Monday, May 31, 2010

No-Way Chocolate Cake

"No-way," as in, "No way, we're having chocolate cake for dessert!"  "No-way," as in, "No way, this is gluten free?!"  "No-way," as in, "No way, this is dairy free too!?!"  "No-way," as in, "No way, this is a gluten free/dairy free chocolate cake!?!?!"  I know...that's a lot of "no ways."  ...sorry about that...


Is it just me?  Or does it seems like every time someone wants a gluten free chocolate cake, they go for your "flourless chocolate cake." You know, the kind that's been blasted with thousands of eggs. 

Don't get me wrong, eggs are great.  A couple yolks add richness to crusts, custards become magnificent, and souffles are fluffy, and the world just goes round with eggs. 

But sometimes, I'm not in the mood for something that's extremely rich.  Something that uses a dozen eggs in order to make only an eight inch round.  I feel like, if I'm going to eat something with that many eggs it should be a four layer cake or a decadent souffle.  Take your pick. 

As my little sister would say, "You dig?" Do understand where I'm comin from?  I feel like I should spread the dozen eggs out.  I just don't do twelve eggs for one eight inch round... I'm not for that. 

I would never dream of eating the entire eight inch, but twelve stinkin eggs for one eight inch!?  Do you know how big an eight inch round IS???  Lemme tell you, it ain't that big.  At least for twelve eggs, it isn't. 

Also considering the fact that the cake doesn't actually rise... Its because it becomes more of a custard.  Since ya know, its been pumped with all those eggs. 
I'm not bein a hater!  I promise.  I ain't hatin on egg blasted cakes.  I know it sounds like it.  But believe me.  I'm not. Have you ever tasted an egg blasted cake?????  That, my friend, is what I call moist, delectable, smooth, rich, enjoy every bite, goodness on a fork.  With a dollop of  creme fraiche and glazed mixed berries with a dash of cinnamon on top.  Mmm.  I'll eventually make it just to prove to you that I'm not hatin on flourless chocolate cake. 

Ok, I apologize.  I'm done fussing.  But there's a point to all of this, I promise. 

Here's my question:  Why make a flourless chocolate cake, when you can make a GF DF chocolate cake?  I mean, think about it.  Really, why?  "I don't have a recipe for GF DF chocolate cake," you may sadly say. 

                                        Well...BAM!!!!! Here it is ;-). 
(This is all that was left after the barbecue...the camera died before I could take one of the whole cake)

I'm sorry, I don't mean to seem egotistical or anything, but uh, this cake is off the chain...if i say so myself :-).  Gluten Lovers, here's the original, http://www.recipes4chocolatecake.com/layer/tlcc.htm, but my family and friends couldn't tell the difference.  I went to a barbecue today.  Everyone loved it :-).  Yes to success!!!  I was the only one that made something.  Mine was the only one that was absolutely demolished.  Nothing is better than a complement like that :-).  *For a Mexican Chocolate Cake incorporate a tbsp of cinnamon to dry ingredients.

No-Way Chocolate Cake

-3 cup Bob's Redmill All-Purposed Flour
-1 1/2 tsp Xanthan Gum
-1 1/2 Salt
-3/4 tsp Baking Powder
-1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
-2 2/3 White Sugar
-1 cup & 2 tbsp Cocoa Power
-1 cup & 2 tbsp Water
-1 cup & 2 tbsp Canola Oil
-4 or 5 large Eggs
-3/4 cup Water
-1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
Frosting
-1 box Powder Sugar
-3/4 cup Cocoa
-1 tbsp Vanilla
-2 tbsp Almond Milk
-1 1/2 cup Earth Balance (room temperature)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and cocoa.  In a separate bowl combine oil and water.  Whisk in eggs, 3/4 cup water, and vanilla.  Slowly combine flour mixture with egg mixture.  Pour into greased two ten inch or two eight inch pans.  For an eight inch pan bake 45 min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  For a ten inch pan, 35 min. 
In a bowl first add butter, cocoa, powder sugar, and then vanilla and almond milk.  Blend until smooth.  Bon Appetit!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

straw + berry = Strawberry :-)



By this time I hope you’ve been able to realize I’m a Foodie. I love to make people happy with food. There’s just something about being able to feed people. Food is what connects everyone. Our entire culture is centered around food. Almost all social events are centered around it. Celebrations, gatherings, anything. That has nothing to do in particular with today’s post…I just wanted to make sure you knew what you’re dealing with :). Haha.
                         
