A couple of months ago I woke up at 3 in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. I was in the mood to bake, so I went into the kitchen and whipped up these beauties – gluten free chocolate eclairs. We had company that weekend, but John and I kept this gluten free dessert hidden in the refrigerator because they were just too good to share.

Eclairs are made from pate a choux. Making gluten free pate a choux is really no different than making it with wheat flour, if you use the right gluten free flour mix. Luckily, my gluten free flour mix worked just fine and didn’t need any xanthan gum.

If you’ve never made pate a choux or eclairs – go ahead and try this. It’s an easy dessert recipe and it’s fun to make. And….there’s always the added benefit of getting to eat all of the wonderfully delicious gluten free eclairs when you’re done =)

Gluten Free Chocolate Eclairs

Gluten Free Chocolate Eclair Recipe

8 oz. water
1 stick butter (or dairy-free baking stick)
1/8 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 c. (4 oz.) Mary’s gluten free flour mix
4 large eggs

1 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. sugar
cocoa powder to taste (Yes, I forgot to measure. It was 4 a.m for goodness sake!)

Combine the water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. Turn the heat back to medium and stir in the flour; be sure to stir rapidly. The liquids and flour will turn into a dough rather quickly; keep stirring over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and run cold water over the base of the pan to cool the pan off (don’t get the dough wet). Add one egg at a time, stirring each one into the dough quickly. As you add each egg you’ll probably notice that the dough doesn’t want to accept the egg easily; keep stirring and the egg will work its way into the dough – then add the next egg.

Scoop the paste into a zip-top bag with one corner snipped off. Pipe out 4 – 5 inch logs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 10 minutes, then turn the heat back to 350 and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Take the puffs out and let them cool. While they cool, you can whip up the filling. Pour the whipping cream into a chilled bowl. With a whisk or mixer, whip the cream until the cream begins to thicken and lose some of it’s shininess. Then gradually add in the sugar while you continue to beat the cream. Stop beating when you can pull the whisk or beaters straight up out of the cream and the cream forms a small mountain with a bent tip.

Pinch off the tip of the eclairs and pipe in the whipped cream using the same pastry bag technique as before. Depending on who evenly you piped out the dough, the hollows in your eclairs may not go all the way through. This problem can easily be solved by wiggling your finger into the hollow through one or both ends. Eat the eclairs right away, or chill in the refrigerator until it’s time to serve them.

**While this recipe is for chocolate eclairs, feel free to use this as a base recipe for other flavors of gluten free eclairs

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• Gluten Free Desserts

A sweet potato pie beats a pumpkin pie any day! My grandmother used to make me sweet potato pie tartlets every time I got A’s on my report card. It was a strong incentive!

Because we no longer live near Whole Foods (much harder on me than I thought it would be) and their wonderful frozen GF pie crusts, I’ve tweaked the recipe to use GF Bisquick so that it will make it’s own little pie crust. It’s not really the same as a pie crust….but it’s better than nothing. And, this recipe works especially well for Thanksgiving dessert, because I’d really rather not fool around with making GF pie crusts right before Thanksgiving.

If you do have pie crust on hand, just leave out the Bisquick and pour the pie filling into a pre-baked pie crust. Oh and really do try this without adding any spices to the recipe. I promise, it’s delicious just as it is =)

Impossibly Easy Sweet Potato Pie

2 c. cooked sweet potato
½ c. Gluten Free Bisquick® mix
1 c. sugar
1 c. milk (non-dairy is fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a mixer or food processor to “mash” the sweet potatoes until a smooth consistency is obtained. Mix the remaining ingredients into the sweet potato and pour the pie filling into a greased 9” pie plate. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool the pie on the counter for 30 minutes, and then cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Would your Thanksgiving be less overwhelming if you knew the gluten free recipes that you’re planning would turn out wonderfully? Would it help to have a shopping list and cooking timeline to follow? Would you like to have someone to go to when you have questions? If so, then my Gluten Free Thanksgiving Made Easy Kit may be just what you need.

