Gluten-free AND Sugar-free Molasses Cookies!

I am very excited about this post. Molasses cookies are my one weakness.... I'm also happy to say that I did not even use stevia to sweeten the cookies. I used apple sauce. Some might think that a little weird, but I can't even taste it at all. There weren't a lot of differences between a normal sugar batter and this one. I will note two, though, that will help you in making these. 1. The apple sauce and butter did not cream at all. There were still butter chunks even though the butter was becoming soft. This problem, however, solved itself when I added in the flour mixture. Everything came out very smooth. 2. The batter is a little stickier than a normal batch, but not much to make this recipe difficult.

This recipe is simple, and there are no worries about eating too many of them.

Oven: 350
Bake: 15 minutes
Makes: 30 (That's how many I made, but it could vary on how big your scoop is.)

Ingredients

3 sticks butter, soft
1\3 cup plain apple sauce (Cookies are not that sweet. I might try putting in double apple sauce)
2 eggs
1\2 cup molasses
4 1\2 cups all purpose gluten-free flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1\2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon clove
1\8 of a teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven. Beat softened butter and apple sauce together until butter is softer and mixed with the apple sauce. Beat in eggs and molasses. Once you add the molasses you will be able to see bits of butter here and there, but that is all right.

2. In a medium bowl mix together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to molasses mixture until mixed well. The butter will mix right in and become smooth. Remember to scrap sides as needed.

3. Take any kind of scoop you have about 2 inches in diameter, I use an ice cream scoop, and scoop good sized balls onto cookie sheets. I do six cookies per sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, and then let the cookies cool for 3 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cookie rack.

And as I love to say...Enjoy!

Flax Bread!

Here is a yummy bread alternative for those who don't want gluten. This is from the Trim Healthy Mama book, and I have found it to be very versatile. The first time I tried this bread I made it like a flat bread, but this time I made it a banana bread pan, (even though I did not add bananas). Which you can make this into a banana bread, or add in seasonings to dip into oil. Very yummy! If you make this bread like a banana bread then you can add in spices or you even could make a pumpkin bread. Just let your imagination run wild with this bread. It is a very simple recipe.

Oven: 350
Bake Time: Time will vary depending on how you make the bread. Anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes.
(Just to remember to add anything you want to the dry ingredients before mixing with the wet)

Dry Directions:
1. Put 2 cups flax meal into bowl
2. Add 1 Tbs baking powder
3. Add 3\4 tsp salt

Wet Direction:
1. Put 2 Tbs olive oil or coconut oil into blender (the oils will depend on what kind of bread you make)
2. Add 4 eggs
3. Ad 3\4 cup water
4. Blend well.

Wet and Dry Direction:
1. Add wet ingredients to dry, mix well, and let sit for 5 minutes
2. Place dough in whatever pan you wish, lightly grease
3. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or however long is needed.

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies!

I have to say that sugar cookies are my favorite. You can do anything with a sugar cookie. They are great for the imagination and the child inside us all. With my sugar cookies I made dresses and shoes. That's right.... dresses and shoes. I spent all day making them, but I had a blast. The recipe I used is gluten-free, and gives a recipe for making your own gluten-free flour mixture, but I used an all-purpose gluten-free flour mix that has all the same things it in. With this recipe you may be able to make 42 cookies with the dough, but I made my cookies a little thicker and made about 34. So, I can't really give an exact estimate on how many cookies this recipe makes, but at least somewhere between 30 and 40. One of my favorite things about sugar cookies is how festive they can be. From Valentines Day to Christmas! From hearts to trees! It's almost magical. You may be wondering why I choose to make dresses and shoes. Well, my great aunt gave them to me some time ago, and today I thought I would use them. Not to mention I made them for some people coming over the next day. The only thing left to say is have fun creating.                                                        
                                                                                                             

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies! 

Overall time in Kitchen: 2 and a-half hours. 
Oven: 350
Bake: 8-12 Minutes
Makes: Between 30 and 40 cookies

Ingredient

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 egg yolks
1 1\2 tsp vanilla 
2 1\4 cups gluten-free flour mix below or any all purpose gluten-free flour mixes from stores 
1\4 tsp salt

Gluten Free Flour Blend: To make flour blend, combine 2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca flour and 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. Use appropriate amount for recipe; store remainder in container with tight-fitting lid. Stir before using.

Directions

1. Combine sugar and butter in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Add flour blend and salt; beat at low speed until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

2. Heat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough on surface sprinkled lightly with gluten-free flour, one-half at a time (keeping remaining dough refrigerated), to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with any cookie cutter you want. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let stand 2 minutes on cookie sheet; remove to cooling rack. Cool completely. Frost or sprinkle. 

