what I baked today

Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies | Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip & Walnut Skillet Cookie (Day 4)

December 17, 2016 — 1 Comment

I  tastespotted and created this A+mazing and super simple Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip & Walnut Skillet Cookie recipe in April 2015 and it is by far my most used cookie recipe ever! It simply does not get any better than one bowl and a cast iron skillet. Instead of a dozen little cookies you get one giant chocolate chip cookie. The peanut butter and walnuts take this recipe from good to GREAT.

Our Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies countdown continues.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip & Walnut Skillet Cookie

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or vegan margarine, softened at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup cane sugar
2 tablespoons apple sauce
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 egg
⅓ cup creamy peanut butter, melted

1 cup gluten free all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (dark or semi-sweet)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Evenly coat cast iron skillet with baking spray
2. In a large bowl combine the butter, apple sauce, sugar and vanilla, and cream on medium with a hand mixer until fluffy. Add the egg and beat again until combined.
3. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Fold in melted peanut butter, chocolate chips, and walnuts into the batter until just combined.
4. Using a silicon spatula transfer batter into prepared skillet and sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 23 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Granola Cookies

Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies | Granola Cookies (Day 3)

December 16, 2016 — Leave a comment
Granola Cookies

Our Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies countdown continues for the third day with my Granola Cookies. These cookies are very close to my heart as they are one of the very first gluten free recipes that I ever created. That’s right. Before I was the gluten free chef, I was a lowly single transplant living in Nashville, TN learning the ropes as a new teacher and figuring out to afford a gluten free diet out of my tiny kitchen. These cookies were the result of literally what I had in my cabinet and fridge at the time and a longing for a sweet treat. They were a fan favorite at the (now defunct)  theglutenfreechefbakery and here on the blog.

Granola Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups gluten free rolled oats
1/2 cup corn starch
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup organic brown sugar
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup rice milk or almond milk
1 egg
1/3 cup dairy free chocolate chips (preferably Enjoy life brand)
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup golden raisins

Preparation

  1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix rolled oats and cornstarch in a medium bowl.
  2. In a small saucepan on low heat, combine brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, honey and rice milk. Stir sugar mixture until completely combined.
  3. Combine sugar mixture with dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in egg, chocolate chips, coconut, and golden raisins. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill cookie dough for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Remove from chiller and drop dough by rounded spoonful’s on a prepared cookie sheet. Sprinkle each with sea salt. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Makes about one dozen.

 

Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies | Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies (Day 2)

December 15, 2016 — 1 Comment

Our Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies countdown continues with this A+mazing Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  A combination of scratch made rich nutty brown butter, pecans, and chocolate chips make these cookies irresistible. I promise they’ll be barely cooled before you are popping them in your mouth one..two…gone.

Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

dry
1 ¾ cups gluten free all-purpose flour blend
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ cups bittersweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon sea salt, save
1/2 cup pecans toasted and chopped
wet
1 ¾ sticks unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cups packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

  1. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
  2. Heat the butter in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until melted, and then continue to cook, swirling the pan constantly until the butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma. About 6 minutes.
  3. Remove skillet from the heat and transfer the butter to a large heatproof bowl.
  4. Let cool slightly and then refrigerate for 15-20 minutes until the butter is slightly solid but not hard.

Add the cooled butter along with:

  • Both sugars,
  • Salt
  • and vanilla to a mixing bowl and using hand mixer, mix until light and fluffy 3-5 minutes.

Add:

  • Large egg
  • Yolk
  • and vanilla until the mixture is smooth.
  • Add the flour mixture to the wet until just combined.
  • Fold in chocolate chips and pecans
  1. Using a ice cream scoop place dough on baking spray prepared cookie sheet in rows of three.
  2. Sprinkle each cookie dough ball with sea salt.
  3. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown around, about 11 minutes.
  4. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cook completely before serving.

 

Twelve Days of Gluten Free Cookies | Grain Free Double Chocolate Cookies (Day 1)

December 14, 2016 — 5 Comments

Happy Wednesday

I’m in shock that we are midway through the last month of 2016. In celebration of this milestone and the fact that Christmas is just 12 days away, we are bringing back our twelve days of gluten free cookies series.

How does it work?

Every day for the next twelve days we will feature a gluten free cookie recipe. Many of them will be originals but a few will be pinterest favorites and a few tried and true classics featured here on the blog or in my personal recipe collection. As far as I’m concerned, cookies make life sweeter and better. I’ve blogged about my love of eating cookies (notably chocolate chip) and it’s my hope that you like, love, share, and most importantly bake the cookies that made this year’s countdown.

Grain-Free Double Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
  2. Cream together the butter and sugars .in stand mixer or using a hand mixer
  3. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
  4. Mix together the soda, salt, and cocoa and add to the wet ingredients, mixing until combined. Fold in in the chocolate chips and nuts.
  5. Bake for about 10 minutes on a silpac

Cast Iron Apple Crisp w/ Whipped ProYo Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt & Granola Oat Topping

November 22, 2016 — Leave a comment

All creatives know that inspiration often comes to you when you least expect it and when it does, you run with it. Writing is no exception to this rule and my recent recipe development session saw me dust out my years old Apple Crisp recipe and update it for two people using the cast iron skillet.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, then you know that I love a good seasoned cast ironed skillet nearly as much as I love the slow cooker. But instead of making this post about all the reasons why you need to have several cast irons skillets in your kitchen repertoire, I’ll rave about the ProYo Vanilla Bean High Protein Frozen Yogurt that was the real source of inspiration for this recipe revisit.

