Scones - arguably the best on earth! (even for "normal" eaters)

Seriously delicious, though time intensive, these scones will surprise you with how moist and NON "gluten free" they taste! (Not sure that sentence made much sense.) I changed the recipe slightly from it's source, mostly because I didn't read the directions closely enough, but the result was wonderfully delightful! Here you are:
Sift together:
1/2 C white rice flour
1/2 C sorghum flour
1/2 C tapioca flour
1/2 C cornstarch
1/2 C almond or coconut flour
1/4 C sugar
3 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 + 1/8 tsp xanthum gum
3/4 tsp baking soda

Cut in:
1/2 C cold butter (cut into small pieces)
Add in:
3/4 C milk
1/2 C plain yogurt or sour cream
Mix wet ingredients in until well blended. Kneed the dough 5 or 6 times until it starts holding together. The dough will be pretty gooey and sticky, so you'll need a considerable layer of flour on your hands to prevent sticking (I used tapioca starch) Divide the dough ball in to two halves. Flatten each half in to 1/2 inch thick circles (rolling pin not necessary) and cut in to 6 wedges (with floured knife) Place them a couple inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 425 degrees
10-14 minutes or until lightly browned

The first variation of this recipe I made was cinnamon chip scones. It was a perfect match with a cup of hot Joe for breakfast! Here's the add-ins:
1/3 C cinnamon chips added in with sifted dry ingredients (recipe to follow)
cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of scones before baking

Cinnamon chips: (I'm sure you can buy them, but I like making weird things like this and I was much too lazy to go hunting down something this obscure)
3 Tbls sugar
1 Tbls cinnamon
2 tsp shortening
2 tsp corn syrup
Mix all with a fork until well blended and crumbly - pat it out thin on to a foil lined (grease the foil) cookie sheet and bake until melted and bubbly - cool completely and break into tiny pieces.
250 degrees
30-40 min (mine took a little longer - I actually put them back in a couple times after cooling completely and not being able to break them - they were just too bendy - they crisp up nicely after a while, though)
It's the easy!

NAAN!

I've was certain, after going completely gluten free 18 months ago, that I would never again enjoy one of my very favorite baked goods...Naan!  With a bowl of basmati rice and a good spicy Indian chicken curry.....ooooh!  It definitely tops the list of most delicious ways to put away a lot of carbs at once!  I have a recipe that I've tried a handful of times and have always been discouraged with how long it took to make the Naan after mixing the dough. The dough ends up more of a soup than a "normal" dough, as does most gf dough.  In fact this last time that I made it I ended up adding another 3/4 cup of flour because I was so fet up with the soupy-ness.  It actually didn't effect the outcome of the finished product, at all!  It DID make it slightly easier to work with.
Well over a year ago my husband gave me a grain grinder that goes on our little bosch mixer.  I tried grinding a few different grains only to find that it was WORTHLESS in grinding anything into an acceptable flour.  So I retured it to the website for store credit and ended up getting a tortilla press for making gf flour tortillas.  It's been sitting in our pantry ever since, untouched.  I was just putting the first batch of Naan on the pizza stone to put in the oven when I remembered it.  I figured it would be too good to be true for it work to make naan but I'd give it a try anyway.  So out it came and it.was.perfect.in.every.way!  If you do NOT have a tortilla press, this recipe is still very do able, just much more a pain in the back 40!  I'll give baking instructions for each way after I list the recipe...

Naan!  Delicious, amazing, Naaaaaaan!

combine and let foam:
150ml   tepid milk
1tsp      sugar
2tsp      active dried yeast

SIFT in the bowl of a hefty stand mixer
275g       white rice flour (brown MIGHT work, but I haven't tried it yet.  I'd like to, since it's a whole grain)
60g         tapioca starch
1/2tsp     salt
1tsp        baking powder
1 tsp       sugar
1 tsp       xanthum gum

wisk together:
150ml     plain yogurt (not sure the fat content makes much of a difference, but I always buy whole fat)
1            beaten egg
2tsp        veggie oil


After the dried ingredients is well sifted, add your dough paddle and slowly add in the yogurt mixture and yeast/milk mixture.  Let the mixer go on medium speed for a couple minutes until everything is combined well.

