Pumpkin Cookies

This is my gf adaptation of a regular gluten recipe. If you want to make the original, non-gf version, use 2 1/2 cups flour and omit xanthan gum.

Ingredients:

1 c brown sugar

1 c shortening

1 c canned pumpkin

1 egg

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t vanilla

1 t pumpkin pie spice

1 t nutmeg

1 t cloves

2 1/2 c gluten free flour (I used about 1/2 c sorghum flour, 3/4 c white rice flour, 1 c tapioca flour, and 1/4 c potato flour)

3/4 t xanthan gum 

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 cube butter

2 c powdered sugar

1/2 t vanilla

Directions:

Cream together brown sugar, shortening, pumpkin and egg. It will look kind of chunky. Add in baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg and cloves. Mix in flour and xanthan gum. Spoon onto cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes. Frost when cool.

Snickerdoodles

Found here: http://www.faithfullyglutenfree.com/2008/12/gluten-free-snickerdoodles.html

INGREDIENTS

Cookies:

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup potato starch (not flour)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water

Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture:
2 tablespoons sugar mixed with
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream together shortening and sugar. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add potato starch, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, salt and water. Mix well to eliminate any lumps in the dough. Dough will be sticky. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Shape into small balls, using a slightly-rounded teaspoon of dough for each cookie. Roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture.
Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Browning is not a good indicator for these cookies.

Pumpkin Bread

I found this recipe here. Although it is mostly rice based, it doesn't have a really ricey flavor or texture. My whole family enjoyed it (especially me).

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups white rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
non-stick cooking spray

Directions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Spray two 9-by-5-inch loaf pans lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. In separate bowl, mix together eggs, oil and orange juice. Add sugar and pumpkin. Blend until thoroughly combined.
3. Add pumpkin mixture to dry ingredients. Mix until ingredients are thoroughly combined and a smooth batter forms.
4. Divide batter evenly between prepared loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
5. Remove pans from oven and place on a wire rack. Allow bread to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove bread from pans and place directly on wire rack. Allow bread to cool before slicing. Store bread wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for 3 to 5 days, or wrap and freeze for up to 3 months.

Easy Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Recipe by Our Best Bites, inspired by Santa’s Sweet Shoppe

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large or extra large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt

optional: heaping 1/2 cup chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
(I recommend dark or semi-sweet)
optional: sugar for rolling

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat peanut butter and brown sugar until smooth.  Add egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.  Mix for about a minute.  Shape into balls, and if desired roll in sugar.  Flatten with a criss cross pattern with a fork, or simply flatten with the bottom of a glass.  Bake for 8-9 minutes, don’t overbake, and let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Makes 20 cookies.

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Kacy made these cookies for Justin's mom and passed on the recipe. They were delicious! Justin ate a ton of them, which is saying something since he isn't a big treat person. 

Ingredients:

4 cups gluten-free old-fashioned oats
1/4 cup almond flour, or additional 1/2 cup oats
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup coconut
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins

1. In a blender, process 1 cup oats (or 1 1/2 cups oats if omitting almond flour) into a fine powder. Whisk together ground oats, cornstarch, almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add oat mixture, beating until combined. Fold in coconut, raisins, cranberries, and remaining 3 cups oats. Refrigerate dough for 20 minutes.

3. In batches, drop balls of dough onto greased aluminum foil lined baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to rack to cool completely.

Yield: 3 dozen cookies


My notes:

I substituted chocolate chips for dried fruit, which was great since I've never been huge on oatmeal raisin cookies. Make sure to refrigerate the dough; Kacy said they were pretty crumbly when she didn't. Also, we tried baking them on the aluminum foil, on a ungreased cookie sheet, and a non-stick cookie sheet. They seemed to do best on the non-stick cookie sheet. We found they stay together the best if you let them cool down (almost completely) on the baking sheet.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
3/4 t salt 2 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
1 c peanut butter
2 c gf oats
1 c chocolate chips 

Mix well. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Makes 3 dozen good sized cookies. The peanut flavor is pretty subtle, and the texture is chewy and not crumbly.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

This delicious recipe comes from The Baking Beauties, which has a lot of other recipes I'm anxious to try. I made these without the zest (I just had lemon juice in the fridge) and without the glaze, since I knew I'd be freezing them. I'd like to try them with oil instead of butter sometime, and actually use lemon zest. They were great! You'll have to hide them from the rest of your family!

