Cornmeal Peach Cake

The summer has come to an end, which means the end of summer fruits and veggies...a sad time for the freshness of summer. However, bring on all the fall goodness!

Towson Farmers Market

Walking through the farmers market the other day, amongst all the apples and the squashes...still remained a few peaches. The last of the late summer peaches. So it wasn't hard for me to decide to pick some up. I will admit, I don't like just eating peaches; the fuzz drives me crazy. But I will bake with them! I haven't made anything real sweet as if late, and a sweet treat was due. This cake is not overly sweet, I believe you could easily make it sweeter by adding a peach glaze...yeah, a nice sweet glaze would make this cake even better. I'll need to get on that.

Making this cake dairy free is easy, I was going to attempt to make it vegan but I have not attempted egg whites and egg yolk replacers...if the eggs were not separated it would be easy to swap them out. If you know a yolk replacement I'd love to hear what you use!

Cornmeal Peach Cake

adapted from Lulu's Sweet Secrets

1/2 cup butter (or coconut oil)

1 cup coconut milk (I used vanilla)

4 large eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1 cup GF Cornmeal (I used Bob's Red Mill)

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tbsp baking powder

2 cups peaches, peeled and chopped

zest of one lemon

In a medium sauce pan, melt butter (or coconut oil), add the milk and simmer over low heat. Keep warm. 

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, slowly add the sugar. Mix cornmeal, flour, gum and powder in a bowl. Alternating, slowly add the milk mixture and the cornmeal/flour mixture. Combine well.

By hand, stir in the peaches and lemon zest. Pour into a greased and floured cake pan. Bake for about 40 minutes at 450 degrees.

Enjoy! What are some of your favorite ways to use peaches?

Fruit & Nut Bars

Sorry!

This post has been moved HERE, please visit my new site MintGrapefruit.com for more!

Pies for Pi Day!

This is an old post that I am bringing back just for National Pi Day, yes we all know it's not Pie day but still why not celebrate with a pie you can eat?  So, since I am wishing for warm weather here are some of my past summer pies... Note: the original recipes were before I went GF so therefore are NOT Gluten-free.  To make them gluten-free, you have a few options; substitute regular flour with a gluten-free version (a nut flour would be really tasty , you could buy a pre-made crust, or use could use a nut or GF cracker crust.

Blueberry Pie

1 basic pie crust, homemade or store bought

I added a dash of almond extract to my homemade pie dough, this is optional.

Filling:

5 cups fresh blueberries

3/4 cup sugar, more or less depending on the sweetness of the berries

3 tbsp cornstarch

Zest of one lemon

Juice of one lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl toss all the filling ingredients. Set aside. Roll out the dough for a 9" pie crust. Lay in pan and crimp edges. Pour filling into pie crust. Bake for about 50 minutes.

Strawberry & Hazelnut Cream Galette

1 basic pie crust

Filling:

2 cups fresh strawberries

2/3 cups blueberries (optional)

2/3 cups sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup hazelnut cream cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Roll out dough to about a 12" diameter circle. Place on parchment paper on a baking sheet.

Working from the center, spread the cream cheese out leaving about two inches around the edge. Pour the berry mixture onto the center, keeping about two inches around the edge.

Carefully fold over the edge of the pie crust. Sprinkle with sugar. Place in the oven and bake for about 50 minutes.

Citrus Pie

For the crust:
2 cups Graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup melted butter

For the filling:
Juice of 2 limes (about 1/4 cup)
Juice of half lemon
Juice of 1/4 grapefruit
(there should be a total of about 1/2 cup of juices combined)
About 2 tablespoons lime and lemon zest
1 - 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yokes
Candied lemon for garnish

Mix together the graham cracker and melted butter and press into a 9" pie dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Let cool.

Beat egg yokes. Add the milk and citrus juice and zest blend until smooth. Pour into cooled pie crust and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours.

Candied lemon: add 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar into a small sauce pan. Add sliced lemon. Let simmer for about 4-5 hours.

Enjoy!