Now the tricky part, since the dough it so.stinking.soupy! Here's where the two different methods part ways.
FLATBREAD IRON:
Preheat your iron and get your hands nice and coated with tapioca starch and grab a good sized ball of dough out.  It doesn't really matter of your roll it or not, it depends on how uniform you want your finished product to appear.  Slap it down on to the iron.  You may have to scrape it off your hands, it being ridiculous and sticky.  Then just proceed like you would with any tortilla dough.  Press the iron down just enough to start flattening out the dough.  Lift the top up and rotate the dough slightly - so this four times until you have it all leveled out and then just let it sit and cook.  You can flip it to see when it looks done enough and then brush that "done" side with melted butter.  Flip it back over to let the "done" side fry in the butter for a couple seconds while you brush the not done side with butter.  The done side will feel VERY crispy, but keep reading to learn that this is not permament.  Flip it back over and let the other side cook.  I didn't ever time how long I left the wads on, but it was probably just 2 or 3 minutes per side.  Voi la!
Keep it all in a tortilla warmer or wrapped in foil while you finish the rest.  It will feel REALLY crispy when you first take it off the iron, but softens right up and doesn't get soggy when kept warm and wrapped.

ROLL AND OVEN BAKE METHOD:
Ick.  If you don't have a flatbread iron, I do not envy that you have to do it this way.  This is the way I did it every other time, because it really IS worth it, but it's not easy, quick or much fun.
FIRST: preheat your oven to the highest it will go - for most this is 500degrees. Let your pizza stone heat with it.  If not using a pizza stone, let your baking sheet preheat in the fully heated oven for at least 5 minutes before pulling out to put the dough on it.
Mix the dough and let it sit while you lay out two HUGE pieces of freezer paper.  Tape one of them to the counter to create a surface to roll the dough on.  Spray the heck out of the paper and then dust with tapioca starch.  Slap the dough down on it and cover it up with the other peice of SPRAYED freezer paper.  Roll it to about 1/4 inch thickness and pull up the top paper.  Pull out a pizza cutter and cut it into the size of pieces you want.  Now comes the ridiculous part.  Since the dough is so soupy, you can't pull it up off the paper or even spatula it up, so you have to use kitchen scissors to CUT (I know!) the paper along the lines you just pizza cuttered  (definitely not a word).  Flip those and slap them down onto a PRE HEATED pizza stone or  SPRAYED baking sheet and stick into the oven.  :Let it bake on the first side for 2 minutes, pull it out, flip it and let it bake on the second size for two minutes.  Pull it out and brush both sides with butter and return to the oven to brown for several seconds.
Wrap in foil until you are ready to eat - this softens and keeps it soft and toasty hot.

And your done!

Did I mention that it freezes like a DREAM?!!  I wrap my pieces individually and put them all in a freezer ziplock.  When you get a hankerin, pull a piece out, wrap it in a paper towel and heat in the micro for 1 minute.  Check for doneness and consume!

 My mom made KILLER cinnamon rolls for us when we were growing up.  I never quite mastered the art, even with the same recipe.  Mine turned out slightly less killer than hers, but they were still KILLER!  And then I went GF.  Sometimes I think that one of my moms caramel rolls would be worth the discomfort for the few days following ingestion....but no.  It's not worth it.  That left me with ONE option - find a GF recipe that would fill the cinnamon roll shaped hole in my heart. This one is a work in progress, but it's getting MIGHTY close to the KILLER "poison" (our word for gluten infested goods) ones I used to make.  So, without further ado, here's the recipe (adapted from a recipe found on glutenfreehomemaker.com)

Cream together in stand mixer:
4 Tbls                 SOFTENED butter
1/2 C                  white sugar
ADD IN:
1 1/8 C + 2 tbls    warm milk
2                        eggs slightly beaten
1/2 C                   oil
2 tsp or more        vanilla (I LOVE vanilla, so I typically double the amount      called for)

Mix these all thoroughly before adding dry ingredients

Sift together THEN add to wet ingredients:
3/4 C Sorghum flour
3/4 C Millet flour
3/4 C potato starch  
3/4 C tapioca starch 
OR - in place of the two starches above:  1 1/2 C corn starch (from the original recipe, but I find that a mixture of potato and tapioca pull it just a little closer to that pull apart texture of "poison" cinnamon rolls)
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tsp    baking powder
4 tsp    xanthum gum
1 tsp    salt
1 TBLS  INSTANT yeast (if you don't use instant, this needs to be proofed with the milk and a little sugar)

With the dough attachment on your mixer, let these blend together at medium speed for a couple minutes - you'll know when it's ready - this actually makes a manageable dough, unlike many gf pastry recipes.

NO RISING!  HURRAY for instant gratification!

