Apple, Carrot Cake

We celebrated my daughter's 5th birthday today with friends and family.  She needed a cake that was grain, dairy, and sugar free, and she requested that it be an apple, carrot cake.  I used this Paleo Carrot Cake recipe as my starting point and made a few adaptations to make it work for her party. 

1 cup honey
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
12 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 1/8 cup coconut flour
1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (about 3 medium)
1 1/2 cups shredded apples (about 2 apples)

I peeled and roughly chopped the carrots and apples, and then I shredded them in my food processor attachment for my Ninja Mega Kitchen System.  Mix all the ingredients together saving the carrot/apple mixture and coconut flour for last.  For cupcakes, I baked these for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

For icing, I made this recipe for Salted Raw Carmel Dip.  Typically, I make this to serve as a sweet dip with apple slices for a special treat for the kids, but I thought that the flavors would go well with the carrot cake too.  It was a hit!  The kids, and especially the all important birthday girl, loved it.

Drop Sugar Cookies (Gluten and Dairy Free)

I wanted something sweet today that was easy to make and didn't require a trip to the store. I also wanted to try out a new gluten free flour blend that I found at Costco recently. I simply modified an old drop sugar cookie recipe to make it gluten and dairy free.

1 1/3 cups gluten free flour (Namaste Perfect Flour Blend)
3/4 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp gluten free vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350. 2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. 3. In large bowl, beat coconut oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla until light and fluffy. 4. Add flour mixture and beat on low just until combined. 5. Drop by rounded teaspoon on ungreased baking sheet. 6. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly brown. Makes approximately 24 cookies.

Freezer Muffins

Not only do my kids have multiple food issues, but they are also picky and sometimes down right stubborn about what they will eat.  Sound familiar?  I like to sneak fruit and vegetables along with healthy fats into muffins.  Shhh!  Don't tell them that they ate zucchini today.  I always make a double batch and freeze half of them for later whenever I make muffins.  They make a great snack to have on hand.  You can just pop them in the microwave for 1 minute to thaw them, and they taste like they are fresh from the oven.  It's my teenagers favorite after school snack.

Here's some of our favorite muffins recipes:

Banana Muffins - I just make this recipe, and bake in a muffin tin.  Lately, I have been substituting the canola oil with coconut oil and replacing the sugar with 1/2 cup of honey.  These are the kid's favorites.

Zucchini Muffins- Just make this as muffins for a grab and go snack.  I use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and use my own gluten free flour mix (3/4 cup Sorghum Flour, 3/4 Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 cup Potato Starch).  I also leave out the nuts because we have a peanut allergy, and I worry about cross contamination with other tree nuts.

Pumpkin Muffins - Since the kids prefer muffins, I just make this recipe as muffins.  To keep it dairy free, just substitute coconut oil for butter.  I have been using some frozen pumpkin puree that I have on hand from last season instead of canned pumpkin, but either one will work fine.  I also have found that you can reduce the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup.  I'm planning to experiment with alternative sweeteners such as honey or agave nectar next time.  I use the same flour mix as above (3/4 cup Sorghum Flour, 3/4 Brown Rice Flour, and 1/2 cup Potato Starch).

GF Bread that Kids Will Actually Like

Udi's gluten free bread varieties score big points for convenience, but the taste is definitely far from fresh baked bread.  If you're looking for a bread that might please some of your pickiest eaters this one may just work:  GF White Bread for Bread Machines.  Not only does my family love this bread, but it receives rave reviews from my gluten eating guests.  I have made a couple of adaptions to the recipe since my family does not eat dairy or soy.  I use Silk Coconut Milk instead of buttermilk and substitute sorghum flour for the soy flour.  We love sorghum flour!  It tastes great in baked goods and adds a nutritional boost with an abundance of fiber, protein, and minerals.  Check out the health benefits of sorghum.  Just like most gluten free baked goods, this bread has a short shelf life.  With a family of 5, a loaf is typically gone within 24 hours.  If you want to keep it longer, then I would suggest slicing it and freezing it until ready to eat.

