Cinnamon Rolls

I was on a baking frenzy last weekend.  I love when the weather finally gets cold enough for me to want those comfort foods that we all know and love.  A comfort food for me is cinnamon rolls.  I don't make them often, because they are hard to resist and bad on the waist line, but I just needed to conquer this recipe.

I have made cinnamon bread a couple of times, and tweaked the recipe and tried again and failed...well maybe not failed, but it didn't live up to what I wanted the recipe to turn out.  I have a vision of how I want the texture of the gluten free stuff I make, and often the taste is fine, but the texture is off.  I do have to say that the texture is not perfect in these rolls, but they are about as good as it is going to get!

Here are the ingredients -

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup tapioca starch
1 cup gluten free flour mix (Wendy Warks)
3/4 cup rice flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup almond flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 eggs - room temperature is best
1/3 cup butter melted
1/2 cup warm milk
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup warm water - if needed

For cinnamon roll filling -
4 tablespoons of softened butter - or more, whatever you desire
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

The Directions -

In a small bowl, combine the 1/2 cup warm water with the 2 teaspoons sugar.  Mix in he 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast.  Let sit while the yeast works its magic (ie...gets foamy).

In a standing mixer with paddle part attached, combine the dry ingredients.  I always just mix the wet ingredients right into the dry ingredients, but if you want to combine them first before putting them into the standing mixer, combine the melted butter, eggs and warm milk.  Mix in the apple cider vinegar.  Mix well.  Pour in the yeast mixture into the dough.  Mix well.  If you find that the dough is pretty dry, take an additional 1/4 cup warm water and pour it in to the dough and mix well.  I found that I needed it when making the dough.  You want the dough to be runnier then regular bread dough but not as runny as cake batter.  It won't be the same as the dough you are used to with wheat flour/

After the dough is well mixed, pour it into a greased bowl.  Cover with saran wrap and a towel and let rise for an hour.

Sprinkle your counter with tapioca starch, and your rolling pin and also the dough after it has finished rising.  This dough will be VERY sticky if you do not, and you will get frustrated.  It is ok to use a lot of tapioca starch.  Roll the dough into a large rectangle.  Maybe like 18 inches by 12.  Spread the softened butter over the entire rectangle.  Mix the sugars and cinnamon and then sprinkle over the buttered dough.

I use a pizza cutter and do about 1 inch strips.  Im not very precise with cutting or rolling my cinnamon rolls.  I make some bigger than others.  You can probably make about 24 medium sized rolls.  You will want to roll the strips from one end to the other.  They might stick to your counter if you didn't use enough tapioca starch when rolling the dough out.  Just put more tapioca starch under the dough while you are rolling into the cinnamon roll.  I also use a knife and make sure it has tapioca starch on it as well as my fingers.

 

The photo above are the rolls rising.

Put the rolled cinnamon rolls into a 9 x 13  greased pan or glass casserole dish to rise.  I have a proofing feature for my oven so I put mine into the oven to proof for an hour.  After they have risen well, bake them in a preheated 400 degree oven  for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden.

If you like to put icing or glaze on your cinnamon rolls, do so right out of the oven.

Glaze recipe I use -
1/8 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups powder sugar
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk

Combine with whisk and pour over cinnamon rolls.

 

 Already a few are missing from the plate.  I happily shared some with my mom as well, since I am supposed to be watching what I eat!

Here is a hint - You can take this same recipe and just make dinner rolls with them.  You can divide the dough in half, roll each half into a 12 inch circle, spread the softened butter over the entire circle.  Cut each circle into 8 wedges, roll wedges starting at wide end; roll gently but tightly.  Place point side down onto greased cookie sheet and rise.  Bake at the same temperature as the cinnamon rolls, and you have a delicious sweet dinner roll.

I also modified this recipe to make a delicious pizza dough recipe, but that is for another blog post for another day.

Enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions or how yours turned out!

Sasha

Gluten Free Pancakes

Here in Virginia, the weather drastically changed over the weekend.  We had 80 degree weather one day and 50 degree the next.  I actually like this type of weather, so it doesn't bother me, though I would rather Fall temperatures to stick around now for good...who knows if they will though.

Because the weather was so cool, and we had church on tv on Sunday, we decided to have a Sunday brunch!  We had chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, sausage and hot chocolate.  It was delicious.  I figured, I could share my pancake recipe with you!

I take my base recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cook book I have had since I got married in 2004.  I also double the recipe, since we have a little pancake eating monster named Josh in our house, so I will do the actual double recipe I make.

