Gluten free pumpkin spice mini cakes

I laid in bed this morning, just as the sun was coming up, listening to the tick-tick-tick of rain against the window and the lightly-high-pitched sound of rain draining through the downspout outside.  I have always felt grateful that I have a roof over my head, but now as a homeowner, I am keenly aware of how grateful I am to have a roof over my head that has relatively new shingles and gutters that are properly attached. 

I was thinking contentedly of this as I heard Ben, who got out of bed a few minutes before, in the kitchen feeding the cats.  I rolled over, turning towards the kitchen and listened to him talking with Dewey as he divided the wet food among three small plates (our attempt to make sure Dewey gets his fair share of breakfast). 

“Merrrr-ooowww!” cries Dewey.

“What’s that Dewey?  Little Jimmy fell into the well?”  I hear Ben say, intonating as if he lived in a Lassie movie.

“Rrrrr-ooowww?” is Dewey’s reply.

“Oh, we better hurry, huh boy?”

This morning’s rendition of cat-feeding-theater was particularly humorous and I enjoyed a satisfying giggle, laying there under the warm comforter, feeling happy, content, and fortunate.  I lingered there a pair of minutes more, but as soon as I heard Ben snap off the burner, pick up the pot of water and pour it into the French press, I knew it was time to get up.  Someone else making coffee is about the best reason ever to get up on Sunday morning.

We enjoyed our coffee, slowly, and talked about what we had on tap for the day.  Me?  Off to the artist’s market with a friend, bake pumpkin cakes, organize bills and paperwork, plant tulip bulbs (I hope I’m not too late!), and rake the yard (finally!).  Ben?  Off to get Christmas lights for outside, stain and seal the shoe rack he built, insulate the downstairs windows, clean the gutters, and fix the furnace filter.  To name a few. 

Needless to say, we were busy today. 

And, for those of you who are keeping track - after dinner, after we devoured our pumpkin-cake dessert, Ben asked, “Are you sure we can’t put up the Christmas tree tonight?”

I laughed.  Now he’s just pushing my buttons.

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and I hope you are surrounded by loved ones and lives for which you are all grateful.  I know I am.  

Pumpkin spice mini-cakes

These cakes are so moist and delicious!  I did them with chocolate chips, but you could throw in some pecans instead or maybe coconut ribbons. They would be great without any add-ins and maybe with vanilla, chocolate, or cream-cheese frosting. 

1 cup Sorghum flour

½ cup Tapioca flour

½ cup Millet flour

½ cup sweet white rice flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 ½ T baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp ground clove

¼ tsp ground ginger

1 cup pureed pumpkin
2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup agave nectar

1/3 cup butter, melted

½ cup “butter milk” (any milk + a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice – see note)

Optional add-ins:

1/3 to ½ cup chocolate chips, pecans, coconut, or anything else your little heart desires.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or grease with butter and rice flour.  Heat oven to 350F.

Mix dry ingredients and blend well.  Add pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, agave, butter, and “buttermilk.”  Stir to mix well. 

Spoon into muffin cups and smooth tops with the back side of a spoon if you wish (I usually fill a measuring cup with water and dip the spoon into the water so it doesn’t stick to the dough).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until slightly golden brown.

Cool for a few minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Note:  to make “buttermilk,” pour a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring cup and then add any kind of milk (hazelnut, coconut, almond, rice, regular moo cow, etc) to make ½ cup milk.

Gluten free apple crisp

I have been wanting to share this recipe with you for almost a week. I’m home sick with what is likely the dreaded flu (H1N1), though it appears I have a very mild case. It feels like I slept for almost all of yesterday and then slept like a rock last night for about 12 hours. Today I feel almost normal. Hooray for that!

The cats have gotten some special mama time while I’ve been home, especially Rosie, who sleeps by my side always (when she’s not cruising the kitchen counters for kitchen scraps we forgot to clean up). And Zora and Dewey have been the Happiest Cats Ever, sleeping soundly on the new sofa bed we put in our recently-put-together television/guest room (we now have a television-free living room - it is awesome!).

Although I’ve shared another crisp recipe on this site, I am particularly pleased with how the topping on this turned out. I’m definitely a crisp-topping girl – don’t get me wrong, the fruit also needs to be delicious, but the topping is really what sells me on a fruit crisp of any kind. We ate this crisp for dessert last week… and breakfast Saturday morning!

