Gluten Free Flour Blend

Source

I saw a lot of flour blends out there and I really didn't like what was in them. I wanted something healthier and with less starches. (I'm sure you've noticed on your gluten free journey that some gluten free stuff is just full of weird ingredients just to make the product look and taste just like the "normal" option.) 

Oats are often used in gluten free flour blends and I can't have oats either so I needed to get a bit created. 

I experimented a few times, made adjustments, and came up with a blend that I love! It's a hardier flour blend, great for breakfast cookies, breads, but not something you'd want to use for a fluffy sugar cookie (try Cloud 9 for that). 

Enjoy! 

Amanda's Flour Blend: 

- 6 cups brown rice flour 

- 3 3/4 cups quinoa flour 

- 2 cups Millet flour (sub for more rice and quinoa if you'd rather)

- 2 cups chickpea flour 

- 4 1/2 tablespoons Xanthan Gum

- 8 tablespoons flax Meal 

- 4 tablespoons corn starch 

- 1/4 cup chia seed (ground up) 

- 3 tablespoons cream of tartar 

Key Lime Pie

I tried this out for the first time. I'm so hooked on all things key lime after traveling through the Keys. It was such a fun time, and I had to learn how to make this pie!

I'd say it worked out amazingly. It was my first go, and wow, was it easy!

I found a good receipt, and adapted it as follows:


Crust:
 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
 2 tablespoons sugar
 5 tablespoons butter, melted

 Filling:
 1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk
 2/3 cup fresh lime juice
 1/2 cup sour cream
 2 teaspoons grated lime peel

 Topping:
 1 cup heavy whipping cream
 1/4 cup powdered sugar
 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Directions
 Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add melted butter and stir until evenly moistened. Press mixture into bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate to form crust. Bake 10 minutes or until crust begins to brown. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack.

Whisk sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and sour cream in large bowl until blended. Stir in lime peel. Pour filling into crust. Bake 10-18 minutes or until tiny bubbles begin to form on surface of pie. Cool completely on wire rack.

Beat cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in large mixing bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until stiff. Top pie with whipped cream. Chill at least 1 hour before serving. Best served the same day.

(I've tried freezing mine so I'll keep you posted if it worked well!)

Adapted from here

Healthy Chia Seed Chocolate Pudding (no seed lumps)

Source

I had to be on a very restricted diet, for health reasons, a while back and couldn't find a receipt that fit my needs. I searched through a ton, never found something I liked, and finally just played around until I got it just the way I like it.

I wish I would have written this all out sooner so I apologize if you don't get perfect results but seriously, this stuff is amazing! In fact, I think I might make it again right now!


You will need: 

1 can coconut milk

1/2 cup cocoa (you might want to add more, I usually do)

Coconut Sugar - to taste (I started with 1/4 cup. You could use any sweetener of your choice but I liked this because it 1) Fit within my diet and 2) It helped thicken)

1/4 cup chia seed (I'll be honest, I didn't measure so it could have been a bit more! Play around :)


Throw it all in your Vitamix and blend away.

I have a Vitamix so it shreds the seeds amazingly well. Some blenders wouldn't cut the seeds so you will end up with little seed crunches (which I don't like).

If you have trouble with this try putting the coconut milk in first, then the seeds, let it sit for 10 minutes and then blend.

The mixture will be runny but pore it in a bowl and it should set (as the seeds absorb the liquid).

Source

If you google "Chai Seed Pudding" it won't look anything like this but this is how mine looks and I wouldn't go back to dairy pudding after this! No way! 

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Bar

Best Ever Chocolate Oatmeal No-Bake Bars

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (you could also substitute butter)
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts, raisins, or dried cranberries
• 1 1/4 cups dark chocolate chips (or regular semi-sweet chocolate chips, if you prefer)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil over medium-low heat in a saucepan on the stove. {Watch this closely. Mine started to burn!}

Remove from heat once it’s melted together and add in the oats, shredded coconut, chocolate chips, nuts/raisins, and vanilla. Stir together until the chocolate is completely melted.

Pour into a greased 9×13 pan and cool in the fridge. If you’d like thicker bars, you can pour the mixture into a smaller pan.

When the mixture is hardened, cut into bars and eat. Store in the refrigerator or freezer.

(I made it with nuts and raisins and really liked it that way!) 

