Cheese Cake

(sorry there is part missing... my husband snuck some before I got a picture)

I made this cheesecake for our anniversary and it was a hit. It was 90% gone within 24 hours... I guess I need to make yummy things more often so they aren't such a novelty. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
* 1 1/4 cup gluten free cookie crumbs (I used half the recipe of the gf chocolate chip cookie recipe and baked the cookies without chocolate chips and then tossed them into the blender)
* 1/3 cup melted butter
* 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen fruit of choice (I used a berry blend), thawed
* 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
* 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1/4 cup lemon juice
* 3 eggs

1. combine cookie crumbs and butter. Press onto the bottom of a pie pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes

2. In a blender combine fruit and cornstarch; cover and blend until smooth. Pour into a saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup strawberry sauce to cool. Cover and refrigerate remaining sauce for serving.

3. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in milk. Add lemon juice. Mix well. Add eggs, beat on low until just combined.

4. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture over crust. Drop half of the reserved fruit mixture by 1/2 teaspoonfuls onto cream cheese layer. Carefully spoon remaining cream cheese mixture over fruit. Drop remaining fruit mixture by 1/2 teaspoonfuls on top. With a knife cut through layers to swirl fruit.

5. Bake at 300 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cook at room temperature for 1 hour (so it doesn't crack). Refrigerate overnight. Serve fruit over cheesecake if desired.

Homemade ranch dressing

There are very few salad dressings that are soy-free. Thus I began a quest to develop a few salad dressings that tasted like the real thing. This recipe is the closest I've achieved to store bought ranch in my experimentations.

Ingredients

3/4 cup soy-free mayonnaise (see below for a homemade version)

1 1/4 cup of sour cream

1 tsp freeze-dried chives

1 tsp dillweed

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 tsp onion powder

0.5 tsp salt

0.5 tsp ground black pepper

Directions

In a sealable container mix well all ingredients together. If using fresh spices/herbs use 3x the amount called for in place of the dried ingredients.

Homemade mayonnaise

The soy-free mayonnaise found in the store can be pretty expensive so I set out to make a homemade equivalent.

Ingredients

1 egg yolk (make sure to check date stamped on cartoon to make sure you are using the most fresh eggs available)

1 Tbs white distilled vinegar

0.5 tsp of salt

0.25 tsp of dried mustard powder

3/4 cup oil (preferably canola or safflower)

Directions

Mix the egg yolk, vinegar, salt and mustard powder together in a circular glass container. I've found that containers with steep sides (IE 90 degrees) work much better for the later stages of prep. then do those that have more slanting sides (IE bowls). In order to achieve the mayonnaise emulsion, the oil needs to be added very slowly in the beginning to the egg yolk mixture using a whisk. If the oil is added too quickly than the you will end up with a soupy mess instead of the desired emulsion. To do this you can use a tablespoon to add a couple of drops at a time. Once you have added about half the oil you can start adding oil more quickly. Since you are adding fresh egg yolk the mayonnaise should be used within 3-4 days.

* it should be noted that lemon juice can be added instead of vinegar for those who don't like vinegar. If you are using wet mustard, try using a scant teaspoon instead of the dry measurement.

Quick Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies are VERY rich, but the little one loves them and they are really quick and easy to make and requires no flour which is nice if you are running short on gluten free flours.

Ingredients:
* 1 egg
* 1 cup peanut butter
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Place egg, sugar, peanut butter and vanilla in a mixing blow and blend.

2. Add chocolate chips.

3. Drop teaspoonful onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes

Chocolate cream cheese frosting

We had some extra cream cheese leftover and I thought I would attempt a homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting. It was very rich. Here is the recipe:

1.5 cups of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips

0.25 cups of either milk, rice milk or water

0.5 stick of butter

0.5 lb of cream cheese

1.5 cups of powdered sugar

1-2 tsp real vanilla

Let butter and cream cheese soften to room temperature. Blend cream cheese and butter together until light or fluffy. Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler adding the milk/rice milk/water and stirring. If you don't have a double boiler you can boil water in a larger pot and nest a smaller pot inside to get the same result. Using this method will ensure the chocolate is not heated more than 214 degrees F, preventing it from burning at the bottom (Natural gas combusts around 3,600 degrees F and a red hot stove element registers around 2,000 degrees F-- both definitely hot enough to burn chocolate in short order). Pour molten chocolate chips into the cream cheese/butter mixture. Add vanilla to taste and then add powdered sugar until desired consistency is achieved, scraping down the walls of the bowl as you blend. This frosting has a good consistency, and a rich and decadent taste.

Belgian Waffles

Dry ingredients

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup millet flour

1.5 cups tapioca starch or potatoe starch

0.5 tsp salt

0.33 cup white sugar

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp xanthan gum

Wet ingredients

2 eggs

6 tbs melted butter or oil

2 tbs vanilla extract

2.25 cups milk (should be added a bit at a time until right consistency is achieved)

Mix together dry ingredients. Add eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract to dry ingredients. Then add milk slowly to the mixture until the proper consistency is achieved (slightly thicker than pancake batter). Then using a 1/2 cup measuring cup, spoon the proper amount of batter into the waffle iron (heaping 1/2 cup full). If using a waffle iron coated with teflon, no cooking spray is needed for releasing the waffles from the iron. Top with your favorite toppings. Makes approximately 8 belgian waffles.

*Note: I usually make the batter in a sealable plastic container so I can refrigerate the leftover batter for another day. The waffles made from refrigerated batter seem to behave and taste the same as waffles made from the fresh batter.

Favorite Gluten Free Pizza

We tried lots of pizza recipes... most of which were utter failures. We also tried buying mixes... much of which were utter failures. Then I found the best recipe ever. Dan prefers to quadruple the recipe and subdivide the resultant dough into 5 sections, 4 of which are stored in the freezer in gallon sized freezer bags until needed. Here is the slightly tweaked recipe:

1 cup millet flour

4 cups white rice flour

1 cup tapioca starch or corn starch

2 cups potato starch flour

Scant 3 Tbs xanthan gum

1 Tbs. salt

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tbs. sugar for proofing yeast

1/4 cup active dry yeast (buy in bulk from Costco or Sam's club to save quite a sum of money)

Scant 3 cups warm water, (heated to 105 degrees)

1/4 cup ricotta cheese

8 eggs

1/2 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup Honey

DIRECTIONS:

Combine ricotta cheese, eggs, olive oil, vinegar and honey in stand mixer. Combine 1Tbs sugar, water and yeast to proof. Once proofed add the yeast mixture to the other wet ingredients already in the stand mixer. Mix together the remaining dry ingredients in another bowl. With the mixer on a low speed add the dry ingredients a little at a time to prevent a flour cloud. Once all of the remaining dry ingredients are added increase the speed to high for a duration of about 3 minutes. Then subdivide the dough into five parts, 4 going into freezer bags and into the freezer while the remaining portion goes onto a pizza stone (no extra oil is needed on the baking stone). Using a silicon spatula spread the dough over the stone creating a raised rim at the edges. Let the dough raise for about 15-20 minutes at 225 degrees F and then increase the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Remove the baked crust from the oven when golden brown and top with sauce and toppings (I don't set a timer, but can tell from the smell when it is ready to come out of the oven).

Put back in the oven at 350 degrees and cook for about 7 minutes maybe more. If you want your cheese to brown, turn the broiler on for about 2 minutes before taking the pizza out. It’s really good this way! Be careful though because the pizza will burn if left too long- we’ve burnt a few. By we I mean Makayla.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are commonly made in our house. Our little one loves them and so do we. Here's the recipe. You can cut the recipe in half if you like or add more butter if you like cookies less cake like.

3 Cups Rice Flour
1 Cup Potato Starch
1/2 Cup Tapioca Starch
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter (you can add just one stick if you want the cookies to be more fluffy and cake like)
1 and 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup granulated sugar
2 egg
4 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla
2 Cups chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350 F
Mix together the flours, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.
Cream the butter until white. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla. Blend well. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.
Put mounds of dough on cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Starting

We have talked about starting a gluten/soy free blog for a while now so here we go... hope you enjoy some of the things we've learned to make.