Chocolate Chip Cookies

Good Morning, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow so much has happened since my last blog entry. Christmas and New Year's....Which by the way were relaxing and fun! Also it's been two whole months of busy and sickness.....Too much sickness! Winter is here along with its annual flus and colds. Plus smack in the middle of that our son got the Chicken Pox right after Christmas break... Yay! We managed to survive though and still are.

On the up side, the days are getting longer. The birds seem to be busier and the snow is melting. All signs that spring is getting closer......How I long to be on a warm sandy beach soaking in the sun's rays!!!!! I did get to enjoy some warmth on my face a few weeks back though. I managed to wrestle out a patio chair out of the shed and sat on our deck, facing the sun. With a book in my lap and a glass of wine near at hand I could hardly tell I was wearing my down jacket. Our backyard is South facing and the temperature reached +6 that day with blue skies. Ah the little things!

Well because I can't go to the beach I thought I would share this cookie recipe with you instead. If all else fails....Chocolate is the cure for what ails you. What I came up with are cookies that are crispy and chewy. My favorite combination!! I found the recipe on line at kumquatblog.com but tweaked the instructions a little as the original ones turned my first batch of cookies into one large pancake. Just not the same really.... I love the individuality of a cookie with its round crispy golden edges. Something you don't get when you end up cutting your cookie pancake into 12 pieces.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

 1 tsp                    ground flaxseed

 2 tsp                    hot water

 1 1/4 cups           Gluten Free flour mix ( see note below)

 1/2 tsp                 baking soda

 1/2 tsp                 salt

 1/2 cup                butter, softened

 1/2 cup                brown sugar

 1/4 cup                white sugar

 1 tsp                    vanilla

 1                          egg

 3/4 cups              small to medium sized chocolate chips

Instructions:

~Combine ground flax and hot water and set aside.

~Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl cream together 

butter and sugars. Cream until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in flax slurry and vanilla. Gradually add flour mix and beat together for about 2 to 3 minutes. Once done fold in chocolate chips.

~Place the dough in the freezer and chill for at least 20 minutes.

~Meanwhile preheat your oven to 375C and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Remember when baking gluten free, parchment paper is your best friend.

~Once dough has chilled, roll batter into 1 inch balls. No bigger! Place onto prepared cookie sheet. Make sure not to crowd the dough balls. They will spread. I was able to put 11 per medium sized sheet. Place remaining dough back in the freezer while the first batch bakes. It's important to keep the dough cold.

~Bake cookies in the middle of the oven for 12-14 minutes. Rotating the sheet halfway. Check on them. They are ready when the edges are golden brown. 

~Now the trick is to leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Or else they will fall apart.

~Continue with the rest of the dough.

~Batch should make between 25 to 32 cookies depending on the size.

Note:

I made my own gluten free flour mix but you can use any mix I am sure.

This is the mix ratio I used.

1 1/2 cups        brown rice flour

1 cup                sorghum flour

3/4 cup            tapioca flour

3/4 cup            sweet rice flour

1/2 cup            cornstarch

1/2 cup            cornflour

Combine well and store in an airtight container. Use as needed.

Makes 5 cups.

Montreal Style Gluten Free Bagels

Two weeks have gone by since my last entry.....Life sure has been busy. The last week of November left me feeling a bit under the weather. Not the best setting to let the creative juices flow. Then came the first of December and the Christmas season kicks off......With birthdays and staff parties and company coming over. This all happened in the last 7 days.

Thankfully throughout my hectic schedule, I remembered to take photos of winning baking recipes and incredible dinners. I hope I can do a few entries this week to catch up on some good home cookin'. I know at the beginning of this blogging journey I promised you  a play by play of my weekly menu planning.....I still plan on doing that as soon as I can find a rhythm that works for me and this blog. I have many ideas I would love to share with you and in time I think I will be able to incorporate it all here.

Enough about my busy life. I know we all have them...... It's time I shared with you this incredible recipe I found on line a few weeks ago. Unfortunately I wrote down the recipe and forgot to keep a link to where I I found it. I want to give credit where credit is due but I can't. I spend so much time searching for recipes and ideas you would think I was organized enough and have it all bookmarked nicely on my computer.....My simple answer is I do not!!!!! Anyway I came across a recipe for Gluten Free bagels and had to try making them. I was a bit unsure at first. I was always under the impression bagels took time and were a bit of work to make. But as you will keep hearing me saying over and over again, gluten free baking is a breeze in comparison to regular baking. And this recipe doesn't disappoint either!

From start to finish, the bagels took about 2 hours to make......They came out chewy and not crumbly at all. My only complaint is that they were a bit too yeasty for me. And this I will rectify the next time I make them. But for now I will share with you the original recipe I found. 

So here it is ......