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• Mixed Green Salad with Apples & Pecans, Buttermilk Honey Dressing

The Gluten Free Ratio Rally challenge for May was Pate a Choux. (I’m just a tad bit late posting this!) Pate a Choux is the dough/batter that is used to make eclairs, cream puffs, profiteroles, gougeres, churros, and beignets.  The Sensitive Epicure blog hosted the roundup so check it out to see more of the possibilities of  gluten free pate a choux.

Saturday morning I woke up at 3 AM, full of energy and too restless to try to go back to sleep. I realized that it was the perfect time to bake.  The quiet of the wee morning hours was just what I needed to try out a new recipe. Experiments don’t go so well when you’re distracted by a multitude of interruptions…and those are bound to happen when my sweet little ones are awake.

Gluten Free Chocolate Eclairs for breakfast. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I followed the ratio as given in Ruhlmans’ Ratio
and used my all-purpose gluten free flour mix without any xanthan gum. As you can see, it worked perfectly. The filling is homemade chocolate whipped cream. Absolutely delicious!

Random Posts:

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to experiment with gluten free ratios and start weighing out my recipes.  To hold myself accountable (because we all see how well I’ve done with posting my bread experiments) I decided to join the Gluten Free Ratio Rally that Shauna Ahern of Gluten Free Girl started last month.  The Rally experiment for this month was quickbread. The challenge was to make a gluten free quickbread using the ratio specified in Michael Ruhlman’s book, Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

Silvana of Silvana’s Kitchen and author of Cooking for Isaiah is hosting the Gluten Free Ratio Rally Roundup, so go by her site to see the full list (and links) of everyone who participated.

Recipe Creation

The ratio for quickbread is 2 parts flour, 2 parts liquid, 1 part egg, and 1 part butter.  Since I was late getting signed up for this month’s challenge I didn’t have the benefit of reading about the other bloggers’ experiments and using the community spreadsheet to work on my recipe calculations.  I just started with the formula, said a prayer**, and then started working out the recipe amounts. Here’s a step-by-step analysis of how I came up with the final recipe.

First I considered the flour.  This is where normal baking ratios get tricky for those of us who are doing gluten free baking.  For the ratio (and the recipe) to work then your flour mix needs to act like the wheat flour does.  And how the wheat flour acts differs depending on the type of recipe. For example, if you’re making bread then you want the gluten in the wheat flour to develop and create the structure for the loaf of bread. However, if you’re making quickbread or muffins, then you do not want the gluten to activate because that will make the bread/muffin tough.

The flour mix that I usually use has not fared well in my sandwich bread ratio experiments thus far. It seems to be much more absorbent than wheat flour in bread recipes, requiring far more liquids than is called for in the bread ratio. However, I’ve also used that flour recipes to successfully convert other baked goods recipes on a 1:1 basis. I only had one shot at getting this recipe right due to the Rally deadline, so rather than play with new flours I decided to use Mary’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix without any added xanthan gum.  I did substitute coconut flour for the masa harina because I like to use coconut flour in sweet baked goods.  Coconut flour and masa harina are both very absorbent, so doing a 1:1 substitution is fine.

With that decided I looked through my pantry, freezer, and refrigerator for some inspiration for the flavor of the quickbread.  Two bags of whole cranberries have been hanging out in my freezer since November.  Everytime I see them I think, “I should use those for something.” and then I close the door and go about whatever I was doing and the cranberries continue to sit. Enough with that.  The time had come to make a cranberry flavored quick bread.

Most baked recipes use dried cranberries, rather than whole uncooked cranberries. I knew the flavor would be tart, but I was okay with that since I planned on topping the bread with a cream cheese icing. I also knew that cranberries contain pectin (pectin is what makes jam (n.) jam (v.), and that the pectin would keep the bread from being crumbly. The pectin was my insurance policy against a crumbly mess, since I had planned on not using any gums, or ground flax seeds for this recipe.

Deciding on Amounts

Finally I needed to decide how much of each ingredient should be in the recipe.  I looked at a few quickbread recipes online and they all had around 2 c. of flour. I know that my flour mix weighs 4.5 oz. when I measure it out, so I started with 9.0 oz of flour.  (Since my flour mix is a 9 part ratio, this also meant that I could pour the flours directly into the bowl, measuring them by weight, and not have to make up a batch of flour mix).

The quickbread ratio is 2 parts flour, 2 parts liquid, 1 part egg, and 1 part butter. Since I had chosen 9 oz of flour, I also needed 9 oz. of liquids, 4.5 oz of egg and 4.5 oz of butter.  For the liquids I went with the juice of one orange, which ended up being 3 oz and 6 oz. of water.

Large eggs are supposed to weigh 2 oz. (and so one would usually start figuring out amounts by deciding how many whole eggs you want in your recipe), but all of the eggs that I have weighed have been less than that. I cracked 3 eggs into a bowl set on my digital scale and them removed one yolk and some whites until the weight was down to 4.5 oz.  I ended up using the leftover egg for another recipe later that day.

A stick of butter weighs about 4.0 oz, so I used one stick of butter and 0.5 oz. of canola oil.

Now that I had decided on the main components of the recipe, I filled in the amounts of salt and baking powder from the standard recipe in Ruhlman’s book.  I added a bit of vanilla and orange extract and baking soda because it seemed like the right thing to do.  The amount of sugar for the recipe is not addressed by the ratio as you are supposed to alter it based on how sweet  you want the bread to be and the tartness of your other ingredients. I knew that I’d need a good bit of sugar to balance the tartness of the cranberries, but I wasn’t sure how much. I checked the back of the bag of cranberries and used the amount (1 c.) recommended for cranberry relish. With that my recipe was complete, and it was time to bake it and see what happened.

As you can see from the pictures, the bread turned out really well. It was tart as expected, but I thought that was a perfect excuse to pile on more icing.  The natural pectin in the cranberries did a great job of holding the bread together – very moist and dense which is how I like quickbread.  John, who is not a huge fan of cranberries, ate a whole slice without stopping to even put it on a plate.

Recipes are rarely done after one attempt, and this recipe is not “finished”.  Next time I’ll reduce the amount of cranberries and increase the sugar. The bread itself did not taste sweet and I think that there should be at least a hint of sweetness. I’ll also increase the amount of orange extract in the bread and icing, and top the icing with a few sprinkles of orange zest.  This is going to make a very nice holiday bread after a few more tweaks.

**For many years I questioned the usefulness of prayer. I never doubted that my prayers were heard, but I never felt like I received any answers. The problem turned out to be that I wasn’t listening and looking for answers. Over the past few years I’ve realized that God often answers my prayers by giving me an idea that I wouldn’t have otherwise had.

For example, before I started this bread I asked God to help me write a good recipe because I knew that I’d only have time to bake one loaf this weekend.  Then at key points while I was writing the recipe I mentally stopped to listen.  When I was feeling uneasy about the flour mix, I remembered the cranberries and how they release pectin when you boil them.  When I felt uneasy about whether the amount of liquids needed to be adjusted after I boiled the cranberries, I remembered that I could just weigh the liquid and make sure that it was the right amount.  These may seem like obvious steps to take, but I promise you that before I stopped to mentally listen for a thought from God I was completely frustrated and unsure.  Then He gave me an insight and I was able to go on confidently.

God answers my prayers like this all the time. Sometimes the answer is a thought. Sometimes it’s a Bible verse that I am able to understand in a new say. And the more that we live by faith and depend on God (not our own efforts) for our daily bread, the more we’re able to see him answering prayer through physical means.**

Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Quickbread

3 oz. brown rice flour
3 oz. corn starch
2 oz. sorghum flour
1 oz. coconut flour

1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4.0 oz. unsalted butter

3 oz. orange juice
6 oz. water
7.5 oz. sugar
12.0 oz. whole cranberries

4.5 oz. egg
0.5 oz. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. orange extract

Instructions:

Step One: Measure the water, orange juice, sugar and cranberries into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved and then reduce heat to bring the mixture down to a simmer. Simmer until the berries began to pop – 10 to 12 minutes. Set the berry mixture aside to start cooling.

Step Two: Measure the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix thoroughly with a fork. Cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter lumps are the size of peas.

Step Three: Measure out 4.5 oz of egg.  A large egg is supposed to weight about 2 oz.  I used 3 eggs and then removed a yolk and some whites to bring the weight down to 4.5 oz. Whisk the eggs until no whites are obvious. Add the oil (approximately 1 Tbsp) and extracts and mix again.

Step Four: Pour the cranberry mixture (still pretty warm) into the flour mixture.  While whisking the eggs add a small amount (2 – 3 Tbsp) of the batter to the eggs to temper them.  Repeat this twice and then add the eggs into the batter. Stir thoroughly.

Step Five:  Grease a loaf pan. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake the bread at 350 degrees F for 50  minutes. The bread should have slightly browned around the edges and the loaf top will be spring back when touched.

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Cookie baking seems like it should be simple. You just have to take the cookie dough out of the freezer and plop it on a baking sheet, right?

Baking cookies from scratch is not quite so simple. Here are some cookie baking tips from the cookie research that I did this morning before my  sugar cookie baking bonanza.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies

Cookie Baking Tips

1. When making rolled cookies be careful not to overflour or overwork the dough. Roll the dough out between wax or parchment paper to prevent sticking.

2. Cool cookie sheets completely between batches to prevent the pan from warming the dough to much.   A warm cookie sheet can cause the cookies to flatten and spread. Use several cookie sheets so that you can rotate through them as you bake batches of cookies.

3. Do not bake partial sheets of cookies. If you only have  a little bit of cookie dough left for the last batch, bake them on an inverted metal pie pan or a smaller cookie sheet.  Baking partial sheets or not using the correct spacing of the cookie dough can affect spreading, browning, crisping, and baking time.

4. Don’t substitute white sugar for brown sugar in cookie recipes that call for baking soda. Baking soda will not activate unless there is an acidic ingredient in the dough, and for many cookies the acidic ingredient is baking soda.

5. Don’t substitute tub margarine or “spread” for the butter in a recipe. The products contain much more water than butter which could greatly affect the appearance of the cookies. If you’re looking for a healthier or less expensive butter substitute, stick with margarine sticks.

If you have more questions about cookie baking or anything else related to the holidays, please join us for an online chat Saturday, December 18th from 8 – 10 PM CST.  Go here for more details.

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Making a gluten free pie crust has never been high on my priority list. My grandmother, who made almost everything from scratch, always used store bought pie crusts. And honestly, if she didn’t make it from scratch, then chances are that I won’t either. It doesn’t help that the Whole Foods five miles from our house carries lovely gluten free pie crusts in the freezer section.

I am, however, intrigued by the concept of the Bisquick Impossibly Easy Pies. These are sweet and savory “pie” recipes that General Mills published back in the early 80′s. Bisquick mix is added to the pie filling, and when the pie bakes the Bisquick forms a crust in the bottom of the pan. Easy enough!

I’ve been wanting to try some of these recipes because it seems like an easy way to cook a quick supper. However, until General Mills releases their new gluten free Bisquick this summer, and possibly even after that, I need a Bisquick type mix to use in the recipes.

Bisquick is simply the dry ingredients for biscuits, plus partially-hydrogenated oil. In order to make a gluten free version all you have to do is mix up the dry ingredients for your biscuit recipe (flour, salt, and baking soda/baking powder), cut in the butter or shortening, and then store in the freezer. Depending on your dietary needs, the fat component can be butter, vegan butter, shortening, or coconut oil.

The only real question that I have about making the homemade mix is whether or not to add xanthan gum. My gluten free  biscuits recipe does include xanthan gum to prevent crumbling, but I’m not sure that it’s needed for these pie recipes.  Xanthan gum reacts to liquids, unlike gluten which is only activated after it has been disturbed by stirring or kneading, so adding xanthan gum to the mix might result in a finished pie that is not the right consistency. Howver, I can’t imagine that the gluten free Bisquick recipe won’t have xanthan gum in it. I think the only option is to try some of these recipes both ways.

