Thursday, March 29, 2012

Gluten Free Beignets


Shawn used to live in New Orleans and really wanted me to make him one of his favorite treats from that area.  I tried several different recipes to get Shawn's approval, but he was pretty finicky.

I did stray from tradition and make them round instead of square.  I also used peanut oil instead of the recommended cottonseed oil.

Shawn finally approved the recipe as He devoured them one after the other, almost as quick as I could make them.

These are best while still warm and with a strong cafe au lait.

Ingredients


  • 1 and 1/4 cup sweet white sorghum flour
  • 3/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 3/4 cup certified gluten free oat flour
  • 1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 1 envelope of active dry yeast
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup warm water
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup Crisco Butter Flavored Shortening
  • 1/4 cup hemp milk
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted sweet cream butter (melted)


Step 1:
Whisk the flours, starches, salt, and xanthan gum together in a separate bowl thoroughly.

Step 2:
Cut the Crisco shortening into the flour using a pastry knife until only tiny lumps remain.

Step 3:
Melt the butter in the microwave.

Step 4:
Add the sugar to the 1/3 cup of warm water.  Add the envelop of yeast and set this in a warm spot to proof the yeast.

Step 5:
Mix the room temperature hemp milk with the room temperature egg and the 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

Step 6:
In your stand mixer bowl using dough hooks mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.

Step 7:
Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out with a biscuit stamper.  Save the scraps to make small fritters, they are delicious too.  I used some of the scraps to test the oils temperature then the rest to make fritters.

Step 8:
Set the dough cut outs in a warm place to rise for about 1/2 hour.

Step 9:
Deep fry the beignets in peanut oil.  Too hot, and the dough will turn dark brown too fast and not cook the inside.  Too cool, and the dough sits on the bottom of the oil.  The beignets should float to the top of the oil almost immediately and cook quite fast.  Turn them over frequently and remove when golden brown and puffed.

Step 10:
Cool the beignets slightly on paper towels to drain some oil.

Step 11:
While still warm and slightly damp with oil, sprinkle with powdered sugar.


Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Convenient Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies


These turned out great!

Every time I make cookies I'm reminded of how easy it used to be to simply buy a log of cookie dough and slice off a batch whenever you wanted.

The convenience is what I miss most, so that is what I made today,  convenient gluten free chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients


  • 1 cup sweet white sorghum flour
  • 1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
  • 1/2 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/4 cup almond meal
  • 1 tablespoon golden flax seed meal
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup unsalted sweet cream butter (softened)
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1 package of your favorite chocolate chips


Step 1:
Whisk thoroughly together the flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and the flaxseed meal, in a separate bowl and set this aside.

Step 2:
In your stand mixer bowl cream the butter and the sugars together with the eggs and the vanilla.

Step3:
Slowly mix in the flour and then the chocolate chips.

Step 4:
Divide the batter into two equal portions and spoon into two large freezer ZipLoc baggies.  Squish into a log at the bottom of the baggies and remove the air while sealing the bags.  Freeze the bags.  When ready to make cookies, pull one of the logs out of the freezer bag and slice off the desired amount of cookies.  then replace in the freezer until you want it again.

Step 5:
Bake on an ungreased non-stick cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 12 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for about 3 minutes then finish cooling on a wire rack.

These hold up great, have an awesome texture and taste.  Shawn approved.  =]

Enjoy!

Friday, March 23, 2012

The Gluten Free Spouse FAV 4 Sweepstakes


We are honored to have partnered with Bob's Red Mill for this sweepstakes give away.

I wanted to host another give-away since our last one went so well.  Congratulations again to Linda A.!

This time I chose to give away some of my favorite flours.  I almost exclusively use Bob's Red Mill products in my recipes, in my opinion Bob's Red Mill is the gold standard for gluten-free milling.  While I like and use tons of Bob's Red Mill products, I have developed a few favorites over the years and thought you readers might like to try some flours that you might not buy or use very often.

I approached Bob's Red mill with the idea and they were all too happy to help out with the prizes.

We came up with The Gluten Free Spouse Fav 4 Flour Pack.  Which includes my 4 favorite flours that I use most often in my recipes.

The Prizes:

Grand Prize

There will be 2 grand prize winners chosen and each will receive a Fav 4 Flour Pack containing the following flours.

1 bag of Bob's Red Mill Potato Starch
1 bag of Bob's Red Mill Sweet White Sorghum Flour
1 bag of Bob's Red Mill Tapioca Flour
1 bag of Bob's Red Mill Sweet Rice Flour


Runner Up


There will be 1 "runner up" chosen and they will receive an autographed copy of my first cookbook.

"The Gluten Free Spouse presents A Bread Making Tutorial".


That's a total of 3 prizes.

Contest begins 3/23/2012 and ends 03/31/2012.
  • Void where prohibited.
  • CONTEST OPEN TO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS ONLY.
  • Prizes will be shipped as soon as notified winners respond with a shipping address.
  • Rafflecopter will be the sole entry method for this sweepstakes.
  • Random.org will select the winning entries through Rafflecopter and all decisions are final.
  • Enter daily for a better chance to win.