Have you noticed that I haven’t been baking as much as I used to?  Still cooking, but not as much baking as I would like.  Life has been busy, which means less time in the kitchen for me.  Now that lacrosse season has finished up, and with the school year winding down, I’m hoping I’ll be breaking out the Kitchen Aid more often.

Usually when I bake in my kitchen, I’m going for a moist (yes, I hate that word but I’m still going to use it) and gooey final product.  I tend to undercook my blondies and brownies, in order to ensure optimal gooiness.

Sometimes though, I just want something a little different, like a crunch.  Chewy is yummy but last week felt a need for a little crunch in my sweetness.  I was inspired by Joy the Baker’s recipe for Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies and I decided to create a gluten-free version of this crunchy, chocolaty treat.  I cut her recipe in half and it still made about two dozen cookies. Plenty to take to our friends, Scott and Meredith, who cooked a great weeknight dinner for us, and more for the weekend.

Delicious and an amazing crunch.  The texture of the oats and pecans was right up my alley. The cinnamon and nutmeg give your palate an added bonus.  The chocolate chips provide enough sweetness so you don’t feel like you’re getting robbed of dessert either.  David loved them and he’s not always a huge ‘oatmeal cookie’ fan.

Here’s what I did:

Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies (Inspired by Joy the Baker)

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cups gluten-free oats
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ¼ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup tapioca flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheet.  In a bowl, combine xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, oats, salt and spices.  Set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat sugar and butter with a mixer until creamy.  Add egg and continue to mix.  Add vanilla and beta until blended into the batter.  Add dried mixture to the mixing bowl and mix slowly until blended.  Stir in pecans and chocolate chips.

Put dough in balls onto cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes or until you’re satisfied with their doneness.  Cool briefly on cookie sheet then transfer to a wire rack.

Enjoy!  If you’re feeling really indulgent, try these cookies with a creamy, sweet treat.  Scott and Meredith introduced us to the most ridiculous ice cream, Greater’s. This Ohio-based brand puts huge chocolate chunks in its various flavors for an absolutely rich and indulgent treat.  David and I are hooked.  Right now we have the mocha chip and chocolate chocolate chip in our freezer.  It’s absolutely worth a trip to the store.

In the winter, I find myself missing homemade blueberry muffins.  I love the taste of a blueberry muffin in the summer, packed with freshly picked huge blueberries from my in-laws’ farm in Linden, VA.  While we do freeze blueberries so we can make muffins after the season, those remnants of summer are usually long gone by the time December rolls around.  Recently I was craving some kind of breakfast muffin but I didn’t want to use flavorless fruit that had traveled thousands of miles to get to me.  I also wanted to create something in my kitchen that involved the least amount of grocery shopping.  Isn’t it so nice when you realize you already own every ingredient you need for a certain recipe?

I had some beautiful north Georgia apples in my fruit bowl and I thought perhaps I could use those in some kind of baked good.  I was envisioning apple pie meets blueberry muffins.  Yum.  These apples inspired me, as did a whole wheat apple muffin recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  Of course I had to omit the whole wheat flour from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, and replace it with other flour concoctions.  These muffins turned out so well, in fact they might be some of the yummiest muffins I’ve made.  The chunks of apples added great texture and the teff and amaranth flour were a great compliment to the apples.  I actually think those flours might even be better than the whole wheat and all-purpose flour combination in the original recipe.

A word of warning, these muffins were a little difficult to transport because they were so moist and delicious.  I had extras so I refrigerated them and they tasted fresh for the remainder of the week.  Great for breakfast or with tea in the afternoon.

Teff & Amaranth Apple Muffins (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup white rice flour
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup teff flour
• ¼ cup amaranth flour
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup plain yogurt (or buttermilk)
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 450.  Grease and lightly flour 18 muffin cups.  (I used rice flour.)

Mix together the flours, baking powder, xanthan gum, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and ¼ of the cup of brown sugar.  Beat until fluffy.  Add the egg and mix well.  Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl once.  Mix in the yogurt gently.  Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the pieces of apple.

Put batter into muffin cups in a muffin pan.  Sprinkle the remaining brown sugar on top of the muffins.  (I sprinkle liberally because the brown sugar is delicious on top.)

Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400 and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes.  They are done when you can insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then put on a wire cooling rack.

These apple muffins make a great component for a brunch and you can make them a few days in advance.  Enjoy!

