Gluten Free Banana Bread

I had a few soft banana's on my counter today. Normally I would make banana bread but now that we are gluten free I hesitated. But then I started to dig and found the following recipe and made it. I was waiting for my regular bread to bake and I think my chocolate chips sank to the bottom of the batter. You can see them in the picture. Oh well it still tastes good. It took longer to bake than I thought it would and when it came out we couldn't wait to dig in. So the chocolate was still gooey.



Gluten Free Banana Bread


2 ripe banana's
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coconut oil (or any other vegetable oil)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup corn starch
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp guar gum
1/4 tsp baking soda.
1 tsp ground coriander (optional)
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
In a large bowl mix all wet ingredients, sugar and egg.
Add potato starch, cornstarch, baking powder, guar gum, baking soda, salt and coriander.

Batter will be thin. Pour into a greased 9x4 loaf pan.

Bake for 50-60 mins or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Sorghum - Flax Bread

Oh my! This smells so good and just came out of the oven. What a beautiful loaf of bread. It took just over 3 hours from assembly to completion. Most of the time is in waiting for the "sponge" to rise and then the bread to rise before baking. I can hardly believe this is gluten free.

I got this recipe from Gluten Free Gobsmacked's blog. It looked intimidating but once you got into it, it wasn't very hard. There were just lots of ingredients. Rather than repost the recipe I just gave you the link. There are lots of instructions.

Here it is sliced. It tasted very good too! My son loved it. We smothered the warm bread with butter. I would say this is the best gluten free bread I have ever tasted. It is moist and spongy just like gluten breads.

Just realized I didn't comment on which options I took in her recipe. I used brown rice, gluten free oats and honey as my choices.

To your health!

Stephanie

Chebe Cheese Rolls

I decided to take the advice of a friend of mine who's family has been gluten free for quite a few years. She recommended Chebe brand for rolls and bread sticks. I bought a couple of bags when they were on sale at Meijer's. They were 2 / $6 so not too bad for gluten free. I decided to bake a few up tonight. the mix is easy. Just pour the package into a bowl and add 2 Tbs oil (I used coconut oil, 2 eggs and then you can be done but they suggest you can add 1 cup of shredded cheese and 1/3 cup of water until they were the right consistency.

I used my new bun pan that I got on eBay from a European seller. The package told me not to grease the pan and make little balls. That didn't work well. They stuck and stayed like little bon bons. The next two I made are pictured. I sprayed the pan and made the dough fit the holes and pushed it down to form a "roll" shape. They turned out great. Hint - They do not spread out but stay the way they are formed.

They are a little "chewy" in texture but they tasted great with melted butter. I have a package for Italian herb to make bread sticks. That will be next.

It's Pizza Day (but gluten free)

Friday's are pizza day at my children's school. It was met with tears from my 6 year old daughter when she realized that her favorite hot lunch day would not happen this week. So I planned a special suprise that I would bring them gluten free pizza today.

Well, that met some challenges. There was a praise assembly at my children's school this morning that my daughter was speaking in. She begged me to come. So now it is 7:45 am and she is getting on the bus. I am still in my pajamas with coffee cup in hand. So I cleaned up a few things and hopped in the shower by 8am and was out with hair dried and makup on by 8:20 am. Out the door and on the way to the assembly at 8:40 am. After that I had to go to CostCo to pick up a few things but UGH! they don't open until 10 am. So off to Marshall's across the street I go. I find boots for my son and then head back to CostCo. I make it out of there at 11am after getting groceries and a prescription. On my way home again to make pizza and be back at school by 12:30 pm

At this point I am thanking God (literally) that I went gluten free 2 years ago and already have my recipes and a good comfort level with baking gluten free.

Here is the pizza I made.

Gluten Free Pepperoni / Italian Herb Pizza

Here's what the dough looks like in the mixer:

For the pizza crust:

2 tsp dry active yeast (Red Star is gluten free)
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour (starch)
3 Tbs Raw Milk
1 Tbs Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp granulated garlic (optional)
1 tsp Italian Herbs ( I use more like 1 1/2)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1 1/4 c warm water (110 degrees)
1 tsp honey

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Measure all dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Add all wet ingredients to the dry mixture. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. Switch to medium speed and mix for 3 minutes. Transfer dough to pan - I spread olive oil on the pan (liberally) to keep the dough from sticking. Sprinkle the dough with white rice flour to assist in not sticking to your hands. You can also put olive oil on your hands to assist with pressing dough to pan.

I get the dough mostly flattened on the pan and then rolling pin it flat and even out the edges manually. Bake for 10-14 minutes (crust only).

Let cool for a few minutes and add toppings. For this pizza I used Muir Glen Organic Pizza sauce and nitrate free pepperoni (from a local organic farm). My cheese was mozzerella from a local Amish Farm.

Below is the unbaked dough after spreading and fixing the edges.



And here is the finished product. YUM!!

Bake the pizza until the top is lightly browned. Total time for me to prepare and cook was 45 minutes. I think this was a new record for me. My children were excited to get pizza today. That makes me smile. They have been such troopers this week. I am exhausted. We'll get in the groove and it will all work out.

To your health!

Stephanie

It's a Birthday Party with Cupcakes

My son got invited to a birthday part on Monday. "Oh no", I thought. Here we go! I haven't even gotten a chance to get into this diet and I already have to deal with glutenous cakes. So I called the mom and explained the situation and told her I would send a cupcake to the party with him.


I have not made a cupcake that my kids have liked that is gluten free. I like them but my palate is more tolerant of textures and flavors than theirs are. They love Bob's Red Mill GF Brownies so when I saw that they made a chocolate cake mix I was excited. Then I found sprinkles that were gluten free as well. Yippee!!


Here's what I used:

For the frosting I was stuck. I didn't want to buy the store stuff with the hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup. So a friend of mine told me how she makes it. I used a stick of butter, powdered sugar and raw milk. I made some frosting chocolate with organic cocoa powder. This is the result:

The best part. MY KIDS LOVED THEM!! They commented "At least we know that we can have cake now". Whew! Another crisis solved.

To your health!

Stephanie

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tomorrow is "cookie" day at my kids school. So guess who is baking again today? And Thursday is a birthday party for my son so I will be making cupcakes tomorrow. I am realizing just how many things are centered around foods.

Here is one of our favorite recipes.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 Cups Gluten Free Flour Mix
2 Cups Organic Brown Sugar
2 Free Range Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Organic Butter (2 sticks)
1 tsp Xantham Gum
1 tsp Aluminum Free Baking Soda
1 tsp Celtic Salt
2 Cups Gluten Free Oats (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1 - 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or raisins

Note: If you use raisins and they are a little hard, place them in boiling water for a minute or so and this will soften them. It will also stop them from drawing the moisture out of the cookies.

Mix the sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla in the mixer bowl until blended. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix for 3-5 mins on low/med. Fold in raisins or chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoons of dough onto parchment paper. Push them down a bit to make them about 1/2" thick and round the edges to make them circular. They will then spread out evenly and make nicely shaped cookies. Bake for 10 mins or until lightly brown on the edges. They will continue to cook on the pan after pulled out of the oven.

Oh No I need a lunch - GF Sandwich Bread

I don't know what I was thinking. I have to make the kids lunches and I had nothing to put in them. My son left his lunch box at school so "ice packed" items were out of the question. So I decided to try a new recipe for some GF bread. I think this loaf cost about $3.50 to make. A far cry from the almost $6 my other options are. Some are even more! This was so easy too.

Easy Gluten Free Sandwich Bread




Dry Ingredients
2 1/2 cups Organic Brown Rice Flour
2/3 cup non-GMO cornstarch
1 Tablespoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon Celtic Sea salt

Wet Ingredients
1 1/2 cups milk (warm not hot)
1 packet active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons Organic Virgin Coconut Oil (or vegetable oil)
2 large free range eggs

1. In a small bowl, combine milk and yeast.
2. Place all dry ingredients in a mixer bowl and wisk through to mix together.
3. Add yeast mixture, coconut oil and eggs.
4. Using an electric mixer, mix dough for 2 mins on medium.
5. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with butter.
6. Spread batter evenly into the pan.
7. Cover pan with greased saran wrap.
8. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
10. Bake dough for 50 minutes.
11. Remove bread from oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
12. Ater five minutes, turn bread out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes one 9x5 loaf

**Note: You will see in my photo there are blocks of butter on the dough. I did this to add flavor. I cut a small slit in the risen dough and plopped them on top. Yummy!

Now to make some lunches for my kids. Crossing my fingers that this bread goes over with them.

To your health - Naturally

Stephanie

Gluten Free Day 1

Friday we took our son in for blood tests for Celiac. Saturday I went through my house and cleaned out every product that had gluten in it. They are packed up in 3 grocery bags to take to my friend who has three kids.

There have been a few tears today as they realized what was being eliminated. But it will be fine. I have gotten pretty good at baking the "replacements". The mainstay being chocolate chip cookies. I picked up some kinnikinnick brand K-Too's so they will think they are getting Oreo's.

It was a calm day in our house. No screaming, fighting or running around. Is this a fluke or related? It normally takes 2 weeks to "detox" them from the overload. It dawned on me that this is the first day since they were very small babies that they have been totally without gluten. There is something wrong with that. Cleaning out my cupboards made me realize just how much they were getting.

Onward to a new adventure.

Assembling the Flour Mixture

I decided to mix up a batch of the flour mixture today. I tried using one of my Tupperware cereal containers and it worked quite well. I could put all my flour in it and then shake it to mix them together. It will also work to put it into the freezer to store.

I also wanted to figure out how much this mixture cost to make. I

used 2 bags of Bob's Red Mill White Rice Flour + 1 Cup, 1 Cup of Ener G Potato Starch and 1 Cup of Tapioca Flour / Starch from my local health food store. The total was about $11.50 for a little over 4 lbs of flour mixture (11 cups).

Off to do more baking..........

To your health!