Gluten Free, Dairy Free Pistachio and Pumpkin Seed Calming Cookies

These cookies are delicious!  They'll satisfy any cookie craving.

These cookies have a calming effect when eaten also.  Pumpkin seeds are higher in tryptophan than a Thanksgiving Turkey.  I've also added pistachios which are high in Vitamin B6.  Vitamin B6 helps the body absorb tryptophan.  They also lend a great taste to the cookie.  I love pistachios.

These cookies are like a low dosage Ativan.

I took them to the store last weekend and everyone not only loved them, they requested more, and the recipe.

Having trouble sleeping?  Need a Valium but prefer "all natural remedies"?

These cookies are for you.

Ingredients

1 cup gluten-free oat bran (or ground oats)
1 cup almond meal (or ground almonds)
1 cup of shelled pistachio's ground in food processor
1 cup of pumpkin seeds ground in food processor
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup sweet white sorghum flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup of whole golden roasted flax seeds (optional)
1 ripe avocado
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup raw sugar
3 eggs (or egg replacement)

Step 1:
Measure and process the nuts, seeds, and oats in the food processor.

Step 2:
Whisk the flours, salt, oat bran, and baking powder together in a separate bowl and set aside.

Step 3:
Blend the honey, the avocado, the olive oil, and the raw sugar together in the food processor.

Step 4:
In your stand mixer, mix together the eggs, the avocado/sugar mixture, the ground nuts, seeds, flours etc.

Step 5:
Spoon the cookie dough onto a parchment paper covered cookie tin, flatten with a fork or spoon, (I decorated a few with seeds) and bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Cookies are done when they start to brown.  Cool on the counter and enjoy.  These are soft and cake like.

This made 2 dozen cookies of slightly varying sizes.

Enjoy!

  

Sweet Potatoes with a Candied Bacon Glaze, Feta Cheese, and Fresh Jalapeno.

Sweet potatoes, sometimes Yams,  are in delicious and traditional dish's found at almost everyone's Thanksgiving get together.

As a kid, my favorite was the candied yams with the marshmallows on top, but as an adult, my tastes have varied slightly.  Every year I play with one dish, the sweet potato dish. Sweet, savory, baked, fried, mashed, diced, you name it, I've tried it.  I try new and unique flavor combinations as well and just have fun with it.  Sometimes with 'not so appetizing' results, sometimes, as in this case, it turns out a delicious keeper.

Double the recipe if needed. this serves 4-5 people.

Be daring, give it a try!

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 stick of unsalted sweet cream butter
• 1 package Jones Dairy Farm Cherrywood Smoked Bacon
• 1 medium jalapeno
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup water

Step 1:
Wash, peel, and dice the sweet potatoes into roughly 1 1/2 inch squares.  Spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes. This will not cook them through, don't worry.  It will brown the edges of a few of them.

Step 2:
Fry the entire package of bacon (approx 12 slices).  Drain on a paper towel and grind up in your food processor.

Step 3:
Drain the bacon fat out of the frying pan, under low heat,  add the stick of butter and let it melt, then add the brown sugar, the water, and the bacon crumbles.  Stir and heat on low until it is all combined thoroughly.

Step 4:
Take the sweet potatoes from the oven and move them into a glass, oven safe, casserole dish.  Pour the bacon sugar mixture over the potatoes, return to the 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Step 5:
Sprinkle on the diced fresh jalapeno (only the green, remove all seeds and veins), and sprinkle on the feta,  and serve.

Enjoy!

Gluten Free Spritz Cookies

So, I bought a new toy for the kitchen.  Any guesses what it was?

You got it!  A new Wilton Cookie Press.  The same one linked here Wilton W4011 Comfort Grip Cookie Press (Google Affiliate Ad).

I wasn't sure if it would work, but it did just great.  I must admit, it took a little practice and some recipe tweaking to get the shapes to come out right, but it was well worth the price.

Try this recipe and you will be addicted to making these fun little cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
• 1 cup sweet rice flour
• 1 cup sweet white sorghum flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 sticks unsalted sweet cream butter (softened to room temperature)
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 tablespoons half and half
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Melted chocolate  or frosting (your choice)

Step 1:

Whisk the flours together with the baking powder and the salt in a separate bowl and set this aside.

Step 2:

Cream the sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla together.

Step 3:

Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture.  Follow directions for loading the dough into your press.  I simply used a spatula and shoved it in.  Press out the cookies onto an ungreased cookie tin or onto parchment paper.  I found it easier to press the cookies out  all at once onto parchment paper, then slide them on and off of the cookie tins.  Bake @ 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

Step 4:

After cooling on the counter, frost or decorate as desired.  I dipped this batch in melted dark chocolate.

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie Muffins with Cranberries

It's October!  My favorite time of the year.  

This month is exciting for me.  With Halloween, my birthday, and the changing of the seasons, October is truly a magical month around here.

To celebrate the season I decided to create something pumpkinish, like pumpkin bread, pumpkin cupcakes or muffins.