Here is the recipe for the biscuit mix if you’d like to join me in this experiment. Many of the Impossibly Easy Pies call for 1/2 cup of Bisquick, so I’ve included the measurements for 1/2 cup and for a larger batch.

Here is a short list of some of the Impossibly Easy Pie recipes – there are many more official recipes on the Betty Crocker website, but you can also find others by googling “impossible pie recipes”. Post your results in the comments; if you’d like to send a picture then email it to maryfrances [at] glutenfreecookingschool [dot] com. Happy Baking everybody!

Pumpkin Pie                              Chicken & Broccoli Pie
Easy Taco Pie                           Ham & Swiss Pie
Bacon Pie                                   Coconut Pie
Cheesecake Pie                        French Apple Pie
Coconut Chocolate Pie         Spinach – Parmesan Pie

Gluten Free Quick Biscuit Mix
(makes 4 and 2/3 cups)
1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
2 c. corn starch
1/2 c. soy flour or sorghum flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. xanthan gum (optional)
1 stick of butter

(makes 1/2 cup)
2 Tbsp. + 1 3/4 tsp. brown rice flour
3 Tbsp. + 1 1/4 tsp. corn starch
2 1/2 tsp. soy flour or sorghum flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. xanthan gum (optional)
2 1/2 tsp. butter

Instructions: Mix dry ingredients together and then cut the butter into the flour using a pastry blender, or by pinching the butter into small chunks and then whirring everything together in your food processor. Store in the freezer for up to six months.

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Long-time readers will know that I don’t bake sweets that often (because I have no will power). Given that I have recently polished off Double Chocolate Brownies, a Hershey Pie, and a batch of chocolate chip cookies (the new Betty Crocker mix to be released this summer), you probably won’t be getting any more sweet recipes from me for a while. Luckily for you, Jeanne Basye , the Gluten Free Cookie Lady, agreed to write a guest post featuring one of the cookies from her cookbook, “Gluten Free Cookies“. Please welcome Jean in the comments and check out her cookbook.
~Mary Frances

Hello from Arizona!

My name is Jeanne Basye, happily called The Gluten Free Cookie Lady. It’s 100 degrees outside today and my grandkids and I are in the kitchen baking gluten free cookies. Care to join us? We are making one of their favorite cookies, Peanut Butter Lollipops. They like these cookies because they are big, their favorite candy bar is hidden inside and they are fun to eat because the cookie is on a stick! Hey, I love them too and my favorite candy bar is Baby Ruth.

If you are like me, making cookies with my grandkids (ages 2 ½ -11 years) are fun and so rewarding. Teaching them how to crack eggs, measure ingredients, mix properly, and make uniform-size dough balls are baking lessons for a lifetime. Fun in the kitchen is our goal as are the kitchen cleanup chores! However, the best lesson cookie baking offers in our home is how to share with others. We make cookies, decorate boxes to hold them and give them away.

As we deliver our cookie boxes, there is always a smile and big thank you on the receiving end. Baking cookies is a lifetime skill that can make so many people happy. Plus we educate people about celiac disease through our cookies. How fun is that!

Are you ready to bake? As I tell the grandkids… first wash your hands. Be sure to read the recipe and set out all the ingredients. Select your favorite snack-size candy bar. Almond Joys, Snickers, Mars, 3 Musketeers, Oh Henry, Payday and Baby Ruths are ready to be prepared in our kitchen.

We are recycling the wooden sticks from the popsicle/ice cream bars we ate yesterday and using them for these cookies. You can also purchase Kraft Caramels and use the wooden sticks in the package. If you don’t have sticks, just wrap the snack-size candy bar (about a 2-inch length) around the dough and bake as directed.

As the anticipation builds in our kitchen waiting for the cookies to bake and cool, each one selects their favorite color ribbon to tie on the cookie sticks. Decorating small plastic bags to wrap the big lollipops is next.

Finally the cookies are ready to taste. We pour a big glass of milk and take a big bite! “Outstanding, says my 5 year old grandson, I love these cookies!”

We hope you enjoy Peanut Butter Lollipops as much as we do. Let us know if you like them too.

