RSBC Week 3: A Tangy Cranberry Jezebel Sauce

So far for RSBC we've made Gluten and Dairy Free Acorn Squash Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting, and some Gluten Free White Bean Pancakes. It's crunch time these days. And when the going gets tough, I generally lose the downloading cord for my camera.

The challenge for this week was to use cranberries in an appetizer. We're big cranberry fans around here, and fresh and dried cranberries tend to make their way into all sorts of creations in this kitchen. I have to say though, this was not the ordinary challenge. I've made cranberry sauce, but that's the Thanksgiving kind. I wanted a cranberry sauce that would not be so cliche, and could hold its own with crackers. Gluten free crackers (my first time eating Mary's Gone Crackers gluten free crackers, and they're pretty darn tasty). And this is what happened in the kitchen:

It's tangy, complex, savory, and does not need to be served next to an overcooked turkey.

Cranberry Jezebel Sauce
Adapted from this recipe

1/3 cup water
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1-2 tablespoons diced green chiles
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
dash ground cloves
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Combine water and brown sugar in a small saucepan, and warm on medium heat until the brown sugar is dissolved. Add cranberries, green chiles, and spices, and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the cranberries start to pop. (That's my favorite part!) Remove it from the heat, and stir in the mustard. Let the mixture cool, and then refrigerate. Serve on crackers, combined with other toppings of your choice.

Cracker combinations:

Mary's Gone Crackers original gluten free crackers
Nutella
topped with Cranberry Jezebel Sauce

Mary's Gone Crackers original gluten free crackers
Neufchatel (less fat cream cheese)
topped with Cranberry Jezebel Sauce

Mary's Gone Crackers original gluten free crackers
hard boiled egg, sliced
topped with Cranberry Jezebel Sauce

After taste testing each one of these options, they're each great for their purpose. I could see serving each of these at a party, maybe on a tray altogether. This sauce would also be great as the sauce in which party meatballs are simmered. I'll have to try that.

So far, I've run 18.5 miles. I'm feeling stronger by the day. I also really need new shoes.

RSBC Week 2: Gluten and Dairy Free Acorn Squash Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting

It's RSBC Week 2 (Run Swim Bike Cook), and I've puzzled over what I should make for squash in dessert. You will recall the Gluten Free White Bean Pancakes from last week, and everyone else's entries are summarized in Last week's roundup of beans on Balance.

If I remember right about what was going on last year (we were making Crispy Meditteranean Polenta with Kale), I'm nearly certain I got sick at some point during RSBC - possibly even the second week? Well, it's happened again - I got my yearly sickness. I'm going to graciously thank my coworkers who still came to work with hacking coughs, although I have yet to reach the hacking cough stage (and I hope I don't!) I'm just at the horrible body aches with sore throat stage. And it's bad.

Still, I managed to make something squashy and sweet for dessert. The competition was for butternut squash, which I slightly modified and used an acorn squash I had hanging around. Winter squash is great in that it lasts all winter - so the squash that came in my November co-op order are quietly sitting in a bucket, waiting to be made into something more glorious and less caked in dirt.

I wanted to use as much of the squash as possible, not just a tiny bit. Especially since squash by itself is rather flavorless but also low fat, moist, and very nutritious, I figured it could improve the texture of my baked good. I came across a recipe for Butternut Squash Layer Cake, and decided that this called for cupcakes. I ended up with a delicious version of Acorn Squash Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting. And the whole business is dairy free!

The cupcakes are light, moist, and taste like autumn with the aromatic cinnamon and cloves. The frosting is light and glossy, holds its shape incredibly well, and has a little salty bite to cut the sweet.

Gluten and Dairy Free Acorn Squash Cupcakes
Recipe by GlutenFreeinSLC, adapted loosely from Butternut Squash Layer Cake
Makes 18 cupcakes

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

2 cups mashed, cooked acorn squash
1/4 cup hemp milk, or more if needed

1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1/2 cup certified gluten free oat flour
1/2 cup white bean flour
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Cream together shortening and sugars in a bowl. Add each egg, one by one, and continuing mixing until completely incorporated. In a food processor, mix the baked squash with the hemp milk, in order to be sure that the squash will not be stringy. No one wants stringy cupcakes! Once the squash is pureed well, stir it into the shortening and sugar mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices. With a whisk, blend them until they become one flour.

Fold flour mixture into the squash mixture until completely combined. If needed, add a little extra hemp milk, until the batter is a very thick cake batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line muffin pan with cupcake liners. Divide batter into cups, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until they are firm, but still give. They should be lightly brown on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Brown Sugar Frosting

1 cup packed brown sugar
2 egg whites
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Have your stand mixer ready, but set aside. Combine brown sugar, egg whites, water, cream of tartar and salt in a saucepan on the stove. Over low to medium heat, whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees. While you whisk, it will be light brown and foamy, and smell delicious like caramel. When it has reached the temperature, pour into the bowl of the stand mixer and beat on high until stiff peaks form (peaks that hold their shape for extended amounts of time). Frost cooled cupcakes. The frosting is best on the day it's made, although it will last several more.

This week I finished 12.5 miles of running before I was sitting, mid-Valentines date playing a game of Dominion (and losing), when I realized that I was about to be very sick. That itchy throat just got worse as the game went along, and by this morning, there was no question that I had another date scheduled with a box of Puffs Plus Lotion and a nap.

January 2010 Food Co-op Goods

January's co-op food was beautiful, and delicious too. I love that later afternoon light, that positively illuminates fresh fruit, making it come alive. The colors warm up, and it's almost as if they just arrived from the farm.

The co-op has also just changed it's ordering system, making it easier to only bring home gluten free food. Now, if you want that loaf of whole wheat bread, it's an "add on," instead of part of the standard share.

This month, we brought home delicious apples, grapes, cucumbers, red bell peppers, roma tomatoes, and grapefruit. There was also a bag of red potatoes, and the meat that went straight to the freezer.

RSBC Week 1: Beans in Breakfast (and the fallacy of g-free blender pancakes)

You may remember my adventures from last year in the fabulous Run.Swim.Bike.Cook 2009 competition. We went head to head, getting healthy and attempting interesting feats of food. For the first week last year, I prepared Lime Avocado Mousse for Week 1. I also got my buns off the couch and ran 26.2 miles during the month of February.


Well, it's been an entire year. I can hardly believe it! Now, I'm officially gluten free too, and the time has come to RSBC again! (In things that haven't changed, I'm late posting my recipe for this week's challenge). This week's food challenge is beans for breakfast. Since beans are one of my favorite foods, I figured this would be easy. Beans, according to Natalie from Gluten A Go Go on her recent article for Daring Bakers, pointed out that beans can be used as an alternative gluten free flour for baking! She-zam! (I did already know this. You can find my previous uses for beans in baking in Coconut Cupcakes and Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake.

Now that we know what we're cooking with, it was time to come up with the recipe. I love to try to make "regional foods" gluten free. One particular regional food which I have yet to make successfully, but I just can't leave alone, are blender pancakes. They are made by putting hard winter wheat (whole, not ground) into the blender with other ingredients for pancakes, and - surprise - you have ready to go pancake batter. I have tried this recipe several times, with gluten free variants, and have yet to have a successfully puffy pancake that I would like to claim. This was my golden opportunity to try to make them with beans, instead of quinoa or millet, as I have previously attempted.

Not like the other gluten free "bean" pancakes I found, which were Mung Bean Pancakes (and looked to be savory). I wanted "American" pancakes, made in some sort of food processor/blender, made with beans. Simple, right?

First of all, I didn't follow the recipe given above correctly for whole wheat blender pancakes. I blended the egg in there the first time, and I think that messed up the egg proteins, rendering them useless for puffiness and structure.

Attempt #1 at Gluten Free Blender Pancakes
really, I've been working on this one for a while. Probably attempt #6.

1 (15 ounce) can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup soured milk
1/4 cup tapioca flour

3 eggs
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Add drained beans and soured milk to blender, and blend for several minutes on high speed until the beans are completely liquified.

Then, add other ingredients and blend on low, just until combined. It seems like this would be a fine time, to even just stir them in with a spoon. Then, pour them out of the blender jar onto a hot pan (375 degrees) and cook on both sides.

Total flop.

It must have been because I blended the eggs for too long.

I have yet to win the fight with gluten free "blender" pancakes. But at some point, I will prevail.

Instead, I also made some delicious pancakes with white bean flour, ground in my spice grinder. The recipe follows, and these are actually good, tasty, and successful.

Gluten Free White Bean Pancakes

3/4 cup white bean flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup tapioca flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 cup soured milk or buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk together until they are thoroughly combined. Add wet ingredients and stir, until combined. On a prepared skillet, cook them on both sides until they are done.


Right now, I've run 4 miles.

Pancakes, I will dominate you. One of these days.
Stay tuned for future pancake victory, and for the rest of RSBC 2010.

Gluten Free Graham Crackers (and some s'mores)

My coworker told me about Nanaimo Bars. How she met this guy who said that his family had the "family secret," and that no one could have the recipe.

I'm pretty sure she went home and googled it. Sorry about that "family secret," dude. Funny enough, it was also the January Daring Baker's Challenge. I just ended up eating all my grahams before I made the Nanaimo Bars. And I couldn't decide if I wanted mint filling or just buttercream.

I just couldn't stop thinking about what graham crackers tasted like. How much I loved to break them perfectly on their little scored lines, and smoosh them with peanut butter for a snack. Well, wait no more. There are some really good gluten free grahams out there.

I found a recipe from Cake and Commerce that even came with a video tutorial. It was so fascinating to watch Lindsey in her clean kitchen, putting together confections. I think I watched a good number of the videos. I also discovered that she bakes by weight, instead of our rather inaccurate system of cups and teaspoons.

I plugged in the computer USB scale (originally purchased to be able to easily calculate costs for shipping packages) and went to town. I actually really enjoyed baking with weights, and I feel like it was a successful recipe because I was precisely following the directions. I did manage to tweak them a bit, and have posted my edited directions.

Whether it's indoor s'mores, outdoor s'mores, pie crust, Nanaimo bars, or some other creation, these are perfect. I took them to work for my morning snack. I definitely didn't regret that one.

Gluten Free Graham Crackers
Adapted from Cake and Commerce, a tremendously wonderful gluten free blog
You will need a baking scale for this recipe.

6 oz buckwheat flour (really cheap at WinCo!)
2 oz teff flour
2 oz sweet rice flour
2 oz ground flax seed
2 oz brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt

3 oz shortening, melted and slightly cooled
1/3 cup honey or agave
1/3 cup water, slightly warm
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. In another bowl, combine wet ingredients together and mix until blended. Pour wet ingredients in food processor over dry ingredients. Pulse until well combined. The dough will be a slightly sticky mass.

Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes for the flour to absorb some of the liquid. Genius! Absolute genius!

If the dough is still wet, knead in a little more teff or buckwheat flour. It should NOT be wet to the touch.

Roll out to about 1/8th of an inch on a sheet of parchment. With a knife, score dough into a graham-cracker-sized grid (or cut with round cutters if looking for another look). Dock dough (make holes in dough) with a fork. Transfer to a sheet pan.

Brush the surface with water and sprinkle with sugar. Allow to sit for 5 minutes.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until dry. Do not burn.

When they are still hot, use your knife to make the cuts again. Then you will have really nice, clean edges.

Cool.


S'mores

This part is pretty simple. You should probably have experience with this. Gather your ingredients first, including 2 pieces of graham cracker, a few marshmallows, and some milk chocolate. I managed to make mine with chocolate chips, but I do recommend a piece of chocolate bar, which comes conveniently scored for easy breaking.

First, turn on your electric stove. You'll need it pretty hot. Using a bamboo skewer, or even a fork, stab your marshmallow, and hold it over the hot stove. Be sure it gets close to the heating coil, but doesn't touch it (that makes fire!)

When they're light brown and puffy, you're done:

Slide your marshmallows off the skewer or fork, and load them onto the graham cracker, which should already have chocolate on it, waiting to receive your hot marshmallow.

Eat quickly. Lick the chocolate off your fingers.