Montreal Style Gluten Free Bagels

3 cups          Gluten Free Flour Mix( see *note)

1/2 cup         Tapioca Flour

1/4 cup         Millet Flour

1/4 cup         Ground Flax Seeds( Not in original recipe)

1 Tbsp          Active Dry Yeast

2 tsp             Xanthan Gum

2 Tbsp          Brown Sugar, packed

1 3/4 tsp       Salt

                2  Eggs + 2 Egg Yolks

1 Tbsp          Oil

1 1/3 cups    Warm Water

Once risen, you will need to finish:

12 cups        Water

1/4 cup         White Sugar

1 Tbsp          Baking Soda

1                   Lightly Beaten Egg

1/4 cup         Sesame Seeds ( Not in original recipe)

Instructions:

~ Place dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix well( including yeast).

~ In another bowl, gently whisk the remaining ingredients until combined.

~ Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix. You can use a hand mixer here. It worked well for me. But a Kitchen Aid would be best. I had to finish with a wooden spoon for fear of losing too much batter. My bowl wasn't big enough.....The dough will be sticky but not unbearable. ( I did sprinkle a bit more flour. It felt too sticky for me. It should be a bit tacky.)

~ Using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, drop a blob of dough on the counter lightly dusted with rice flour. Not too much though or else the dough will slide around. You want it a bit sticky as its easier to roll into a smooth ball.

~ Making a cupped shape with your hand, cover the dough and make circles in a quick repetitive motion. You want to create a smooth rounded ball.

~ Once you have a nice ball, using your thumb, press straight in the middle of the dough and move it around in circular motions to help widen the hole for your bagel.

~ Then using your fingers, press down on the dough a bit to help make a flattened bagel shape.

~ After shaping it, transfer each bagel to a cookie sheet lined with a lightly oiled piece of parchment paper.

~ Repeat until all the dough is shaped. The recipe should make 8 evenly shaped bagels.

~ Gently drape the bagels with a piece of lightly oiled plastic film( saran) and allow to rise in a warm spot for about 1 1/4 hour. They should be doubled in size by then.

~ About 30 minutes into the rise, preheat your oven to 450C.

~ About 20 minutes before the bagels are ready from rising, bring your 12 cups of water in a pot to boil. Add the sugar and baking soda. Once the water starts boiling, lower temperature just below a simmer. 

~ Working 2 bagels at a time, drop bagels into the simmering water and cook 1 1/2 minutes per side. Use a slotted spoon to gently turn them.

~ Place on a prepared baking sheet. Brush tops with egg wash and sprinkle them with sesame seeds. Bake at 450C for about 15- 20 minutes. Ready when they've reached a nice golden brown color.

* Note:

For the gluten free flour mix, I used Brown rice flour ( 2 cups), Tapioca Flour ( 1/3 cup) and Potato Starch not Potato flour ( 2/3 cup).

Now I thought this recipe was a good start for bagels. Next time I will try proofing the yeast first as opposed to mixing everything together. And I will try using a bit less yeast. And the best part is tweaking the recipe a bit to have fun with it. You could always add seeds to create a multigrain bagel. Try adding a mixture of mustard seeds, pumpkin, sunflower, flax and sesame. Maybe a total of 1/4 cup to start. Or mixing in some frozen blueberries. Or adding some cinnamon and raisins......The possibilities are endless.

Quinoa Chocolate Torte

Saturday night we were invited to our friends house for dinner. They were making their famous Sushi spread. And by the way.....What a spread it was! F and S have perfected making Sushi at home. I felt like I was in the city with a variety of Japanese food beyond my wildest dreams. Tuna Tataki. Venison Tataki with Huckleberry Ponzu . Unagi rolls. Scallops rolls. Salmon rolls. Miso. Sunomono Salad...... That's only naming a few. The table was overflowing with deliciousness!! Take a look....

Now being gluten free and a lover of desserts and sweets, I usually end up bringing a dessert to dinner parties. It guarantees  I can partake in a bit of sinful eating after the main event..... This time around I chose a dessert I've been meaning to try. I first had this dessert at a wedding I helped cater this past summer. One of the guest made it knowing a few of the other guests were Gluten Free. After trying it myself, I hunted her down and asked if she would share her recipe. Weeks later, I found a lovely email explaining how she had come across it herself.

She found it in a cookbook she has titled....."Quinoa 365 by Patricia Green & Carolyn Hemming". Apparently you can double and triple the recipe with no problem.

Luckily I remembered to take a few pictures while eating it. But the picture my friend Francine took was much nicer....

Now I must say this cake is supreme. It's decadent but at the same time not too sweet. You can definitely have seconds.....And thirds!! The recipe makes two 8 inch rounds. We brought over one and I froze the second which we will use this weekend for our own dinner party.