What I ended up with is a delicious recipe that is sure to become one of your go-to recipes for the season.

A Pumpkin Pie Muffin!

It's definitely a muffin by most standards, containing 1/2 cup of oat bran and some cranberries, but, it eats more like a dessert.  These have a moist density that when you bight into one, your mouth screams "Pumpkin Pie!!!"

They are a bit sweet so feel free to cut the sugar back on your second batch if you want to.  (I would try them as written the first time if I were you so as not to deny your taste buds the pleasure.)

They're so moist, the pictures make them look a tad bit ugly, but let me assure you they are so delicious, your non gluten-free friends will want the recipe.

• Notice, I did not use any xanthan gum, guar gum, or flax seed meal slurry.  No need for these additives in this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup oat bran (be sure to get certified gluten free)
• 1/2 cup sweet white rice flour
• 1/4 cup sweet white sorghum
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 1 can of pumpkin puree, 15 ounce (do not get pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil of your choice
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries  (you can use 1 cup fresh cranberries diced)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (and a little more for dusting the icing)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

Step 1:

Add the dried cranberries to a container of water to rehydrate for a couple of hours.  (skip this step if using diced fresh cranberries or no cranberries at all)

Step 2:

Whisk all the dry ingredients, including the sugar and spices together in a bowl.  Set this aside.

Step 3:

In your stand mixer bowl, begin mixing together the wet ingredients.  The pumpkin puree, the eggs, the vanilla, and the oil.

Step 4:

Slowly mix in the dry ingredient mixture, one third at a time. (this is also the point to drain and add the cranberries if using them)

Step 5:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners. ( a good tip is to spray the paper liners with your favorite gluten free cooking spray for ease of removing the paper from the muffin)  Fill the cups 1/3 full. Bake for 30 minutes.  Test with toothpick in centers for doneness.

Step 6: 

Cool completely on the counter before frosting.  If not frosting, it's still a good idea to cool completely before trying one so the centers set up.

Step 7:

I made a simple cream cheese frosting (cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla).  Topped each muffin, then dusted with cinnamon.  

Enjoy!

    

Gluten Free Angel Food Cake

I've never made an angel food cake, yet always admired them.  There's something a little intimidating about baking an angel food cake, or, at least I once thought so.

When a few of my regular readers asked if I'd create a recipe for angel food cake and post it, my first response was "Of course I will get right on it."  I was intimidated.  I had not made an angel food cake before I became gluten-free and from what I had read and heard it was difficult to do, let alone trying to do it with gluten-free flours.  Gluten-free flours tend not to produce "light and airy, melt in your mouth" kind of cake.

I love a challenge.

I tried many combinations of flours, starches, and various techniques.  I was a mad scientist in the kitchen.

The result was worth it.

This recipe for angel food cake can hold it's own against any non-gluten-free angel food cake out there.  It was light and airy, with a melt in your mouth deliciousness that was undeniably Angel Food Cake.

The ingredients matter, of course, but technique is very important in an angel food cake.  If you don't mix the ingredients the right way, it won't turn out right at all.

Follow these steps and you will soon be stuffing your face, then delighting your friends with a homemade gluten-free angel food cake.

Don't be intimidated like I once was, this is easier than you think.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cup egg whites (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup sweet white sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup potato starch (not potato flour)
• 1/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon guar gum
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• zest of half an orange

Step 1:
Using the whisk attachment of your stand mixer, begin mixing the egg whites, increase the speed and add the cream of tartar.  Continue mixing until it looks like this.

 Step 2:
While step one is mixing, whisk together the flours and starches with the guar gum, salt, and baking powder.  Set this aside.

 Step 3:
Mix the powdered sugar into the egg white mixture.  Mix it in a little at a time while the mixer continues running at a high speed.  It will get a bit glossy in appearance.  After it's thoroughly mixed in add the vanilla and the orange zest.

 Step 4:
Fold in the flour mixture using a spatula.  It is very important not to over-fold.  Don't stir it.  Just slowly fold in the flour mixture, a little at a time until it's mixed in.

Step 5:
Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven in non-stick pans, no greasing or buttering necessary.  A tube pan is recommended or a couple of loaf pans.  I used a loaf pan and a spring form pan which I put a small glass baking dish in the center (to mimic a tube pan) in this picture.  Fill the pans only 1/2 full of batter due to extreme rise.  Bake 45 minutes.  They are done when a wooden skewer can be inserted and removed cleanly. (the toothpick test)

Step 6:
Cooling.  If you used a tube pan, invert it over a bottle and let it cool completely in this position.  If using loaf pans  (like me) remove from oven and let cool upright until the top sinks down to the pan rim.  The cake deflates a bit, this is normal.  When it's partially cooled and deflated, you can now turn the pans upside down on a cookie cooling rack if desired or anything that allows air to flow underneath.

Step 7:
Using a knife, when cool, cut the cake away from the sides of the pan.  Invert over a platter and it should fall out.

{TIP}  Cut this cake with a serrated knife.  A regular knife would squish the cake, it is melt in your mouth light and airy after all.

Enjoy!