Cranberry & Milk Chocolate Gluten and Milk Free Scones.

I tried a different scone recipe this mornings.  I used cranberries again, but this time I used one of the rice milk milk chocolate bars.  I like this recipe much better.  I did something different though - instead of making small round scones, I made 2 huge circles that broke apart to 4 each.

Here is the pic for now - check back later today or tomorrow for the recipe.

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Kiss cookies.

Perhaps the easiest cookies ever to make, well - except when you live in Germany and don't have access to Hersey's kisses :-P   Luckily, I was able to get a bag so made some of these.

Recipe is sssssoooooooooooo   simple.   Equal parts of peanut butter and sugar and add egg (1-2 depending on how much you make).  The following is what I did this morning.

1 cup peanut butter (I use pure peanut butter (ie, 100% peanuts)

1 cup sugar (can use white, brown - what ever you want)

1 egg

24 Hersey's Kisses (you could also use mini Reese's cups too (again not available in Germany)

Mix the above together. Form balls using your hands and bake for 10 minutes at 180°C.  As soon as you remove them, put a Hersey's kiss (unwrapped of course) into the center and push it down a bit.

Easy peasy!!!

Halloween Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Butter Cream Frosting

As my contribution to the Halloween party, of course I took cupcakes :)

I used the same ultimate chocolate cupcake recipe that I posted a few post ago.  It never fails me.  These are the most delicious and moist chocolate cupcakes you will ever have (gluten/milk free or otherwise).  They are topped with Haribo gluten free Vampie Gummy's

Gluten and Dairy Free Pierogies

Adding the enlarged photo of the finished product to get a better look at it.

MaMa With Flavor  and I make Gluten and Dairy Free Pierogies when I went to visit her and her family.  Neither of us had made them from scratch before, we had only had frozen ones.  We were very impressed with how easy they were to make and how tasty they were.  Even her little Ninja baby (1 year old) ate them up :).  Pictures provided by MaMa With Flavor

Gluten-Free Pierogi Recipe

Adapted from Lauren of Celiac Teen with what we had on hand and using Teff instead of Brown Rice (which is not available here in Germany) and making it dairy free.

Ingredients (makes about 36 to 40)

1 cup Corn Starch

1 cup Sweet Rice Flour

1/2 cup Millet Flour

1/2 cup Teff Flour

1 tablespoon Xanthan Gum

1 teaspoon Salt

1/2 cup Soy Milk

1/2 cup Soy Cooking Cream

3 Egg Whites

Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix together wet ingredients and then stir in to the dry ingredients.  We used a kitchen aid with the mixing paddle for this entire process- worked perfectly.  Then switch to the kneading paddle and let the kitchen aid knead the dough (for kneading by hand - Lauren has a great step by step on her Celiac Teen blog where we got the recipe

Cut off 1/4 of the ball and place the rest in your bowl, with a damp paper towel over-top to keep it moist.  Roll out the dough until it is quite thin (a few millimeters tall) (you may or may not need extra flour for this step - ours were fine without using flour to roll it out), cut circles - we used a glass for this.

Using your hands - form little balls with the filling (see what we used below) and place in the center of the pierogi circle.  Fold the circles over and pinch edges together and press with a fork to make them look nice :)

Repeat using the other quarters of dough.

To cook, bring water to a boil. Salt as desired. Cook pierogi in the boiling water for five minutes (they will float to the top when done).

Our added tip - once these have cooled/dried after being boiled - saute them in a pan of dairy free margarine (you can add herbs, onions - what ever you want for flavor) for a few minutes on each side - this adds to the taste/flavor/texture.  Also, we melted some dairy free margarine with herbs and used to drizzle over them.

Our filling

Boiled potatoes

Bacon cooked and crumbles up (Sommer's GREAT idea :-)

Scallions (green part chopped up - white if you want as well) and sauteed in margarine

Bit of soy milk if needed
Pecorino Romano Cheese grated

Fresh Garlic to taste

Salt/Pepper to taste

Mash the above together. You want a rough mash (you need to be able to form little balls with your hands - so  only use the soy milk if needed.

