Baking, Dining In

Dining In: Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

A warm, crunchy cookie is my idea of love. A cookie will never turn it’s back on you, unless your allergic to gluten. All of a sudden that little cookie turns into a torpedo destined to wreck your digestive system. It wouldn’t be pretty. I was inspired by twitter today to make some peanut butter cookies. Can you believe that I have never made such a simple and delicious cookie? I should of been making these sooner. They are crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle and best washed down with a glass of milk. These cookies are quick and the ingredient list is small. In 15 minutes you could be delighting in something delicious, homemade and relatively healthy (if I can even say that about a cookie).

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup natural peanut butter

1 cup white sugar

1 whole egg

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Cream the peanut butter and the sugar in a bowl until well mixed. Stir in the baking powder and then add in your egg. Mix until well combined. Form into balls about the size of golf balls and press down gently with a fork. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. Don’t be alarmed if the cookies are a little bit soft when you pull them out of the oven, they stiffen up once cooled.

You can roll these cookies in sugar and then press them down, but I find there is already enough sugar in the recipe.

Have you ever tried eating Gluten Free?

Tagged Baking, Gluten Free, Peanut Butter

Dec 15 2010

Dining In – Challah-bration

I love bread. Being a carb queen I often find myself in my kitchen salivating over delicious recipes, some new and some very old. My family loves to bake, and I quickly grew up kneading my way through loaves of bread. I’m a little bit older now, and things have changed. There are so many different kitchen gadgets that can do so much. Cut time off this, be the perfect baker with this. I always feel so overloaded. I feel it is time to go back to basics. Challah seems to the perfect medium to help with this.

I have never made Challah, and to be perfectly honest I have never even tried the bread. The perfectly braided loaf has always intimidated me. Every picture I saw has lead me to believe I just couldn’t do it. Well everyone, forget that. This was so incredibly easy. The hardest part for me was letting it proof. Patience isn’t one of my strong points, and watching my oven for 90 minutes made the whole process feel like a lifetime.

Challah

Ingredient

2 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup honey

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 tablespoon salt

8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions

In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over barely warm water. Beat in honey, oil, 2 eggs, and salt. Add the flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition, graduating to kneading with hands as dough thickens. Knead until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, adding flour as needed. Cover with a damp clean cloth and let rise for 1 1/2 hours or until dough has doubled in bulk.

Punch down the risen dough and turn out onto floured board. Divide in half and knead each half for five minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep from getting sticky. Divide each half into thirds and roll into long snake about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Pinch the ends of the three snakes together firmly and braid from middle. Either leave as braid or form into a round braided loaf by bringing ends together, curving braid into a circle, pinch ends together. Grease two baking trays and place finished braid or round on each. Cover with towel and let rise about one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Beat the remaining egg and brush a generous amount over each braid.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 40 minutes. Bread should have a nice hollow sound when thumped on the bottom

braided and coated in egg wash

warm, crunchy an chewy.

butter and cheese make life better

This recipe is so simple. Anything that you can pull out of an oven and makes you look like a pro is well worth it. I did make a few adjustments to the recipe. I accidentally added all 3 eggs to my dough, although I didn’t find it made to much of a difference in my final product. I also lowered the rise time once the Challah was braided and on the baking sheet. 40 minutes was as much patience as I had left in me. After I took these out of the oven, I let them cool a wee bit and then smothered a slice in butter and cheese. Life is just to damn good.

What is your carb loaded treat you love to bake?

Tagged Baking, Challah

Dec 10 2010

Dining In – Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

To say that I love chocolate would be a complete understatement. I would eat it for every meal if I could. I don’t indulge all the time, I don’t want NASA to see my ass from space, but when I do indulge I make it count. I stumbled upon these little chocolate gems on EatLiveRun. I love Jenna’s website. She has incredible recipes, great photos and she really inspires me to try new things in the kitchen. Her recipes are so easy to follow and I have never had a bad experience using the site.

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

makes about 18 mini cakes

6 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

10 oz (about 2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate

5 ounces butter

Preheat the oven to 350.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together over very low heat.

While that’s melting, whip the eggs in a stand mixer at high speed. When they start to become thick and pale, add the sugar slowly. Continue whipping on high until the mixture is thick, pale and ribbony.

Slowly pour the melted chocolate into the egg and sugar mixture while gently folding with a spatula. Be careful not to stir, only fold, because that will cause the batter to lose it’s air.

Pour batter into muffin tins that have been thoroughly buttered and floured (not sprayed). Bake for twenty five minutes and let cool in the tins for another ten before running a knife around the outside of the cake and gently popping them out.