Next week is Thanksgiving! I have felt behind all year on the seasons, but I’m taking the time this week to mentally prepare for the celebration of gratitude and the tradition of food that goes along with it. If you are having gluten free guests at your home, check out my post last year on cooking gluten free around the holidays. Also, don’t assume the turkey is gluten free – just like any other meat, if it has been pre-injected with sodium preparations or broths, it might not be gluten free.

By the way, if you live in the Portland, Oregon area, check out New Cascadia Traditional for gluten free pies, bread (for stuffing), rolls, and other delicious gluten free baked goods. They are accepting pre-orders for such things right now, so give them a call! If you are not in the Portland area, check out Whole Foods – they have a number of frozen gluten free pie shells, pre-made pies, scones, rolls, and many other gluten free baked goods in their bakery department. These certainly take the guesswork out of gluten free baking!

Next week also marks the start of the Christmas season and Ben’s long-awaited favorite time of year. Seriously, I had to make the rule that we don’t put up the tree until the day after Thanksgiving and he has been counting down the days. Soon our home will be filled with green and red and twinkling little lights! I am looking forward to a fire in the fireplace with stockings hanging from the mantle and a hot cup of apple-cinnamon tea!

Gluten free apple crisp

Filling:

3 medium-sized apples, sliced

2 tsp vanilla

2 tablespoons raw sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of allspice

dash of nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375F.

Mix the above ingredients in an 8x8 baking dish (mix well to evenly distribute spices and sugar). Spread to evenly fill dish.

Topping:

1 cup gluten free oats

½ cup tapioca flour

¼ cup millet flour

¼ cup raw sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp nutmeg

1/3 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces

handful pecans or walnuts (optional)

Mix your oats, flours, spices, sugar, and nuts (optional) until well-blended. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs. Spoon over apples, evenly covering the fruit.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until topping is slightly golden.

Enjoy!

Sausage and apple-stuffed pumpkin

We have certainly settled into our new home, I thought, as I walked from the grocery store, down our street to our house. It feels like home. I know a place feels familiar when the automatic pilot turns on and leads me there without actual brain input. We have only been living here for about two and a half months and I wonder what it will feel like years from now. Five years from now? Ten?

I mentioned this to Ben that night after dinner and he smiled, with a look that said, “It could only be wonderful.” Christmases with a fire in the fireplace and stockings hanging on the mantle, evenings with friends eating good food and drinking good wine in the dining room, summers in the backyard garden tending to vegetables…we will see many of these in our new home over the coming years. Feeling settled, to know we will be here years from now, in this same house, is a feeling unfamiliar to both of us in recent years, but it indeed feels wonderful. Although we have what feels like an endless list of “things” we want to do in the house (install a fan in the bathroom, for example), we are certainly taking the time to savor and enjoy this part of our lives and anticipate all that is to come.

Right now, our street is littered with leaves, all of the leaves having fallen off the trees at the same time, or so it seems. We are preparing for our first winter season in our new home, and our first holiday season. (I broke down and bought a package of red apple-cinnamon-scented tea-lights a couple of weeks ago, despite my resolve to not indulge in Christmas things before Thanksgiving has passed. I blame Ben – he just gets so excited about Christmas! If it were up to him, our tree would be up in September.) I got a little nervous when I read we have a pumpkin shortage this year, on account of the spoiled fields out east, but I came across a large display of canned pumpkin at the grocery store this past weekend and a little voice inside my head cried, “hooray!” I know, I know, freshly roasted pumpkin tastes much better, but the canned stuff is pretty darn good and you can’t beat the convenience with a stick.

About this time last year, I made pumpkin scones and I have been waiting to find the canned pumpkin in the stores to make them again! I bought four cans. I am in pumpkin heaven. But maybe I should go to the store later tonight and get more…I think I have an obsession.

This doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking with whole pumpkins prior to this – au contraire! Well, you all know about the pumpkin soup I made for last month's Go Ahead Honey it’s Gluten Free round up. I also made stuffed pumpkins for dinner last week and got rave reviews from Ben. I certainly know what we will be eating each fall for the years to come!