Frosting for sugar cookies, (optional)

Ingredients

1 pound powder sugar
2 tablespoons marshmallow cream
Add milk to make consistency like sour cream

Directions

Beat powder sugar and marshmallow cream together and add milk slowly until it is sour cream like.  

Oh, one of the great things about this frosting, other than it tasting good, is that once it dries it becomes nice and hard for being able to stack cookies on top of each other, but not too hard for eating. :D 

And as I always love to say.... Enjoy!
                         

Creamy Stirred Custard and a Floating Island

I can only guess that your first thought is.... "What on earth is a floating island?" It might not be, but it's possible. A floating island is a french dessert. The base of it is meringue floating on top of vanilla pudding or in this case custard. This was my first time making it, and I must say it turned out great. It was very simple, and it is completely gluten-free. That in it's self is a bonus for us gluten-free people. This recipe makes six servings, but I made four. I used bigger dishes for the meringue than what was called for which made me double the meringue. I used four 8 ounce souffle dishes because I did not have six 5 ounce custard dishes.

 For the Creamy Stirred Custard:

Prep:25 minutes
Chill: 2 to 3 hours
Servings: 4 or 6 depending on size of dishes

Ingredients:
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks--reserve the whites
1\3 c. sugar
dash of salt
2 1\2 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Blend eggs, sugar, and salt in top of double boiler
2. Gradually stir in milk
3. Place enough water in bottom pan of double boiler so that the top pan does not touch the water
4. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly about 20 minutes.
5. Remove top of double boiler from heat; stir in vanilla
6. Place top of double boiler in cold water until custard is cool. ( If the custard should get a little lumpy just beat it vigorously for a couple minutes)
7. Cover and chill 2 to 3 hours

For the Floating Island:

Ingredients:
Some butter for for coating dishes
1\8 tsp cream of tartar
1\4 c. sugar, plus a little extra for dishes
1\4 tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Butter 6 (5 ounce) custard cups; sprinkle with sugar  to coat
3. Beat reserved egg whites and cream of tartar until foaming
4. Beat in 1\4 cup sugar until stiff and glossy.
5. Stir in 1\4 tsp vanilla
6. Spoon meringue into cup, pressing mixture gently into cups to remove air pockets
7. Place cups in baking pan, 13" by 9" by 2"; pour very hot water ( 1 inch deep) into pan
8. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until light brown
9. Remove cups from water, unmold into dessert dishes ( any kind of dish with a ridge will work)
10. Cool slightly and chill until custard is ready
11. Just before serving, spoon custard around meringue

Pretty basic isn't it?

And as I always love to say... Enjoy!

Cheesecake Thumbprints. Who doesn't love cheesecake...?

Out of a lot of desserts I've had (and made) cheesecake is my favorite. Pretty much any kind of cheesecake. My favorite, though, is Martha Stewart's New York Style Cheesecake. It is not comparable to any other dessert. So, when I found this recipe I was very excited. My brother and I were trying to find a nice dessert to make for our mom for Mother's Day. We searched through all of our cookbooks for something perfect when I decided to pull out my Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. ( Which is a really awesome book.) 
We were looking through that when BAM... we saw them. They looked so delicious. All we simply had to do was look at each other to know what both of us were thinking. We put on some music and we became maestros of the kitchen. When ever we could we threw in a few dance moves here and there, but we had a mission to accomplish. We both decided that this recipe was cream puffs meet cheesecake. Two very yummy desserts coming together to complete one delicious masterpiece. One of my favorite things about the dough for this recipe is how much it tasted like short bread. I love short bread, and whats better than short bread and cheesecake together...?  There was nothing really hard about this recipe. It was pretty easy. 

All I can now is... Let's get cooking. 

Cheesecake Thumbprints
Makes about 30 cookies.


For the cheesecake filling

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

For the cookie dough

16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour

To prepare cheesecake filling

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar and salt until smooth. 
Mix in egg yolk, sour cream and vanilla - cover and place into the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare the cookie dough

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar and salt until creamy and combined. 
Mix in egg yolk until incorporated. Gradually add flour and mix just until combined.

Scoop out level tablespoons worth of the dough and roll into balls. Place balls onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Using the handle end of a thick wooden spoon, lightly dipped in flour, make an indentation in the center of each ball.

Place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and carefully use your thumb (or the end of the same wooden spoon) to press the middle of the cookies back down, remaking the indentations. Place cookies back into the oven, rotating them from their original position, and continue to bake until slightly golden around the edges, about 7 minutes.