Quinoa Chocolate Torte

2/3 cup Golden Quinoa

1 1/3 cups Water 

1 ½ cups White Sugar

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1/3 cup Milk 

4 large Eggs

1 ½ tsp  Gluten Free Baking Powder 

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

½ tsp Baking Soda 

½ tsp Salt

¾ cup Butter( or Dairy Free alternative) ,melted and cooled

Ganache:

¾ cup Heavy Cream( I used soy creamer due to dairy intolerance)

1 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips ( You can use Vegan chips...again if dairy intolerant)

1 tsp Vanilla

Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, reduce to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and leave covered saucepan on the burner for another 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and allow the quinoa to cool.

Preheat oven to 350; lightly grease a 10-inch spring form pan (OR two 8-inch round or square pans) and line with parchment paper.

Combine milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender or food processor; add 2 cups cooked quinoa and the butter and continue to blend until smooth.

Whisk together the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Add contents of the blender and mix well. Pour into pan(s) and bake on center oven rack for 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely in the pan.

Ganache:

Place 1 cup chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Heat the whipping cream to boiling; pour the hot cream over the chips and whisk until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Let cool briefly (3 minutes) and then pour carefully over the cake continuing until the cake is covered.

I chose to decorate the cake with raspberries. And it did not disappoint!

Store in sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.

Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

So I finally broke down yesterday and bought a package of xanthan gum. After a few attempts at making a decent GF bread using only egg and flax seed as binders, I decided to see what all the hype was about. Like I said in my previous post, my first 2 attempts were edible. The loaves just weren't sandwich bread material. They never rose above the bread pan. Actually they never made it to the edges of the bread pan. For those of you who don't know what xanthan gum is....It's a binder/ stabilizer used in GF baking to give the flour something to hold on to in the rising process. Wheat flour has gluten to do that.....

Over the last few days I have been looking for the perfect sandwich bread recipe. The internet is a wealth of information. Unfortunately looking at pictures and recipes all day long won't give me an idea how any of them are.....so I just had to pick one and see for myself. What I came up with was a guideline of ingredients from one site and instructions from another.

Now for anyone out there who has delved in the world of bread making, you know you have to put a bit of work into it. Unless of course you're so lucky as to have a Kitchen Aid mixer which does most of the work for you.....( No I am not bitter some of you have Kitchen Aid mixers.....Not. At. All!). Anyway, what I am trying to say here is.....Gluten Free baking is easy. No really it is!! I have done my fair share of homemade bread making in the past and GF bread baking is a breeze in comparison. Once all your ingredients are in the bowl....The only tool you need is a hand mixer. A hand mixer people! No kneading is required.

 As I write this blog entry, the bread is baking in the oven. And by the looks of it the xanthan gum truly works! I mixed the ingredients together, poured the batter/ dough in to the pan and after proofing for an hour the bread rose up just over an inch above the pan. I just checked on it and it hasn't fallen. It still looks like bread. And it smells like bread too. Here is what it looked like once I took it out of the oven.....

Gluten Free White Sandwich Bread

1 cup        Tapioca Flour
3/4 cup    Brown Rice flour
3/4 cup    Potato Starch
2 tsp        Xanthan Gum
3/4 tsp     Salt
1 Tbsp     Sugar
2 tsp        Active Dry Yeast
1 Egg  + 1 Egg yolk
3/4 tsp     Apple Cider Vinegar
1 1/2 tsp   Oil
1 1/3 cup  Warm Soy Milk

Instructions
1~ Warm soy milk on the stovetop. You just want it warm not scalding or boiling hot. Place in a bowl along with yeast and sugar. Let it sit about 5 minutes until it's nice and foamy.

2~ In the meantime, measure and mix first 5 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

3~ Beat eggs with a hand mixer until frothy. Then add oil, vinegar and the yeast mix. Beat for about 30 seconds.

4~ Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Taking your hand mixer blend together until it comes together and resembles a muffin batter. It will be thick and somewhat sticky.

5~ Scrape batter/ dough into a greased 4x8 bread pan. I also lined the bottom with parchment paper.  Now cover the pan with plastic wrap and set it in a warm dry area. What I did was to warm the oven to 200F then turned the oven off and placed my pan inside. Let it rise for about 1 hour. Until the dough comes above the edges of the pan or doubles in size.

6~ Preheat your oven to 350F. Once dough has risen, place the pan in the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes. I baked mine for 45 and I should probably have left it in for a bit longer. You know it's done when it's sounds hollow when you tap the loaf. Once done remove pan from oven and then the bread from the pan. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Enjoy!

The resulting bread turned out great. Lots of airy bubbles inside the loaf. And it was light and moist....But like I mentioned in the recipe, I should have baked it a bit longer. I found it a bit too soft to slice but  managed it by being careful. For my first attempt using xanthan gum, I am ecstatic with the end result. I can't wait to try different flour mixes to try and up the nutritious factor.