HUGE thank you to MaMa With  Flavor for the wonderful couple days and loads of cooking/food talk and girl chat ;-) and also to Lauren of Celiac Teen for the recipe!

Gluten & Dairy Free Waffles made with the help of a princess...

Again - photo provided by MaMa with flavor :)

While I was visiting MaMa With Flavor her 3 year old helped to make some gluten and dairy free waffles for breakfast.  We used a kitchen aid (now I want one of those too ;-) to mix from start to finish, but you can use a normal hand mixer.

6 Eggs (separated)

1/4 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

3 cups Gluten Free Flour (we used Bob's Red Mill - Almond flour)

1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 tablespoon Soy Milk
1 tablespoon Vanilla 

4 tablespoons Dairy Free Margarine

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda and sift together.

In small bowl - mix together the egg yolks, margarine, soy milk and vanilla.  Then add these to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

In a separate bowl - beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff.  Once stiff - add by hand to the batter using a wooden spoon until mixed together.

Heat waffle iron and coat with non-stick spray if it is not non-stick.  Pour about 1/2 cup on batter into your iron (depending on size) and bake until done.

Enjoy with pure maple syrup.

Better Picture of the Princess/Flower cupcakes - plus recipe

OK, so after visiting MaMa With Flavor and taking her and her 3 adorable children their special made cupcakes (which got  knocked around several times on the 4 hour metro/bus/train ride there :(  I have decided that I am going to save up and get an SLR camera.  She took these pics with her SLR and you can see the massive difference compared to my pics in the last post.  Brilliant!  Thanks MWF!!!

Vanilla Gluten and Dairy Free Cupcakes
100g Millet Flour
60g Amaranth Flour
50g Tapioca Starch
50g Rice Flour
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
200g Muscovado Sugar
1 cup Soy Milk (room temperature)
2 Eggs (room temperature)
4 tablespoons Dairy Free Margarine (room temperature)
2 teaspoons Vanilla

Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl several times until thoroughly mixed.  I usually do this a minimum of 3 times.

Mix the wet ingredients in a separate medium sized bowl.  Then add to the dry ingredients and mix with mixer.  Do not over mix. Remember that the point in loads of mixing with normal batters is to release the gluten.  We have no gluten in our flours – so we need to aim for as little mixing as possible – this will produce much better results.  So – just mix until the wet and dry ingredients are mixed and no longer. You may need to add a bit of extra flour at the end (any of the above will work) depending on the type of soy milk you used and the size of your eggs. I usually use large eggs so end up adding 20-40g more of flour.  Batter should not be runny, but should not be stiff either.

This will make approx 12-16 cupcakes

Bake at 180°C for 20 min (+/- depending on your oven)

Cool cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan – then remove and cool completely on wire rack before decorating.

Again, I used the Wilton recipe as in the post for chocolate cupcakes below - using dairy free margarine instead of butter.

Gluten & Milk Free Vanilla Cupcakes for Sommer and her kids.

I will be visiting MaMaWithFlavor and her 3 little ones tomorrow. I am so excited!!!  I had to of course take them some cupcakes. 

For the girls there are princess/flower cup cakes (they are pink cupcakes with pink icing and flower decorations) and for the boys, there are Ben 10 decorated like the Ben 5 watch face (and green inside).  I am not so sure how the black icing will go over with the boys (especially little Dylan???) but hopefully it will not ban me from the MaMAWithFlavor house :-D

Can't wait for the train tomorrow!!  I booked a seat with a table so the cupcakes can have a nice place to sit ;-)  

The coolest aprons ever.....

I am so excited. I found this apron on google while searching for pictures of cupcakes.  I clicked on the picture and found that it is something you could order.  So I did.  They are made by a lady names Lana who sells them in her shop Sassy Apron through Etsy.com.  She even will  make matching headbands too.