As I head out for the holidays, I thought I’d leave you with one more delicious cookie recipe to add to your holiday baking.  Their name is a mouthful, but I promise that the flavors go perfectly together.

I found these cinnamon ginger chocolate chip cookies on http://www.gfzing.com/ and I was immediately intrigued by the use of cinnamon and ginger in this recipe.  The recipe reminded me of snickerdoodles, but even better because they have chocolate chips!  I made some changes, but used the original recipe as my guide.  These cookies have been very popular among all of my gluten-eating friends and I’m making a big batch for the holidays.  David said this was a really good flour combination too so I might try it with some other cookie recipes to see how it works in my other baking endeavors.

I love the texture of these cookies because they’ve been rolled in sugar.  Yum!  I also tried refrigerating some of the dough for a couple of days and then using it to make a batch of cookies and it worked just fine.  The cookies came out a little smaller after their three days in the fridge, but the taste was still delicious!

Cinnamon Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies (From www.gfzing.com)

Ingredients;

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Flour Mixture (2 Cups)

• ¼ cup almond flour
• ¾ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup corn starch
• ½ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour

Sugar for rolling dough

Preheat oven to 375.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, combine flours, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.

In a separate bowl, with a mixer, cream butter, sugars, and vanilla.  Add egg and mix.

Add the dry mix to the mixer and blend with wet ingredients until blended.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Put sugar in a bowl.  Form 1-inch balls of dough and roll them each in the sugar.  Place on cookie sheet and flatten each cookie a little.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven, let rest for 5 minutes on pan before transferring cookies to a wire rack.

Enjoy!  These are a fun twist to your normal chocolate chip cookes.  For some reason, cinnamon reminds me of the holidays so I find that this recipe has a festive touch without being overly sprinkled or topped with gobs of icing.  Have a wonderful and healthy holiday.

I love Christmas.  There are many parts of Christmas that I love, but three of my favorite parts of this holiday season are decorating the tree, making holiday cookies, and Christmas music.  David has decided this year that we should have a new holiday tradition that involves him putting the lights on the tree while I make cookies and then he eats cookies, while I put on the ornaments.  I’m happy with this ‘newly created tradition’ as long as we listen to Christmas music too!  Since the night of tree decorating, I’ve been baking a lot and exploring new cookie recipes, so I thought I’d share some of my cookie experiments with you.

I recently received Nigella Lawson’s new Christmas cookbook.  This is a great seasonal cookbook with lots of great entertaining ideas, and I particularly like the section called ‘All Wrapped Up’ that has great gift ideas, many a which are gluten-free.  While there are definitely some naturally gluten-free recipes in this cookbook, I decided to dive right in and work on making gluten-free versions of her cookie recipes.  My first cookie recipe was Nigella’s cranberry and white chocolate cookies.

These cookies make great holiday treats because they look like Christmas to me.  The red from the cranberry and white from the chocolate chips are festive but not too ‘Christmasy.’  I love the combination of dried fruit, chocolate, chocolate and pecans.  Trail mix in a cookie!  Even if you don’t like fruit in your dessert, I suggest giving these a try.  Everyone who ate these thought they were delicious, despite those who were hesitant about mixing fruit and chocolate.

I kept Nigella’s recipe exactly as is but changed the flour mixture and added xanthan gum.  I don’t usually like nuts in my sweets so I didn’t use as many pecans as Nigella called for, but I will actually use some the full ½ cup the next time I make these cookies.  This recipe works well gluten-free because it only calls for one cup of flour, resulting in fewer components of the cookie needing to be altered.  These are great for a holiday party and can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days or frozen for 3 months so you can make them in advance.  Enjoy!

Nigella Lawson’s Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup white rice flour
• ¼ cup brown rice flour
• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ¼ cup soy flour
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup gluten-free oats (Nigella says to use ‘quick cooking oats’ but I just used Bob’s Red Mill)
• 1 stick plus one tablespoon unsalted butter
• ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon GF vanilla extract
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• ½ cup roughly chopped pecans
• ¾ cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Measure the flour, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and oats in a bowl.

Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together until creamy.  (I used an electric mixer.)  Then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the dry ingredient mixture, then fold in the cranberries, chocolate chips and pecans.

Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls with your hands, then place them on you cookie sheet and squish dough balls down with a fork.