Chocolate Coconut Flag Cake (Gluten, Dairy and Dye Free)

My daughter wanted to make a flag cake to celebrate the 4th today, and we needed to make something gluten and dairy free.  I also recently purchased some coconut oil to experiment with in the kitchen, so I decided to incorporate the coconut oil into our cake.  We all love chocolate, so that decision was easy.  We made a Betty Crocker Gluten Free Devil's Food Cake and substituted coconut oil for the butter.  The mix is designed for a smaller 9x9 pan, but it worked fine to make a thinner cake in a larger 9x12 glass baking dish.  You could also use two cake mixes if you prefer a thicker cake or need more servings.  We topped the cake with coconut icing.  I used the icing recipe from these Fluffy Coconut Cupcakes.  Then we used blueberries and sliced strawberries to decorate.  Voila!  Simple, allergy friendly cake.

Strawberry Shortcake

It's strawberry season!  We always had a strawberry patch growing up, and I have fond memories of strawberry picking.  I ate most of what I picked as I went and ended up with strawberry juice all over my face and shirt.  Another tradition was homemade strawberry shortcake.  My mom typically made a spongy, yellow cake to serve as shortcake.  While I live in the suburbs with my kids, there are still strawberries to pick at grandma's house, and they love buying fresh strawberries at the farmer's market on Saturday mornings.  I searched the Internet for a shortcake recipe that might allow me to share my memories of my favorite desert growing up with my own children.  I found this recipe that not only tastes great, but it also very easy to make with simple ingredients.  No trip to the specialty food store necessary.  I wasn't sure about the pinch of nutmeg, but it gave the cakes a great flavor.    

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/gluten-free-strawberry-shortcake/

Although the coconut milk topping sounds great, I just used pre-made TruWhip.

Incredible Disappearing Banana Bread

My kids love banana bread!  Whenever I make it, it's gone within a few minutes.  Here's the gluten/dairy free recipe that I used this time.

Gluten, Dairy Free Banana Bread Deliciousness

The recipe calls for gluten-free all purpose flour.  I made my own blend with 3/4 cup of brown rice flour, 3/4 cup of sorghum flour, 1/4 of potato starch, and 1tsp xanthum gum.  I also found that it takes much longer to bake, probably more like an hour. 

Gluten Free Birthday Party

Ahoy, Matey!  We had a pirate themed party for my daughter's 4th birthday.  Of course, she wanted a pirate cake, but I had to make the cake since finding a gluten free bakery can be tricky.  While I can bake, I am not a cake decorator, so I had to figure out a way to make a pirate themed cake with my limited skills.  Cupcakes seemed like the best option.  I printed out some Neverland Pirate characters on white cardstock paper, cut them out, and taped them to toothpicks.  Voila, fairly simple and inexpensive cupcake toppers.  I used the Neverland Pirate Playset printable activity for my characters.  To add variety, I also found this free, cute pirate ship cupcake topper printable.  With a little bit of searching and handiwork, a similar process could be used to create cupcake toppers for just about any theme.  For the cupcake batter, I used Gluten Free Carrot Cake (at my daughter's request) and Homemade Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix.  None of the party guests even suspected that the cupcakes were gluten free.  Success!  My daughter was also happy with the results of her "pirate" cake.  In fact, she squealed when she saw the display.  Other than cupcakes, we just served Pirate Booty and bottled water.

The highlight of the party was the activities.  As the guests arrived, each child decorated their own pirate hat for the party.  I purchased foam pirate hats for this activity from Oriental Trading Company.  The main event was a treasure hunt in the park.  My husband and I made clues that lead the party guests through the park to find the treasure map that had been stolen by Captain Hook.  Then once the kids found the treasure map, they followed it to find the treasure filled with chocolate doubloons and inexpensive, bead necklaces.  The kids loved the activity. 

Carrot Cake - Are you sure this is gluten free?