Ingredients:

Muffins:
2/3 c. granulated sugar
zest of one large lemon (or two small ones)
1 c. sorghum flour
1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/4 c. tapioca starch
1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
juice of one large (or two small) lemons plus enough milk to make 1 cup
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled
2 Tbsp. poppy seeds

Glaze:
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. lemon juice

Directions:

1. Grease a 12-cavity muffin tin, or line with paper liners. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Christie's step: Melt butter and set aside to cool.
2. In a large bowl, use your hands to rub together the 2/3 c. granulated sugar and the lemon zest, until the sugar is damp and the mixture smells like lemon. Add the sorghum flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon juice + milk, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in the poppy seeds.
4. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tin. (They don't expand too much, so don't worry that the cups are full.) Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown and they spring back when gently touched.
5. While the muffins are baking, you can prepare the lemon glaze. In a small saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine the 1/2 c. granulated sugar and the 1/4 c. lemon juice. Stir until it comes to a boil. Boil for 30 seconds before removing from heat. Set aside until the muffins are done.
6. Remove muffins from the oven and allow to sit for five minutes before removing from the muffin tin to a wire cooling rack. While the muffins are still warm, either brush the tops with the glaze, or dip the tops in the glaze. Allow to cool completely before storing in a air-tight container.

Oatmeal and Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c white sugar
• 1 c brown sugar
• 3/4 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 c peanut butter
• 2 c oats
• 1 c chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix well. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

I found this recipe here, and tested it out yesterday. It was a great success, and everyone in my family liked them. Hooray! I've been wishing for some sugar cookies.


Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup oil (I used canola)
• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/3 cup white rice flour
• 2/3 cup potato starch
• 2/3 cup tapioca starch
• 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the sour cream, oil, sugar, vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until smooth. Set aside.
3. Place all the remaining dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
4. With the mixer running on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix on medium speed until completely blended.
5. Scoop 2 teaspoons of dough on your baking sheet, leaving 2-inches between cookies to allow for them to expand while baking. Dampen your hands with a small amount of water and roll the scooped dough into a smooth ball. This will give your finished cookies a nice round shape.
6. Bake cookies in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes, or until just slightly browned around the outside. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Only frost cookies when they are completely cooled. Store cookies in an airtight container.

NOTE: Cookies can be rolled in sugar before baking. Just spoon the dough into a bowl of sugar, and roll dough to coat in sugar. Form dough into balls and bake as directed.

Lemon Bars

My mom found this terrific recipe on this blog. Yum yum!

Shortbread crust:
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine

Lemony curd filling:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp rice flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp lemon peel
powdered sugar

Cut butter into the dry crust ingredients, until you have a something similar to cookie dough. Pat into bottom of a 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 17-19 minutes. Let cool.

Beat eggs. Add sugar, rice flour, cornstarch, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Whisk until smooth. Pour over crust and bake at 325 for 20 minutes or until filling is set. Dust with powdered sugar.

Banana Nut Muffins

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup rice flour (brown or white)
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 3/4 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (toasted or raw)

Directions

No need for a mixer with this recipe.

1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

2 Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.

3 Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.

4 Sift the flours and xanthan gum together in a separate bowl before adding to wet mixture. Mix until it is just incorporated. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

5 Pour mixture into a prepared muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin. If it comes out clean, it's done. Cool on a rack.

Yield: Makes 12 muffins.

Applesauce Muffins

I saw the recipe for these this morning on The Gluten-Free Homemaker, and tried them out right away. I need some muffins in my life. They are really good! So good that my whole family likes them. I followed the original recipe exactly, with the exception of the nuts (I don't really care for nuts in my baked goods), so I left them out here.

