Hi there! I've been gone for a while. On top of last week being crazy, my computer was a bit on the fritz. However, los padres came to visit me this weekend and brought my new computer! Yay! On top of actually working all the time, it's really neat! I will post pictures of it, as well as pictures of the food I made for Thanksgiving, and other food I have been making! :) See you soon!

So the power went out for a little over an hour last night. That set back my baking extravaganza that much more.

And my baking extravaganza turned into a near baking disaster.

I say near, because somehow, my two attempts turned out rather well. Somehow.

The making of the batter went alright, though it smelled a little odd when it was baking. It was stickier than regular batter, though that seems to be true of most gluten-free things. I greased and floured (with coconut oil and sweet rice flour) a 10 x 15 pan, and it came out of the pan just fine after I took it out of the oven, and I put it on a floured towel, and it rolled really well too, minimal crackage.

I had to chill the filling (more about that below), and after it was cold and stiffened up a bit, I unrolled the cake to fill it. The cake unrolled just fine, with just a little cracking.

Here is where the exciting part came. Though stiffer, the filling was still a bit thinner than ideal. I figured that if I got it rolled quickly and onto the plate, it would be fine. That may have held true, except....

The cake stuck to the towel a little, in uneven spots. This combined with the filling oozing everywhere led to the cake breaking a little, and filling going all over the towel, the table, and -yes- even the floor. I somehow managed to get the cake rolled and onto the plate, with it still looking like a roll, kind of. However, this was not good enough, as the plate was just as wide as the roll, and filling continued to drizzle out the ends onto the table. I grabbed a covered cake pan that just so happened to be clean and sitting out, and moved it (again miraculously without breaking it) to the pan, scraped what filling I had salvaged from the plate over the roll, covered it, and put it in the fridge. This left me with a rather large mess. However, the cake in the morning did not look nearly as bad as I thought it did at that point.



I made the filling with one 5.3 oz package of soft, mild goat cheese, 1 cup of sugar + one filled empty goat cheese container, 6 Tbsp coconut oil, 1 tsp. vanilla, and a short can of crushed pineapple. It was a little thin, so I beat in a little Xanthan gum, heated it in a double boiler, and added a Tbsp or so of sweet rice flour.



Though a little flat, it turned out very tasty.



Recipe!

*3/4 c. Gluten free flour blend
*1/2 tsp. baking powder
*1/2 tsp baking soda
*1/2 tsp nutmeg
*1/2 tsp cloves
*1/4 tsp salt
*6 Tbsp potato starch + water to moisten (or three eggs)
*1 c. granulated sugar
*2/3 c. mashed pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10 by 15 inch jelly roll pan (I used a cookie sheet of the same size).
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Beat egg substitute and sugar until creamy, then beat in pumpkin.
4. Stir in flour mixture.
5. Spread evenly into pan, put in heated oven for 13-15 minutes (check after ten) until center of cake springs back when touched lightly.
6. Immediately loosen and turn out onto floured towel (make sure to saturate the thing with flour (or powdered sugar, those of you that eat corn products- in case you didn't know, there is cornstarch in powdered sugar).
7. Roll cake from 10 in. side, set aside to cool a little. Once filling is mixed and cake is cooled to warm, unroll cake, make sure it's not stuck to the towel, spread filling on it, and roll it back up, and transfer it to serving dish.
8. Chill in refrigerator for at least one hour before slicing and enjoying.

Then I decided to make cookies. They turned out super good, and are even chewy and crispy and taste like cookies! Without the use of eggs, milk, wheat, or other glutinous substances. :)







Recipe!

***To make chocolate-coconut crumbles: In double boiler, combine a couple tablespoons of sugar, and about half that coconut oil. Melt together. Sugar won't dissolve completely. After you are satisfied with that (it really depends on how long you want to spend), add two squares of baking chocolate. After this has melted for a while and is as close to smooth as you want it, mix a couple tablespoons of sugar in a little water and microwave for 30 second increments, stirring between, until sugar starts to caramelize. Stir into the chocolate mixture. Add several Tablespoons of dried, unsweetened coconut, stir thoroughly. It should crumb. I did this in no exact way, so hopefully if you feel like attempting this, it works for you.

*3/4 c. coconut oil
*1-2 tsp. butter flavoring
*1/2 c. EACH brown and white sugar
*1/4 c. rice milk
*1 tsp. vanilla extract
*1-1/4 c. gluten free flour blend (with xanthan, if your blend doesn't have xanthan, add one tsp. to dry mixture) (see above recipe for link)
*1 tsp. baking soda
*chocolate-coconut crumbles.

1. Cream together coconut oil, butter flavoring, and sugars.
2. Beat in rice milk and vanilla extract.
3. Stir together dry ingredients, mix into sugar mixture.
4. Fold in crumbles.
5. Roll into balls, place three or so inches apart on cookie sheet, and bake for 8-12 minutes, or until they look brown and crispy about the edges.
6. After removing from oven, let rest for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. 7. After cool, move to plate and serve. Keep extra in air-tight container.

I discovered a wonderful thing- Artificial Butter flavoring.



Okay, so it might go against my purist attitude, but cookies can taste like cookies again! :)

Gluten-free, egg-free, milk-free Chocolate Spice Cookies

* 1/2 cup Sugar
* 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
* 1/4 cup Coconut oil, soft but not liquified (or butter)
* 2 Tbsp potato starch + 1-1/2 Tbsp liquid (or 1 egg, or other egg replacer)
* 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
* 1/3-1/2 cup Cocoa + 2 Tbsp water + 2 Tbsp oil
* 1/2 tsp. Salt
* 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
* 1 tsp. Cloves
* 1 tsp. Nutmeg
* 1-1/2 cup Gluten free flour blend



1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cream together the sugars and the coconut oil.

3. Beat in potato starch mixture and vanilla.

4. Beat in cocoa mixture.

5. Mix together the rest of the ingredients, mix into wet mixture. Batter will be sticky and glossy.

6. Form into balls and place 2-3 inches apart on a prepared cookie sheet. If you want flatter cookies, you must squish them a little; with the exact recipe, they won't spread hardly at all. I didn't squish them so I had ball cookies.

7. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on size. Check after ten minutes, remove from oven when start to brown on edges by pan.

8. After cool, top with frosting, melted chocolate, or this fudgey-dark chocolate "glaze" that I made:

9. For really dark chocolate glaze: In double boiler, dissolve 3 Tbsp sugar in enough oil to wet it, do not over-wet. add one square baker's chocolate, dissolve. You may have to stir over low heat for quite some time to melt the sugar completely. If it's not smooth enough, or looks too thick to spread, add a little rice milk, water, or coffee. I left the sugar partially granulated for a stunningly dark chocolate topping that got sweeter after a couple of chews.

Yesterday was not a good stomach day. I ate bland foods all day. Dinner was rice noodles with olive oil, goat cheese, salt, pepper, and a little sugar (yes sugar, it pleasantly cuts the strong taste of the goat cheese).



Then last night I made cookies. (I will post the recipe soon, I have to figure it out, I did a lot of approximating and random ingredient additions....) They actually turned out pretty good, though they didn't spread at all so they are just little balls. They needed a little something though, so I melted some baking chocolate and stirred in some sugar to make a really nice, really dark chocolate "glaze." I remelted it some more today to melt all the sugar crystals, because I was hasty yesterday, so it was still quite crunchy.





Lunch and dinner were good today.

My stomach has still been finicky, so I tried to keep it simple. For lunch I had bean threads (noodles made from bean starch, and oh so good- I really like them, maybe more than rice noodles), with sauteed carrots and rosemary turkey breast cut into little bits.



For dinner I was craving pizza, with is a horrible, terrible idea, so I improvised. I took tome flat bread and topped it with tomatoes, the left over turkey from lunch, a little goat cheese, and lightly steamed spinach. Threw it in the oven for ten minutes or so at about 300 degrees, and there I had a lovely, tasty dinner.

I made flatbread today, and it turned out amazing. The best since I stopped being able to use eggs. :)



I made two pans, the first turned out a little crispy on the bottom, the second was nice and soft.




2 cups Indian rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
4 Tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons xantham gum
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 c. water
2 Tablespoon yeast, dissolved in 1/3 c very warm water
2 teaspoon cider vinegar
4 Tablespoons EVOO
4 Tablespoons potato starch dissolved in a little cold water
2-3 Tablespoons sweet rice flour (for dusting pan/hands)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat 1-1/2 c. water until very warm, pour over rice flour, blend well, set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the rest of the dry ingredients.
3. Mix vinegar, dissolved potato starch, oil, and dissolved yeast into rice flour mixture.
4. Blend in the rest of the ingredients.
5. Dust cookie sheet with sweet rice flour. Place six or so dollops of the dough (will be very soft) apart on the pan. Sprinkle dough with a little more sweet rice flour, cover with plastic wrap and smooth the dough until flat (it is very sticky, so you can do this with just your fingers, but it takes much longer and is hard to make even).
6. Remove plastic wrap. Tap all over with fork for ventilation.
7. Bake for 10-14 minutes. Remove when golden around edges. Let cool in pan for a few minutes. When cool enough to touch, cut into pieces and store in air-tight container or zip-lock bag.



original recipe

I adore him, really.


It's quite dim in my kitchen.

I made gluten-wheat-corn-milk-egg free pumpkin pancakes tonight for dinner for the roomies and myself. Lots left over. :) Yay breakfast for a few days.







I made pancakes like this this morning for the group of friends that we accompanied to Jillian's house, however, I just added that much pumpkin to Bisquick pancake mix. This of course meant that I couldn't eat them, which was one of the reasons I wanted to make them tonight. For myself I sauteed some potatoes, at the end adding soft goat cheese, and then sauteed some pineapple in maple syrup (that was really really good).



pumpkin pancake recipe, with 'regular' substitutions

1 c. Sorghum flour
1 c. Rice flour
1/2 c. Tapioca flour
(all four could be substituted with 1-1/2 c. regular all purpose flour)
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp Clove
1 tsp Nutmeg
(or 2 tsp of any blend of spices you want)
4 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
3/4 c. Pumpkin Puree, heaping
4 Tbsp. Olive Oil (or butter)
2 c. Rice Milk (or regular milk)
4 Tbsp. Potato Starch (2 eggs)

1. Heat rice milk to very warm, but not boiling. In a medium sized bowl, pour over rice flour and blend well, set aside.
2. Blend all dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
3. Add pumpkin and oil to rice flour mixture, blend well.
4. Add blended dry ingredients, mix well.
5. Drop desired amount of batter onto hot, oiled skillet, flip when edges start to change color slightly (the batter is so thick that it doesn't bubble hardly at all as regular pancakes would).
6. Serve with butter (oil) and brown sugar, syrup, and/or whipped cream.

I'm going to go back through and add the recipes for the food that I've posted, so check back in the next day or two if you are interested! :)

So I've been pretty gung-ho about this food allergy thing. Really kind of excited about finding ways around it and trying new things, and just accepting that I can't have some things anymore. I found groups, recipe sites, blogs. One of the blogs that I read, my favorite really, the lady that writes it is having a Holiday Recipe Event (Gluten-free recipes of course), and I was thinking about what I could come up with to submit. These are the things that have kept me from being discouraged, this wonderful community of strangers, united by the fact that we get ill from so-called 'normal' food.

Then it happened tonight.

I became discouraged for the first time.

It came with the realization that:

I can't have Christmas cookies anymore. I actually almost started crying. (This definitely isn't a cue that I need more sleep... no....)



:'(

I made another coffee cake yesterday. This time I used more apples and messed with the recipe a little by adding more yams. It made the batter wetter, so I baked it longer, which resulted in a crust on the bottom that I can't decide if I like. It also smells more strongly of yams, which I also can't decide if I like. I also didn't cook the glaze as long, so it was thinner and not really chewy caramel, so that's good (though I love caramel, on top of coffee cake makes both hard to eat). It turned out good again though.

In other news, it's supposed to start snowing tonight.

yammy coffee cake recipe

Lunch today was pretty, so I took a picture.
I pan seared some thinly sliced turkey breast with basalmic vinegar, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and garlic salt and served it with mushroom rice pilaf with peas, and green salad with a beautiful tomato dressed with basalmic, EVOO, salt and pepper. :) And I finished it off, after all that healthiness, with a piece of coffee cake from the other day, and black coffee with 1 Tbsp of honey.

I'm apparently turning into a food blogger, mostly because there is little else interesting in my life at this point.

There was amazing steam coming off of my coffee this afternoon. I had trouble getting a good picture though, This one is all right.



And continuing on in my gluten-wheat-egg-milk free baking, I tried a new recipe today.

I made a caramel apple- sweet potato coffee cake. (Sweet potatoes in the cake part, apples and caramelized sugar on top.) I think I'm going to use a smaller pan next time because it's a lot thinner than I wanted it to be. I heated the sugar a little too much too, so the caramel is a lot chewier than I meant it. It's a tricky thing, caramelizing sugar. It's tasty though, and I'll probably use the recipe again, just with more apples, more attention to the caramel, and a smaller pan.



In non-food news, Jake proposed to Chrissy last night. Apparently there is a long story, but all I know is that she said yes (of course).

Mmm... Cadbury dark chocolate. I am not allergic to this. (Given, I didn't read the label, so there probably are allergens in it, like milk and soy lecithin. It's just so delicious, and I still feel kind of crappy most of the time, so darn it all, I'm going to eat the chocolate!)

Making making making....

So since I got tested and found out that I am allergic to wheat, oats, corn, soy, peanuts, walnuts, milk, and eggs, I have been experimenting with different foods and substitutes. I also got batteries for my camera, so I took pictures of some of the things that I ate today to share with you.

Tapioca pudding made with coconut milk (and a little almond milk) swirled with apple butter.


Rice-flour flat bread with blueberry jam made by Meredith's mother.


Chocolate chip brownies!


Sauteed apples with sugar, nutmeg, and clove, on top of tapioca pudding.

'ello

I created this because I know some people that have one, and I miss seeing things that they write. I will probably post both on here and on my existing livejournal. Maybe the same things on both. We'll see. Look, my church.