oh vanilla, where have you gone?

Any who have been reading my small blog knows my addiction to cookbooks. Especially when they yield fabulous recipes; however, when you follow a recipe exactly and it does a belly flop into the kiddie pool, it is annoying- to say the least. Babycakes cookbook has in the past always produced amazing, delicious stuff! The chocolate cupcakes are to die for! So I am unsure what happened this weekend- the vanilla cupcakes had good texture, but the color and taste was off; they tasted healthy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but not what I am going for. And there wasn't even any rice flour! So I will be tinkering with this recipe before I post it online; I am posting pictures though, in case any who would peruse here have any thoughts about what I did exactly that cause the two tone color shift in the cupcakes.
Now I have noticed that many of the Amazon reviews for Babycakes absolutely revile Erin for her frosting and that angers me slightly. Yes coconut oil is expensive, however how often are you making cupcakes with frosting? Everything else in the cupcakes is things most gfree bakers have on hand. And I have to say I have never had an issue with the chocolate frosting. And I didn't really have an issue with the vanilla frosting either- with the small exception that I inadvertently turned it green. I can not do soy, so I substitute hemp protein powder for the soy milk powder-easy peasy, lemon cheesy, right-o? Normally yes. However, when I traveled to Whole Food this past weekend there were out of the vanilla flavor of my beloved hemp protein powder. A lovely person who was on staff recommended a new protein powder they just got in, also hemp based and has no soy, whey or sugar! Woohooo! I was so excited about this and the fact that it came in vanilla chai flavor I did not look at the ingredient list as closely as I should have- it also had chlorophyll in it along with the other vitamins. Vitamins are good! And in the chocolate frosting it gives me secret pleasure to know that people are eating healthy vitamins and minerals in their frosting. But while chlorophyll is great for your body, it has one small drawback to achieving a creamy white vanilla frosting- it is green. As in Kermit the frog GREEN, I tell you. (see picture above) The cookbook does tell you that chlorophyll is a great way to naturally color frosting and let me tell you works beautifully. I am just not sure green colored frosting is the way to go. And while it was creamy and fluffy, the one problem with the Babycakes frosting is that when it heat hits it, it melts.(It also doubles as sauce.) So my poor healthy cupcakes sitting on the picnic table yesterday after a wee bit looked covered in drippy moss. Needless to say, I have lots of them leftover and I will try one of the recipes that calls from crumbs! Hopefully, by the time I have added more agave and other ingredients they will have lost their odd healthy flavor and just taste sinfully delicious.

ode to the blogosphere

There is such an amazing resource out there for those in need of speciality diets: the no gluten, no sugar, no dairy, no soy-recipes that match all of these can be found out in the blogosphere. I used to wonder at those who set up blogs; I couldn't fathom who would have so much extra time and energy to put whatever they chose to send out into the electronic world. Now, I consistently visit this world to learn about cooking with specific requirements for Leslie. I sign up to receive their hard work and knowledge via email and rss feeds. I stalk them on twitter. (that sounds scary, but really, isn't that what twitter is?? scads of people stalking each other over the internet?) One such blogger is Amy Green and she recently posted a recipe for strawberry orange cornmeal cake that I had to try! So off I went to the market, only to find blueberries, not strawberries were on sale. I could do blueberries, I said to myself. With lemon! This could work. Then I subbed applesauce for the egg and almond milk (Amy's suggestion)with tablespoon of apple cider vinegar swished in it for the buttermilk. I also used a gfree flour mix, as I didn't have sorghum flour by itself. They didn't rise as high as the original, but I think that is because the batter was spread thinner in the bigger pan; next time I will double the recipe. The mongering hordes polished off an 8x8 pan of this cake, so I think my small changes to Amy's recipe worked too. And, be very proud of me- I got not one, but two pictures!

EDIT: Amy mentioned in her comment below some ways to get more lift to the cake if you are not eating eggs- I am going to try to use the baking soda soon and will post how it goes!

I have posted this to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday. :)

Blueberry Lemon Cornmeal Cake

3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon gluten free flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mills)
1/4 cup stone ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon flax meal
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 cup safflower oil (Amy used grapeseed-but I didn't have that on hand)
1/4 cup raw honey
1/4 cup almond milk + 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (Amy used buttermilk)
1/4 cup applesauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degreesF. Coat an 8x8 cake pan with oil. Now, Amy used 4 6 ounce ramekins-do as you will.
Measure out the almond milk, then add the tablespoon of apple cider vinegar; stir and set aside.
Combine flour mix, cornmeal, baking powder, flax meal, salt and xanthan gum in a medium/largish mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk together oil, honey, almond milk with cider, applesauce, zest and vanilla.
Make a well in the cornmeal mixture. Pour in the liquid ingredients and mix until just combined. Gently fold in the blueberries. Pour into your 8x8 pan or your ramekins. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean. If you do the ramekins, Amy says 28 minutes for them and to make sure they are placed on a baking sheet, not just tossed pell mall into your oven. Okay, she didn't say that exactly, she's way nicer than me, but you know what I mean. Let cool on baking rack. Leftovers can be wrapped and frozen if you don't live in my house; I never have that problem. Makes 4 individual cakes or feeds average size pieces of cake for 6.

free at last!

Ok, anybody who is baking with gluten free ingredients hears all about the gum issue-xanthan vs guar, which is better and how they enrich the dough so that it can mimic the properties of gluten which we can no longer have. I have baked with both and I have been amazed at what they can do. I also am a little peeved sometimes at the gumminess of my crumb or an odd after taste. Previously, I reduced the quantity of the gum to see what that would do and then I would be happier with the finished product; after all, isn't that was gfree baking is all about, tinkering with this, fiddling with that in hopes of a kick ass recipe that will delight us and be healthy and taste good-not oh I-am-happy-you-made-this-for-me-fake-smile good, but omg!-I-don't-miss-anything-I-am-not-supposed-to-have good. Last week I had accidental progress, as I spaced putting in xanthan gum into my lemon cupcakes- and they still came out great! Inspired, I wondered what else can I do without xanthan gum? And on sale were blueberries, buy one get one free! Well, it was a sign! Especially since the last couple of batches or so of blueberry muffins I was not happy with. For my normal gluten with dairy muffins I use a hybrid of the recipes by Lisa Yockelson in her fabulous book Baking by Flavor and the recipe in James Peterson's Baking. James Peterson has some awesome food photography and everything is explained precisely in words and in a picture tutorial- the whys & wherefores, the things you need to know to bake, period.(I adore James Peterson for this reason and he does the same in his other books, Sauces & Cooking-both of which I also have). One might be asking, why would someone who is baking gfree and vegan care about regular cookbooks? Because you have to know how everything works with gluten; if you don't, you will find it hard to replicate that gfree. This recipe does have sugar and I know many who are tying to lessen the sugar or do without completely; sorry that I have yet to come up with a blueberry muffin recipe that uses something else. The first few attempts at using agave nectar resulted in blobs that threatened a hostile take over of my oven. I think evaporated cane sugar would work, and I would love to try palm sugar at some point; I was sadly out of both of those last night.

7/4/10 EDIT: I wanted to succeed in making these sugar free as well, so I have been quietly experimenting with these (praise be, we've had a glut of blueberries) and I think we have a winner! I used 1/2 cup of raw wildflower honey instead of the sugar and they taste great :) One caveat though-the first time I made these with honey, they fell apart as soon as they were peeled out of the paper liner. The next time, I added 1 tablespoon more of my g-free flour mix and a scant 1/8 teaspoon of xanthan gum-SUCCESS! At least we think so :)They honey makes them a really pretty deeper brown, but still gives a crunch to the top crust. And I will add the picture I took before they were devoured-as soon as I figure out how to label it :) thanks for being patient with me as I learn :)

I have also submitted this for June's Go Ahead Honey, It's Gluten Free

This is also linked to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday :)

Gfree, Vegan Blueberry Muffins

1/2 coconut oil (or butter for you who can have dairy)
1 cup gfree flour mix (I am partial to Bob's Red Mills)
scant 1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons brown rice flour (I am partial to Authentic foods)
2 tablespoons potato starch
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
scant 3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup yogurt (I used coconut milk, but do as you will. the orginal recipe called for sour cream)
1/4 cup milk ( I used almond, as it was in the fridge and open)
1 pint blueberries
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degreesF. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. Now, you could do that grease&flour farrago, but gfree crumbs tend not to bind too tight- I think the cupcake liners help hold everything in, but do as you will.
Whisk in a medium sized bowl the flours, starches, spices, baking powder &soda. Set aside. Put the sugar in a large bowl and add coconut oil; mix together. I do this on medium speed in my Kitchen Aid. Add the flour mix, a little at a time to the sugar mix, reserving 2 tablespoons for the blueberries. Add the applesauce, yogurt and milk and mix well. Take your pint of blueberries and toss them with the 2 tablespoons of the flour mix, making sure they are coated. Now add the lemon juice to the batter and mix just til incorporated. Add the coated blueberries and fold them in by hand with a spatula. Try and do this all quickly, as the lemon juice is activating the baking soda for some lift. Drop 1/4cup mounds of dough into the prepared muffin tins. Bake for 25 minutes, or until they are golden brown and a toothpick comes clean. Your kitchen will also smell divine. Makes 12 standard size muffins.

a happy accident

Have you ever forgotten to add something to your recipe and then liked they way it turned out better? It was just such a rare and encouraging happenstance that occurred at my house this past weekend. We had a dinner party, everybody bringing such good g-free foods- taquitos with corn tortillas, a homemade spicy chili oil with garlic, a vinegary tangy coleslaw and my spicy mango chicken salad. Again, I got absolutely no pictures of any of those; I am such a bad food blogger! But I did get pictures of my new and improved lemon baby cakes! The previous recipe I had posted was good, but I thought I could make it better with a little different mix of flours- and I was right. It appears in small quantities, brown rice flour can give you that fine, tender crumb but not impart a super healthy taste. And I also wanted to try reducing the xanthan gum, as sometimes it can impart a gummy mouth feel I am not impressed with. That was the grand plan; however I completely forgot to add the xanthan gum! But they rose beautifully in the oven and they tasted fantastic!! So I have edited the previously posted recipe to reflect the new quantities; I still have 1/2 a teaspoon of xanthan gum listed, as that is what I was going to try and thought I should leave up because you always hear horror stories about g-free baking without xanthan gum. (Maybe this no xanthan gum thing was a one time only happy moment. You never know.) I also tried the coconut cream whipped cream again- progress in this as well. It really does need a super COLD bowl, so my bowl was in for three hours and it did whip up a bit stiffer, but still not whipped dairy cream consistency so will continue to jigger with this a bit too. I also tried to make these wonderful puffs that Shirley came up with without eggs this weekend, substituting flax seed meal, but there was no puff! Saddened, I had to postpone fiddling with this recipe again so that I wouldn't be that hostess who never leaves the kitchen during her dinner parties; however, fear not, as I will try again at the earliest opportunity. And really, there will be more pictures. I promise. You know, eventually.

I also linked this post to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

Yes, yes I do need that!

There are, admittedly, many kitchen gadgets that just take up space awkwardly and serve no useful purpose. However, none of those are in my kitchen, despite what the naysayers yammer on about. What prompted this post? My beloved mango slicer from Oxo! Yes, it does look odd, however it is perfectly designed to cut a swath around the seed of the mango, leaving me with only the luscious fruit inside. I love summer when mangoes appear with such abundance; I have smoothies, I make Indian-esque curries and soups and, let's be honest- I eat it plain, right off the skin. It is just sooo yummy. And when I made chicken salad with mangoes, it was just the perfect summer lunch; it was also gfree & dairy free! So even though I didn't beat the mongering hordes to grab any pictures (apologies, I really do need to practice that) I thought I would post the recipe for the blog to balance out all my sweet recipes. It is adapted from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer cookbook (yes, yes I do really like her) and is perfect for leftover chicken; in fact, that is how she presents the recipe and called it Golden Jubilee chicken salad (for the year of creation, not because the Queen ate it. Although, she should, it is that good). I, however, feel it is totally and completely worthy of roasting chicken for! So that is what I did, and I am fairly sure you will agree once you have eaten this.

I also posted this on Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

Spicy Mango Chicken Salad

7-8 chicken breasts (I did boneless skinless, as that was what was on sale.)
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons safflower oil (or oil of your choice)
3-4 mangoes (or more if you are a mango lover)
1-2 serrano chiles (or more if you like really spicy)
1 teaspoon coconut sap sugar (this could be omitted, but I like the bit of flavor it adds, plus it helps macerate the fruit; do as you will)
7-8 limes (yes, I know this is LOTS of lime juice, but you will be drizzling oil over)
3/4 cup cilantro, chopped (cilantro seems to be divisive, so adjust quantities as you will. but the flavor is marvelous, so please just don't edit it out. unless you are allergic/intolerant)
Small head of butter lettuce (or your leafy green of choice)
Additional Oil for drizzling.

Preheat oven to 350 degreesF.

In a skillet over medium/high heat, add spices and stir til everything is smelling aromatic, maybe 1 minute or so. Now add the 2 tablespoons of oil & whisk together. Have your chicken breasts in a roasting pan, 9 x 13 Pyrex, whatever you are roasting them in. Brush the chicken with the spice/oil mixture, evenly coating all the breasts. Bake them for 35-40 minutes, til the are done, registering 170 degrees on your thermometer (which is my favorite kitchen gadget evah! I <3 thermo pen).
At this point, I cover the chicken and stick in the refrigerator overnight. Then when I am ready to serve salad I combine the fruit and chicken; however, feel free to cool the chicken down and do this all in one setting.
Now I use my much adored Oxo mango slicer and pit my mangoes, then chop them into rough squares, putting them in a large bowl. Chop the Serrano chile(s); if you like heat, leave the seeds, if not then seed the chiles as well and add to mangoes. Add the coconut sap sugar. Squeeze all the lime juice over the mangoes & chiles. Stir to combine. Now, at this point I usually put a cover my bowl and put in the refrigerator overnight as I like to let the flavor combination develop; again, feel free to carry on with out this.
Now, that the chicken is cold, chop it into rough cubes. Add to the mango mixture and toss/stir well to combine. Add the cilantro and stir again. Now, divide your butter lettuce (which I use since I agree with Nigella in that it pairs beautifully with the aggressive flavors of chicken & mangoes, but do as you will) onto however many plates you are using. Scoop out the chicken salad onto the bed of lettuce and drizzle just a bit of oil over the top (Nigella used peanut or sesame, but for those with allergies choose wisely). This serves 8-10 (I am really not joking about the mongering hordes) but also keep well for a day or two, so is good for leftovers.

biscuit love, baby

Any person from the South will tell you that any kitchen that does not produce biscuits is not a kitchen. Biscuits are the staple- you have them for breakfast, you have them with roast, and you even use them for dessert. Now, traditional Southern biscuits are usually made with low protein white flour; I have a bag of White Lily flour for just such a purpose, or you could also use cake flour because that low protein is what gives them that ethereal fluffiness, that lightness of crumb that tastes divine right out of the oven and even better with butter. But how do you make fluffy biscuits gluten, dairy & soy free? Fortunately, I did not have to much figuring out myself! Once again Cybele Pascal's Baker's Handbook had a fabulous recipe for baking powder biscuits! I changed it up a little, as tinkering is just a part of my nature, and I liked the texture of a little more cornstarch, the coconut flour & believe it or not just a bit of brown rice flour. The solid dairy free, soy free vegetable shortening stood in for butter. Anyone who has ever put Crisco in the freezer to bake knows that it never quite gets solid in the freezer, so it works perfectly; however, Spectrum makes their shortening with palm oil. Which gets SOLID. I had to grate it on a box grater into the flour mix! However, that is actually a technique(I found out later)that the Cook's Illustrated people use to get precisely even amounts of fat into their biscuit recipe. I also did not use a biscuit cutter; in my family we made biscuits round by pulling off part of the dough, gently patting it into a vaguely round shape, and then dropping them onto the hot cookie sheet. The other traditional thing I did was oven temperature; I cranked the oven to 500 degrees to preheat. Then when I put in the biscuits in, I immediately turn the oven down to 400 degrees; the initial boost of heat helps boost the volume of the biscuit, helping to achieve that coveted fluffiness. I will say these are not the same as grand mama's biscuits-but they are flat out amazing for being gluten free vegan biscuits. You can see in the picture we used some of the leftover biscuits for strawberry shortcake (notice the whipped rice cream from a can!) Love the biscuit, baby!
I also linked this post to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.

G-free, Vegan Biscuits

3 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (I like Bob's Red Mills)
2 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons corn starch (if you can't do corn, sub as needed)
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 tablespoons brown rice flour (I like Authentic foods)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 tablespoons double acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon evaporated cane juice
1 cup dairy free, soy free vegetable shortening, chilled (I like Spectrum-if you want to grate it into your flour, measure this cup at room temp, then put in the freezer. otherwise, measure the cup and put in fridge)
2 cups plain yogurt (I used coconut)

Preheat oven to 500 degreesF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together your flours, starches, xanthan gum, salt, cane juice, & baking powder.
Now, grate your frozen shortening into your four mix. Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers until you have a pea sized crumb, and when compressed the flour mix holds together. Add the yogurt and stir until just combined, making sure you incorporate the crumbs at the bottom of the bowl. Okay, if you just can't make biscuits without a biscuit cutter, dust a work area with gfree flour mix. GENTLY pat dough into a 1 inch thick disc, pressing in any loose bits. Use a 2 1/2 inch floured round biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Cut them as close together as possible and DO NOT rotate the biscuit cutter- straight up and down, in and out of the dough. Transfer biscuits to baking sheet. (you can also brush the tops with milk of your choice, for shiny topped biscuits) Now, I just pull off a racquetball sized piece of dough, GENTLY pat it into a 1 inch disc (maybe 2-3 pats, max- the less you handle to dough, the better your biscuits will be) and transfer to the baking sheet. Repeat until all biscuit dough is gone. The biscuit cutter will garner you 12 biscuits. You get 14 with my grand mama's method. Now as soon as you put the biscuits in the oven, TURN DOWN the temperature to 400 degreesF. Bake in center of oven for 20-25 minutes, until they are golden. Transfer to rack to cool or eat warm.

celebration of 100 days not eating food

Because Leslie is intolerant of so many things, it has become our joke that she is allergic to food. Following her diet is hard, especially when you have a crazy work schedule and tempting food is always there. So when Leslie told me she had been strictly following her diet for hundred days, I felt there should be celebration! There was pork roast, salad, and roasted mashed sweet potatoes, all gfree and veganish(I say veganish, because I doubt pork is technically vegan, but no dairy products). And for dessert I made baby lemon cakes, adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess because they are some of our favorite lemon cakes to be had. And the recipe lent itself, I think, quite easily to adapting to gfree, but also no dairy products. I replaced the dairy yogurt with coconut, eggs with applesauce, butter with coconut oil and the flour with my gfree mix. Nigella makes it with a powdered sugar &lemon juice icing, but I had been reading on several good people's blogs about the joy that is whipped coconut cream! I must try it!! As you can see from my picture, for whatever reason it did not whip to the same heights as traditional whipped cream, but it was delicious! I will have to experiment with this all again; most blogs told you to leave the cans in overnight and to put the bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer a good 3 hours before whipping. Uh huh. My bowl and whisk attachment were in the freezer maybe an hour, although my coconut milk in the can was in refrigerator overnight. Next time I will see if freezing the bowl for longer makes that much of a difference. I will also try to practice my food photography; on everybody else's blog all the food is soo pretty! Examples: I've linked this post to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday. :)



Baby Lemon Cakes

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used coconut)
6 tablespoons coconut oil (Nigella used melted butter, and you measure coconut oil after you've melted it! how perfect was that?)
1/2 cup of applesauce
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1/2 cup of gfree flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mills)
1 tablespoon finely ground brown rice flour (Authentic foods)
1 tablespoon of potato starch
1 tablespoon of tapioca starch
2 tablespoons of coconut flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum
7 tablespoons of sugar


Preheat oven to 350 degreesF. Nigella calls for a baby bundt pan; I used a baby loaf pan. You could also do cupcakes! Whatever pan you use, prepare with liners or grease& flour.

Mix together in large bowl the yogurt, applesauce, zest of 1 lemon and then the juice of that lemon. Nigella uses this juice for her icing, but since i am planning on coconut cream, I just dumped it in the batter. (I am strangely impulsive that way, plus I figured the juice would react with the baking soda and help with lift since there are no eggs)

Whisk together the flours, starches, sugar, baking soda, & xanthan gum in a medium bowl. Melt the coconut oil; measure out 6 tablespoons and add to the yogurt mixture. Add the dry ingredients to the yogurt mixture and mix til just incorporated.

Portion out into your prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. It took 25 for my little baby loaf pan, but the cupcakes only took 20. Basically, when they are lightly brown and your kitchen is redolent of lemon, they are done. They also spring back when touched. Makes 6 baby bundts/loaves or 9 cupcakes.