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. applesauce
4 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. canola or coconut oil
1 c. brown rice flour
1/4 c. sorghum flour
1/2 c. potato starch
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven 325°.
2. Generously grease 18 muffin cups.
3. In a large bowl, combine the applesauce, eggs, sugar, and oil with a spatula or wooden spoon.
4. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flours, potato starch, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until moistened.
6. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins. 
7. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until the tops of the muffins spring back when touched lightly.
8. Cool for several minutes in the muffin pan, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Allison's notes:

I only have one muffin tin, so I filled my mini-muffin tin with the remaining batter. For me, the regular muffins baked for 20 minutes, while the mini muffins baked for 16.

Zucchini Bread

I found a recipe for gluten-free zucchini bread last year on Gluten-free Goddess, and finally tried it out. Judging from the fact that I've almost consumed the entire pan today (yikes!), I like it a lot. I followed her instructions almost exactly (except for using sea salt and free-range organic eggs). Next time I'll try to squeeze more moisture out of the zucchini, as the center of the bread seemed a little too moist.

Ingredients:

1 rounded c shredded zucchini (I chopped mine in my mini food processor)
1 c sorghum flour
1/2 c tapioca starch
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t xanthan gum
1/2 t salt
1 t  cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
1/3 c light olive oil or coconut oil (I used coconut)
1 t fresh lemon or lime juice
2 egg whites, beaten
1/4 c coconut milk (I used So Delicious in the carton, per instructions from the original recipe)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9 inch loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper. Lightly oil it.
2. Press the grated zucchini with a paper towel to remove as much moisture as you can.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sorghum flour, tapioca starch, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, and cinnamon. Add in the brown sugar.
4. Add the oil, lemon juice, egg whites, and the coconut milk. Beat to combine and continue to beat on medium high until the batter is smooth- about two minutes.
5. Add the shredded zucchini. Mix well.
6. Scoop and scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and even out the top.
7. Bake in the center of a preheated oven until the top is golden and firm, yet gives a bit when lightly touched. It should feel slightly springy. This may take anywhere from 50 to 60 minutes. (It took mine 60 minutes). Test with a thin sharp knife or a wooden pick- either should emerge with no crumbs or batter.

Toll House Cookies

These are soooo good! (If I do say so myself) I'm thrilled that I can eat fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies again.

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter
1/2 c shortening
¾ c sugar
¾ c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
3/4 c sorghum flour
1 1/4  to 1 1/2 c tapioca flour*
3/4 c brown rice flour
2 t xanthan gum
1 t. baking soda
½ t salt
1 ½ - 2 c chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. 
2. Mix in dry ingredients and chocolate chips. 
3. Roll balls of dough (not too big) and place on cookie sheet. Flatten slightly.
4. Bake 375 for 8-11 minutes, or until browned. 

*When I use Bob's Red Mill brand of tapioca flour, I found adding an extra 1/4 c or so preventing the cookies from spreading out as much while baking. Additionally, I find that the cookies spread less for me when I line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Cupcakes

A friend clipped this recipe out of a Banner Health newsletter to give to me. They're basically mini crustless cheesecakes. In other words, heaven!

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 c sugar
24 oz light cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/2 c raspberries


Topping:
8 oz light cream cheese
1/4 c sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Use a hand mixer to blend the sugar, cream cheese and vanilla. Add eggs to cream cheese mixture one at a time and blend after adding each egg.
3. Line 24-cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with cream cheese batter. Divide raspberries evenly between the cupcakes and sprinkle on top of each cupcake.
4. Bake for 25 minutes at 350.
5. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. A well with form in the middle of each cupcake.
6. Turn the oven to 450. 
7. Blend together topping ingredients. Using a teaspoon, drop topping into the enter of each cupcake.
8. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving. Store in refrigerator.

Crepes (Gluten Free)

Baking without gluten is something I've done very little of. When I have tried, more often then not I've been disappointed. It's just never the same. And I find hard to spend time and money trying things that in the end leave a lot to be desired. I know I just need to bite the bullet and start experimenting if I'm ever going to find any gf baking recipes I really like.

Last night I decided I wanted to find a good gf crepe recipe. I searched online and settled on trying this one from thebakingbeauties.com. I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out really well!