Remove cookies from the oven and fill the indentations with the cheesecake filling using a teaspoon. 
Place back into the oven and bake for 7 more minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer cookies 
to a wire rack to cook completely. When cool, place cookies into the refrigerator to chill 4 or more hours before serving.

And as I always love to say... Enjoy!!! 

British Tea Sandwiches

First of all let me just say that anything British is awesome. British food, British accents, British tv shows, and so much more. Most of my favorite actors and authors are British. British Tea Sandwiches is just another word for Cucumber Sandwiches. In England they are a favorite among many households. Tea Sandwiches are very delicate and refreshing to the taste buds. The basic Tea Sandwich is two thin slices of a Pullman Loaf, thin layer of butter spread on the loaf to keep the juices from the cucumber making the loaf soggy, and paper thin slices of cucumber sprinkled with salt. In America we like to slather them with cream cheese mixed with dill and garlic powder. I prefer British style even though I am a big fan of cream cheese. For my Tea Sandwiches I used a sourdough bread. It was very delicious, but hard to cut. A Pullman Loaf  is the preferable choice. It's a dense-textured  white bread that is also sometimes called the sandwich loaf. In my opinion there is no set recipe for Tea Sandwiches. All I did with mine was cut the bread into squares and triangles. I then put a thin layer of butter on both cut pieces. The cucumber I cut into paper thin slices to be put between two pieces of bread. The butter is for making sure that the cucumber juice doesn't soak the bread clean through. As the British say: That's a brill idea... Oh, and don't forget to peel the cucumber. I peeled my cucumber with a potato peeler, and then sliced it. As far as how much cucumber to cut that depends on how many you are making sandwiches for. When you cut paper thin you can get a lot out of one cucumber. Something also not to forget, is if you're going to do British style is to cut the crust off of the bread.  Well, since there is no recipe then I leave it up to your imaginations. 

Cheerio. 

                                                     

Key Lime Pie

I have to say that key lime pie is one of my favorite pies. I love custard for one thing, and I loved how the middle of my pie turned into this almost custard-y like creamy filling, It was heavenly bliss. Most key lime pies have a gram cracker crust, but my recipe is one for a plain pie crust that is pre-baked. Another thing I loved about this pie is how the meringue peaks got this nice light brown color to it after it baked on the pie for 15 minutes. It makes it look pretty, and in a way sophisticated. 

My only advice is for the meringue. The egg whites for the meringue is going to be the hardest part, but just watch it, and make sure you don't beat it too much or too little. 

Now, let's get cooking. 

Key Lime Pie.

Recipe for Baked Pie Shell ( My recipe will make extra dough, but put one half in the freezer and keep it for another pie.)
3 cups flour
1 1\2 cups butter
1 tsp salt

1 egg
6 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon vinegar 

Directions
Combine first three ingredients. Beat next three ingredients, and pour
into flour mixture. Mix well. Half dough. Line one half of dough in a 9 inch pie plate, and poke holes in the bottom and the sides of the dough. Cover and line with extra thick foil. Bake in a 450 F oven for 8 minutes. Remove foil, and bake for 5 to 6 minutes more. Cool on a wire rack.

Recipe for Meringue
Prep time 10 minutes
Makes 8 servings (enough to top one 9 inch pie)

3 egg whites
1\2 teaspoon vanilla
1\4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 Tablespoons sugar

Directions
1. Allow egg whites to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl combine egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 1 minute or until soft peaks form.

2. Gradually add sugar. 1 Tablespoon at a time, beating on high speed for about 4 minutes more or until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks and sugar dissolves.

Key Lime filling Recipe 
Prep time 25 minutes.
Bake 30 minutes
Oven 325\350 F
Cool 1 hour
Chill 3 to 4 hours
Makes 8 servings

1 recipe baked pie shell ( recipe above)
3 eggs
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1\2 cup lime juice ( 10 to 12 key limes or 4 to 6 Persian limes or bottled lime juice)
3 Tablespoons water
1 recipe Meringue for pie (above)

Directions
1. Prepare baked pie shell, set aside. Separate egg yolks from the egg white; set aside egg whites for meringue. 

2. For filling, in a medium bowl beat egg yolks. Gradually whisk in sweetened condensed milk; add lime juice and water. Mix well. 

3. Pour (or spoon) mixture into baked pie shell. Bake at 325 F for 15 minutes. Prepare meringue. Remove pie from oven. Increase the temperature to 350. Spread meringue over hot filling, seal to the edge. Bake in 350 F oven for 15 minute. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour, and in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours. Refrigerate any leftovers.

And as I love to say... Enjoy!