Gluten Free Gift Baskets

GLUTEN-FREE GIFT BASKETS

Delivered to the 48 Contiguous U.S. States – Call Us for Custom Gluten-free Gift Baskets (559) 676-1163

Looking for Gluten free gift ideas?  I just saw this today, could be useful if you need a gift for someone with celiac who is hard to shop for. Gluten Free Gift Baskets is a website to order beautiful looking gifts of yummy gluten free food.  The website is giving me a bit of trouble loading right now, and it suggest that you call their phone number anyway, because the website is still under construction.  The baskets have great themes like movie lover's, chocolate lover's, and Italian, all with great items.  They all come bundled in a nice basket or bowl with pretty ribbons and bows.


The company was started by Carla Spacher of Gluten free recipe box, who has done an amazing job.  She has even taken note to use only gf packing peanuts.  I learned that today, biodegradable packing peanuts could be derived from substances including gluten, or cornstarch.  Carla's company promises to use only gluten free biodegradable packing peanuts to take one more step to keep recipients of their baskets safe and healthy.


If anyone receives one of the beautiful baskets, let me know how you like it and what you got in it.

Gluten Free Pie Crust

Pumpkin pie with Gluten Free Pie Crust

This is not my most timely post, which sadly seems to be an emerging theme around here.  I'll have to work on that.  Meanwhile, I'm still in time for Christmas pies.  For now I will post the version I used for Thanksgiving which involves Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour, hopefully for Christmas I'll be able to reinvent the recipe with my own mix of flours.  I'll post that one when I get it worked out.  I do have to say this one was pretty easy, it doesn't hurt that we were at my parent's house who live about 30 miles from Bob's Red Mill and have a huge tub of the GF AP Flour in the house at all times.  I went a little nuts while we were there trying to bake all sorts of things and take advantage of the flour on hand.

The pie crust was one of my trials during our Thanksgiving visit, the big step forward for me came from blind baking the crust.  Something I've heard a lot about but had not yet tried.  It seemed like something to try since every other time I had baked a pumpkin pie in a raw crust the crust was all gummy and under baked.  Blind baking means pre-cooking the pie shell by it self in the oven, but in order to prevent it from puffing into a giant cloud you have to weigh it down with something.  We used some dried beans that mom had found in the pantry from goodness knows how long ago, and would not be using for anything in the future.  You can buy fancy beads and stuff for blind baking, but I figured we would use what was on hand, I've even heard of people using pennies.  I suppose any item would work.

One thing about this recipe that makes me very happy is that the original comes from a cookbook that has been in the family for 3 generations.  It's just an old Betty Crocker Cookbook, but it's a recipe I used to make for my family when I was in High School  and College, but haven't really used since.  I really loved being able to go back and convert this recipe over, it felt like I had come full circle with the process.  Another important point was that it came out delicious!  Flaky, dry, and not at all sweet, the way a perfect pie crust should be.

Gluten Free Pie Crust

1   Cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/3 Cup Butter
2   Tbs Water

Mix Flour, Salt, and Xanthan Gum in a medium mixing bowl.  Cut Butter into small pieces, and using a pastry cutter or fork, blend into dry ingredients until mixture resembles pea gravel.  Add in Water, and begin to blend by hand until a ball of dough forms.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 1 hour.
Prep rolling mat, rolling pin, extra flour, pie pan, piece of foil for blind baking, and beans (or other item to weight down crust during blind bake).
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (F).  Remove dough from wrap onto a lightly floured surface, and begin to roll out.  Work quickly to prevent butter from warming causing the dough to tear.  After a few rolls, flip the dough and re-flour the surface, and repeat until the dough is large enough to fill a 9 inch pie pan.  Now comes the tricky part, transferring the crust to the pan (I still struggle with this), I usually manage to turn the whole rolling mat over the pie pan sometimes I use a spatula to loosen the crust and let it drop onto the pan.  From there gently move it into the pan and trim the crust.  Place a sheet of foil or parchment paper (trimmed to fit) over the crust in the pan, and gently place a single layer of beans, pie weights, or pennies.  Bake for 12 minutes and remove from oven and set aside.
Make desired filling.  Carefully remove the foil and weighted item from pie crust and place on an insulated surface (so as not to melt your counter).   Pour filling into the crust, and bake according to the filling's instructions.

Gluten Free Gingerbread House Disaster

Does anyone know if there  is a Gingerbread version of "Habitat for Humanity"?  I think the Big Bad wolf has come and attacked my little house!  If this wasn't so funny to me it would be shameful!  I don't think I will be posting the recipe for this one until I work out some more kinks, fragile doesn't even begin to describe this one.

I was so excited to make Gingerbread houses for Christmas this year, Ceci is at a perfect age to enjoy helping decorate if only for a few minutes.  Then this happened!  I made the dough, cut out and baked all the pieces, cooled them and let them get "stale" so they wouldn't collapse.  I put the pieces away overnight and got them out this morning, making molten sugar for the glue.  I couldn't work fast enough, as the sugar got more difficult the pieces began to crumble more and this roof piece was the last to go on and obviously the most damaged.