Ingredients:
1/2 c rice flour
1/2 c tapioca starch
1/2 c cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp potato flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 c milk
2 eggs
2 T vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
butter

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine all dry ingredients.
2. In a larger bowl, combine all wet ingredients.
3. Combine the wet & dry ingredients, whisking until nearly smooth (a few lumps are alright).
4. In a hot frying pan (about medium heat) pour approximately 3/4 cup of batter in the middle of the pan. Lift the pan & turn it to distribute the batter over the entire pan. You want your batter to cover the entire bottom of the frying pan when you are done.
5. Once there are little holes and air bubbles forming in the top of your pancake, using a spatula, carefully flip the crepe to brown the other side. This does not take long to cook, because they are so thin.

 Allison's Additional Notes:

1. My husband cooked these, as he's the crepe cooking pro. He puts a little butter on the pan before pouring each crepe. We found that towards the end of cooking, the batter was much thicker, and the last crepe was a little rubbery. I think the cornstarch started settling to the bottom of the bowl as he cooked the other crepes. Next time he'll whisk the batter in between cooking each crepe to prevent settling.
2. We like our crepes with a few different topping combos: cinnamon and sugar, powdered sugar and lemon juice, Nutella and raspberries, or jam and sour cream.

Apple Crisp

This dessert has always been one of my favorites. I only had to substitute gluten free flour and oats to make it GF. This was my first time trying gluten free oats (and I realized my first time eating oats in 5 months...weird). It turned out wonderfully!

Ingredients:

6-10 apples, depending on size and preference (I use Granny Smith)

Topping:
1 c gluten free flour (I used Shar's GF Baking Master Mix, but you could also try an all-purpose gluten free flour)
1 c gluten free oats (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c butter or margarine, softened
1 t cinnamon.

Directions:

1. Core, peel, and slice apples, then place slices in a 9 x 13 inch pan
2. Mix topping ingredients (I cut them together with a pastry blender). Sprinkle topping over apples. 
3. Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes. Serve topped with vanilla ice cream.

Pie Crust

I did not personally make this recipe, but I ate it. My parents usually make fresh-picked apple and blackberry pies at our annual family reunion. Before the reunion, my dad called me saying he had found a gluten-free recipe that he wanted to make for me. He shopped for the ingredients, and my parents made me two delicious pies. It really touched me and made me feel special. And the pies were incredible. I'm longer sad when I think about Thanksgiving.

Slightly adapted from a recipe from Gluten-free Girl and the Chef


Recipe yields 1 double pie crust or 2 single pie crusts.

Ingredients:
1 c + 3 T white rice flour
1/2 c sorghum flour
1/2 c potato starch
3 t sugar
1/4 t salt
8 T (or, one stick) cold butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 ice-cold water, or enough to make the dough stick together

Directions:

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients. Slice the butter into little pieces, about 1/2-inch thick. Using a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the butter has crumbled into pea-sized pieces.
2. Mix in the egg and vinegar, then the water a little at a time, making sure the dough is not too wet.
3. Divide the dough in two separate portions. Roll out one portion between two sheets of parchment or wax paper.
4. Peel off the top paper. Lay a pie plate on top of the dough, then flip the whole thing over. The dough should sag into the pie plate. Remove the other sheet of paper and finish shaping the dough into the pan.
5. If making a pie with a double crust (as the apple and blackberry pies were), fill, then roll out the second portion of dough the same way and place on top. Trim the sides, crimp the edges, and slice vent holes.
6. If making pie with a single pie crust, repeat the steps with the second portion of dough to to make a second crust. Trim the sides and crimp the edges.

Grain-free Chocolate Chocolate-Chunk Muffins

My cousin sent me this recipe, found at joyfulabode.com.

Ingredients:

a cup of nut butter (I used peanut)

3 eggs

About 1/4 cup of honey

1 very ripe banana

3 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup chopped dark chocolate (I used chocolate chips)

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except lemon juice in a mixer (or with a hand mixer) until well combined
2. Mix in lemon juice
3. Oil muffin tin or line with paper cups
4. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter
5. Bake 350 for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean