DB Scones/Biscuits (3 gluten and dairy free versions)

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Whoops, somehow I kept forgetting to make time to post this months Daring Baker challenge!  This month we were given a biscuit recipe.  Even though I didn't personally eat any of these (due to my Whole 30 pledge) and I couldn't make the provided recipe (because the rest of the house is dairy free and currently wheat free) I still felt like trying out some recipes on the kids and John to see if any would be a hit.  Here are the results...

First, I made these Coconut Flour Bacon Biscuits from Primal Den Mother.  John and the kids weren't impressed though that may be because they were slightly over baked or because of the coconut flour.  I personally like coconut flour baked goods more than they do and from the smell I think I might like these.  

Next I tried GF Buttermilk Biscuits from Food.com.  I used Spectrum butter flavored shortening and So Delicious cultured coconut milk in place of the butter and buttermilk.  They had a good smell but the texture was too gummy and no one was interested in them.

Finally I made the Almond Flour Biscuits from Elana's Pantry.  These were the clear winner.  John and Alex both liked them a lot and they had a good looking texture after baking.  I can see myself having these occasionally after the Whole 30 is over, though I do find that her almond flour baked goods start all tasting too similar if I have them often.  

*For the official Daring Baker scone/biscuit recipe for this month visit our host, Audax, at Audax Artifex or take a look at the DB Scone recipe pdf.

Penny has been crazy about Play Dough lately.

She is our little princess. A tiara picture for you mom!

Alex isn't such a monster, he just seems to want to look like one. 

DB Sad Sourdough

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Jessica of My Recipe Project gave us the task of making sourdough bread.  I really wanted to try a gluten free sourdough loaf but a few failed attempts and a load of Christmas projects to finish pushed it from my mind.  So all I have to offer is a sad picture of one of my moldy starters.  I'd love if anyone could help me figure out why my rice flour starters got moldy and what I should do about it.  Should I vinegar clean the bowl, boil the water first, get a different batch of rice flour?  Oh well, maybe some other time I'll feel up to trying again.  For those interested, the recipes can be found at our host Jessica's site, My Recipe Project, or on this PDF.

My mold-spotted rice sourdough starter

Chewy Molasses Cookies (redone grain free)

When I was younger I teased my mother for eating dried dates by saying they look like cockroaches. It had something to do with the translucence and papery skin, which I still find a little eerie, but recently dates have come to my rescue.  In this year's attempt to tackle wheat free baking I have found that dates, and date paste, are my favorite secret weapon for making good grain-free cookies.  This recipe is the first of two cookies that make use of my current favorite method. Using my ever evolving baking strategies I updated a favorite Christmas cookie of ours, the Chewy Molasses Cookie.  The flavor is still there though the sweetness is toned down to match our current tastes.  In my opinion this allows the zing of the spices and molasses to shine brighter.  I suppose I could still compromise and coat the outside of these in sugar but since they were so well received by both kids I think I'll keep them as is.   One experiment I would like to try is to double bake them at a low temperature like biscotti to see if I can get a crisp version as well as this chewy one.

Chewy Molasses Date Cookies 
Makes ~3 dozen small cookies, made using a 1 tablespoon scoop

7 ounces date paste (or ~1 1/3 cup packed pitted dates)*
3 ounces coconut oil (~1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon)*
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 cup almond meal*
2 tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line your baking sheets with parchment.
-It is best to have all your ingredients at room temperature.  Add your dates, coconut oil, eggs and molasses to a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth paste.  If you are using pitted dates double check them for pits and expect this to take a little longer.
-In a small bowl whisk together all your dry ingredients.  Add the dry ingredients to the date mixture and process until combined, scraping the bowl as needed.
-Spoon tablespoons of dough onto your lined baking sheets leaving at least an inch and a half of spreading room.
-Bake for 8-10 minutes until puffy.  Cool the cookies on the baking sheets before removing.  It's best to release the cookies with an offset spatula before removing.  
-Baked cookies freeze well but I have found that coconut flour baked goods like these tend to not store well for long periods at room temperature.