ProYo makes an amazing ice cream substitute and when it’s whipped using an electric mixer like I did for this recipe, the end result may become even more divine than your typical ala mode. Thank you ProYo for inspiring not one but two recipes in less than 24 hours.

Cast Iron Apple Crisp w/ Whipped ProYo Vanilla Bean High Protein Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

  • 3 Honey Crisp apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
    1/3 cup water
    2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup cane sugar
    1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
    2 teaspoons cinnamon

oat crumb topping

¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
¼ cup gluten-free oats or granola
¼ cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons cane sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons Earth Balance, cold

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
  2. Remove two (4oz) tubes of ProYo Vanilla Bean and as to a small bowl. Whip for 2-3 minutes using a hand mixer until fluffy. Add to freezer.
  3. In a food processor, pulse all ingredients for crumb topping, and transfer to a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
  4. In a medium mixing bowl, add apples, water, lemon juice, lime juice, brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix ingredients well.
  5. Divide apple filling into a seasoned 6-8 inch cast iron skillet
  6. Top filling with crumb topping, and place in oven for 20–25 minutes until top is golden and filling is bubbly.
  7. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving à la mode.

Vanilla Coconut Strawberry Cupcakes (VEGAN)

June 21, 2016 — 1 Comment

Happy Tuesday everyone~ Hopefully you are all enjoying this summertastic weather. Temperatures are well into the 90’s here in Rochester and like any good chef I continue to bake despite the heat. These Vanilla Coconut Strawberry Cupcakes are so light, so fresh, and so simple to make that you won’t mind the extra heat from the oven. Even better, these cupcakes are vegan and perfect for strawberry season. I even have a Facebook LIVE video embedded in this post to show you how it easy it is to make. Naturally, I promised this recipe last week but my beautiful crazy busy life life (per usual) got in the way of those plans.

Vanilla Coconut  Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients

1/4 cup coconut flour
1 cup all-purpose gluten free flour blend
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup teaspoon almond extract
1/3 cup + 3 tablespoons coconut palm sugar

3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon rice beverage
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon golden flaxseed meal
1/3 cup applesauce

1/2 lb fresh strawberries, washed, stemmed and diced

Preparation

 

STEP I:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Line (12 count) cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside.

STEP 2:

Pour rice beverage, flaxseed meal, and apple cider vinegar into a cup, let set for 5 minutes.

 

STEP 3:

Using a stand or hand mixer (on high speed) cream sugar, coconut oil, almond extract, and applesauce about one minute until fluffy. Lightly fold in diced strawberries without mashing into batter.

 

STEP 4:

Fill cupcake pans with one standard cookie scoop of batter.

STEP 5:

Bake about 20-25 minutes (350 degrees) until toothpick comes out clean.

STEP 6:

After about 20 minutes (350 degrees) remove cupcakes from the oven. Allow to cool for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy your cupcakes!

Coconut Creme Icing recipe coming later this week .

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcalvin.eaton.14%2Fvideos%2F10101744817972835%2F&show_text=0&width=400

Enjoylife Food’s Ancient Grain Brownie Mix | Product Review

May 16, 2016 — Leave a comment

This review is long overdue. Enjoylife Foods sent me samples of their new line of Ancient Grain baking mixes many many moons ago. As an avid Enjoylife fan and partner I can assure you that my crazy, hectic life is the culprit and not a subpar product on the part of Enjoylife. In fact, I have a batch of Ancient Grain Brownies in my convection oven as I type.

It’s Sunday and after a super long and productive day, I was craving something chocolate. Mentally I was going to whip up a one bowl chocolate cake but upon opening my pantry, I spotted the brownie box and without a second guess whipped out a glass baking dish, sprayed it with baking spray and was dumping the mix into a bowl.

As second nature as it is for me to bake from scratch, some days, a mix is really all I can muster. It’s times like these that make Enjoylife’s new mixes so wonderful. Like every other Enjoylife product, the brownie mix is free of the three most common food allergens : milk, soy, nut, and of course gluten/wheat. All you need to add is water and oil, stir, pour, and bake. Literally taking less than two minutes from bowl to pan. I mean how on earth can you beat that.

I was sold on the brownies when I first tried them. They are super moist. Uber chocolatey, rich, decadent and contain a healthy dose of added probiotics and 5 grams of protein per serving. Now you can feel sinless while enjoying a normally sinful dessert. With this batch, I added my own cup of chopped pecans and of course will serve with a scoop of butter pecan ice cream. Because well, I want my brownie and ice cream too.

Head over to Enjoylife Foods online to purchase a few boxes of this Amazing brownie mix and a few others while you are at it. The Ancient Grain line comes with: Muffin Mix, All Purpose Flour, Pancake/Waffle/ and Pizza Crust.

Rating: 5/5