Sausage and apple-stuffed pumpkin

1 small sugar pumpkin

2 sausages, sliced (I am digging Al Fresco’s roasted red pepper and asiago chicken sausage)

1 small apple, diced

½ cup pecan pieces

Butter

Real maple syrup

Wash and dry the pumpkin and stick it in the microwave for about a minute (this makes it a tad easier to cut). Remove the stem and slice in half. Scoop out the seeds (and save to roast later) and pulp.

Place pumpkin halves cut-side down in a baking dish with about ¼ inch of water and bake at 350 for 40 minutes to an hour (depending on the size of your pumpkins). Mine took about an hour – they should be really soft.

Remove pumpkins from the oven and turn them over in the dish so the cut side is now up. Place a couple small dots of butter inside the cavities and drizzle with maple syrup. Divide the sausage slices, diced apple, and pecans evenly between the two pumpkin halves. Fill each pumpkin half with the apple and sausage, then place the pecans on top. Drizzle a bit with more maple syrup, if desired.

Bake for an additional 20 minutes, until the pecans are good and toasty and you can’t stand the delicious smell any longer!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin soup and playing catch-up with the season

As you can see, we are a bit behind on our raking duties. It seems like we have been a bit behind on the seasons all year, though. Is it October already? Indeed the leaves falling on our lawn won't let us forget.

Oh wait, it's nearly November!

This year has been flying by, dear readers. A pair of weekends ago weekend Ben and I traveled back to the town where I grew up for my 10 year high school reunion. (I know writing this outs me on my age, but there you have it - I'm, relatively speaking, pretty young!). Ben and I took a day and headed to my old stomping ground in South Minneapolis to tour the galleries of the newly renovated and expanded Walker Art Center. Some of you might know this area of town for the famous sculpture garden nearby (yes, the one with the cherry and the spoon).

Afterwards, I remembered how close we were to the French Meadow Bakery, which has always had a famous to-die-for bakery case, and I had heard recently they began offering a selection of gluten free baked goods. Needless to say, we stopped in for a cup of joe and a sweet treat.

Their gluten free offerings were all pre-packaged and well-labeled. That day, they had a choice of a brownie, a chocolate chip cookie, and an apple-cinnamon muffin. I chose the brownie, of course, because I wanted some chocolate and felt the need to compare it to the Betty Crocker brownie I made earlier in the month. The French Meadow Bakery brownies were awesome. Period. Really nothing more to say about them, except I wish their cafe was here in Portland! They do offer online ordering and list several stores in Portland that supposedly sell their products, but I haven't found the gluten free items in two of those stores (but, many more stores can be visited and phone calls can be made!).

In our farm share this past month, we have received a number of sugar pie pumpkins and we inadvertently grew a pair of small ones in our front yard (planted there by previous owners, we're guessing). So, when handed pumpkins, what does one make?

Well, we made pumpkin soup. And it was good.

This is my entry in this month's "Go ahead honey it's gluten free" event (started by Naomi at Straight into bed cakefree and dried), which is being hosted by Heather over at Life Gluten Free. The theme is pumpkin treats! Check out her round up!

Pumpkin soup

1 medium-sized sugar pie pumpkin

1/2 small onion, diced

4 cups chicken broth

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp gound cloves

olive oil

coconut milk or half and half

toasted pecans

grated Parmesan cheese

ground black pepper

Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds (save them and roast them after dinner!). Place pumkin halves cut side down in a baking dish and add water to the dish until the water covers the bottom of the dish about an 1/8 inch high.

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 40-50 minutes until soft. Allow to cool and scoop out the flesh into a bowl.

Saute diced onion with some olive oil in a large soup or stock-pot until they become translucent. Add the broth, pumpkin, and spices. Stir well to mix.

Simmer on low for about 20-30 minutes, until heated through and somewhat cooked-down. Blend in a blender until smooth.

On each serving, drizzle some coconut milk (or half-and-half), and sprinkle with pecans, cheese, and pepper.

Enjoy!

Oh Betty!

Sunday morning I pushed a cart up and down the grocery aisles wondering where all the people came from. Where I grew up, the phrase, "Before church lets out," meant something. Primarily, it meant that if you get your errands done Sunday morning before noon (a.k.a., when church 'let out' for the day), you would enjoy less traffic in the stores and in general. It was usually our goal to get things done before this time ran out.

