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 ;-)