Im here!  And with berry fantastic food!  (Get it? "Berry" fantastic? Funny right?! Jk.)

Any who.  Every Friday my dad and I like to go to our local Farmer’s Market. The freshest of everything is there. Good stuff.


If you haven’t noticed, strawberries are everywhere. Really, they are. Look through a current issue of your food magazine or checkout any food blog. I guarantee you it has some sort of recipe involving strawberries. Guaranteed.


Back to my story. So yesterday my dad went to the Farmer’s Market while my mom and I went on a hike.
He got some apples, blueberries, and oh, what do ya know?! Strawberries! We’ve gotten them from our local Farmer’s Market before and lemme tell you something buddy, they were well worth it! You dig? Ha, oh I know you do. Who could be against strawberries??? I mean, come on, let’s get real here! ;-) (Oh, FYI: Strawberries are one of the most pesticide filled crops, so go for the organic.)
 Last week he bought strawberries and we made strawberry shortcakes together.


I know, I know. I didn’t share it with you guys. But this time around I am. So no worries :).

He asked me to make more shortcakes but I wanted to try something different. How about a tart???


Simple. Refreshing. Light. That’s all I wanted. I didn’t want to make a filling. No cremes or custards. Just fruit. And I wanted my crust to resemble something that of a cookie to complete that clean, fresh taste.
In a way it’s Strawberry shortcake…but in a tart…I like it… ;-). If you use Sofella like I did, keep in mind you don't need the xanthan gum.  Here's the original tart recipe http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2010/04/tart-pan-giveaway/.
So here it is! Feel free to whip up some whipped creme. (No pun intended ;-). Or a dollop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!



Strawberry Tart

Crust
-1 ½ cup all-purposed GF flour*
-1 tsp Xanthan gum
-1/2 cup White sugar
-1/4 tsp Salt
-9 tbsp cold Earth Balance
-1/4 cup Almond Milk or 1/2 cup Plain Yogurt
-1 large Egg yolk
-2 tbsp Earth Balance

Strawberries & Sauce
-2 small baskets of Strawberries
-3/4 cup White Sugar
-1 tbsp & 2 tsp Lemon Juice
-2 tbsp Earth Balance
-1/8 tsp cinnamon
-1 tsp vanilla

Preheat to 400F.  Slice strawberries, add sugar, lemon juice and toss.  Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 30min.  In a food processor blend flour, xanthan gum, sugar, and salt.  Once blended add "butter" in 1 inch cubes and blend till it becomes a coarse crumbly mixture.  Add milk and egg yolk.  Continue until it comes together.  You don't want it to become too soft.  Press into a 10inch spring tart pan and poke around with fork.  Bake 15min or until lightly golden.  Melt butter on tart crust.  Drain strawberry juice into a saucer pan, melt butter, cinnamon, and vanilla. Allow to just begin to simmer. Pour into tart crust and set sliced strawberries on top.  Allow to chill at least 4hrs or until set.

-

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

GF Cinnamon Swirl (Kind of...)