Gluten free Pancakes

1 scoop protein powder into 1 cup measuring cup, fill the rest with Wendy Wark's GF mix.
1/3 cup almond flour
1/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup Wendy Warks GF Mix.
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 beaten eggs
2 cups milk
4 tablespoons cooking oil
Milk chocolate chips

To vary the recipe above -

If you do not want to use protein powder, just use 1 1/3 cup GF mix.
If you do not want to use almond or coconut flour, just use 2 cups of GF mix.

If you have milk allergies, almond milk works just fine as well, I made mine on Sunday with 1 cup regular milk and 1 cup almond milk.

I mix all dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.  Then I just put the wet ingredients in and mix well with a wire whisk.  After that, if you want to put in chocolate chips, mix in as many as you would like.

 

We use a griddle to make our pancakes.  I set the heat at about 350 degrees.  The batter will be thick, but it will spread out on the griddle.  Once it looks like it is rising a bit, you can flip it over.

 

We like to top our pancakes with strawberries, chocolate syrup, whipped cream or regular syrup.  My son likes to do all of that at once!

 

Enjoy and please share with anyone you know who would like to learn some recipes!

My next recipe should be cinnamon rolls!  Stay Tuned!

Also--if you viewed my flour post...I have posted a picture of the rice flour, sweet rice flour and tapioca starch brand that I use.http://www.theglutenfreeimposter.blogspot.com/2012/09/lets-talk-flours.html

Sasha

Tis the season for Banana Bread!

I woke up this morning pretty early...and it was raining.  So--to brighten up the house, I decided to take the bananas that are far too ripe for anyone in this house to eat and whip up a banana bread for breakfast.

Mother/Wife of the year award!

As you know, I take recipes that are not gluten free, and convert them.  This is no different.  I got this recipe from allrecipes.com.   http://allrecipes.com/recipe/janets-rich-banana-bread/

I can't endorse the recipe by itself, as I have never tried it, but it does have five stars, so I am sure it is delicious.

 Ingredients you will need: butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, gluten free flour mix (I use wendy wark's), baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, sour cream, lemon juice, xanthan gum, bananas, and mini chocolate chips if you so desire.

First - you will cream your butter and sugar in a big mixing bowl.  I use my old trusty kitchen aid.  After it is good and creamy, add your eggs, vanilla and lemon juice.  During the creaming process, you can mix all your other dry ingredients.

                                            


                                            

 I just use a fork to mix the ingredients a bit.  After lightly mixed, pour into the butter mixture.  It will get pretty dry, and you will wonder if you made a mistake.  No worries!  You aren't done yet.
 Add the mashed up bananas and sour cream, until it is fully incorporated.

                                           


                                           
 After that, if you so desire, you can add about a half cup of mini chocolate chips into the batter, and transfer to a greased 8x4 inch loaf pan, and stick in a preheated 350 degree oven for about an hour.

 During this hour, you home will fill with a wonderful smell, and you will salivate at the thought of sinking your teeth into a delicious bite of that bread.

You will want to make sure the bread is fully cooked before taking it out of the oven...cause if you don't it will fall in the middle.  I usually turn off my oven and let my bread or cakes sit in the oven for a minute or two before taking it out, just to make sure it is done.

Here is the final product!  Yummy banana bread for you to enjoy!

Here is the recipe -

Gluten Free Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened - if you want to make it dairy free--you can always just use shortening.
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (Wendy Wark's)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 cup sour cream
2 very ripe bananas (mashed)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8x4 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix the softened butter and sugar til well combined and fluffy.  Add the eggs, vanilla and lemon juice.  Mix well.  Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder and xanthan gum, mix into the butter mixture until smooth.  Fold in the mashed bananas and sour cream by hand until well combined.  Spread evenly into the loan pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Cool loaf in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy! and let me know how it turned out!

Sasha

Chewy Brownie Cookies

So, I like a challenge.  There are plenty of gluten free cook books out there that have plenty of already gluten free recipes in them.  But that doesn't satisfy my needs!  So...I often take recipes that are NOT gluten free, and convert them.

I found this recipe, while following a group of friends on facebook.
http://pinterest.com/pin/86764730292438525/

My first thought was...that could EASILY be converted to gluten free...and guess what, it was!

 
My son Josh enjoying the cookies with some milk right out of the oven.

I know a lot of bloggers post all the pictures of the ingredients while they are baking it, but since this is my first actual recipe I am posting, and I just got this idea YESTERDAY to make a blog, you will have to just believe me, that I did make the cookies.

Ok--so I changed somethings, obviously, from the recipe above...

