Strawberry Cake

 Our little girl loves strawberries so for her first birthday I searched for a gluten free strawberry cake recipe. I found this recipe over at gluten free mommy. I topped it with a cream cheese frosting. I didn't have almond mill so I substituted millet. It was pretty tasty and the birthday girl loved it. 

Hot Chocolate!

I recently had a request for my "liquid chocolate" hot chocolate recipe that I made for some friends in New Hampshire more than 5 years ago. The problem is, I made up that hot chocolate on the fly without a recipe. This weekend I spent some time in the kitchen concocting a recipe that I could give them that would taste very similar to the hot chocolate I made for them in New Hampshire. Here's the result.

Ingredients:
1 cup of water
3 cinnamon sticks (4 inch sticks)
3 cups of 2% milk/1 cup of heavy whipping cream (or you can use 1 quart (4 cups) of Half and half in place of the milk and whipping cream)
1 bag of milk chocolate chips (11.5 oz bag)

Directions:
Boil the cinnamon sticks in the water for at least 3 minutes (water is a better solvent than milk and will extract more cinnamon flavor from the sticks than the milk will). Reduce heat to low. Add the milk/cream OR the half and half to the water/cinnamon mixture. Add chocolate chips and mix until thoroughly melted and blended in with the rest of the liquid.

You can also add 1/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder in addition to the chocolate chips if you like your hot chocolate tasting more dark. I recommend tasting the hot chocolate as is, though, before adding the cocoa to make sure your taste buds need the extra cocoa.

ENJOY!

Caramel Corn

I love caramel corn and what's great is that it is naturally gluten and soy free.
Here is my favorite recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract
5 quarts popped corn (1 cup of popcorn is about right)

Directions:

1. Melt butter and sugar
2. Stir in corn syrup and salt
3. Boil stirring constantly for 4 minutes
4. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla
5. Mix caramel with popcorn evenly and then bake in oven at 250F stirring every 15 minutes for an hour.

Tips:

You can bake the popcorn in the oven on a cookie sheet like most people do, but it is a bit difficult to mix every 15 minutes without all the popcorn falling off and making a big gooey mess. If you do use a cookie sheet I recommend covering it with foil to avoid a really difficult to clean cookie sheet. I use our turkey pan to bake our caramel corn. It's deep and big and this makes it very easy to stir and make sure all of the caramel corn is covered and baked evenly. Good Luck!

Best Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been playing around with cookie recipes as of late and this one is my all time favorite. I hope you enjoy them!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups gluten free mix (1 & 1/4 cups rice flour, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1/4 cup tapioca starch)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 and 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.

Combine gluten free mix, xanthan gum, cocoa, baking soda and salt in separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients to butter sugar mixture and blend well. Add chocolate chips.

Bake cookies on sheet for 10 minutes.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cups gluten free mix (2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup tapioca starch)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and Grease muffin cups or use paper muffin liners.

Make gluten free mix and then combine 2 cups gluten free mix with the dry products (cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt)

Mix wet ingredients (milk, egg, canola oil and vanilla).

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients and then add chocolate chips. Mix well.

Fill muffin cups to the top and then sprinkle sugar on top if desired.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.

These were really yummy. They were gone in one day. Hope you like them.

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.

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.

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.