There's a few things I would like to share with you today.  First of all, I probably won't be baking anything for the next two weeks...maybe.  Unless I end up making something for my friend when we have our movie night. 
Remember when I told you that I kind of drive my parent's crazy with all my baking?  Well, I'm beginning to live in the kitchen.  I want to be able to update my blog with a baking creation in the future.  So I need to pace myself.
 But keep checking up on me! You never know, right?  I'll probably have some news to share regarding some culinary inspiration! ;-)
Second order of business.  There are those of you out there who don't have very adventurous taste buds.
 When I tell people what we had for dinner the night before, I get the reaction, "Oh, my, gosh."  Which is a good reaction.  My mom is an amazing cook by the way.  She always whips up some pretty divine dishes :-).  But then a lot of the time I get the reaction, "Eww."  It's not "eww."  It's delish.  Food is a gift.
 Especially to have the ability to be able to create something with it.  So here's my proposition:  Expand your horizon!  Try something new!  Instead of going to Sombrero's, go to an authentic Mexican restaurant.  Try REAL Greek food.  What about Indian food?  Have you ever had Eritrean food? What about French?  Instead of Chinese, go for Vietnamese!  "We don't have those restaurant's where I live."  Pish posh! No excuses!  Then make it! :-)  My mom made Vietnamese for dinner the other night.  We had Pho.  Pho is really hot, flavorful, beef broth that's filled with rice noodles and bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, lime and beef.  In fact, the beef is so thinly cut that when you pour the broth on top of all of your goodies, it instantly cooks the beef. Its ultra tasty.  Sriracha is an asian hot sauce. 
Its hot.  Really, really hot.  So, please, for me, be careful with it. Hahaha.
I, uh, have more to share with you :-) hehe. 
I'll get to what you want in a minute, I promise.  Ok.  So, Tinkyada is the bomb.  It really is.  All of you gluten-ees will never be able to tell the difference.  And I know I have my living proof out there...you know who are ;-). 
Ok!! I'm at the best part now. Sigh.  Finally :-). 
Right now, what occupies my mind is the CST's.  State testing is long, boring, and just...blah.  All of you who are in High School, I'm quite sure you agree with me.  I came home feeling like, "YES!!!  It's over!" ...At least for today.  But then it was like, I don't have any homework and I'm all studied up, so that means only one thing...baaakiingg timmmee!  But what?  What would I make?  That's the big question... What would I make.  I was in the mood for biscotti's but I don't have any almonds, chocolate, or orange extract the house.  So Operation Biscotti was out of the picture. 
Then I thought...COFFEE CAKE.  Everyone loves coffee cake, right? Right.  So coffee cake it is.  But I wanted to make it more of a cakey consistency.  So then I thought...pound cake.  Why not combine a couple ideas and convert a recipe?  If you've read the title of this post you may have noticed that it ends with "Kind of..."
 That's because, as you'll see in the pictures that the swirl isn't that defined.  I'm only seventeen!  I'm still perfecting my skillzz.  I'll get better, I promise.  After I baked it I realized you need to pour a thin layer of batter before you do your checker board.  That way the cinnamonny goodness won't sink to the bottom.  I hope the pictures help :-/. It tasted really good though. My little sister even said so!  She was sneaking for seconds and thirds.  Now, when your little sis is sneaking around to get some more, THAT'S what you call success!
The original pound cake is found here:   http://www.joyofbaking.com/PoundCake.html  But I changed it up, as usual.  And oh, almost forgot.  Most people who have a problem with dairy can handle plain yogurt.  If you can't, just substitute it with almond milk.  And I used Sofella (I get mine at Fresh and Easy), but you can you use any all-purposed gf mix, just don't forget your 1 tsp of xanthan gum.

GF Cinnamon Swirl
  • 13 tbsp Earth Balance
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cup Sofella All-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 salt
  • 6 tbsp Earth Balance
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350F.  Cream "butter" and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs.  Once combined add yogurt and vanilla.  In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Slowly add to yogurt mixture until well blended.  In a separate bowl dump brown and white sugars with butter and cinnamon.  With a fork mix until coarse crumbs form.  Line a 9*5*3 inch loaf with foil and spray with nonstick oil.  Pour a thin layer of batter at the bottom.  Dollop batter in a corner of the pan.  Directly next to it fill with cinnamon mixture.  Continue until full.  Take a large spoon and slowly turn the batter into the cinnamon mixture to form the swirls.  I hope the pictures help.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I know what you're thinking...

"Why in the world are you showing me this?" or "What IS this?" or "This looks absolutely disgusting..".  Am I not correct? Ok.  This is a gluten free, dairy free lasagna.  And now you're thinking, "This is a BAKING blog!  Not a COOKING blog."  Well, ya know what?  This TECHNICALLY counts.  You know why??? (I'm asking a lot of questions today...bare with me).  Beeecaause, you have to bake lasagna.  Yes, indeed you do.  And I know it doesn't look pretty.  Believe me, I know it doesn't.  But it tasted good!  Not for being dairy/gluten free, "but for just being food."  That's my motto ;-),  "..for just being food." 
Back to the lasagna.  I basically took a recipe that's gluten and dairy-enized, (yes, dairy-enized is a word in my vocabulary), and turned it into a friendly version that all can enjoy fully :). 
But, I uh, tweaked it.  A lot. In the realm of cooking, wine and garlic, are amazing.  If you ever want a really good tomato sauce and you want it to be ultra easy, four words: garlic and red wine.  Straight out the door. 
The wine I used is what my parents call, "two-buck-chuck."  Meaning its cheap.  And the garlic, I used a lot of in this recipe.  Garlic is kind of addictive if you think about it... It gives you dragon breath but the food tastes ultra tasty.  Idk, that's just how it works.  Now, you're typical lasagna has cheese.  Ricotta and mozzarella.  In place of the Ricotta you can either use a tofu substitute or a nut substitute.  I chose the Nut Ricotta.  In my opinion, I'm not too crazy about tofu. The Nut Ricotta is toasted Pine Nuts that has been through the food processor and slowly sauteed with olive oil and lots of garlic.  Here's the original recipe that I converted for all of you that can eat flour and dairy.  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/classic-italian-lasagna-recipe/index.html  But I'm warning you!  You're missing out!