Ok so I've finally done it....

After much thought, I've decided to create a blog to help store and organize the many recipes I've attempted over the years.....During the past 6 months I've been living a 100% gluten free diet....for the most part I will admit! And after spending a boat load of money on GF( gluten free) breads( oh and it's true.....some taste worst than cardboard)) I have started experimenting with my own recipes.

Now let me tell you, it hasn't been an easy feat. Baking gluten free is costly. And trying to work dough with no gluten is next to impossible......But I have been successful mastering a pizza dough. At least I think I have mastered it. The finished product tastes good and I didn't fear cracking a tooth. It was airy and chewy. Just like pizza dough should be!

My next quest is to create a perfect bread. My first attempts have been edible at least. But I've also tried making the breads without adding binders like guar gum or xantham gum. For some reason their names alone frighten me. So instead I tried using egg and flax seed. Although the breads tasted good and weren't crumbly or dusty, they lacked the height and bubbles some GF breads have. In the next few blogs I will share those first recipes with you.......

Keeping it safe and not at all about baking .....I chose a gluten free dinner as my first blog entry.

I love to cook. It is my passion. My past time. My means to relax. Those who know me can confirm my mild addiction to food. I am a weekly meal planner..... I get overly excited when my menu falls within inexpensive and bursting with flavor. This addiction does border on nerdiness sometimes. I spend too much time googling recipes and most days are spent talking about food a tad over the top.... I am ok with that though! Everything about menu planning for me is about taste first. Time management comes in second since I have a busy family household to cook for. And third living within a budget but not sacrificing on flavor just to save a few pennies.

Soooooo......If you're still reading this intro( thanks by the way if you are), not only will this blog be about my trials and tribulations baking GF but it will also include my weekly menu plan along with some of the recipes I will be using!

On that note....First up for this blog is a recipe I included as our Monday night dinner from this weeks menu plan.
We enjoyed it a lot. After spending the day grocery shopping for the week, the house smelled absolutely divine when we walked in. It just so happens I started prepping for our dinner last night by first soaking the beans. Everything else went into the crockpot this morning before I left the house. And voila! Forget burning some Nag Champa........ I could smell our stew before I opened the front door. So deliciously fragrant!!!

I adapted this recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen. Hope you like it!!

Crockpot White Bean and Beef Stew

1 Cup       Dried Cannelini Beans, soaked overnight
1 Lb         Stewing Beef, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 Cup    Gluten Free Cornstarch
      Salt and Pepper to taste
2 Tbsp     Olive oil
1              Medium sized Onion, chopped
2              Garlic Cloves, minced
3              Stems of fresh Oregano
1 Tbsp     Cumin
1 Tbsp     Coriander
2 Cups     Chicken Stock( I used 1 McCormicks Gluten Free Bouillon cube)
1 Cup       Water
1              14 oz Can of Diced Tomatoes( I used Fire Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic)

1~ The night before, start by soaking a cup of beans in 4 cups of cold water. Keep in the fridge until morning. I am sure the counter would be fine too.
2~ The next morning prepare beef and place into a bowl along with cornstarch. Season generously with salt and pepper and mix well.
3~ Get a deep pan nice and hot, add oil. Gently place beef into pan. Make sure not to crowd the meat. You want to sear it not steam or boil it. Sear meat on all sides. The beef will probably stick a bit to the bottom of the pan but don't worry. This will create flavor for the stew. Once the meat is browned on all sides remove and set in the crockpot. You may have to do this in 2 or 3 batches.
4~ Once meat is all seared add a bit more oil to the pan and add onions. Saute until transluscent. About 5 minutes or so. Then add garlic. Saute for another 2 to 3 minutes. Making sure not to burn either. Once onions are soft....pour in the chicken broth and deglaze the pan. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan removing any bits of caramelized beef that stuck to it. Pour everything into the crockpot along with all the other ingredients.
You could prep steps 2, 3 and 4 the night before and place in the fridge overnight. This is a great time saver if you are short of it in the morning. Just rinse the beans in the A.M. and put everything in the crockpot.
5~ Set crockpot on low for 8 to 10 hours or fast track it on high for 5 to 6 hours. Only you know how your crockpot cooks. They are all so different. I love  mine.....I can walk away from my kitchen for the rest of the day!!
6~ Enjoy!! We ate the stew as is ( Only because I totally gapped on the finishing touches....Sure would have added more pop to my picture) but you could add a bit more pizzazz just before serving........ Cilantro, Green Onions and a touch of Lime Juice. Make sure to adjust seasoning as you see fit.

This recipe fed 3 of us plus there are leftovers for lunches tomorrow. And it all cost roughly $10. That's including a baguette for the boys.