Bake for 15 minutes; when ready, the cookies will be too soft to lift immediately so wait 5 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.

What will you be baking this holiday season?  If you don’t have time or ingredients to bake, I’m still baking away and taking cookie orders.

Peanut butter might be one of my favorite foods.  Anyone who knows me, knows that I eat it all the time.  It’s a great snack and goes well with many different foods: honey, jelly and of course, chocolate!

I love this cookie recipe, not only because it includes my favorite ingredient, but because it doesn’t require a mixer or fancy flour.  This recipe only requires four ingredients, and they’re all items that you might have in your pantry without having to make a trip to the store.  This recipe  makes at least 2 dozen cookies and are a huge hit with both gluten-free and non gluten-free eaters.  Perfect to take to a holiday event.  My friend, Ellie, always made these when I would come over to her house so they remind me of her!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg & 1 egg white
• ½ cup (or more) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix peanut butter, sugar, baking soda and eggs until thoroughly combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Refrigerate cookie dough for 12 minutes.  Scoop chilled cookie dough into small balls and place on a greased baking sheet, 2 inches apart.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until top begins to brown.  (They may seem a little soft but will harden once they cool.)

Peanut Butter Cookies with Hershey’s Kisses

There are a few versions of this recipe.  One that my students loved used Hershey’s Kisses instead of chocolate chips.  Just make the batter and roll each dough ball in sugar.  Squish down balls with a fork.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and put a Hershey’s Kiss on top of each cookie.  Put in the oven for another 10 seconds.  Let cool.  (When making this recipe, sometimes I use a 1 teaspoon of baking powder in the mix.)  You can also make this recipe without Hershey’s Kisses and just have a peanut butter cookie.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Bacon

I also found another twist on this recipe by Joy the Baker.  This one calls for cooked, diced, bacon.  Sounds a little weird when you first hear about it, but these two foods are a great combination.  My grandmother introduced me to this flavor combination as a child.  She microwaves Ritz crackers, peanut butter and bacon and it makes a great appetizer.  I’m thinking about trying it with Glutino crackers because it was such a part of my childhood and a great snack!  Seriously, try it.

Check out Joy the Baker’s post for peanut butter bacon cookies.  It’s almost exactly the same as the previous recipes except with bacon instead of chocolate.

Enjoy!

As any celiac knows, the holidays can be tricky with the many parties and festivities where gluten filled goodies will be served. Many of my friends are wonderful about putting out gluten free snacks whenever hosting me, but I like to bring something sweet and gluten free to my hosts. This way you’re guaranteed to have something you can eat…just make sure they aren’t put on the same tray as other cookies that do contain gluten.

Throughout the next few weeks I will be blogging about holiday cooking and baking in hopes that I will provide you with culinary ideas you can use at your own parties, share with your friends or even use as gifts. The holidays are a time to give, share and spend time with friends and families. This time of year is a perfect opportunity to show others how good gluten free food can be and remind yourself that you don’t need to miss out on all of the fun simply because of your dietary needs. Happy GF Holidays!

Christmas Monster Cookies:
These cookies are delicious and using Holiday M&Ms can add a festive touch. I also love this recipe because it makes enough cookies for a large group (think gift giving or holiday parties) and they freeze well. I’ll be bringing a batch to my friends’ Whit and Meredith’s holiday party this weekend:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup softened butter
¾ cup brown sugar (tightly packed)
¾ cup sugar
1 t. baking soda
1 t. gluten free vanilla (McCormick now specifies on the back that its vanilla is GF…Hooray!)
2 eggs
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 cups gluten free oats (Note: Bob’s Red Mill now has certified gluten free oats; you can order them online; they can be difficult to find in stores so when I find them, I buy a lot. I most recently found them at Ukrop’s in Richmond.)
1 cup holiday plain M&Ms
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease cookie sheet.
Using a mixer, combine butter and sugar. Then mix in eggs, vanilla and baking soda. Add peanut butter and mix until blended.

Mix in oats on slow speed (I usually start with 2 ½ cups and add more, depending on what I want the consistency to be like.) Then add M&Ms and chocolate chips and mix slowly.
(If I have time, I refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes, but it’s not necessary.)

Using a spoon, place balls of mix onto cookie sheet and bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on how brown you want them and how big you make your cookies. I usually check on them after 9 minutes and see how their looking.
Place on cooling rack and enjoy!