Around here, this doesn't really mean much apparently. Sunday morning at the grocery store was pretty busy. I tried to tuck briefly into the baking aisle to pick up some paper muffin cups (Ben appreciates the ease of clean-up when I use these to bake muffins or cupcakes) and was forced to make my way down the entire aisle because traffic blocked any sort of quick duck-out.

Imagine my surprise as I sped past the baking mixes when I saw the words, "Gluten Free," in big, red print on a row of baking mixes. These were the much talked about, but yet to transpire, Betty Crocker Gluten Free baking mixes. I couldn't resist slowing down, stopping, and picking up the packages to examine them more closely.

The ingredient list indicated the primary flour in the mixes was rice flour. I should have you know I am weary of any gluten free baked good that relies primarily on rice flour because they are usually grainy and not so flavorful. This particular store stocked the vanilla cake, chocolate chip cookie, and brownie mixes. They were about $4 a box, which is less expensive than Pamelas or Bob's red mill (at around $6 a mix), but more expensive than their 'regular' mixes, which come in between $1.50 and $2. They are made in a dedicated GF facility. Even though I knew they were likely to be not that great, considering their reliance on rice flour, I HAD to try one.

It was maybe the novelty of it (I haven't eaten a Betty Crocker product in over a year at least) and mostly curiosity that made me do it. I chose to purchase the brownie mix. I have heard it is hard to screw up gluten free brownies and I haven't eaten a brownie in over a year either. I have yet to attempt to bake gluten free brownies. And, heck, at least the ingredients were pronounceable!

So, Betty came home with me that day and sat proudly on the kitchen counter for about two days. I took pictures of her. Then I baked.

First of all, the batter is easy to throw together. It only fills an 8x8 pan, however. I figured the toughest thing to replicate would be the brownie top - you know, that flaky, crispy top? These did that just fine. I was a tad disappointed with the rest of the texture and the flavor. The texture was a bit too gummy. Brownies are supposed to be chewy, I know, but these were somewhat different...almost like they seemed too unnatural. And the flavor - the little chocolate chips definitely saved these brownies because without them, I think they wouldn't really be flavorful at all.

I think people forget that wheat flour has taste and rice flour does not. When you rely on rice flour as the primary substitute for wheat flour, the flavor suffers. You really have to include other flours or other flavors to make up for it.

I'm not sure how much of my distaste for the brownies comes from simply baking from a mix (don't home-made baked goods always taste better than ones from mixes?) or my lack of other gluten-free brownie-eating in the past year or ? Perhaps Betty has some more work to do before her mixes are up to par with what we expect.

In any case, they were "good enough" brownies, especially for those looking for a familiar brand and for those baking for gluten-free loved ones who don't want to invest a lot of money in various flours to bake from scratch (If you are in this category be sure your pan is clean and don't use old scratched-up pans or silicone pans, which harbor gluten. You can always line your pans with aluminum foil or parchment paper if you have any cleanliness worries. You can read more here for baking and cooking for others). They are also incredibly fast and "good enough" for those who have little interest in investing lots of time to their baking.

Have you tried any of the other Betty Crocker Gluten Free mixes? What did you think of them?

Applesauce raisin cake

I realized something the other day, as I was cutting up potatoes and yet another batch of carrots pulled from our garden, something that has been on the edge of my consciousness for a while now but hasn't yet been fully articulated in my mind. Since I began eating gluten free, I have become so much more aware of food - where it comes from, how it is grown, and politics surrounding access to and cultivation of it.

I've become so much more excited about growing my own food, baking and cooking from scratch, and, recently, pickling and canning the harvest. I've also noticed that I'm not alone in this.

I read a fair number of gluten free blogs and have noticed the trend towards a heightened awareness around what one puts in one's mouth. At first thought, this makes sense because those of us who have to eat gluten free are much safer when we eat things we have prepared ourselves, using whole ingredients. If we don't know the source or method of manufacture of a food product, most of us are hesitant to subject our bodies to gluten-roulette or be the guinea pig of the "does this food have gluten" experiment. Thus, as a rule, food prepared by others is always suspect (unless, of course, they know and love us and take good care of our health by keeping the gluten far, far away!).