Recipe source

Quinoa Flatbread

Source

This turned out pretty good. I think I will make a couple of changes next times but it was nice to be able to eat bread! (I can't have any grains right now)

Ingredients

• ¾ cup quinoa flour
• ½ cup almond flour
• ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 flax eggs (2 Tbs. ground flax seeds + 6 Tbs. warm water)
• 1 Tbs.+2 tsp. coconut oil or grapeseed oil
• 1 tsp. unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ~~Optional additions for a savory version:
• 1 Tbs. fresh, chopped rosemary
• 1 Tbs. fresh, chopped basil
• black pepper, to taste
• ~~Optional additions for a sweet version:
• 2 Tbs. honey
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Grease a cast iron skillet or a 9″ round pan with 2 tsp. coconut or grapeseed oil. Place the skillet/pan in the oven to heat it up.
3. Prepare your flax eggs: combine ground flax seeds with warm water and allow the mixture to sit and thicken for at least 10 minutes.
4. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the almond milk, flax eggs, applesauce, and 1 Tbs. coconut/grapeseed oil (if using coconut oil, make sure to melt it first). Mix together until combined.
5. Remove the skillet/pan from the oven and tilt it around to spread the oil evenly. Pour the batter into the pan and lightly tap the bottom of the pan on a hard surface to even out the batter.
6. Bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until the edges have turned golden brown. Allow the flatbread to cool, remove from the pan, and slice.
7. Top with any toppings you prefer! For a savory version, you could try macadamia nut cheese (recipe listed above) or hummus, tomatoes (fresh or sun-dried), basil, cucumber or zucchini. For a sweet version, you could top with any kind of nut butter (I prefer almond), jelly, honey, or fresh fruit, just to name a few. Feel free to get creative!
8. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Enjoy!

 Recipe Source

Nanaimo Bars

 I love this recipe! I tried a long time ago to make Nanaimo Bars and it did not go well. It's one of my favorite desserts so I just needed to figure it out. I'm excited because it turned out perfect. Marshall said it was amazing, just like the store bought one but more "real tasting". It makes me happy because my baking skills have gotten to a point where I wonder why this was ever a challenge for me before.  I think it's time to move up to some more complicated things!

 

Ingredients:
1 cup  graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup  sweetned flaked coconut or shredded coconut
1/3 cup finely chopped walnut halves
 1/3 cup  cocoa powder
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling:
 1/4 cup butter
 2 tbsp vanilla pudding powder
1/2 tsp (2 mL) vanilla
 2 cups icing sugar
 2 tbsp milk, (approx.)

Topping:
4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tbsp butter

Preparation:
In bowl, stir together graham crumbs, coconut, walnuts, cocoa powder and sugar. Drizzle with butter and egg; stir until combined. Press crumb mixture into parchment paper–lined 9-inch (2.5 L) square metal cake pan.

Bake in 350°F (180°C) oven until firm, about 10 minutes.

Let cool in pan on rack.

Filling: 
In bowl, beat together butter, custard powder and vanilla. Beat in icing sugar alternately with milk until smooth, adding up to 1 tsp (5 mL) more milk if too thick to spread. Spread over cooled base; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

Topping:
 In heatproof bowl over saucepan of hot (not boiling) water, melt chocolate with butter. Spread over filling; refrigerate until almost set, about 30 minutes. With tip of knife, score into bars; refrigerate until chocolate is set, about 1 hour.

(Make-ahead: Wrap and refrigerate for up to 4 days or overwrap in heavy-duty foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks.) Cut into bars.

Adapted from here 

Marshmallow Peanut Butter/ Butterscotch Bar

2 pkg. butterscotch chips, or peanut butter chips
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter or margarine
4 cups miniature marshmallows (the colored ones are the best)

Place the first 3 ingredients into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1-1/2 minutes, then stir. Microwave for an additional 1-1/2 minutes. Continue at 30 second intervals until melted. Stirring in between each setting. Let cool a couple of minutes and add 4 cups marshmallows and stir well. Pour into a 9 x 13 inch pan and spread evenly. Let cool completely, then cut into squares.

Salted Caramels

I followed the directions exactly and here are the things I found for myself:

- You have to boil the heck out of it to get it up to 248 degrees and even then it doesn't form a firm ball but the caramels still set so that was good 

- I used coarse sea salt and that worked great

- Whip cream also works great! 

- I added the salt when the caramels where just starting to chill in the fridge. It seemed to stick better then. 

- Be careful when you're "boiling the heck out of it" it will start to burn if you're not on it! 

- It took me 25 minutes of cooking to get it up to 248 degrees so get it to a boil sooner then later; doing it on medium heat didn't do it for me, I just stayed right at 220 for a while.

 

Other then that great recipe! Time consuming but good! 

Ingredients 

Vegetable oil
1½ cups sugar
¼ cup light corn syrup
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fine fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over 2 sides.

In a deep saucepan (6 inches wide x 4½ inches deep), combine ¼ cup water, the sugar and corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown. Don’t stir – just swirl the pan to mix. Watch carefully, as it will burn quickly at the end!

In the meantime, in a small pan, bring the cream, butter, and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and set aside.

When the sugar mixture is a warm golden color, turn off the heat and slowly add the cream mixture to the sugar mixture. Be careful - it will bubble up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Very carefully (it’s hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate for a few hours, until firm.

When the caramels are cold, pry the sheet from the pan onto a cutting board. Cut the sheet in half. Starting with a long side, roll one piece of the caramel up tightly into an 8-inch-long log. Repeat with the second piece. Sprinkle both logs with fleur de sel, trim the ends, and cut each log in 8 pieces. Cut glassine or parchment papers into 4 x 5-inch pieces and wrap each caramel individually, twisting the ends. Store in the refrigerator and serve the caramels chilled.

Sugar Cookie Bar

 YUM!!! It was pretty good! I was having a craving so I made this great bar. It was pretty, I'd for sure make it again! (And yes, so much easier then making cookies!)


Cookies: Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1 Tbsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 13″ x 9″ baking dish, set aside. In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip together butter and sugar until pale and fluffy about 3-4 minutes. Stir in egg and egg white. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until blended. Slowly add dry mixture and stir until well combine. With buttered hands, gently press (so gently almost patting) mixture into buttered baking dish. Bake 16 – 19 minutes until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and edges are lightly golden. Cool completely, then frost and cut into squares.

(I used half white and half whole wheat flour) 

Vanilla Frosting: Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

2-3 Tbsp half and half (or yogurt, or milk)

1 tsp vanilla

Pinch of salt

Several drop food coloring (optional)

In a mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whip together butter and powdered sugar and half and half until fluffy. Stir in vanilla and salt. Add in food optional food coloring and mix until well blended.

(I ended up using more butter and closer to 1/4 tsp salt because I found the icing tasted powdery and just a bit too sweet) 

Source

Baking My Way: Rainbow Cookie Brittle

  I'll be honest, I don't get this recipe. There's a lot of butter, and it's very greasy (don't get me wrong, I love butter, but now when it just makes the final product really greasy). I don't really get how it's supposed to be like a brittle, it's more like a cookie bar. I tried it, and thankfully I split the recipe and didn't make a full batch. 

Ingredients

• 1  cup sugar
• 3/4  cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2  cups All Purpose or Unbleached Flour
• 1/2  cup miniature candy-coated chocolate pieces or miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. 1Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add vanilla; blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. Stir in flour; mix well. Stir in miniature candy-coated chocolate pieces. Press dough into ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan.
2. 2Bake at 375°F. for 10 to 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely; break into irregular shaped pieces.

Source

Baking My Way: Chocolate and Vanilla Chip Biscotti

Finally I got biscotti right! I'll be honest, I don't really like the stuff. I like chewy soft baking, not crunchy stuff like this but there were around 5 biscotti recipes in this book so I had to do them all! I think this might be the last one and I got it right finally (I seemed to always under or over bake). This biscotti is pretty good. It's nice and chocolaty and the vanilla chips add a good sweetness in there.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup butter or 1/4 cup margarine, softened
3 eggs
1 cup white vanilla chip

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Spray cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking powder; mix well.

In large bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and butter; beat until blended.

Add eggs; beat well.

Add flour mixture; mix well.

Stir in vanilla chips.

With sprayed hands, shape dough into three 7" rolls.

Place rolls 3" apart on sprayed cookie sheet; flatten each to 7" x 3" rectangle.
 

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 22 to 28 minutes or until set and light golden brown.
 

Remove from cookie sheet; place on wire racks.
 

Cool 5 minutes.
 

With serrated knife, cut rectangles into 1/2" slices.

Arrange slices, cut side up, on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 to 8 minutes or until top surface is slightly dry.

Turn cookies over; bake an additional 6 to 8 minutes or until top surface is slightly dry.

Remove from cookie sheets; cool 15 minutes or until completely cooled.

Store in tightly covered container.

Source

Baking My Way: Cranberry and Orange Pinwheels

So as you can see my cookies didn't turn out so well. I'm not too sure what happened. The dough seemed fine, I rolled it just the way they said and in transfer to a cookie sheet, to put it in the fridge, it all fell apart. I decided instead of baking it like a blob I'd make it into a sort of cake. I lowered the temperature to 325 and back for around 45 minutes and you know, it turned out really great! I can't say I'm going to give this another go, still so many other recipes to try, but it's pretty great like a cake too, ha ha.

Cookies 
 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon salt
 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

 Filling 
3/4 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
 1/4 cup orange marmalade
1 tablespoon cornstarch

In large bowl, beat brown sugar, butter and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat in remaining cookie ingredients until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally. Cover dough with plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour for easier handling.

Meanwhile, in 1-quart saucepan, mix filling ingredients. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cover; refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

On lightly floured work surface, roll dough with rolling pin into 16x8-inch rectangle. Spoon and spread cooled filling evenly over dough to within 1/2 inch of edges. Starting with one 16-inch side, roll up. Cut roll in half to form 2 (8-inch) rolls. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375°F. Generously grease cookie sheets with shortening or cooking spray. With sharp knife, cut dough into 1/2-inch slices; place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. 5 Bake 9 to 13 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets.

Christmas Baking List

Salted Caramels

  Cookie Dough Truffles



 

Lebkuchen

Berlinerkranzer

  Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cutouts

Spicy Molasses Bars

Sugar Cookies

  Cherry ChocolateBrown Sugar Shortbread Bar

Biscoff Candy Fudge Bars

Doesn't this look wonderful? I'm a sucker for anything that's got fudge, chocolate and defiantly Biscoff in the name! I don't even know where to buy these in Canada but I love them so much! Check out the recipe here.

Baking Goal: Soda Pop Cupcakes

Wow! I am seriously lusting after these cupcakes! 

Check out the recipe at Goddess of Baking

Baking Goal: Lemon Pound Cake

Every day for morning tea when I lived in Australia we had a lemon cake like this! It brings back such good memories! 

Check out the recipe at Goddess of Baking

Baking Goal: Apple Fritters

I'm drooling over here....doesn't this look great? Check out the recipe here!

Baking Goal: Red Velvet Roll Cake

Doesn't this look wonderful!? Great for a summer time BBQ! Check out the recipe here.

Caramel Corn Flake Bars

We were at some friends for New Year's Eve and they had these bars, and they are amazing!!

1 pkg (170grams) Mckintosh Candies

2 tbsp Butter

2 tsp Milk

3/4 cup Aliced Almonds

3/4 cup Corn Flakes

1/3 cup Flaked Coconut

1/2 Chocolate Chips

Step 1: Over med heat cook toffee, butter, and milk stirring often for about 10 min until meted and smooth. Immediately add almonds, corn flakes, coconut, peanuts.

Step 2: Press mixture into buttered square pan

Step 3: Melt chocolate chips and drizzle over the bar.

Baking My Way: Treasure Chest Bars

 This is an interesting bar. I'm not sure that I like nuts in it. Next time I'll either put pecans or no nuts at all and just up the chocolate. It's still a very good bar. It's light but yet very decadent and rich if that makes sense. The icing is wonderful and I just wanted to sit and eat that on its own.

BARS:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup soft butter
Dash of salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
3 Hershey bars, cut into pieces (or 1 cup of chocolate chips)
1 cup maraschino cherries, drained, halved
1 cup chopped mixed nuts (pecans are best)

ICING:
1/4 cup butter
2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 tbsp. milk

In a large bowl, combine all bar ingredients except cherries, chocolate and nuts. Blend until smooth at medium speed, about 2 minutes. By hand, stir in rest of ingredients; spread in greased and floured jelly roll pan, 15"x10". Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown.

In a small saucepan, brown butter until golden brown, stirring constantly over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk and blend to spreading consistency. Spread over warm bars. Cool completely. Makes 48 bars.