My recipe is as follows :

Gluten Free Brownie Cookies

1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup butter (now, if you can't have dairy, just keep it all shortening..I like the idea of having butter in my cookies)
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla (make sure it is gluten free.  I use McCormick because it is clearly labeled GF)
1 tablespoon milk (now, you can use water like the recipe, or you could use almond milk if you are dairy intolerant)

Here is where it gets a bit tricky -

I made my version with protein powder...
1 scoop protein powder - dump it into a 1 cup measuring cup (is that grammatically correct?)
Fill the rest of that 1 cup measuring cup with Wendy Wark's gluten free mix (or whatever gluten free mix you like). If you do not want to use protein powder, just do one cup of gluten free mix

1/4 cup almond flour (remember, I make my own, so it is not finely ground, but I can't feel the almonds when eating the cookie)
1/4 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder - I just use hershey
1/2 tsp baking soda - sometimes GF products need a bit more help with leavening
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips (I use ghirardelli chips.  If you want dairy free, you can buy semi-sweet ghiradelli brand and there is no dairy.  Always check the labels though, in case they have changed something).

Directions -
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I like to bake cookies and cakes at 350, not 375.

 2. Beat shortening, butter and sugar with mixer until smooth.  I use a kitchenaid mixer.  Add one egg.  Then add the other with the milk and the vanilla.  I usually mix my flour while butter and sugars are mixing..so do that.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet till blended. I have a great spatula that I use to fully mix my dough and batter, so I mix it around more after I put in the two cups of chocolate chips.
3. I use parchment paper on my cookie sheet.  I usually roll my cookies in a ball in my hands and put them on the sheet.  Depending on the size of your cookie, bake 10-18 minutes.  Bake until they are set and then cool on a wire rack.

Eat with milk...whatever variety you like, dairy, almond, soy etc.

The cookies will be sticky when you put them on the cookie sheets.  They will be thicker consistency than brownies, but not as thick as chocolate chip cookies.  It is just the added bonus of getting to lick your hands after you are done.

I happened to run upstairs while my first batch was baking, and came down to this gem -


Seems Josh got into the cookie dough a bit.

Let me know if you have any questions - and more importantly, how yours turned out!

Just a tease

Let's talk flours!

As much as I would love to dive into recipes and tricks, we need to talk about flours.

Now, if you have been eating gluten free, or just starting, you are probably intimidated by all the flours out there to use.  Unfortunately, you can not just use one flour to replace wheat flour.

I have a cook book called "Cooking Gluten Free!" by Karen Robertson that has a wonderful mix that I use that is very versatile.  I do want to warn you that the mix I use, has seven different parts to it...you read right, seven different flours.  Some of these flours may be difficult for you to get your hands on, depending on where you live.  I am fortunate enough to live near DC, so we get all sorts of grocery stores.  I buy three of my flours at a grocery store called "The Global Mart".  It is an international grocery store that may intimidate many Americans to walk into, as it has many Asian and Hispanic foods in it...but I promise you, if you have a store like that near by, it will be much better on your checkbook!

The mix I use, is a recipe called Wendy Wark's Gluten Free Flour Mix

1 cup brown rice flour
1 1/4 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup potato starch
2/3 cup tapioca starch flour
3/4 cup sweet rice flour (or glutinous flour)
1/3 cup corn starch
2 teaspoons xanthan gum or guar gum.  I have only ever used xanthan gum, so I have no opinion on guar gum.

What my husband and I do is quadruple the recipe and store it in a airtight container, so we do not have to mix it all the time.  We store each flour in an airtight container clearly marked as well, so we can pull them out easily and store easily.

I don't worry so much about other allergies, but I know some have issues with corn...there is a more simple version of this recipe, which only uses three flours and cuts out the corn.
2 cups rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch

I have used this before when baking for people that have corn allergies.  It works just fine, but I find the seven flour mix to keep the integrity of a wheat filled recipe best.

Where I buy the different flours -

White Rice Flour - I buy at The Global Mart in the Hispanic section.  There is white rice flour in the asian section, but I found the Hispanic section was a bit cheaper.  I buy 4 lb bags. (Pictured below)

Brown Rice Flour - I buy at Wegman's and Bob's Red Mill brand

Potato Starch - I buy at Wegman's and also Bob's Red Mill brand

Tapioca Starch - I buy at the Global Mart in the Asian section.  The packaging is in another language, but it is .79-.99 for 1lb bags (Pictured below)

Sweet Rice Flour - I buy at The Global Mart in the Asian section.  The packaging is in another language and it is labeled glutinous flour (don't worry...it is glutEn free) but also the cheapest              at between .79-.99 per pound. (Pictured below)

Corn starch - I buy at BJs...the one option that is easy to buy in bulk!