GF DF Italian Lasagna
Meat Sauce
-2 jars garlic spaghetti sauce (Trader Joe's)
-1 bottle red wine
-1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
-1 lb. ground turkey
Nut Ricotta
-1 bag unsalted toasted pine nuts (Trader Joe's)*
-5 cloves garlic
-1/2 cup olive oil
-Tbsp olive oil
-Salt & pepper
-3 eggs
Spinach and Mushrooms
-1 package prewashed spinach
-1 1/2 sliced mushrooms (button or any other small mushroom)
-4 cloves garlic
-Olive oil
-Salt & pepper
Lasagna
-1 box gluten free lasagna noodles
-Olive oil
-1 package Soy Mozzarella (Trader Joe's)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Begin with the pine nuts in a food processor. As the nuts become closer to a meal, slowly add 1/4 cup olive oil. You want the consistency to be that of a crunchy paste. Brown turkey until most of the pink is gone. Add tomato sauce and almond milk. Once heated through add half the bottle of wine and simmer on low heat. Pour the rest of the olive oil in a preheated pan and add nut paste. Turn heat to low and add basil, garlic and stir olive oil and spices until blended. Allow to simmer on low heat and stir periodically. After 20min, remove paste from heat into bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste and add eggs. Blend well. Boil lasagna noodles with a bit of olive oil. It helps from the noodles sticking. Preheat pan with olive oil, first saute mushrooms and add garlic. Once soft add spinach. It wilts quickly. Salt and pepper to taste. In a 13*9 inch pan layer sauce, mushrooms and spinach, lasagna noodles, nut ricotta, shredded soy mozzarella, and repeat till the top. Once at the top pour remaining sauce and cheese. Place foil under dish in the oven and bake 20-30mins or until it bubbles. If you have any questions let me know! :)

*Pine Nut alternative: unsalted toasted cashew pieces.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

This is what I think...

I don't think someone necessarily needs a gluten free cookbook in order to make gluten free things.  As long as you know what you NEED it shouldn't be a problem.  Allow me to explain myself.
Lets say you have an aaamaazzing recipe...for lets say, oh, chocolate cake.  Or your best friend does.  An amazing recipe that you obviously can't eat.  Or if you do, you'll be paying major consequences...believe me. 
Any who, so you have this amazing recipe and you figure you can't use it anymore just because the staple element is flour.  Well who said you can't use the recipe anymore?
You simply replace the wheat flour with your "gluten free goodness" flour.  Simple as that.  Add your needed xanthan gum to go with it, and hey! you've got wondrous food melting in your mouth. 
You have your basic gluten free flours.  A combination of rice and tapioca, result in a fluffy cake or scone.  Brown rice and teff flour, make some good pancakes... I could go on and on when it comes to flour combos. 
But as for me, I like to stay in touch with my good friends, Bob and Sofella.


I hope you come to love them as much as I do.  We'll talk more about flours later on.  But lemme just tell you this: Bob knows how to make a pretty darn tasty chocolate cake and Sofella knows what a REAL cookie tastes like ;-) beeeliieeve me.

Monday, May 10, 2010

You know whats funny?

So, today I decided I wanted to open a blog. I bake all the stinkin time. Really, I do. So much so, that I drive my parents kind of crazy with it. Last week I accidentally baked 64 cinnamon rolls. Yes, you read right. 64. We literally had plates piled high with them. Not to mention all of the cake pans and tart pans and any other pans we could find to bake them in. You're probably wondering, where are these divine cinnamon rolls? Well. They're gone. They were all eaten. Sorry. BUT, I promise all of you, the next time I bake something as wondrous as that I will post it. Because, after all, this is "The Bakin Bloggin Teen." And the teen is me :). So, who ever you are out there, who happens to stumble across me, please, spread word about me. Post a comment. Please. Who ever you are. I feel like Julie in "Julie and Julia." Quite pitiful actually.