Peanut Butter Lollipops
(Makes 9-10 (4-inch) cookies on a stick)

1 ¼ cups of favorite GF flour blend
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
½ cup creamy peanut butter (I like Jif)

10 (.65-oz.) snack-size GF candy bars (each bar measures 2-inches)
10 (4 ½ x ¼-inch) wooden ice cream sticks

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Gently insert wooden stick ¾ of the way into each candy bar. Place inside freezer until ready to use. (Freezing the candy bar/stick minimizes candy oozing out of the cookie as it bakes.)

3. Sift flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder and salt in bowl; stir. Set aside.

4.  Beat  butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl on medium speed until creamy, about 4 minutes. Scrape bowl as needed.   Beat in egg and peanut butter.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.

5. Wrap ¼-1/3 cup dough around each prepared candy bar. Be sure dough covers candy bar completely. Reshape uneven edges of dough with hands for a more uniform appearance. Place 4-inches apart on prepared sheets. Cookies spread! Keep dough refrigerated until ready to bake. (I bake one cookie sheet at a time on the middle rack.)

6. Bake 14 to 16 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 10 minutes on cookie sheet then carefully transfer to wire rack to cool completely. (Use a wide spatula to remove cookies from sheet.)

7. Store in airtight container up to 2 days or freeze up to 2 months.

Permission granted by: Jeanne Basye, The Gluten Free Cookie Lady

Basye, Jeanne. Gluten Free Cookies. Phoenix, AZ: What No Wheat Enterprises, 2008, page 116. www.glutenfreecookielady.com

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Double Chocolate Brownies

So, I discovered last week why you should always make brownies from a packaged mix. (Sounds like the start of a joke doesn’t it. I wish!) It allows you to remain in the delusion that brownies do not have just as much sugar as flour! And a whole entire cup of oil!

I had lost almost all of my baby weight before I made these brownies and the Hershey Pie that I posted last week. But after eating 95% of the pie, and at least half of the brownies, I gained 5 lbs. back. That’s what happens when  you reward yourself with dessert every time you have to get up with the baby! I’ve been eating salads like crazy this week trying to get over my sweet tooth.

It finally was beginning to work when a coworker was able to get me samples of the new Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil’s Food Cake and Chocolate Chip cookies mixes (in stores this summer).I’m sure that I’ll break down and bake the cake and cookies this weekend, so I’ll write a review of both of those next week. In the meantime, these brownies should keep you high on sugar =)

I started working on this recipe after a friend raved about her grandmother’s brownies. Unfortunately, her grandmother makes the brownies without the aid of a recipe or measuring tools, so the written recipe that they did have doesn’t taste exactly like the real thing.  Knowing this, I felt free to adjust the recipe a bit once I’d made it a few times. I’ve replaced some of the oil with water, added chocolate chips (because you always need more chocolate) and made the recipe gluten free. I think you’ll really enjoy these brownies, especially if you like your brownies to have a really deep chocolaty taste. But beware feeding them to your children – my sweet boy is now addicted to brownies (or “yannis” as he pronounces it) which makes it very difficult to go down the baking aisle of the grocery store now!

Double Chocolate Brownies

2 c.  gluten free all purpose flour mix
2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. xanthan gum
6 Tbsp. cocoa
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cooking Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Beat the eggs thorougly and then add the eggs and other liquid ingredients to your dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
4. Pour the batter into a greased 13 x 9 baking dish. You can also use a couple of smaller baking tins if you wish. Cook for approximately 55 minutes, or until the brownies do not wiggle in the middle and a toothpick or fork inserted in the middle comes out clean.

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• Gluten Free Desserts
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There have been way too many gluten free desserts in our house lately! For some reason I developed quite a sweet tooth while I was pregnant with Grant, and I can’t seem to get rid of it! It doesn’t help that some fabulous person at Erewhon sent me 6 boxes of cereals to use in my cooking experiments.