Xanthan Gum - I bought a 5 lb tub off of TheGlutenFreeWarehouse.com.  This is by FAR the most
                        expensive hit on your check book, at about $50 for 5 lbs, but if you buy the 1/2 pound
 bag at Wegman's for 11.99(I think that is what they are going for), you are doing yourself a
                       disservice.

 

You want to make sure you buy flour that is the most finely ground.  If you have had gluten free items, you may notice that it can be a bit "grainy".  I find that with buying finely ground flour, the graininess goes away.


A couple of other flours I use -

Millet Flour - I just buy Bob's Red Mill brand.  My husband has a hard time with millet.  It is a good
                     source of fiber and is a healthy option, but I only have one recipe currently that has millet.

Sorghum Flour - Also Bob's Red Mill brand.  I am not too sure how awesome this flour is or not.  I wanted to experiment with it, and only put it one bread recipe I have

I have been trying to limit my carb intake - so coconut flour and almond flour are good low carb, high fiber flours with some protein

Coconut Flour - I just started using this.  I only use 1/4 - 1/3 cup in a recipe, as I have read it can
                         overpower a taste.  It is a very healthy flour---but expensive, which is why I haven't
                         experimented too much with it until now.

Almond Flour - I went to pick up a bag at Wegman's, saw the price tag of 9.99 and put it back.  I ended up buying almonds to grind instead.  I bought almonds without salt.  I blanch some, but that
really sucked and took forever, so I opted to just grind with the skins on.  I have a ninja grinder as well as a vitamix.  I can't get my almonds super finely ground, but even with the coarseness of the grind, I haven't had a problem with the texture of my flour in what I have used the almond flour with.

Protein Powder - Now, not a flour, but since I do try to balance my carbs and proteins, you will find that I use protein powder in some of my recipes.  Make sure the protein powder you use is                gluten free, since some may not be.

I do not use soy flour in any of my recipes.  I know that soy is a decent flour, and my sister in law uses it quite heavily in her recipes, but I know that many people have issues with soy, so I avoided using it when coming up with recipes, or modifying recipes I already had.

So there you have it...we got through that blog post...and it isn't a fun one..but important for your gluten free baking/cooking to be a success.

Also - please do not hesitate to leave comments on items you would like to know more about, or recipes you are dying to have.  It will help me know what people want for this blog too!

Sasha  

Introductions!

I want to start this blog by saying, that I do not have Celiac Disease, Gluten Intolerance, Casein Intolerance etc. Because I do not have these issues, I decided to name my blog The Gluten Free Imposter.  I do not eat gluten free all the time, though most of the time I do.  I do not eat gluten free most of the time because it is a "fad diet" either.  Celiac Disease does run rampant through my family and has hit many members of my family.  We ate gluten free in my family before it was cool.  We ate gluten free before all the wonderful resources became easily available.

We grew up making jokes about having celiac attacks, because my brother was born with it (it was the 70s-80s and no one knew what to do about diet to fix it), and making fun of siblings is surely the best way to show love in a family right?  I know it isn't funny to have celiac disease and I do take it very seriously, but a little poop between family members is funny...well at least in my dysfunctional family it is.

I know there are some serious gluten free bloggers out there and I hope that I don't offend them TOO much in my writing....but I am who I am, and I know for sure, that I have a resource at my fingers and a talent that is untapped and it is bursting to be let out.  My husband and I started a gluten free bakery from our home for about a year and a half.  I shut it down recently because I need my home to be a place of peace....and we were fighting quite a bit about said business.  I already work from home all day with my accounting business...that's right ladies and gents, I am a boring accountant, but that is another story for another blog, and he works all day as a Marketing Manager for a mid-sized apparel company.  Anyway--in our quest to create recipes that were delicious for our customers, I found out something...I am pretty dang good at gluten free baking.  Remember, I do not eat gluten free all the time, so my standards for what I was going to sell to my customers better be something that I would eat...because I do have pride. 

So Welcome to my blog!  I plan on doing all the fun jazzy things to make this blog more appealing visually, but I wanted to get this out there now so it pushes me to actually do it.

If you know someone who is gluten free, or just wants to balance foods they eat to cut out some gluten, send them to this blog.  I assure you, you will not be disappointed with my recipes.  My husband might kill me for posting some of them here, but I feel like people who are gluten free already have to pay so much more for their food...it is the least I can do to help them without monetary influence.

I plan on putting tips and recipes on this blog, so spread the news!

Enjoy!
Sasha