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10 Ways to Accidentally Gluten Yourself at Thanksgiving

Mary Frances — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:51:43 +0000

Thanksgiving is full of gluten-filled landmines. If this is your first Thanksgiving on a gluten free diet, you might not realize the challenge that awaits you. Read this list and make sure you’re ready to stay gluten free this Thanksgiving.

Even if you’re not new to the gluten free diet, a refresher of the potential pitfalls is valuable. How do you think I came up with this list anyway?

10. Eat a turkey that’s been shot up with gluten filled flavorings. Make sure that your turkey is gluten free.

9. Eat cornbread dressing that was made with non-GF cornmeal. Go the extra step and buy certified GF cornmeal to make sure that you’re not getting cornmeal that was processed in a facility that also processes wheat.

8. Attempt to scrape the pie filling out of the pie without catching any crumbs. I’ve tried it – many times. I dare say that it’s not possible.

7. Eating vegetable dishes without asking about the ingredients. Creamed corn is a great example – sometimes it’s made with cornstarch, but it’s often thickened with wheat flour.

6. Let someone use the same spoon to serve the GF and non-GF stuffings. Big no-no. Even little bits of gluten cause damage.

5. Eat a creamy casserole that you didn’t make yourself. Chances are overwhelming that a can of Campbell’s soup was included.

4. Not having a back-up plan for overwhelming temptation, e.g., a can of chocolate icing in your purse.

3. Pouring gravy over your stuffing without checking ingredients. You know gravy is often thickened with wheat flour, right? And that not all cornstarch is GF?

2. Nosh on the veggie dip appetizers that your aunt set out for the early arrivers. Salad dressings and spinach dips seem so innocuous, but read the label before dipping.

1. Getting overwhelmed before you even get to Turkey Day and deciding that you’ll just cheat so that you can enjoy the day. I know some of you are thinking that, so STOP IT! Get busy and figure out what you can cook so that your Thanksgiving meal will be enjoyable.

Gluten Free Desserts

John — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:47:19 +0000

Probably the first two food items that people think about when they begin to realize the implications of eating a gluten free diet is bread and desserts. Either one by itself would be bad enough, but the both of them together is quite a cruel blow.

However, I’m happy to say that gluten free bread and gluten free desserts are both available and easy to cook. If you’ve had to deny your sweet tooth since going gluten free, never fear. In this post we’re going to look at some of our favorite gluten free dessert recipes, and you’ll soon be able to start cooking your favorite sweets again.

One of our favorite desserts is gluten free cookies, and we have recipes for several kinds of cookies on our site. We’ve got gluten free chocolate chip cookies, gluten free sugar cookies, and even a recipe for forgotten cookies (which happen to be naturally gluten free). The sugar cookie recipe uses our gluten free flour mix, and the chocolate chip recipe uses peanut butter and eggs. (The peanut butter provides a great texture, and the eggs hold everything together nicely.)

Cookies are great for dessert a lot of the time, but when a birthday rolls around you’ve got to have some cake. We cooked a nice gluten free cake for my birthday a couple of years ago, and it was quite yummy (if I do say so myself). I took the leftovers to work a couple of days later, and my co-workers ate it up pretty quickly. No one ever thought that it might be gluten free.

Gluten free pie is another great dessert that you want to be able to cook, especially around the holidays. Although I usually love to cook all of my own gluten free foods, I have to confess that I do not cook my own pie crust. I’ve experimented with a couple of different crusts, but Whole Foods has a gluten free pie crust that is simply fantastic. I just grab a couple of them when I’m going to bake a pie, and then all I need to worry about is the filling.

One of the experiments that I did involved using Bisquick to make a pie crust. I wrote about it in my gluten free pie crust post. If you don’t have a Whole Foods or something similar nearby, check out that post for some ideas on making your own pie crust.

Lastly, I’ve been hearing a lot about flourless chocolate cakes lately. The “flourless” is indeed true – these cakes use eggs and cocoa, no flour at all, so they are naturally gluten free. I haven’t found a recipe that I’m crazy about yet, but feel free to give it a shot on your own. You may find a new favorite!

Double Chocolate Brownies

Mary Frances — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:57:04 +0000

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.

Hershey Pie with a Rice Cereal Crust

Mary Frances — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:22:01 +0000

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.

Gluten Free Cooking School » gluten free desserts

10 Ways to Accidentally Gluten Yourself at Thanksgiving

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