Today was my husband and I's anniversary.  He loves carrot cake, so I wanted to surprise him with his favorite cake.  If I made regular carrot cake, he'd be the only one that could eat it.  That wouldn't be any fun, so I searched for a gluten free version.  I decided to try the Gluten Free Carrot Cake recipe posted on the Betty Crocker website.  The result was so delicious.  Even my husband was amazed that it was a gluten free cake.  He said it was the best that I've ever made.

The base of the cake is the Betty Crocker® Gluten Free yellow cake mix, and you just add shredded carrots, cinnamon, nutmeg, and walnuts.  I shredded up some baby carrots in my Ninja QB900B Master Prep Revolutionary Food and Drink Maker, Gray for the cake.  After reading through the recipe reviews, I decided to add 1/2 cup of applesauce to the recipe to add moisture.  We also also like coconut, so I added a 1/2 cup of coconut as well.  The box says to bake it in a 9x9 pan, but I was able to make two small 8inch circle layer cakes.  I topped the cake with the Betty Crocker® cream cheese icing.

Update to Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I made an accidental discovery this morning when I was making gluten free chocolate chip cookies to take for Easter dinner.  Since only my kids and I are gluten free, I decided to only make a 1/2 batch of cookies.  The original recipe calls for 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk, and 2 T milk.  In order to 1/2 this, I just used one egg and left out the milk.  These cookies had the best consistency of any that I have ever made.  I plan to just use 1 egg for a 1/2 batch or 2 eggs for a full batch eliminating the milk in the future.

Here's a link to my original post with the recipe:

Must Have Chocolate Chip Cookies

Valentine's Cookies

Last night, my husband took our daughter to a father/daughter dance for Valentine's Day.  They serve cookies and juice at the dance, so we made some special gluten free Valentine's cookies for her to take to the dance with her for their special night.  I used this recipe for the cookies, and they turned out great.

Gluten Free Cut-Out Cookies

We used some leftover butter cream icing that we had in the fridge and sprinkles to decorate.

SunButter Cookies

My daughter wanted to have a tea party today, and we needed a quick treat to serve with our tea.  These Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies worked well.  With only five ingredients, they were ready in a jiffy.  I substituted SunButter for the the peanut butter because of my son's peanut allergy.  The kids loved them so much that I caught them sneaking around in the kitchen trying to get more cookies.  

Let Her Eat Cake

Let's face it.  When your kids have food allergies, birthday parties can be a bit tricky.  When my son was younger, he had a friend with a peanut allergy who had never been to a birthday party before because his mother was so worried about him having an allergic reaction.  Since my son also had a peanut allergy, I was able to convince her that our party would be peanut free which meant making our own pizza, cake, and ice cream for the party from scratch in our peanut free kitchen because she was so worried about cross-contamination.  I have to admit that I didn't normally go to the same extreme for my son with the same allergy, but I was willing to do whatever it took for the poor child to be able to come to the party and actually participate in a sleepover.  He was thrilled which made the extra effort well worth it.  

Thankfully, gluten allergies are typically not as extreme, but still pose significant problems when most of the typical party food is full of gluten.  My daughter is young enough that I am still able to attend the parties with her and monitor her food choices, but eventually she will need to learn to navigate these types of social situations on her own.  For now, we just bring her own cupcakes to celebrations with us.

Homemade Gluten Free Yellow Cake Mix

I make these cupcakes ahead of time and keep them in the freezer ready to take with us for special occasions that come up.  Since my daughter can tolerate dairy products just fine, I make this recipe with milk and eggs.  Sometimes I make my own butter cream icing, but you can also use Betty Crocker icings which are all gluten free according to the company website.  Two cupcakes fit well in an old, plastic lunch meat container which is nice because I don't have to worry about bringing the container home with us.  When cake is served, she just gets out her own cupcakes, and most of the time nobody has even noticed that she had anything different.  The one time a friend asked her about it, she just told them that she had special cake that didn't hurt her tummy.  No big deal!  For other things, she is already learning to ask whether items are gluten free before eating them.  As long as she has cake, she is happy!