At some point in my life I may learn to be less stubborn, but I don't know that it will be any time soon.  Gingerbread house making was a family tradition for my family growing up, we always went to the Arndt house and had so much fun.  I know it took Sue years of trial and error to perfect her recipes and techniques.  Why on earth I thought my learning curve would be any different is beyond me.  In the meantime I have Sheri bringing a box of regular Graham crackers tomorrow to make fake Gingerbread houses, they won't be GF, but it will be fun.  And even if this house does survive until the party it's current hideousness won't matter after it's covered in icing and candy.

I'll let you know if it makes it and post the pictures after we get them decorated.

At least half of one house looks presentable.

Recovery!  This is the side with the hole in the roof, no one would have ever known.

This is Ceci's side of the house, I did make the gingerbread girl for her.

Gluten Free Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken and dumplings with mixed veggies

I'm so proud to say that starting this blog has created a fantastic dialogue between my parents and I!  A few weeks ago my mom emailed me a recipe from their dinner, but no picture with it.  Of course this means one thing, I need to make the dinner myself and take pictures!  Yumm!  This was a fabulous way to use up leftover rotisserie chicken, but I think it might be a nice candidate for leftover turkey too.  I'll let you know how that goes.  I also added a huge amount of frozen mixed veggies to make it a one pot meal, it was a little more like a chicken pot pie, but it was amazingly delicious!  The gravy is velvety smooth, and the biscuits on top just make a perfect topping to the dish.  I also used about 3/4 of a roasted chicken instead of the 2 cups Mom used.  This is definitely one of those dinners that you can play with and add all sorts of things and make changes just to see what happens.  And DO NOT open the lid on the pot once the biscuits are in!  Like Ceci says "NO peeking!"


Here is Mom's email to me, I thought it made a nice sort of guest post so I left it unedited.  

Hi Sweetie,

Thought I would share my quick cook Chicken and Dumplings with you.  It took about an hour to put together but could be shorter depending on your stove.  There is no substitute for Little Grandmas or Sue Arndt's versions but it is pretty close considering how fast it went together and I didn't have to man the stove all day while the chicken cooked in the pot.  Your dad loved it!   XOXO Mom

Biscuit/Dumplings

1 C GF Bisquick mix

3 T shortening

1/3 C milk

1  Egg

Cut shortening into mix, using a fork or dough blender till particles are the size of small peas. Stir in remaining ingredients until soft dough forms.  Set aside and start gravy.

Biscuits ready and waiting

Broth/Gravy

4 C water

4 T cornstarch

1 T chicken base "Better Than Bouillon"  (a product I love and get from Costco)

2 C cut up cooked chicken (I used leftover Costco chicken)
3 C frozen mixed veggies

Salt and pepper to taste

Chicken and veggies ready for biscuit topping

Dissolve cornstarch in the water and pour in large deep frying pan as the water is heating stir in the chicken base.  Continue to stir and as the broth thickens add the chicken, and veggies and heat through.

As broth is hot and bubbly take biscuit dough and form into balls and then gently flatten before you lay them on top of your broth/gravy.  Once you have used all the dough cover the pan and let the heat and steam cook the dumplings, about 20 min.  You can tell if they are done by taking a fork and scraping the top of a dumpling and it is no longer doughy inside. 

Finished product in the pot, with a few portions out already

Gluten Free Pumpkin Scones

Gluten Free Pumpkin Scone with golden raisins and topped with maple sugar

Today I decided I couldn't wait any longer to try this recipe, I love the fall, and I love pumpkin themed food.  I dislike that I can't just walk into a donut or coffee shop and grab a pumpkin muffin, or donut, or some other yummy baked good and enjoy it.  But after making these scones today I won't have to be sad about that ever again, I will only have to be sad when I run out of them and have to wait the 15 minutes for the oven to finish baking.

The scones have a great dry crumbly texture which goes beautifully with a cup of coffee, and the pumpkin is a perfect compliment to the gluten free flours, its as if they were made for one another.  I also love the level of spice, it fills your nose with all those happy fall smells and aromas, the house smelled so good when these came out of the oven, I can't even explain how happy it made me.  The golden raisins are nice too, they add a nice texture to the perfect scones.

I found this link, Andreasrecipes.com, on the list created by Shauna, the Gluten free Girl, Gluten Free Thanksgiving.  Andrea Meyers wrote a lovely story and recipe for these scones and it made me want to make them even more.  She used Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour, which is great if you have it on hand, or don't have a variety of flours to utilize.  Sadly I can't find it in a large enough quantity, or for a decent price here on Long Island, and I enjoy mixing and matching my own flour combinations.  If that all sounds a little intimidating, then by all means use the Bob's All Purpose Flour, I love it when people bake gluten free, but if you are at all intimidated don't stress, keep it simple and use one of the many premixed flour options out there.

I can hardly wait to make these again for my parents to enjoy, Tim has suggested we should add a little drizzle of powdered sugar icing when we make it next.  That makes me happy, the more sugar the better!    I'll let you know how that works out.  Tell me if you can think of any other add-ins or changes that I can use to tweak this recipe, I know I will be making it again in the next couple of months.

Adapted with permission from Andrea Meyers.

GLUTEN-FREE PUMPKIN SCONES

Makes 8 scones.
Equipment

food processor with blade attachment
small bowl
large mixing bowl
baking sheet, greased or lined with parchment paper

Ingredients

1/4 Cup Soy Flour

3/4 Cup Brown Rice Flour

1/2 Cup Sweet Rice Flour

1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/3 cup (58 g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 stick (8 tablespoons/113 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/2 cup (120 mil) pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (50 g) raisins or golden raisins

milk
cinnamon & sugar mix

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400° F/200° C.

2. In food processor bowl, mix the flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Add the pieces of butter and pulse about 10 to 12 times. The mixture should resemble coarse cornmeal.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla extract until smooth.

4. Pour the flour mixture into the large mixing bowl and add the raisins. Stir in the pumpkin mixture until large dough clumps form. Press it all together with a spatula, making sure you don’t have any loose bits of flour.

5. Flour your hands well. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and pat into an 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. Brush milk on the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar mix.

6. Cut into 8 triangles and place them on the prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

Pasta Sauce, with hidden vegetables

Ceci enjoying one of her favorite meals, at The Old Spaghetti Factory, this kid LOVES pasta and sauce!

I've mentioned this before, but my darling sweet daughter Ceci, refuses to eat vegetables.  I'm lucky if I can get her to willingly eat 1/8 of a baby carrot per day, so I have to get creative and hide veggies in foods that she is willing to eat without noticing.  One of her most favorite meals is noodles with sauce, she will eat it until she explodes, and then have another bowl.  She also refuses to eat beef, I don't force it on her at all, most days we give her some sort of chicken if we are eating beef, but apparently pasta sauce is an acceptable way to consume beef in her opinion.

Last week I made a huge pot of Pasta sauce for dinners, we don't mind left overs here and try to get a few dinners out of each meal to ease our schedule.  I managed to hide a zucchini and a half and several baby carrots shredded and ground up in the sauce, and Ceci was none the wiser, and happy to have her favorite meal for several days in a row.  I was happy to have something that she would gladly eat, and to not have to cook multiple nights in a row.  The fact that she got some veggies in her just made it that much better.

I can't say that it was a very remarkable Pasta sauce, but it tasted good, was filling, and had extra healthy stuff in it.  Can't go wrong with that combination.  Here's how I did it, and you should read this more as a guide than a true recipe, feel free to add in different veggies or spices.

Pasta Sauce with Hidden Vegetables

2   lbs of Ground Beef
1   large Onion, chopped
1-2 small-medium Zucchini, shredded
15  Baby carrots, shredded
2   22 oz cans Crushed Tomatoes
2  tsp Kosher Salt
2  tsp Pepper
1   tsp Dried Oregano
1   tsp Dried Basil
1  Beef Bullion Cube

Directions:

Delicious veggie mush!

In a large stock pot, brown ground beef, if using low fat beef, add a tablespoon or two of oil to prevent burning.  When the beef is cooked, remove it from the pan and set aside.  Place Onion, Zucchini and Carrots into pot and saute until softened.

Place cooked veggies into food processor and grind up to a thick slurry, this will allow it to blend into the sauce better and be less perceptible to picky eaters.  If you don't mind the shreds and chunks of veggies, you can skip the food processor.

Return the veggie mix to the pot along with the ground beef, and pour in the cans of crushed tomatoes, and stir to combine.  Add in the herbs and spices, stir and let simmer.  Use a clean teaspoon and taste, add more seasoning to taste.  I tend to be very light handed with the seasoning while my husband Tim is very heavy handed, some how we find a balance.  You will have to taste because some canned tomatoes are pre-seasoned while others are plain.

Boil Gluten Free noodles according to package, and drain off water.  If Pasta sauce seems to thick you can add some pasta water to thin it down.  Then pour a heaping ladle full of sauce over a bowl of pasta, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  You can also serve with garlic toast if you like, I'm lazy and toast a slice of bread, butter it, and sprinkle with garlic salt.  Definitely a favorite meal for all in this family, I hope your family enjoys it too.

Link For Gluten Free Thanksgiving

If you are someone with Celiac Disease, or eat gluten free, or are at all curious about gluten free food, you have to check out The Gluten Free Girl and the Chef.  She has some amazing ideas, including this week's post for a Gluten Free Thanksgiving, so many incredible recipes compiled in one place.  I can't wait to try some, I think the pumpkin scones are calling my name.  Hope you are all inspired to have a delicious Gluten Free Thanksgiving dinner!