Delving a little deeper into understanding, I would even go so far as to say that I tend to avoid even non-gluteny ready-made foods now more so than ever if they have unintelligible ingredients. Because, heck, my body needs some TLC and why would I go to such lengths to treat it well by avoiding gluten and then turn around and harm it with chemically-processed anything? That just seems to defeat the purpose. By the way, I learned last night that the sugar substitute Equal is an effective ant-killer because they are attracted to the sweet taste, but the chemicals kill them. What does it do to our bodies then?

But the thing that really dawned on me the other day was this thing called control. This thing called "internal locus of control" has been a favorite topic for many researchers in psychology (and credit needs to be given to Rotter who is often cited as the originator of this concept). In a nutshell, mounds and mounds of research has evidenced that the more control one feels over one's life, the happier, healthier, and generally better off one is. According to this research, some people generally feel they have control over the trajectory of their lives; if they work towards something, they will one day see the positive rewards of their hard work. Others tend to feel that no matter what they do, the world has more control over what happens to them. Those who genuinely believe they control their life experiences are happier and healthier as a whole. This can also be true for situation-specific sense of control. For example, one thing we can all relate to is feeling a sense of control over one's work day. Are you told when to take your breaks? Are you told not only what to do but how to do it? This low-control environment makes for generally unhappy employees while they are at work.

Now imagine you are told you have a disease in which your body's immune system is attacking itself and the best way to cure your symptoms and heal your body is to avoid a protein called gluten that you can't visibly see in some foods (outside of the obvious) or on cook surfaces. And American food manufacturers seem to put it in all sorts of things under all sorts of names and restaurant staff may or may not pay attention to cross contamination or understand what gluten is...

Woah. Suddenly the blissful ignorance of what went into food others made for you feels dangerous and the steps you have to take to understand your illness and eat safely feels overwhelming - and you want control. By taking action and learning as much as you can about food - the one thing that will heal you - you regain a sense of control over a part of your life that feels out of control. And this sense of control over your diet makes coping with the illness much easier.

I remember in my earlier gluten free days, I would "treat" myself to an expensive item I wouldn't normally buy or try a new product each time I went to the grocery store just for the sake of doing it, because I could. I would pick out an expensive cheese or olive oil or I would try a new vegetable or fruit. It was my way of feeling like I could say "yes" to something new or interesting or fun when I had to say "no" to so many of the other products that lined the grocery store shelves. It made me feel more in control of what was in my fridge.

More importantly, though, I became obsessed with reading about celiac disease, gluten free cooking, and food in general. At first it was intimidating, but it quickly felt freeing; knowledge removed the feeling of suffocation and enabled me to act. Now that Ben and I grow some of our vegetables, get almost all of the rest of our fruit and vegetables directly from the farmer who grows them, cook the majority of our meals at home from scratch, take care to pay attention to stainability in food production, and have begun canning and preserving, I feel in control of the food that I eat and, as a result, in control over my health.

I have never felt so good.

This is the cake I made for Ben's birthday this year (less fancy than the one I made last year, but still totally delicious). It's a cake his mom used to make and I adapted it to make it gluten free! We served it topped with real whipped cream, but you could certainly frost it if you like (cream cheese frosting would probably be delicious with this). I made the cake again in cupcake form this past weekend...but I would recommend sticking to the cake version unless you are able to make 16 cupcakes at a time. I only have a 12-muffin tin and had a bit of batter leftover, even after over-filling the wells. As you can see, the cake is very moist and stays that way for quite a few days in the fridge!

Applesauce raisin cake

2 cups brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca flour
½ cup potato starch
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1½ teaspoons nutmeg
1½ cups turbinado sugar
1½ cups applesauce
2 teaspoon baking soda (stirred into applesauce)
1 cup raisins
½ cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 eggs
½ cup any milk (hazelnut, almond, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour (with rice flour) your cake pan(s). You can use a 9x13 cake pan or two 8-inch pans.

Mix dry ingredients (except raisins) until well blended. Stir in applesauce, eggs, milk, and butter.

Fold in raisins and pour into prepared cake pan(s). Use a spoon or spatula to spread to edges.

Bake for about 25 minutes for 8-inch pans, or about 35 minutes for 9x13 pan. Cake should turn golden on top and when a toothpick is inserted into center, it will come out clean.