I have tried the Gluten Free Betty Crocker cake mixes, but we do not like them as well as this recipe.  They just don't have the sponge-like texture that we like.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Rasin Cookies

I experimented with converting my old favorite oatmeal cookie recipe to gluten free today.  I used to just make the "Family Favorite Oatmeal Cookies" recipe from the back of the Meijer brand quick oats.  With just a few changes, I was able to recreate these as a gluten free cookie.  They turned out crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside.  I have also found that my cookies typically turn out much better when I bake them on an AirBake Insulated Cookie Sheet . Here's my gluten-free version:

1 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp GF vanilla
1 cup GF oat flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 corn starch
1 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups GF oats
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease cookie sheet.  Beat shortening and sugar until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.  In a separate bowl, whisk together oat flour, potato starch, corn starch, xantham gum, baking soda, and soda to mix well.  Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in oats and raisins. Chill dough for 10-15 minutes. Using rounded tablespoons, roll into balls.  Place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.  Flatten with fork.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Let stand for a couple of minutes before removing to racks to cool.

Gluten Free Bread

My daughter turns her nose up to just about all of the pre-made gluten free breads.  For the most part, I make all of her bread.  Before we started the gluten-free lifestyle, I have to admit that I had never made bread mostly because I thought that it was difficult and time consuming.  After muddling through a few months of eating gluten free with basically no bread of any kind, I decided to give bread-making a try.  My mom got me a bread-maker for Christams last year, so I started off using a few of the bread mixes.  They were definitely better than the pre-made bread options, but they were still pretty expensive.  Eventually, I decided that maybe I could make it from scratch myself.  We have tried numerous different recipes, but this recipe is by far everyone's favorite.  The whole family enjoys this bread especially served just out of the bread-maker.

Delicious Gluten Free Bread

For this recipe, I use potato starch and oat flour.  I also use lemon juice and honey.

My bread-maker does not have a specific gluten-free setting, but the bread always turn out wonderful with the rapid rise cycle.  I use the "Food Network Programmable Breadmaker" from Kohl's which has worked just fine for me.

While the ingredient list may be somewhat daunting at first, it really isn't that difficult.  You can even mix up multiple batches of the dry ingredients at one time and save them until you're ready to make your next loaf.  The only downside so far is the mess on the counter from all of the bread crumbs when I slice up the bread.  I put the loaf on a cutting board, but the flaky crust tends to still make a mess.  Since I make bread on a regular basis, I have a added a bread slicer and breadkeeper to my wish list.



  

Must Have Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cookies have always been my expertise.  In fact, I'm not allowed to show up to a family event without them.  I have to admit that giving up gluten filled cookies was probably one of the most difficult aspects of changing my family's diet. Not only do I love cookies, but cookie making had been an important tradition that I shared with my children.  I tried many gluten free recipes to satisfy my chocolate chip cookie cravings, but many of them either tasted odd or didn't have the right consistency.

Check out my update to this post:
Update to Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe 

Here's the best recipe that I have found so far:

Chewy Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

With just a couple of tweaks, I have been able to enjoy chocolate chip cookies once again with my kids.  I substitute potato starch for tapioca starch because I don't like the taste of the tapioca starch (same quantity). I've found that it is what gives many of the gluten free baked goods a funny taste. I also use 1% milk because I don't keep whole milk on hand, and it works fine. It's important to chill the dough well as the recipe says (I put it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes) or they won't bake right.

Gluten Free Dinner Rolls

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so I decided to experiment with making some dinner rolls.  This recipe turned out well.  The house smelled wonderful as they baked, and the kids were excited to wake up to fresh rolls after nap time.  Warm rolls with a little bit of Nutella were a perfect snack.  I used white rice flour instead of the Asian White and Sweat flours, but they still turned out great.

http://simplygluten-free.com/blog/2011/11/gluten-free-dairy-free-soft-dinner-rolls-recipe.html

Here's the products that I used for this recipe: