New Cookbook

I was feeling a little burnt out. I had to bake for Ellie's class party, bake for her birthday, bake for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, blah blah blah. Sometimes I wish we could just eliminate the some of the pressure that comes with the holidays. It's such a wonderful time of year, but unfortunately it's become this stress-filled pressure cooker. Let's just all close our eyes & think about Jesus. Ah, that's better.

Anyhow, I happened upon an article in the paper around this time. It was documenting the release of this oh-so-fine gluten free cookbook. I can't resist cookbooks. Can't. Just generally have no willpower at all. The schtick is that this Anne Byrne character has an Actual Medical Degree in cake mixes! Who knew such a degree even existed??? And, lucky for us, she has laid her healing hands upon the gluten free community.

The thought was tantalizing; being able to make a cake recipe by just dumping in one bag of cake mix instead of 3 flours & xanthan gum would be heavenly. I had my mind set on easy recipes and was ready to sacrifice quality in the process. Especially since I'm able to pick up the cake mix at the Jewel a few blocks away instead of making the trek to Whole Foods for various flours.

Imagine my shock, then, when I discovered these recipes aren't mediocre cake mix recipes. These recipes are really great, no, they're kick ass. Yes, that's what they are.

Ellie requested the Fresh Strawberry Cake (yeah, strawberries in December, I know) which was delicious. I also made the Darn Good Chocolate Cake & the Peanut Butter Cookies. OK, maybe I shouldn't rate a cookbook based on 3 recipes, but I was very happy & I am very optimistic about the rest. I'll be trying 2 new ones for the kids birthday parties, so I'll report back.

Oh, and the book has color photos of each recipe. If you're going to write a cookbook, the only decent thing to do is to show us what the recipe will (not) look like when we make it ourselves, don't you agree?

Gluten free fried chicken

I was grocery shopping with lil' Woogie one day. He asked if we could have chicken legs for dinner. I don't have any idea where he got that idea; most of our chicken is boneless chicken breasts on the grill or baked. I'm not a huge fan of dark meat in general, but I thought I might expand our horizons, chicken-wise that is.

I based my recipe off of this one, with a few modifications. Instead of breadcrumbs, I used crushed Erewhon cereal mixed with the standard flour blend I use for breading chicken strips (garbanzo bean flour, sorghum & millet flour). I added the paprika, but went easy on the cayenne. I baked them in the oven on racks coated with cooking spray.




They turned out great. I think I may try other bone-in cuts of chicken next. Of course, Woogie didn't want anything to do with them. But that's too bad. We're going to have this for dinner again.

Birthday cakes/ Asshole blogger

September 24th Laura? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally? That's your version of keeping up the blog?

Ok (here comes my defense mechanism)... we moved. Ellie was sick. We sold the condo. We sold it again. I've been drinking again. Lots of excuses.

I've made SO MUCH FOOD that I cannot remember. Most of it good, some of it not. Rats. That's my promise to myself, because I'm the only one that reads this. Well, me and the cookbook authors that happen to be googling themselves and stumble upon it.

We just had the kids' birthday party, so let's start there. The cakes were wonderful and everything was JUST GREAT! Let's remember what I made so I don't get myself all hopped up when next year rolls around.



Ellie's cake was from a recipe I found. Of course I know where I got it! The internet! That's about as specific as I can be. I did some digging around, however, and found what appears to be the original recipe. It's from the Pamela's website
I haven't had much success baking with Pamela's mix, although we do love it for pancakes. This recipe made me a believer. Wherever I got it from was called "Moist Banana Cake", although it is listed on Pamela's website as simply "Banana Cake". It is moist, and delicious. I doubled the recipe & made 2 in regular 9 inch round cake pans. I did use the parchment on the bottom, and they came out fine. I used a regular cream cheese frosting, but in the middle of the layers I put Jello brand banana pudding. Next time I will put even more. It was delish. The gluten eaters liked it.

Banana Muffins

Ok, now I'm on a roll.