I can not wait to get this apron. Even wondering if it would work as an Oktoberfest apron if I am still here in Munich next year :-D

Gluten & Milk Free Dolphin Chocolate Birthday Cupcakes

THEY ARE HERE :-D

A friend of mine and her partner's little girl is also a celiac.  She asked me to make some gluten free cupcakes for her for her birthday.  I was also given the instructions that she was not into pink and girly things, but rather sports, sailing, dolphins etc....  One of the things that really really frustrates me about Germany is the lack of things available to buy for cake/cupcake baking/decorating.  They have a very very small selection of items to decorate.  So, I had to try to find something that would work.  I searched and finally found some gluten free dolphin gummy bears and then some plastic little dolphins.  I think the next time I go back to the states or have someone come over, I will have a long list of decorating supplies to get :-)

So, here it is, the recipe that is so amazing, you will want to make it all the time. These chocolate cupcakes are so close to normal devils food cupcakes (made with wheat flour, butter and milk) that you will not know the difference!!!   Oh, I will admit though, the batch that is in the picture unfrosted - I had used a bit less flour in those (only about 10g less) and it made a huge difference.  When I made them again using 10g more -they were nice and rounded. No caving in on the top ;-)

For the Cupcakes:

20g Amaranth Flour

20g Millet Flour

34g White Rice Flour

16g Tapioca starch

1/8 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 teaspoon Baking Powder (if using German, use 2x amount)

40g Baking Cocoa Powder

Pinch of salt

25g Margarine at room temperature (I used sanella)

140 g Mascobado Sugar

1 Egg at room temperature

½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

½ cup Soy Milk at room temperature (I used Alpro soya natural fresh)

Preheat oven to  180°C (350°F)

In a large bowl - mix the margarine, sugar, vanilla, egg and soy milk together until blended. 

In a smaller bowl – mix the remaining ingredients and sift several times.  I usually sift at least 3x.

Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix with a spoon until the flour is all mixed into the wet mixture.  Then beat on medium speed with a mixer for 1-2 minutes.

Fill cupcakes liners 2/3 full.  I drop the cupcake pan then a couple times on a flat surface to get any air bubbles out.

Put into heated oven and DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR until the timer goes off - Bake for 17 minutes.  Check with a toothpick. 

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the cupcake tin.  Place cupcakes on a wire rack to cool completely.  When completely cooled, you can frost them.

Butter Cream Frosting:

I used the Wilton Recipe but altered as follows to make it milk free.

113g Margarine at room temperature - again, used Sanella

113g Crisco or other shortening

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

520g Powdered Sugar (shifted)

2 tablespoons Soy Milk (again, used the fresh Alpro)

Cream the margarine and shortening together then add the vanilla.  Mix.  Then add the powdered sugar approx 1 cup at a time.  Then add the soy milk.  Adjust milk/powdered sugar to get consistency needed.

What I did differently:

I tried this recipe 4x in varying amounts of different ingredients.  I also did something I very rarely ever do - I used rice flour.  I typically do not like using rice flour, but I think that is my 10 years old "rice, tapioca, potato" mix that just never works for me.  Using it with other flours worked quite well.  

I also did not do my usual mixing between ingredients.  I did a lot of reading on other blogs and found many others have found the same thing - 1 bowl mixing (or as little as possible) actually is better for gluten free baking.  One of the points of mixing so long in normal recipes is to release the gluten. We have none, so mixing is actually bad for us ;-)

What I would do differently:

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!  I can not believe how absolutely perfect these turned out. I did this same recipe 3x after getting it right and turned out 100% each time. 

The ULTIMATE Gluten & Milk Free Chocolate Cupcakes... Tomorrow

Tomorrow - my perfected chocolate cupcake recipe that is so awesome, you would not know they were gluten free and milk free!!!  Recipe and photos will be posted tomorrow evening (as I have to do the frosting tomorrow when I get home - these are only a sample while playing this evening :)

Keep an eye on this space! 

Gluten & Milk Free Chocolate Cupcakes with Green Frosting

I needed to do a trial run for some chocolate cupcakes I am making later this week for a birthday and wanted to try the new recipe out first.  I hadn't had any other request for cupcakes in the last week, so I thought I would give these to my hairdressers.  Their favorite color is green, hence the frosting color.

I will post the recipe on the next post when I make the birthday cupcakes later this week as I need to adjust the baking powder and perhaps try something else a bit different.

OK and the photo for some reason is uploading fine, but appearing turned 90°  I tried several times and don't have the energy at the moment to keep trying, so the picture will be sideways - sorry :-D

Balsamic Chicken with White Wine/Pecorino Risotto. Gluten and Milk Free

Very last minute throw together of what was in the fridge - turned out great.

I just wish we had a nice camera to take better pictures, but the point and shoot digital will have to do :)

For the Balsamic Chicken

What you will need:

2 chicken breast

1/4 cups Balsamic Vinegar

Vegetables of your choice (I used red, green, yellow peppers and cherry tomatoes)

Spices of your choice (I used oregano, rosemary, salt, ground fresh pepper, red pepper flakes)

Olive oil

Directions:

I the chicken breast in a shallow baking dish and the vegetables sliced/diced - however you prefer them. Pour  Balsamic Vinegar over everything.  Add the oil and spices.  Bake for 20 min or more depending on thickness of chicken breast.

At the same time, prepare the Risotto

For the White Wine/Pecorino Risotto

What you will need:

200g Risotto(I used Arborio)

finely diced onion

olive  oil

bit of margarine

1/2 cup white wine

.75l chicken stock

1/2 cup or so peas (I added these as a last thought as wanted color in the rice)

100g Pecorino cheese

Directions:

Brown the onions in the olive oil. Add the margarine and when melted - add the rice.  Mix around so rice is coated and cook for a few min (2-3).  Then add the white wine.  Cook for 2-3 more min or until the wine is absorbed.  Then add .25l of the chicken stock.  When most is absorbed, add .25l more.  A few min later, add the remaining .25l.  Cook while stirring quite often for 12-15 min uncovered. Add the peas a few min before time is up - enough to cook them through. Add the Pecorino and stir until melted.

Cranberry & White Chocolate Gluten and Milk Free Scones.

First let me say, these are not the true "British" scones.  I decided it was too painful to eat a plain scone without being able to have the clotted cream (soy cream was just not going to cut it). So, I decided to try something with cranberries and margarine.   While shopping at my local Basic Bio Shop I was waiting in the long check out line and of course - this is where they put the chocolate.  One of the brands Bonvita caught my eye - It was made with Rice Milk.  So, I decided to grab a bar - I chose white as think it goes quite well with  cranberries :-)

I searched and searched to find some recipe that would work but did not like any of  them. They either had too much sugar, rice flour, milk etc.. and I really did not want to use soy in this recipe (which was actually my originally idea until I found the goat's yogurt).  So, I literally took 4 different recipes (some GF, some not) and combined what I  liked about each one.  They were all very different in the amounts of items they used.  They are not the award winning scones my friend Andrea baked ;-) but they definitely won the award of  best baked product on a first time experiment (ok, well, ties with my cornbread - but  I never wrote that recipe down :( 

The only thing I do not like about these, is they are dark in color (so may not look like your traditional scone). This is because all of the flours used were darker in color than the typical rice flours which most recipes called for. I would rather have the better taste & texture than better color - but that is just me.  They also did not raise as much as I had hoped.  I found recipes using anywhere from 2 to 6 teaspoons of baking powder (for relatively same weight of flour) - so I went with 4. I think I would perhaps use the 6 next time, or even add 1 teaspoon of soda - we will see.

So, here is the recipe I put together.

Cranberry White Chocolate – Gluten and Milk Free

Ingredients:
•    60g Millet Flour
•    60g Quinoa Flour
•    80g Teff Flour
•    40g Tapioca Flour
•    4 tsp Baking Powder
•    2 tsp Xanthan Gum
•    1tsp Salt
•    50g Sugar
•    115g Milk Free Margarine (I used Sanella)
•    1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
•    100g White Chocolate cut into pieces (I used Bonvita Rice Milk White Chocolate)
•    2 Medium Eggs
•    125g Goat’s Yogurt (I used Andechser Bio-Ziegenjogurt mild)
•    1 Egg (for the egg wash)
•    1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Raw Brown Sugar to sprinkle on top

Directions:
1.    Preheat the oven to 240°C.
2.    Sift the flours and remaining dry ingredients into a bowl.  Now shift them again. And one more time (I always shift the dry ingredients at least 3 times, especially when working with Quiona as there are sometimes small seeds still in the flour).
3.    With your hands – work the butter into the dry ingredients.
4.    Add the cranberries and the white chocolate and gently mix together with a wooden spoon.
5.    Whisk the 2 eggs, Vanilla and Goat’s yogurt together in a small bowl.
6.    Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients using a wooden spoon. The consistency is a wet, yet not too sticky.  You may have to play with adding more yogurt or flour. This can also depend on the size of the eggs used.
7.    Turn onto a gluten free floured board gently knead the dough together (2-3 times maximum) and then flatten with your hands to about 3cm thick.  Use a round biscuit cutter or anything really (I used a Guinness pint glass :-)  and cut out your scones making sure not to turn the cutter – you want one straight cut (this helps them to raise).
8.    Place on baking sheet lined with baking liner and brush with the egg wash and sprinkle the brown sugar on top.
9.    Bake for 15 minutes.  You may need to bake a couple min less or more.  Check on them every 2 minutes after the 12-15 until they are nice and brown.
10.    Enjoy warm.  You can put margarine or jam on them – but with the cranberries and white chocolate – they are delicious all by themselves.


What I Did Right:
I used a combination of 4 flours this time, not sure why, just decided to - but it worked in the end.  I really am in shock of how wonderful these turned out. I wish  I had a picture of my face when I took them out of the oven. Really, they ARE that good!!!


What I Would Do Different:
I would use more teaspoon of baking powder, perhaps even some baking soda. I would also perhaps try it using soy yogurt - just to see how the taste would be different.

Thank you for visiting. 10 different contries so far. #glutenfree #gf #gfree

Just a quick thank you for visiting my blog. I am really enjoying doing this and it helps fill my time (currently unemployed).

So far, there have been over 800 hits and people from 10 countries who have visited my site

-Germany, US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Netherlands, Spain and India.

Please feel free to pass along the blog to anyone you know who had to eat Gluten Free.

Thanks!!

Chicken, Avocado, Bacon, Red Pepper & Cheese Panini - Gluten & Milk Free

OK, very sorry, but no picture of this one. We ate them too fast :)  But believe me, they were yummy and looked great too.  The brilliant thing about doing something like this, is that you do not need a recipe.  You can usually use what you have no hand as long as you think the taste will go together.  I got the idea to do panini from MamaWithFlavor after seeing her wonderful last post on her Autumn Sandwich.

We had a very, er, hard, day yesterday at the Oktoberfest ;-) so have not even left our pajamas today :) So, we just used what was in the fridge.  Here is what I did.

Makes 2 paninis

4 slices of Gluten/Milk Free Bread

2 grilled Red Peppers (used ones from a jar as had them on hand)

thinly sliced Pecorino Cheese 

Diced/cubed Bacon (you could also use slices, but hard to find here)

1 ripe Avocado - sliced lengthwise

Mayonnaise (gluten/milk free of course)

2 chicken breast

oil

cumin

coriander

Salt and Pepper

I marinated the chicken in the oil, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper- then grilled it on the George Foreman Grill then sat it aside. At the same time, I cooked the bacon dices/cubes.

Next I re-grilled the red peppers (to heat them and bring out the grilled flavor)

Spread the mayonnaise on each piece of bread.

Then I put onto each of 2 of the sliced bread (order is not important)

-chicken breast

-cheese

-grilled pepper

-avocado

-bacon

Top this with the other slices of bread with mayonnaise.

Then I put these on the grill closing the  lid by pressing it down to flatten them as much as possible.

After a few minutes, we had the most awesome paninis ever!

So, when you don't feel like going out and you have a few things in the fridge and some GF bread - just throw something like this together. There are so many wonderful possibilities you could create :)

Ginger Oktoberfest Cupcakes - Gluten/Lactose Free

I made Ginger cupcakes and Vanilla cupcakes and decorated them in Oktoberfest colors.  I had wanted to decorate them like the lebkuchenherzen (see a pic I took at Wies'n of these below) but realized once I did the first outer piping of white, there was no room to write anything on them.  So, I asked my partner what he thought and it was his idea to do the white/blue/white.  I did the final touch of adding the center blue and the white hearts which I am so happy I happened to have on hand - as think it really adds to them.  The cupcake liners are blue/white as well and these were a gift to me from my friend Kat - so they were perfect for these cupcakes.

We will have our anniversary get  together at the Oktoberfest tomorrow (we met there, through friends - not randomly ;-) so will take these as well as some sekt to have a toast and cupcakes before we go into the tent we have our reservation in.

I am VERY happy with the way that these turned out!!!

WHAT I DID:
So, the ginger cupcakes were a total experiment from scratch. I found 3 different recipes for ginger cupcakes but did not really like any of them - so combined them.  Here is the recipe.

In a saucepan, combine the following

100g Molasses (or Treacle) (I used zuckerrohr molasse)

125 g Lactose Free Butter (I used MinusL butter)

100 g Muscovado sugar (I used Gepa Moscobado Zucker)

Cook this mixture until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.

Then add the following and mix well with whisk

75 g Lactose Free Milk (I used MinusLFrisch milk)

75 g Lactose Free Buttermilk (I used MinusL Buttermilk)

1 egg beaten

In a separate large bowl - add the following ingredients

75 g Millet Flour

75 g Quinoa Flour

50 g Teff Flour

25 g Corn Starch

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

pinch of salt

2 tsp ground ginger

Sift the above dry ingredients several time (very important)

Then add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix using a whisk.  You don't want to over mix the GF flours.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven 350°F for 20 minutes.  You may need to bake 1-5 min longer depending on your oven/altitude etc..  I use a toothpick inserted into the middle row of cupcakes to test for doneness.

Cool in cupcake pan for 10 min, then remove and cool on wire rack until completely cool.  Then decorate.

This made 16 cupcakes.

WHAT I WOULD CHANGE

I think I might try adding some ground fresh ginger next time. I had wanted to this time, but the ginger in my fridge was well past it's being used life :-(  I would also try a bit diff mix of flours - or sift the ones I used several more times to lighten the flours (GF flours are more course than wheat flour,so can produce a grainy texture).  

I also found them to be a bit greasy in the cupcake liners on the bottom. I would perhaps use less butter next time and perhaps less molasses and add US style dark brown sugar to make up that difference.I would also use a bit more of each of each of the baking soda and baking powder - as they did not rise as well as I had hoped.

Here are the typical gingerbread hearts that you find at the Oktoberfest.  I wanted to decorate my cupcakes similar, but they are just too small.  Perhaps next year I will try to do some of these lebkuchenherzen .

Epic Failure! Anyone know what I did wrong?

So, the ginger cupcakes (on the left) turned out great (post/recipe to come later today/tomorrow) but my vanilla recipe (on the right) I did by totally making it up as I was going along turned out to be an epic failure.  Must add, they tasted oh so yummy - but caved and did not rise.  I used 1 tsp each of B. powder and B. Soda - pinch of salt, flours, egg, buttermilk, butter and vanilla.

Any ideas???

OK, so I think perhaps baking while on muscle relaxers and painkillers is not such a great idea ;-)   I did the same ones again and they turned out brilliant.  I must have either did something twice or forgot something??  Anyway, here are the 2nd batch - can not wait for them to cool so I can decorate!!!! 

Bird's Nest for breakfast....Gluten and Milk Free

I got this idea from Andrea, a friend who made these. She found the recipe from The MrBreakfast.com site.

I used a Gluten/Milk Free bread. Toasted it.  Mixed the egg whites with a bit of salt. Piled onto of the toasted/buttered bread.  Put the egg yolk in the center and baked.  We found these a bit interesting and different from our usual same ol breakfast.  But we also found them a bit bland.  I think next time I made them, I would put some fresh ground pepper on top or some other spice. We both love our spices ;-)

I think if you have kids, these  would be an awesome breakfast treat - as they are different and interesting.  The texture was also quite nice.

Overall, it was a nice change for us for breakfast. Although we each had 2, we were still hungry after ;-)