Tape a big honkin piece of parchment, wax or freezer paper to your counter and plop the dough down on it.  Rip another same size of paper to put on top of the dough to ease the rolling out process.  Roll the dough out inbetween the sheets of paper until it's... (I didn't measure and I don't ever measure when recipes say to) looking like it's ready to be sprinkled with goodness and rolled up.  You want it to be wider length wise.  A big rectangle.  
Melt and spread onto dough:  

2 or 3 TBLS    butter
Sprinkle:
as much cinnamon as you prefer - I use QUITE a bit as you can see in the pictures
Then sprinkle with coconut, nuts, raisins....whatever you prefer - or nothing.  I tried coconut on these ones and it was to.die.for!

Then, pull up the taped corners of your paper on the counter and use the paper to roll the dough.  Like such:

 See!  (sorry about the dumpy picture layout - I'm NOT a whiz with blogger!  I'm actually quite surprised I figured out how to get more than one picture on one blog post!)

Then, using cooking spray to lube up a good bread knife, cut through the middle of the roll - Cut the roll into two equal rolls, then into two equal rolls from those 3 rolls.  You will have 4 little rolls.  Cut each of those into 3 and you have 12 cinnamon rolls that bake beautifully into a pan of delicious gluten free heaven!

Mmmmm!  BUT, before you put them in the pan you need the caramel!  For this you will need:

1/2 C   butter

1 C brown sugar

Melt these and bring to boil in a pan, being sure than they do not burn!

remove from heat and add in

1/4 Corn Syrup

Pour this into a sprayed 9 x 13" pan and sprinkle with something or nothing - I used coconut here too and it.was.to.die.for! 

Then plop your cinnamon rolls on the caramel in 4 rows of 3.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes!

NO rising

NO 35 minute bake time

NO poison!

I served them at a poison infested "breakfast" themed dinner party and they were a huge hit - I'm the only GF-er there.  

And then I had one for breakfast this morning after heating it for 30 seconds in the wave.  JUST as good!

Not the best picture, but the picture isn't the one with the KILLER flavor!

The end

Divine COCONUT macaroons

I have a recent obsession with coconut. I believe it came about because of my pregnancy with our 3rd son, Joel. My palette seems to become a bit more diverse with ever pregnancy and this time it was coconut and coffee that I started craving with overwhelming drive. I was blessed to receive a full batch of GF coconut macaroons from a friend when I gave birth to Joel in July. This recipe is from her! We tried a recipe we found online a while back and were dissapointed with how meringue-y they came out. They were good, but not what we were hoping for.

Anything tasting or smelling of coconut is to be aquired. I don't understand why pregnancy triggered this, as just months ago the thought of chewing on raw coconut was unthinkable and could elicit a full body quiver, but not so anymore. Just yesterday I opened a bag of grated coconut and popped in a mouthful. Even the sound of the bag... it's delicious all by itself. It's much like the sound that a bag of powdered sugar or brown sugar makes. It's that smell that the baking isle holds. All baking isles smell the same, regardless of the store. They smell like brown sugar, powdered sugar and coconut and I can just hear the sound of the rectangular platic bags as I pick them up and press them to my nose. I'm sure there's someone who can relate to this.

That is quite enough of the romatic side of coconut:

Here's the recipe - taken from the back of the "Baker's" brand coconut and modified to be free of poison (gluten, of course) - one great part is that there's NO xanthum gum!

Sift together:

1 pkg shredded coconut (I toasted it BEFORE making the cookies because I prefer toasted coconut over fresh - most of it toasts when you are making the cookies, but not all, so I made sure it was ALL toasted before)

6 tbls tapioca starch

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

slowly add in:

4 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Stir until well blended and drop tbls fulls onto cookie sheet

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

Next time I make these I'm going to try and grind the pre toasted coconut just a bit before making up the cookie batter. I think this will give them a bit more of a true "cookie" feel, as they won't have giant grated coconut peices sticking out - but who knows?

Chai Muffins

I found this recipe this morning while looking for new muffin ideas to satisfy my never ending muffin craving. These are from the GF blogger, Jules, and are remarkably delicious! I don't use her flour (it's quite expensive), I instead used Hodgson Mills all purpose baking flour (which DOES contain xanthum gum). The recipe doesn't call for xanthum gum, but I think it could stand to have a 1/2 tsp or so added. They were a bit crumbly, (though my husband ranted about how perfect and divine they were....really, he did!) Add the extra xanthum gum IF IF IF you are doing these GF (obviously you don't use it if you are using regular glutenous flour) and ONLY if you are using an all purpose flour that DOES already includes xanthum gum. If you are using a flour mix that does NOT have xanthum gum, then use the whole amount listed in the recipe below. Sorry, I know that may get confusing.
1/3 cup granulated cane sugar
4 Tbs. butter or margarine
2 eggs
3 Tbs. agave nectar or 4 Tbs. honey
½ cup apple butter or applesauce (no sugar added applesauce)
1 cup all purpose flour (GF or regular, depending on your diet)
1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum (ONLY if NOT using a GF flour mix that already contains xanthum gum!!!)
1/2 tsp xanthum gum (ONLY if using a GF all purpose flour that DOES already contain xanthum gum)
½ cup almond meal (if you don't have almond meal just grind up some almonds in a coffee grinder or food processor)
2 Tbs. flax seed meal (optional)
2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa (optional - I added it and it was delicious, but I think the muffins would taste more true Chai without this)
½ cup gluten-free oats
2 tsp. gluten-free baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup chai tea latte concentrate (I used "Mystic Chai" powder, but I think she used the liquid "Oregon" Chai)


Directions:

Coat 15 muffin tins or 24 mini muffin tins with cooking oil.
Preheat oven to 325 F convection or 350 static.

Whip sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs and stir. Mix in agave nectar and apple butter until combined. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mix while slowly pouring in the chai tea. Mix until smooth.

Fill the muffin tins 2/3 full and bake until they are light brown: approximately 11-12 minutes for mini muffins or 20 minutes for regular muffins.

Yield: Approximately 15 muffins or 24 mini-muffins.
I crammed all the batter in to 12 muffin cups and as a result the muffins sank in the middle. They baked through and were delicious none-the-less, but a tad less appealing to look at. I think the batter would make a true 15 muffins if you have the patience to wait and bake 3 more muffins once the others are out of the oven.

Oh yeah! And we think they would be AMAZING with some butter cream frosting - as a cupcake of course! :)

GRAHAM CRACKERS! (minus the graham flour, of course)

I found this recipe a few days ago and hunted down "sweet rice flour" so I could try it, pronto! They are truly scrumptious! I miss graham crackers dearly, but I'm afraid I've lost my memory of exactly what they taste like. I feel like these are as close as a GF eater can hope to get and they are mighty good in their close-ness! Here's the link:
http://www.livingwithout.com/recipes/gluten_free_graham_crackers-1793-1.html

I followed the recipe to the T for the ingredients, but I used my Bosch mixer instead of my hands to mix the dough. I whisked all the dry ingredients together with a regular beating whisk and then used the dough hook once the butter was added. If formed in to a wonderful dough when given 2 or 3 minutes to paddle at medium speed. I didn't have parchment paper, so I just sprayed (rather liberally) the cookie sheets I used and their method of rolling it out works wonderfully!

Sopapillas! Thats right, SO PA PILL AS!!!!

(Note about the picture - these look small because they are small. I cut them way too small - that may have played a part in the problem forming pockets)
I've decided that I'm just not going to put up with missing out on some of life's truly delicious treats JUST because I can't have "normal" flour. I hunted high and low online for a GF sopapillas recipe to no avail. I decided, no matter how many tries, I WILL have sopapillas! It may not be tonight, it may not be tomorrow, but I WILL eat a sopapilla! I started with a recipe that my husband and I have made multiple times in the past and really loved. I substituted the flours and kept the other ingredients the same and then added in an arbitrary measurement of 2 tsp of xanthum gum. I fried 3 sops out of the first batch of dough and was not surprised to find that I'd failed. They squares I cut friend in to crispy little grease wads. The flavor was delicious, but the texture was all wrong. The second batch is what we actually ate with dinner (tacos) and was a huge improvement from the first batch, but I feel still has some room to grow. Here's that recipe along with my ideas for further improvement.
Heat Oil: 375 degrees
1 C white rice flour
1 C tapioca flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum (my husband's theory: if less xanthum gum is added the dough will have the freedom to expand a bit more. These ended up being very delicious as they were, but they didn't form pockets like I'd hoped. We think adding less gum will give the dough the room to expand. However, it may just make them fall apart. Try it out if you like - I will most certainly be trying it as soon as I replenish my stock of tapioca flour)

2 tbls shortening
3/4 C warm/hot-ish water

sift the dry ingredients together
cut in the shortening with pastry cutter or two knives until it's well blended in

mix in water - I just used a rubber spatula for this and it worked great - no kneading required and the dough can be left in the bowl
Work dough in to ball and cover in the bowl for 20-30 minutes
Roll the dough out on a tapioca starchy surface until it's 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick - cut in to desired size
fry flipping from time to time until both sides are golden-brownish (GF dough doesn't brown so well, and these seemed to take a bit longer to cook through than regular sops. Try a couple out until you figure out how long they are going to take.