going stir crazy with cabin fever. The blizzard would be worse without wonderful neighbors who invite you over and feed you delicious Indian food, provide delightful conversation and admire your baking.

I made shortbread linzer cookies and all were eaten! That means they weren't just being polite, but that gluten-free really has won the taste test! The Living Without recipe is a winner! (I did halve the recipe to taste test it--and it still made a lot.)

I used a melon baller to make uniform balls of shortbread dough and then pressed them flat between two pieces of wax paper dusted with rice flour--they peeled off nicely. Then I cookie cut a heart out of one cookie, layered it atop and dropped a dollop of jelly into the centers. Baked at 350 for about 15 minutes.