*Ingredient information:  I get my date paste from Country Life Natural Foods.  It is relatively dry compared to most homemade versions I've seen but it's great for baking.  My kids prefer no coconut flavor and so we use the expeller pressed oil from Wilderness Family Naturals.  I've used both Bob's Red Mill and Honeyville almond flour/meal in these and both work fine.

I'm adding these to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays on Simply Sugar & Gluten Free

Enjoying some Enjoy Life Freebies

If you are a parent of a food allergic kid it is unlikely you haven't heard of the brand Enjoy Life.  For us their chocolate chips have long been an essential staple.  They have been especially helpful since we have mostly eliminated soy this year and soy-free chocolate is very hard to find.  When we heard the news of their new Mega Chunks, we ran out to buy some as soon as our local co-op had them.  So I gladly accepted some free goodies and in exchange I'm mentioning them here.  We received a package of the Mega Chunks and something new for us, their Double Chocolate Crunch Granola.

The Mega Chunks don't disappoint.  They are the same chocolate as their mini chips in a useful bigger chunk size.  While I'd personally love it if they came out with a bittersweet version with less sugar I can't deny that my kids think their chocolate is great.  The granola however isn't something I think we'd buy.  Penny kinda liked it but Alex and I thought it was too hard.  It reminded me of Grape Nuts in texture and had a floury rice flavor.  We aren't granola eaters to begin with so take that into consideration.  I will come clean and recommend their new Crunchy Sugar Crisp Cookies.  I know, I know-- I rail against store bought cookies!  But these are really good tasting basic sugar cookies and they beat out the gluten-free sugar cookies I've so far tried to make.  Everyone has to eat their words sometimes, including me, not that I won't keep trying to top them ;)

Here is Alex sharing his own taste test of the Mega Chunks:
 

And Penny with some granola

We received these products free of charge but this is our honest review of them.
See more about Enjoy Life at: The Enjoy Life website, Enjoy Life blog and of course on Facebook

DB Croissants (done dairy and gluten free)

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Well, just because you "can" make gluten-free/dairy-free croissant-like things doesn't mean you "should".  Some part of me feels good about giving it a go despite my limitations but the reality is that these weren't any better than Pillsbury Crescent Rolls from the tube and took *considerably* more time to make.  Dairy-free croissants, sure-I'd make 'em.  Gluten-free ones with real butter and cream, most definitely!!, but another attempt at making something croissant like without both gluten and dairy is not in my future.  The kids did eat them so it wasn't a loss on that front.  But again, these just aren't good enough and nothing I can think of could change that.  Time to make some pot roast instead!

Links:
-The given recipe for Julia Child's croissants is available here. This recipe comes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume Two.
-I attempted the recipe for Gluten Free Croissants from Blog Critic author Bobbie Noto.  I replaced the heavy cream and milk with almond milk and the butter with Spectrum butter flavored shortening plus 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  You can see more recipes at Bobbie's Baking Blog, look for the Vols-au-Vent recipe for a gluten free puff pastry recipe. 
-More Daring Baker-ness can be found on the blogroll. 

In case you desire a tortuously long process that produces Doughboy results, here are pictures of the "butter" fold to help you along.  First mold your butter opposite your dough square.

Then fold in each triangular flap, overlapping slightly

For my more successful ventures this month, Alex loves this Minecraft Creeper plushy we made together.

DB Fresh Frasier (or rather Framboises)

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

Daring Baker time!  This month's creation was chiffon cake filled with fresh fruit and pastry cream, a Fresh Frasier.  I chose to use fresh raspberries, made the gluten-free chiffon cake from Penny's birthday, used coconut milk for the pastry cream (alas no stabilized whipped cream for us) and sweetened it all with maple sugar. I overcooked the pastry cream a bit and I think I'm getting to a point where even maple sugar is too much for me.  I'd rather just have the berries plain or the berries with a splash of coconut milk and skip the cake.  But the cake was put to use and served some kind friends that put up with my experimental desserts.  Penny loved hers but Alex balked at the coconut milk cream.  He's my picky one.  Thanks for the challenge Jana!

Links:
-For the full original recipe visit our host Jana at Cherry Tea Cakes or see the pdf recipe.
-I made this gluten-free chiffon cake but this time used maple sugar.  I made the pastry cream from Jana's recipe but replaced the whole milk with full fat coconut milk and left out the whipped cream.
-Her recipes are based on those of Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson from the cookbook Tartine.
-Other participants for this challenge are listed in the Daring Baker Blogroll.

Penny had no patience for my picture taking.

Her new hobby is flower picking.  This week Queen Anne's Lace is the favorite.

DB Baklava (gluten-free and wheat versions)

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June  challenge.  Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade  phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

It was just my luck that I'd still be avoiding wheat when the Daring Bakers decided to make homemade phyllo.  It's been on my To Try list for a long time and so I couldn't resist making both a wheat flour and a gluten-free version of this dessert.  The wheat phyllo wasn't as hard as I thought it would be though I think I made it a lot less challenging by baking a small batch, small sheets are much easier to roll out.  The gluten-free recipe we were offered required a specific brand of flour mix and so I just chose to make a mini batch and wing it.  I used a combination of tapioca flour, sorghum flour and cornstarch but it really wasn't much of a success. It couldn't be rolled thin enough, was too tough in the finished product and didn't brown properly.  Apologies for the top picture, I just never got around to getting a shot of the cut slices.  But you can see the gluten-free phyllo is in the smaller pan and clearly not the golden brown I intended.  It was still edible and the honeyed nut filling was delicious.  For both of my baklava, I left out the sugar in the nuts and used a combination of almonds and walnuts.  I spiced them with cinnamon and cardamom and made the syrup with honey, lemon juice and a splash of orange flower water.  My wheat baklava went to friends we had over for dinner and for my first try at homemade phyllo I thought it was alright.  I did notice that it needed more syrup because it wasn't as sticky as I would have liked.  But there is always room for improvement and now I can check off an attempt at homemade phyllo, what next?

Lately we're busy trying to make the most of the sunny days we get.  My vegetable garden is coming along nicely and our new ducks and chickens are getting all grown up.  Alex had a fun birthday and loves being free from school.  Penny is growing like a weed and learning to climb up on everything-- couches, beds, chairs, tables!!  I try to give her lots of time outside so we can avoid that.  She and Alex are kept busy picking strawberries, fighting over the hose and hunting for frogs around our pond.  Right now we have over a dozen green frogs, 5 or 6 painted turtles and several generations of tadpoles in the pond John had dug last fall.  What Alex really wants to find is a salamander so we've been poking under all the rotting logs in our woods.  Summer is grand!  I hope yours is going as well as ours.

Links:
-For the full recipe visit our host Erica at her site,Erica’s Edibles.   Or view the recipes HERE in a PDF version.
-Erica based her recipe on those found in the book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague and the Baklava recipe from Alton Brown.
-I think if I'm ever eating gluten-free and crave baklava these Baked Apples "Baklava" would be a better choice than trying gf phyllo.
-Other participants for this challenge are listed in the Daring Baker Blogroll.

The wheat phyllo, see how you can read the paper through it.

My attempt at gluten-free phyllo, thin but I couldn't get it transparent.

My big NINE year old boy

Penny on a salamander hunt

DB Bacon Cups

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

We took this week off of school and lazed around so much that I put off making this recipe until after it was supposed to be posted.  Alex loved the bacon cups and I can see myself making them again for him.  Wrapping the bacon so that it doesn't shrink and leave big holes is tricky and you do have to watch them to make sure they don't overcrisp.   I filled my cup with my own maple syrup sweetened mashed sweet potatoes instead of trying to make a dairy-free mousse.  Penny loved the mash.

Links:
-Our host this month is Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz.  See her blog for all the recipes.
-The bacon cup recipe was inspired by not martha and 59kilos.
-Visit the Daring Kitchen to see all the creative edible containers and vote for your favorite.

Spring in the air and gluten-free pizza in the oven

The pizza pictured above is my very first attempt at a gluten-free/dairy-free pizza and it was damn good.  I used the recipe for Gluten-Free Crusty Boule dough from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  With help from the directions in the book I kept my crust thin, patting it out with floured hands instead of rolling and baked it at 500 degrees F for about 10 minutes.  But as good as that pizza was the time spent outside today was even better.

A few hours in the afternoon, bracketed by thunderstorms in the morning and early evening, the weather was perfect--just enough sun and as warm as a midsummer day.

It began innocently enough.
We thought it would be fun to let Penny try out her walking feet in the grass.

She is still unsure about walking on uneven ground and completely refuses to walk in shoes.

Alex wanted to make a hose river but his sister didn't think it was a good idea.

Her fears were validated when he put mud on her foot.

Things looked considerably better after Abbie showed up.

And all was forgiven once the mud was wiped off.

We left Alex to his imagination.
There were mumblings about the mighty Mississippi.

And we did some daydreaming of our own in the garden. 

I don't know what Penny is thinking but I'm picturing pumpkins and lots of kale.

Karmal came with us to the garden.

But Perfect stayed to watch the river.

We tracked down the ducks, who seemed a little skittish.

They finally settled down in the white pine forest in our valley.

Penny and I relaxed under the pine boughs on the soft fallen needles.

The weedy equisetum growing there kept Penny entertained.

And Fritz acted as our guard dog.

It's a good thing we had him because look what came after us!

We had nothing to fear, except getting dirty, it was only Alex.

Thunder and a chill in the air chased us indoors where we told a sleepy Nelson all about our adventure.

And then we had some leftover pizza.

Spring on Dog Hill a Flickr set

DB Mets la main à la pâte (meringue coffecake, done gluten-free)

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. 

For this month's Daring Baker challenge we were given a recipe for a meringue coffee cake.  Ugh--I thought, this will be my first non-mix attempt at a gluten-free yeasted bread and it has to rolled, formed into a ring and filled with meringue!!  Seeing that I really could live the rest of my life without ever having another taste of coffee cake I should have known better and just made a wheat flour version and given it away.  But then that wouldn't be "daring" enough would it?

I began researching gluten-free brioche dough online.  I really wanted to try a coconut flour version but my searches found a very popular gluten-free brioche recipe from Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois, of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day fame.  I own that book and loved playing with the recipes in it (all with wheat flour) but I hadn't tried any recipes from their follow up book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Apparently there is a gluten-free section that had just the recipe I was looking for and it was available online.

The recipe online is already dairy-free, which was a plus, but I think I was tackling too big of a project to try a full sized coffee cake on my first try.  The dough was sticky and lacking the familiar structure that gluten provides.  I managed to wrangle it into a ring-like blob with the meringue and filling sorta sandwiched inside but there wasn't any need to score the dough because it was splitting apart everywhere!  It browned nicely in the oven but only barely rose and remained quite dense.

In the end I think the chocolate saved this from being a complete disaster.  Yeasty dough and chocolate are hard to resist, even with a pitiful shape and without the flavor of wheat flour.  It was super sweet to me and I'm not sure how I would easily alter the recipe to remedy that.  If I were going to try this again I would make individual cinnamon roll style buns and not try to form a large ring.  I don't really think I like the meringue part and because it adds a lot of sweetness I would probably not use it again.  Chocolate chips in my cinnamon rolls might be a new fad though.

I had a third of the dough left over and fermented it further in the fridge.  After a few days I baked it plain in a mini loaf pan with only a simple egg wash on top.  I thought it was really delicious but Alex thought there was a winy taste, not the sour yeasty flavor he wanted, and he didn't like it.  I should be ashamed to say I threw the half a mini loaf out for the birds so I wouldn't be tempted by it but right now I'm down a little over five pounds and quite happy about it. 

Links:
-For my dough, I made the gluten-free brioche found on Wasabimon!. The recipe is from the book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg MD and Zoe Francois.  For my filling, I used Enjoy Life chocolate chips, the meringue and cinnamon sugar but I left out the nuts.  I made the 2 egg sized batch and then used two thirds of the dough for my ring.  For the filling amounts I used only one egg white and scaled down the chocolate and cinnamon sugar to match.
-To see what this cake was supposed to look like and find the original recipe take a look at the Chocolate Meringue Coffee Cake recipe on the blogs of our hosts, Ria's Collection and Life's a Feast.
-When I get over my baking trama, I want to try making this Gluten-free Sourdough Boule for Alex.  
-To see a dairy-free baker who truly enjoyed this month's challenge visit The Crafts of Mommyhood.  She made 5 different flavors!!
-Visit the Daring Kitchen to join up and do some of your own daring baking.  And don't forget to look at the Daring Baker Blogroll for the other delicious baked goods made this month.  I'm betting 90% are way better looking than my blob. 

A slice of my gluten-free chocolate meringue coffee cake

Penny is One! (gluten-free chiffon cake)

Today was all about Penny.  We woke up in bed together and almost immediately Alex, her older brother, came bounding in.  After a little snuggling Alex snuck off to help John/daddy wrap a present.  Once her gift was opened we rounded out our day with a lot of play time, some picture taking, dress-up, a little baking, a nap (which I also took) and of course singing and the cake ceremony.  Penny was eager to have tastes of frosting and nibbles of cake all morning.  After the actual singing she carefully tasted icing and a little more cake but wanted out of the chair so that she could play once more.  The rest of the cupcake fell to the ground and was quickly devoured by Karmal, our beagle mutt. 

I struggled with choosing a cake to make today but in the end decided to go ahead and give her a little white sugar.  The frosting was decent but nothing to write home about but this chiffon cake came out perfectly.  Ethereally light, just sweet enough and by no means compromised by not having wheat flour in it.  It is a keeper recipe. I plan on making them again for strawberry shortcakes when Michigan finally gets fresh strawberries.  Or maybe I don't have to wait that long and could serve them with rhubarb instead!

Gluten-free Chiffon Cake
This was good frosted but I think it would be best with a fruit compote or sauce or even plain.  Based on the recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini, please take a look there for a wheat flour version.
 Makes 7 cupcakes

4 tablespoons brown rice flour
2 tablespoons potato starch, not flour
2 tablespoons tapioca starch
1/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
a pinch of fine salt
3 eggs
6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted but not hot*
2 tablespoons water

*Many coconut oils will give a strong flavor.  I like the expeller pressed oils from Tree of Life and Wilderness Family Naturals, both will give you richness but no strong coconut flavor.

-Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Set 7 cups on a baking sheet.  You can choose to use oven-safe mugs lined with parchment or unwaxed paper cups to tear away.
-Sift the brown rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, baking powder and salt.  Sift twice more and set aside.
-Separate your eggs.  The yolks should go into a stand mixer bowl with a whisk attachment and the whites into a clean medium-sized mixing bowl.
-Add three tablespoons of sugar to the yolks and beat with the mixer until pale yellow in color, scrape the sides as needed.
-Beat the whites until they reach soft peaks and then start adding your remaining sugar (3T) bit by bit whisking in between each addition.  This can be done by hand with a balloon whisk or with an electric hand mixer.
-Add the vanilla, water and oil to your beaten yolks and sugar and beat to blend together.  Then add in your sifted dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
-Fold in a third of the beaten egg whites and then after they are incorporated fold in the rest of the whites.  Carefully pour the batter into your prepared cups. 
-Bake for 25-30 minutes, until they pass the toothpick test.  Cooking time may vary depending on your choice of cup.
-After removing the cups from the oven invert them on a cooling rack.  When they are cool run a knife around the inside of the cup and give them a shake to release the cakes.

Penny's perfect lips

Lots of attention from Big Bro today

*More 1st birthday photos on this Flickr set
**To see my chiffon cake history check out these Mead Chiffon Cupcakes. I missed the honey flavor but liked the richer cake that the above recipe had. Perhaps a combination of the two is in order?