Gluten and Milk Free Spur of the Moment Brownnies

 These are the size of hamburger buns (note size comparison to standard napkin) - not 9" round pans ;-)

So, I was sitting here last night craving something chocolate that was milk free.  I searched for some recipes but they were all pretty much the same - just varying ingredients.  Some with and some without baking powder.  Some with melted chocolate (which I didn't have any on hand) and some with cocoa powder.  Some with oil and some with butter. etc...  So, I just decided to throw something together - as brownies are actually quite easy to make with just the basic ingredients - and just add more dry/liquid until you get the consistency.  This is what I ended up with.  

Please note - I did not write down exactly what I did - measurements are approx - so you need to add a bit extra GF flour at the end if too wet or a bit more oil if too dry.

Also, as I know that when you typically make brownies or cakes with GF flours - they sometimes don't bake as quickly in the middle as they should - then you have burned or overdone around the edges in order to get the inside done.  So, I used my hamburger bun pan instead of a square or round pan.  This worked wonderful - as each one then can be cut in half for a serving - and baked through beautifully!

Spur of the Moment Brownies

60 grams Millet Flour

30 grams Tapioca Flour

90 grams Muscovado Sugar

30 grams Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

pinch of Salt

1/2 cup Mazola Oil
2 large Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract 

Mix dry ingredients well - then add liquid ingredients.  Mix well by hand with spoon or spatula.  

Fill prepared pan and bake at 180°C for ca 25 min.   (you will need to keep checking with a toothpick for doneness).  (I forgot to time mine, but was approx 25 min)

Gluten Free Cocktail Cupcakes

(left to right) Mojito, Strawberry Margarita, Irish Coffee, Whiskey Sour, Blow Jobs, Black Russian.

A good friend of mine was having a birthday and I gave her cupcakes for her party as my gift for her.  She loves cocktails, so I decided to make several different types of cocktail cupcakes.  I went to wikipedia and looked at the list of cocktails and tried to choose ones that would be easy to make as cupcakes.  For the vanilla cupcake based ones, I used my standard vanilla recipe.  I removed 2 Tablespoons of the liquid and added 2 T of Lime juice in it's place.  For the chocolate based cupcakes, I used my standard chocolate cupcake recipe. I then added instant espresso powder to it (instead of using Kahula) 

After each batch came out of the oven, I allowed them to cool for 10 minutes, then I brushed the tops with the appropriate alcohol.  Then allowed them to completely cool before frosting.

For the frosting base - I used the standard butter cream frosting - adding the ingredients listed below to each instead of the liquid.

I then made the following:

Vanilla Based

Whiskey Sour:  Brushed cupcakes with whiskey.  Frosted with butter cream made with whiskey.

Stawberry Margarita: Added pureed strawberries to the cupcake mix (reduced liquid by this amount).  Brushed cupcakes with tequila. Frosted with butter cream made with sea salt, pureed strawberries, tequila.

Mojito: Added a couple drops of mint oil to the cupcakes mix. Brushed cupcakes with rum.  Frosted with butter cream made with rum, chopped up fresh mint leaves, raw brown sugar.

Chocolate Based (again, all had coffee added, to replace need for Kahula)

Blow Job: Brushed cupcakes with baileys. Frosted with butter cream made with baileys.  Then topped with whipped cream.

Irish Coffee: Brushed with whiskey.  Frosted with butter cream made with whiskey. Topped with chocolate covered coffee bean.  

Black Russian: Brushed with Vodka.  Frosted with butter cream made with vodka.

They were all a big hit.  I think next time though, I will make them all "shot" sized (using my mini cupcakes pan) so that people can try several different ones.  As it was, you only really got to try one type.

The Mojito (the main birthday cupcake for the birthday lady! Absolutely FABULOUS!!!  These were soooo yummy!! I had a problem frosting them though, as the mint leaves kept plugging up the frosting tip :) Gluten Free of course!

Pumpkin Chocolate Cookies - Gluten & Milk Free

I have been sick now for most of the last 2 months with horrible ear infections.  They go away, then come back and well - back again today (as well as a torn ear drum) so I decided I have been good enough the last month with not making sweets that I was due a splurge :)   I found a recipe on Food.com and pretty much followed it except of course substituting my flours.  The link to the Food.com recipe is here.

Also, note that I did use canned pumpkin. I normally NEVER use this, but always do it from scratch.  But it is -20 outside and even if it were not a Sunday (shops are all closed on Sundays here) I would not have felt like going to the shop for a pumpkin anyway. I found a can that has been sitting in the pantry now for years (still good use by date though ;-) so I just used that. Will use up the rest of it on the weekend to make some Gluten Free Waffles and muffins and freeze them so will have munchies now and then.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cookes

adapted from Amys-pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies from food.com

½ cup Muscovado Sugar

½ cup Canned Pumpkin 

¼ cup Mazola Oil

 1 Egg 

½ teaspoon Vanilla

40 grams Millet Flour

40 grams Amaranth Flour

25 grams Quinoa Flour

25 grams Tapioca Flour

25 grams Rice Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder 

½ teaspoon Baking Soda 

½ teaspoon Cinnamon 

¼ teaspoon Salt

½ cup Chopped up Chocolate bar (I used a 125g bar of 81%)

Directions:

1. Mix sugar, pumpkin, oil and egg.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Mix dry ingredients and then add to pumpkin mixture.
4. Add chocolate and mix.
5. Spoon onto pans, cook at 180°C for 12-14 minutes. Makes 15 cookies.