Today I notices four pitiful bananas well on their way to rotting on the counter. I just can't throw away old bananas, knowing what could be done with them.

I was going to make some banana bread, but put it in cupcake liners for the kids. I turned to my old friend Annalise Roberts and found a recipe for Banana Nut Muffins. I made the muffins exactly as the recipe called for, except that I added extra bananas (which I always do).

Because lil' Woogie is still getting his teeth, I decided to leave out the walnuts. Ellie had the great idea to add chocolate chips instead.


They were absolutely delicious!

Small buns

Here I am, a month done with school and I haven't updated my blogs. Naughty.
It's really only detrimental to myself- I can't remember which recipes I've tried and which ones worked. I've done a lot of baking and making and nothing documented. Alas.

I feel compelled to write now. A few weeks ago I bought a new cookbook, Elizabeth Barbone's Easy Gluten Free Baking. I'll admit I was lured in by the snazzy spiral-bound design and the chapter entitled "Tastes Like". There's a recipe in there for Twinkies. I don't know why, but the thought of my kids eating Twinkies just makes me happy. Do people even eat regular Twinkies anymore??

Anyhow, I've made three of her recipes so far:



Hamburger buns:
I don't know why I have to go messing around with what already works for me. I do really like Annalise Roberts hamburger buns recipe, I just thought I could do slightly better. Since I am not into experimenting much myself, I found this recipe and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I will say that the taste is pretty good, as well as the texture. They are more like "regular bun" texture and flavor. However, I had a little problem with them rising. The recipe said it made a dozen, so I portioned out the dough accordingly. The result: one dozen buns I could sell to White Castle. I just ate mine with butter, but Devin actually cut up his burger and made little sliders. I hate yeast. Why doesn't it work? I'm going back to Roberts' recipe.

Easy Sandwich Bread:
Was it easy? Eh. I think my Gluten Free Pantry mix is much easier, takes less time to rise and bake. And again, the taste was pretty good, but it didn't rise. Even after an hour. It made pretty good garlic bread, which is what I was baking it for anyhow. I don't think I would have liked this bread for a sandwich.

The nutritional value is bleak, also, as it is heavy on the cornstarch and brown rice flour. Won't make again.

German Chocolate Cake:
The saving grace! This was really good. The cake was a little dense, but tasty. I usually keep all GF desserts in the fridge, and by the third day this was the consistency of a brownie with frosting. But German Chocolate Cake is all about the frosting anyhow, isn't it? I would make this again. I made it for Devin's birthday and he liked it. Mission accomplished.

I wouldn't call this book a bust just yet. I am interested in trying a lot of the other recipes, including the Poke Cake, which I think the kids would like. A lot of the cookies look really good. Maybe for my birthday I'll ask for a Twinkie pan. I think that's a give.

Shortcake dreamz

Glutino Cookies- Shortcake Dreams

If your dreams involve eating chalk, then these are the cookies for you. Dude, the baby won't even eat them, and he is not fussy about his cookies. I would have taken my own picture of them had I not thrown them into the garbage outside the grocery store before I left.

Shame on you, Glutino, I expect so much more from you! Stick with the Chocolate covered wafer cookies, even the Strawberry Wafer cookies. I've never tried the Lemon, I have a bad feeling about those.

Bunzzzzz

Yeah, so, here are my buns- after rising. I was going to take some pics after baking but the camera was doing some funky business & I don't reeeeeeeally know how to use it yet. Perhaps one day.

These buns in question were from Annalise Roberts' book Gluten Free Baking Classics. I like this book. They were made using Flour Mix B.

The texture is great. They rose beautifully. They are a little dry. I prefer to use only half a bun for cheeseburger purposes for this reason. But then again, I never really liked a lot of bread with my cheeseburgers anyhow. I like this recipe, but I'm going to explore more options, just to see. I think I can do slightly better.

By the way, I used these English Muffin rings to make the buns. They work well, and you can reuse them, unlike making your own tin foil rings each time. I'm too bizzay for that noise.