Vegan Dark Chocolate {Gluten Free}

Craving chocolate? I was. With only three ingredients needed, I made some Vegan Dark Chocolate (and sprinkled some crushed almonds on top).

Phone Picture...not really a good one

To make this chocolate, you need coconut oil, agave syrup and cocoa powder.  That's it!

On low heat, melt 1/4 cup of coconut oil.  Once it is melted, remove from heat and add 3 tbsp agave syrup and 2/3 cup of dark cocoa powder.  Stir to combine. 

Once again, bad phone picture

Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil, pour the chocolate mixture. Sprinkle with nuts, dried fruit or anything else you may like.  Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator so the chocolate can set, it will only take about 10-15 minutes.

Break or cut into pieces. It turned out sort of bark like, with a softer consistency   You could probably pour into silicone molds if you wanted to.  I also think this would make a great chocolate base for peanut butter cups or peppermint patties. So stay tuned for some peanut butter cups...I am going to see if I can borrow a silicone mini muffin pan...yum!

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

We are currently out of chocolate syrup in our house, we always have chocolate syrup (it seems to be the only way I can get my son to drink milk).  Since, like I am sure many people are, I am trying not to spend money on things I don't have to and store bought chocolate syrup has fallen into that category.  Then I remembered that I saw something on Pinterest {Love Pinterest} about making your own, so I decided I would give it a try. There aren't many ingredients and I have them all so here it goes...

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

In a small saucepan, mix together sugar, cocoa, and salt.  Add water and whisk gently until well mixed. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and cook 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Cool.  Store in the refrigerator, fills a pint sized jar. Use just like you would normally use chocolate syrup; on ice cream, in milk, on a spoon...

I happened to still have the empty bottle of Hershey's Special Dark Syrup in our recycling so I pulled it out just to check the ingredients. Here is what is in the pre-made stuff, in the order written; High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Water, Cocoa processed with alkali, Sugar, 2% or less of; Salt, Mono- and Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Polysorbate 60, Vanillin, Artificial Flavor.  Yep, I must say I like making my own with just a few ingredients.  I think I may play around with the sugar, and maybe substitue some with honey and see how that goes.

A satisfied taster!

I wish I had some ice cream to drizzle it on...

Side note...

I also mixed up some Taco Seasoning today, also super simple. For about 3/4 cups of seasoning, I combined 3 tbsp chili powder, 3/4 tsp garlic powder, 3/4 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1-1/2 tsp paprika, 3-1/2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp salt, 3 tsp black pepper. I have it sealed in a jar waiting to be used.  I will let you know how it is after our next taco night.

Starting A Week Dairy-Free and Wholesome Sweeteners Review

One of the blogs I follow, Healthful Pursuit, started a 7-Day Dairy Free Challenge and as you may already know I have been on and off about trying to go dairy free for good for awhile now.  However, I have a cheese weakness; I love it.  It is because of cheese that I have never fully gone dairy free, I don't really drink milk unless I am using it for baking/cooking.  So seeing this challenge I jumped right on it, we will see how it goes.  (I am starting a little late due to the fact I kept putting milk in my coffee out of habit.)

I started this morning, and today has been fairly easy other than I really wanted real butter on my pancakes this morning.  The spread I have just doesn't cut it, but I can easily get a different dairy-free spread.  Today I also hosted a Mom's Meet, we sampled Wholesome Sweeteners Agave Syrups.  And since I can't just sample what they give me, I needed to figure out something to make that (1) was gluten-free, (2) dairy-free and (3) had to use Agave.  I checked out the Wholesome Sweeteners website for some ideas, and a few other sites I tend to linger too long on and decided on the Wholesome Sweeteners Strawberry Sangria and Berry Bliss Bars. {Notice the berry theme}

First, I want to say that the Agave Syrups were REALLY good.  We sampled 6 different flavors, Raw Blue Agave, Blue Agave, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Maple and Strawberry.  Our favorite by far was the Vanilla, if would be really good in teas, oatmeal, smoothies, or by the spoonful. I would recommend checking out their website for a lot more information but Wholesome Sweeteners is Fairtrade Certified and all organic, they agave syrups are also low-glycemic.  The only flavor we didn't really care for was the strawberry, it tasted too artificial.  The other flavor that we probably wouldn't buy, was the maple.  The flavor wasn't bad but we all agreed that we would rather just buy real maple syrup.  I would guess if you needed something low-glycemic then it may be a good substitute but if not then I don't see a reason to switch. We also sampled their Organic Stevia Packets, we didn't really care for them they just tasted like all the other artificial sweeteners out there. (If you use artificial sweeteners, let me know if you can taste a difference.) 

Now, on to the bars...Berry Bliss Oat Bars. I first saw pictures of these bars on the Healthful Pursuits blog, it was a guest post that then gave the link to, Oh How She Glows, which is also one of those blogs I tend to linger too long on too, she writes vegan recipes.  The original recipe uses Maple Syrup, I substituted with the Blue Agave Syrup; I also used gluten-free oats.

To see the original recipe check out; Oh How She Glows, Berry Bliss Oat Bars

Now on to the beverage...Strawberry Sangria. This was from the Wholesome Sweeteners recipe page. I made just a little tweak and used just the Blue Agave Syrup.

This is how I made it...really simple. In a pitcher, add 1 750-ml bottle of Rose` Wine, 1/4 cup of Agave Syrup, 1/3 cup of Raspberry Lemonade, 1-2 cups sliced strawberries and 2 cups ginger ale, stir and refrigerate. 

Enjoy!

{Gluten Free} Slutty Brownie Tarts

First of all I am going to say I feel really guilty that I made and ate these yesterday, even if it was just a half.  Why? Well I was talking to a friend who is also a personal trainer about getting toned up and having a session with him and of course he knows I bake...and here I go making a very not healthy dessert.  Go figure.  He isn't even my trainer (yet, maybe) and is already making me feel guilty, I guess that is a good thing? Anyway...on to the brownies (if you can even really call them that.)

I have made Slutty Brownies before, but used boxed mixes and they were not gluten free. If you don't know what a Slutty Brownie is, it is a layered treat made with chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate sandwich cookies, and brownies.  This is a time consuming dessert, especially if you make them from scratch. You could, and I have usually seen them made in a pan.  I used mini tart pans, just because I just bought them and I wanted to use them, plus they would hold ice cream well.  Since Oreos are not a GF food, and I decided not to make homemade GF oreos for this, I used K-Toos.  They are a GF, dairy free, all kinds of free sandwich cookie.

For the Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Make it & Love it, to see it click here

1 cup butter (softened)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cup GF four, I used Trader Joes
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. salt
12 oz. chocolate chips (Trader Joes has the best ones ever!)

1. Mix together the butter, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.  Add the sugars.  Shift together the flour, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.  Add to the butter sugar mixture.  Mix until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips. 

2. Press about 2-3 tablespoons of the dough into greased tart pans, set aside.  (You could use a13x9 baking dish also to make bar brownies.) 

{With the remaining dough, I just made cookies, scooping 1 tablespoon worth of dough on to a cookie sheet and baking for about 10-13 minutes at 350 degrees.}

3. Layer, the chocolate sandwich cookies on top of the cookie dough. I broke mine up a bit, that is optional.  I would keep them whole if you are making them into bars.

For the Brownies

adapted from Jesicakes, see original recipe here

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
3 tbsp Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil 
2 eggs
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp gluten free vanilla
3/4 cup GF flour blend

1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp  salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

4. Melt the butter, I used the microwave.  Stir the chocolate chips into the melted butter until completely melted.  Add the oil and cocoa powder. Mix well. Set aside.

5. Beat the eggs, add the sugar and vanilla. Add the chocolate butter mixture.  Mix well.

6. Sift together the dry ingredients, slowly add the the chocolate mixture.  Mix well.

7. Spoon some of the the batter on the top of the tart pan, just until covered. (Don't over fill) If using a 13x9 pan, pour all the batter over the cookies. 

8. Bake tarts for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Enjoy!

**Featured on Gluten Free Tuesday Linky 8/06/2013 with Easy Green Mama**

More {Gluten-Free} Cookies

Since I've been experimenting with cookies, I've decided to tackle two types that are not a "traditional" cookie.

The first is Potato Candy, I never even heard of potato candy until I met my husband. His grandmother always made it when she made all her other Christmas cookies. It is really simple and would be a good way to use a little of leftover mashed potatoes. I had some natural peanut butter leftover from my peanut butter cookies and we have a lot of potatoes, so it made sense to give them a try. Now, if you want to use up a bunch of potatoes, this isn't the way to do it; unless you want A LOT of candy. A little potato goes a long way. (I used a little more peanut butter then I probably should have, other than the oozing peanut butter, no one complained.)

The second, Coconut Macaroons.  I had some coconut and just really like them, so I made them! The original recipe called for some regular all-purpose flour so I altered it to make it GF.

Salted Flourless Chocolate Cookies (and a Month Gluten-Free)

My kitchen helper

I am about a month in to not eating any gluten; it has been a pretty good adventure so far.  I will admit I have had a few setbacks, but for the most part it has been pretty smooth.  I feel like I have explained myself and my reasons many times, but most people seem to understand (after first assuming I am doing it for weight loss.) I am not going to lie; the weight loss is a plus but not the reason. 

I finally made it back to my doctor, I explained how I was getting fed up with nothing helping (I was on three different medications) I felt like I was losing a battle.  I told her how my mom brought up celiac and cutting out gluten, and that I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try it.  I was concerned with what she would tell me, but it was all positive.  She explained how I still should take my one medication, since I was diagnosed with colitis, but I should keep up with the GF diet as well.  She went on to talk to me about other patients that suffer from both diseases and how they cope.  Since I haven’t been eating gluten, none of the tests would show a positive result for celiac.  But because of the family history I shared, she said there may be a chance I do suffer from it, and even if it isn’t full blown celiac, I definitely have an intolerance.  My choices would be to start eating gluten just for the test, an endoscopy, or hold off being tested but continue eating GF.  For now I am just going to continue on.  I feel better; I don’t need a test to tell me that, at least 
not right now.

Adding chocolate chips and nuts, so serious!

I made it through Thanksgiving and now we are in full swing into the Christmas season.  We plan on having Christmas dinner at our house this year, which I am excited about since I will be controlling the menu.  I don’t plan on making the whole meal GF; I can’t deprive my husband and son of rolls that would just be mean.  I have been looking around for some different ideas for the dinner menu, but I must admit my focus has been more on the cookies.  We are suckers for cookies in our house.  Plus we are doing a cookie exchange at work, so I need to figure out what I plan on making for that.

I already tried one batch of GF cookies, in my last post, now I am going to try to venture into more…I found a lot of recipes for GF Cookies on Foodgawker, I am planning to try out a few. 

iPhone picture

Salted Flourless Chocolate Cookies

(Inspired from Meaningful Eats) 

3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

½ cup chopped pecans

Coarse Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the sugar, cocoa and salt.  Slowly add egg whites and vanilla. Once all combined, stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.  

On a greased, or lined cookie sheet, add batter a teaspoon at a time.  The cookies will spread, so unless you want large cookies, use small mounds.  Sprinkle with the coarse salt.  Bake for about 15 minutes. (I made about 36 cookies)

The flavor of these cookies were really good and chocolaty, they were chewy and crisp at the same time.  They were also very thin (they would make great ice cream sandwiches.) I am not sure if my egg whites weren't quite warm enough or what.  I may play around with them a bit to see if I can make them "fluffier".  I will make these again.

Enjoy!

Cookies! (Gluten-Free and Peanut buttery)

This weekend was somewhat productive, I was able to finally get to the grocery store, cut my hair, hang out with friends and clean out my car. All were much needed. On a side note, before hanging out with our friends Friday evening, playing Quelf (which I highly recommend!) we ordered pizza from our favorite pizza place.  I am happy to say they now have a gluten free pizza which is pretty good, but not comparable to their regular pizza. With all that I was also was able to fit in Cookies!

Since not eating gluten I have been missing my something sweet after dinner. I am cheap frugal so I haven't been buying much in the way of pre-made / processed GF products. Therefore, no easy grab and go snacks or cookies. So, I decided to make my own! Here is a super easy peanut butter cookie with four ingredients (five if you add the chocolate chips) with ingredients that you probably already have. 

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (I used GF natural)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp GF vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine all the ingredients except the chocolate chips.  Carefully mix in the chips.  The dough will be slightly crumbly but that is okay.  Make tablespoon balls of the dough and roll in sugar.  Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet and gently flatten with a fork.  Bake for about 15 minutes, depending on your oven it may take more or less. Makes about 2 dozen.


I wasn't sure how these would turn out, but they had a really good flavor and texture.  If I knew the dough wouldn't spread, I probably would have flattened them a little more. But they were a hit with even the gluten eaters in the house.  I had to remind them that they can have some but remember that I can't eat theirs so make sure I get some of mine.  I plan on experimenting more with cookies since it is cookie season, I also really want to try making my own GF pasta, that may happen over my holiday break from work.  


Enjoy!

Sporty 3rd Birthday!

This year was a fun year for my sons birthday, this was the first year he really understood what was going on and he talked about for weeks before. Every morning he would talk about his party and who he wanted to invite, he told me what kind of cake he wanted, and he told us (what seemed like every minute) what toys and games he wanted. He was ready to turn 3! (It meant that he wasn't little anymore.)

Daddy and the birthday boy!

We originally wanted to have the party at the local fire house, but supposedly there was an event that day (I don't recall anything going on, which is very disappointing, hopefully it was just rescheduled). So we switched gears and went for a Sports Themed All-Star Party. We used our church fellowship hall which is also a gym, so there was plenty of room for kids to run. There was also a playground outside that we ended up using also. My son had a blast! He told us how much he liked it, it was great!

Here is what we did, the invitations were from Simone Made It, I really recommend her products, they were really easy to use and she has a pretty large variety of different party themed packages.

This is the one we used, the ticket invitation is what sold me!

www.simonemadeit.com

Even though I made up everything, I ended up only using the invitation and the bag toppers.  I ran out of time setting up and I decided I wasn't going to try to control a room of 2-3 year olds.

The cake is always my favorite part.  My son loves chocolate and that is all he wanted, I decided on doing half chocolate and half yellow.  He kept telling me he wanted a tiered cake like on the cover of Dr. Seuss' Happy Birthday to You!  But I wasn't going to make a tiered cake for a 3 year old.  I was looking on Pinterest, like I do way too often, and came across a really neat cake in the shape of a 3, so I used that as my inspiration. You can see my inspiration here.  It was really easy, make two bundt cakes and cut to form a 3, (I used boxed cakes so no recipes sorry.)  I decided to ice the cake to look like balls to keep with the theme. 

 I wish it was a little cleaner, but I must admit it is was hard to ice the inside of the bundts. No one seemed to mind other than me, or at least no one said anything.  

When it came to the other snacks, we decided to keep with ball park flavors.  We had "nachos", Corn dog bites, peanuts, and just for a healthy alternative, a veggie platter.

Since I couldn't eat the cake, I decided that I wanted the snacks to be GF so I could enjoy them also.  For the nachos, I made a really quick queso of Velveeta and Ro*tel served with corn chips. For every 16 oz. of Velveeta I used one 10 oz. can of Ro*tel.

The corn dogs, I must admit I was really excited about these.  I used a mini muffin pan, you could use a larger one but I wanted hot dog in each bite.  I made corn muffins, using Bob's Red Mill GF Corn Bread Mix and added a piece of hot dog to each muffin, about 1/2 inch slice.  Baked them according to the package, they only took about 12-15 minutes. They were so good, I could have eaten the whole batch! 

I think the party went well, my son told me he had a great time with his friends.  I will definitely have his parties some where other then our house from now on, or at least until he decides to only have a couple friends over (which hopefully will be soon.) I have a lot of ideas for future parties, granted if he will think they are as cool as I do, well that is a different story all together.  

Some random birthday pictures:

Getting ready to blow out the candles!

Outside playing with friends!

My First Gluten-Free Thanksgiving (with recipes)

I have to admit I was kind of dreading and excited for this thanksgiving. I love thanksgiving, all the great food that usually triggers memories. I love spending the day with my family, kids running around, drinking wine and eating too much.

Since I have been married we have tried to alternate holidays with both our families, sometimes it works well and sometimes things come up that make it a little harder. There have been a few years where my husband has had to work on thanksgiving and he always has to work the day after so traveling is usually out of the question. This year we did something different and spent the day with our good friends.

Our wonderful hosts!

We didn't realize where we were going to go until a week before, I knew out of our options what I would be able to eat would be limited and therefore had it in my head what I was going to make no matter where we went. Stuffing and gravy. There ended up being about at least 30 people (including kids) so I made two different stuffing's  one that was gluten free and the other was not, but both were very similar.  I also can't do a Thanksgiving without a pie, so I also made a GF Apple Pie. (Recipes below)

GF Apple Pie and GF Pear & Raspberry Cobbler

Buffet Table

The menu included the normal staples for a Thanksgiving meal (or at least what I am used to); there was a 25 lb. turkey, two hams, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, stuffing, a broccoli casserole, mac-n-cheese and of course pies. The only thing that I missed, that I thought I wouldn't ever miss was cranberry sauce. There was a lot of food, I knew that I couldn't eat most if any of the casseroles but I did taste the sweet potato.  I also brought along my own gravy, which was not the same as homemade with the drippings. 

GF Stuffing with Sausage

Gluten-Free Stuffing with Sausage

(Both stuffing recipes were adapted from my dads traditional stuffing recipe) 

For the gluten-free stuffing:

1/2 loaf GF bread (I used Rudi's)
1 box of GF Cornbread prepared (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 pound pork sausage (make sure GF, I bought mine from a butcher)
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup onion, chopped
1 tbsp. fresh thyme
1 tbsp fresh sage
3-4 cups GF chicken broth
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the cornbread, (I only used half, save the other half just to enjoy), cube the breads and place on a cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes just until dried out, but not brown. Set aside to cool.

Brown the sausage in a large skillet, once it is cooked through carefully remove the sausage to let drain.  Add the celery and onion to the sausage drippings and cook until tender. Add the sausage back to the pan and stir to combine.  Add the thyme and sage.  Add about one cup of the broth and stir picking up any bits that may be left on the pan.  Put sausage mixture aside to cool, just until it can be handled with out burning your fingers.

Once the sausage mixture is cooled, add the eggs and about another cup of the broth, mix well.  I used my hands.  Pour over the bread and toss to combine, depending on how moist you like your stuffing, add a little more broth over the whole dish.  Bake covered at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes, uncover and cook for an additional 20-25 minutes.

For the Regular (non-GF) Version; do all of the same except use a whole loaf of old old white bread, or your favorite type of bread, instead of the GF bread.

GF Apple Pie

GF Apple Pie

This is my recipe, it is never the same because I never really measure anything, I will do my best, but the flavors can be adjusted to your liking.

For the GF Crust

2 cups GF All Purposed Four Mix (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 tsp. Xantham Gum
1/2 tsp. salt
1 and a half sticks of cold butter (3/4 cups), cut into cubes
ice water (about 2-3 tbsp.)

Put the flour, xantham gum and salt in the food processor (feel free to do this by hand but the food processor makes it so easy), add the butter and pulse until the butter in combined. Slow stream in a little of the water, add just about a tsp at a time.  Keep pulsing until dough is formed, remove and separate into two flattened balls, cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.  (You can make this a head to save time)

For the Apple Filling

8-10 medium apples, I usually use a mix of different apples, I have even added firm pears, use what you like.
juice of half a lemon
1 cup white sugar
3 tbsp. ground cinnamon, (more or less depending on your taste)
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 cup apple cider or juice (optional)

Peel and thinly slice the apples. Place the apples in a large bowl, squeeze the lemon over the apples (to keep from browning).  Sprinkle the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg over the apples, toss to combine.  If you plan on doing this the day before, add the cider.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.  

Prepare the pie, remove the dough from the refrigerator   Roll one dough ball out to about a 1/4 inch thickness, and place on the bottom of the pie pan.  Add the apples, there will be a big mound. Roll out the second dough ball, place on top of the apples and pinch the edged sealing both the top and bottom crust together.  Poke a few hole on top using a fork, you can brush the top of the crust with egg yoke or butter if you would like, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees, for 60-70 minutes.  Cover loosely with foil, remove the foil for the last 20 minutes just to make sure it browns.  You don't want to burn the crust!  Note: You may want to line the bottom of the oven with foil, in case of juice drips.

Now for some random pictures...

My wonderful husband after dinner

Me and my son

First round of after dinner wrestling

Round two

Moms Meet: Zevia Natural Soda Review & GF Mountain Zevia Cupcakes

First off this has been a busy weekend, we have been ripping up the flooring out of the basement and keeping up with our other normal weekend activities.  Two of our neighbors came over to help my husband and they really knocked it out, while I was upstairs with four boys.  Early in the day I decided to test myself with some gluten-free baking (don't get too excited I used mixes.)  I made a Banana Apple Bread (which I will post later) and Mountain Zevia Cupcakes. I knew the cupcakes were a hit when I needed to keep all the boys (big boys included) away from them. They also had a chance to try the Zevia soda, they had mixed feelings about the sodas flavor and tried adding some mix-ins  to help. But that review will come in a minute...

Zevia sodas are a natural, zero calorie soda that is naturally sweetened by stevia.  You can find them at most grocery stores that have a selection of natural foods. When I receive the package from Zevia, it contained 24 soda; 12 different flavors, an apron and a spatula  So with that I felt I needed to bake.  The cake recipe that they sent with everything called for cake mix and a soda, those were the only two ingredients. Since I am gluten-free I was weary about just using the GF cake mix and soda so I did a little research and settled for this: 

Cake

1 box cake mix (I used King Arthur's GF yellow cake)

4 eggs

1/2 cup vanilla pudding (GF of course)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

8 oz. Mountain Zevia

Glaze

4 oz. Mountain Zevia (the remaining from a 12 oz. can)

3-4 tbsp. powdered sugar

Mix all the cake ingredients together, and pour into greased muffin pan. (This made 12 regular size cupcakes and 36 mini cupcakes.) Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 min for the mini and 20-25 for the regular.

While the cakes are cooking, make the glaze.  Heat the soda in a small sauce pan over medium heat until simmering.  Whisk in the powdered sugar.  Spoon over the hot cakes.

Now for the review...the overall review was that some flavors were okay some were a fail, and they were not worth the cost (about $6+ for a six pack).  The sodas all had an after taste that we just didn't seem to care for, I don't know if it was the stevia or what.  I feel like if you are a true soda drinker, you will not like these. If you don't ever drink sodas then you may enjoy them, they are sweet, wet and carbonated.  All have natural caffeine (except the caffeine free ones).  Now if you are like me, I don't drink a lot of sodas but occasionally I do crave a dark soda.  My usual go to's are Dr. Pepper, Birch Beer, or just a diet Coke.  These sodas aren't able to fulfill those cravings. 

Here is a quick run down on each flavor we tried...

Cola - we all though it seem flat and watered down
Dr. Zevia - not anything like Dr. Pepper, so don't get confused. 
Mountain Zevia - to drink, Fail. To cook with great. 
Grape - that one was pretty good, but it did taste a little like medicine
Black Cherry - We liked this one, it still had the after taste but I would drink it if some one handed it to me.
Lemon-Lime - uh, could take it or leave it.
Grapefruit - personally this was my favorite, it was refreshing
Orange - we never actually opened it. Sorry.
Caffeine Free Cola - same as the cola
Ginger Root Beer - this one was disappointing, it smelled really good but the flavor was off.
Ginger Ale - this one was ok, but I was expecting the bite you get from a real ginger ale (like Reed's)
Cream Soda - same as the root beer, disappointing. Only my husband seemed to like this one.

So if I had a really good coupon, I may purchase one or two of the flavors but if I want a soda, I want a real one, one with all that syrupy goodness.  I know that is awful, but oh well.