I’ve been wanting to make a gluten free Hershey pie for ages, but haven’t been sure how to replace the graham cracker crust from the original recipe. For those of you who are not familiar with Hershey pie, it’s basically a melted Hershey bar mixed with whipped cream and frozen. This is the pie that my Grandmother Somerville often made for me after a good report card.

I decided to use Erewhon’s Rice Twice cereal as the foundation for my crust. David and I poured the cereal into a large zip-top bag and crushed it with a rolling pin. We then added in melted butter, pressed the mixtue into a pie plate (the part of it that David didn’t eat straight from the bowl) and popped it into the freezer while we made the rest of the pie.

The crust did not end up being anything like a graham cracker crust, but it held togethereally, really well. No crumbles at all! And by the time I finished eating the entire pie (John wouldn’t help and I wasn’t about to let David eat much of it – he has enough energy without artificial help) I had grown accustomed to the taste and was enjoying the crust of the pie just as much as the filling.

P.S. As far as gluten free desserts go – this is an EASY recipe. It would be a great option for when you’re having company.

P.P.S. I’m also submitting this recipe to the Family Recipes: Memories of Family, Food and Fun blog event hosted by Shelby of Grumpy’s HoneyBunch and Laura of The Spiced Life. If you love good family recipes, be sure to check Shelby’s blog after May 23rd for the roundup post.

Rice Twice Gluten Free Pie Crust
(makes one 8 inch pie crust)

3 c. Erewhon Rice Twice cereal
1/2 c. butter (1 stick), melted

1. Pour the cereal into a zip-top bag and crush the cereal with a rolling pin or the bottom of a heavy glass jar. (scroll down for a picture of the crushed cereal).
2. Add melted butter to the crushed cereal and mix thoroughly.
3. Spread the cereal mixture as evenly as possible across the bottom of a pie pan. Then use a fork to press the cereal mixture down and out, so that it gradually moves up the sides of the pie pan.
4. Freeze the pie for at least 15 minutes before adding the pie filling.

Hershey Pie Filling
(makes one 8 inch pie)

8 oz. Hershey milk chocolate candy bar
3 Tbsp. milk (cow, soy, rice, etc)
8 oz. whipped cream (e.g. Cool Whip)
1 8-inch pie shell

1. Break the Hershey bar(s) into small pieces and place them, along with the milk, in a small glass bowl. Microwave the chocolate to melt it.  Melting chocolate in the microwave is a delicate business so do short spurts of time (10 seconds or so) at 50% power and stir after every 10 seconds.
2.  Let the chocolate cool a bit, and then fold the the whipped cream into the chocolate.
3. Spread the pie filling into your crust and chill the pie in the freezer for at least 3 hours before serving.

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What do you get when you cross Rice Krispies Treats with Rice Chex? A gluten free snack that is even better than the original!

I made Rice Chex Treats when we were visiting my parents over Labor Day. My dad wanted to make Rice Krispies Treats for David . . . and then remembered that Rice Krispies are not gluten free. Luckly the small town grocery store stocked the new Gluten Free Rice Chex cereal and we decided to try that as a substitute.

Were we ever surprised!  Not only did the Rice Chex Treats tast just like Rice Krispies Treats, they were easier to eat.  Do you remember how Rice Krispies Treats can get hard after they sit a while? So that you almost break your teach trying to bite throught them? The shape of the Rice Chex cereal makes it impossible to packthem into  a tight layer so the treats never  get as hard as Rice Krispies Treats. Even after they sit on the counter all day, you can cut a square and bite into without any difficulty.

P.S. I made this photo sometime around midnight last night while in the midst of a most trying tax calculation. The photo didn’t turn out well….and John said that I should be embarrassed to post it. So we’ll be making another batch this weekend and try to make these Treats look as yummy as they really are.

Rice Chex Krispies

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 package (10 oz.) miniature marshmallows*
6 cups Rice Chex

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium low heat.
2. Add the marshmallows and stir frequently until they have melted.
3. Add the Rice Chex and stir until all of the Chex are throughly coated.
4. Spread the Rice Chex mixture into a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish and set aside to cool.
5. To serve, cut into squares or just let everybody grab a handful.

*make sure the marshmallows are gluten free

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