These are moist, delicious and satisfy any chocoholic craving. I need to send Jenna a gift basked for posting this recipe, I think I may have found a new go to recipe. In the recipe she includes a buttercream frosting, which looks so creamy and delicious. I left the frosting out. I am way more of an ice cream girl.

Tagged Baking, chocolate, treats

Dec 08 2010

2 Comments

Dining In

Dining In – Ciambelle Lemon Cookies

I love to bake. I love to eat. This always seems to work out in my favour. Having a few days off work (!!) allows me to enjoy some much needed time in the kitchen. I recently bought Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookie Book, and have been dying to try these little lemony treats.

Ciambelle Lemon Cookies

FOR THE COOKIES
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
FOR THE GLAZE
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
7 to 8 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons white nonpareils, for sprinkling

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the cookies: Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Pulse sugar and zest in a food processor until combined, about 2 minutes.
Beat sugar-zest mixture and butter in a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture, and beat until combined.
Scoop 1 tablespoon dough (or use a 11/8-inch ice cream scoop), and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a 4-inch rope. Bring ends together, overlapping slightly, and press together to form a ring. Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer rings to parchment-lined baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart, as you work. Bake until pale golden on the bottoms and around the edges, about 18 minutes. Transfer to wire racks, and let cool.
Make the glaze: Whisk together confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl until smooth. Dip the top side of each cookie into glaze, letting excess drip off. Return cookies to wire racks, glaze side up, and sprinkle with nonpareils. Let dry completely.

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Christine’s Lemon Wreath Cookies – Martha Stewart Recipes

These cookies are delicious little rounds of lemony goodness. I ran out of lemon glaze and decided to just dip the rest in raspberry jam. These little bundles turned out so incredibly good, and I am certainly looking forward into including them in any baked gifts this year. They are the best of both worlds. A little sugar cookie, a little shortbread. So yummy!

Tagged Baking, cookies, recipe

Oct 31 2010

3 Comments

Project Tasteless

Project Tasteless- “Forge Your Pantry Pizza”

I am so excited to take part in Rachel Wilkerson’s Project Tasteless! This weeks challenge was to create a home made pizza based off the theme of your halloween costume! I love halloween. Anything to do with dressing up, having way to many drinks and getting my dance on just thrills me. I decided to dress up like a Native American this year. A group of me and my friends actually decided to do up a “Cowboys and Indian” theme. It was a blast. Plans didn’t exactly go as expected for the night, but it all turned out in the end. Part of the fun of Halloween is making my own costume. I love the whole creative process behind Halloween.

My Headdress

My self portrait, you get a glimpse of my beaded poncho

So the most important part of the challenge is the cooking! Pizza is my favourite meal. I love it hot, I love it cold. I mix it up and add so many different toppings to it. I love a chewy crust and a gooey cheese topping. I was stumped by what to make for this contest. How do you make a pizza theme around “Cowboys and Indians”? Heres what I came up with;

“Forge Your Pantry Pizza”

This is a crust recipe my family has been using forever. We got this from an old Canadian living magazine years ago and its served us so well.

Ingredients

3 cups (750 mL) all purpose flour

2 tsp (10 mL) quick-rising instant dry yeast

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

1-1/4 cups (300 mL) hot (120 F/50 C) water

1 tbsp (15 mL) extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation:

In a bowl, combine 2-3/4 cups (675 mL) of the flour, yeast and salt. With wooden spoon, gradually stir in water and oil until ragged dough forms, using hands if necessary.

Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead for about 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic, adding up to 1/4 cup (50 mL) more flour, 1 tbsp (15 mL) at a time, if necessary.

Place in greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in warm draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Once the crust has risen, I rolled it out into about 14 inch rounds. I actually ended up doubling the recipe so I could make two different pizzas. I oiled and floured my pizza pan, then added the dough. I worked it with my hands and spread the dough out starting in the middle and building up towards the edges. I tried to not make a huge crust on the pizza. I love it when the toppings and sauce go right to the end of the dough.

As I was waiting for my crust to rise, I had time to chop up my veggies. I used cremini mushrooms, red and green pepper, spinach and black olives. I did cook most of the liquid out of my mushrooms just to make sure I didn’t end up with a soggy crust. I had left over grilled chicken breasts from the night before that I had just chopped up and had ready for this pizza. Cheese is one of my diet downfalls and I totally didn’t skimp out on these pizzas.

I used an alfredo sauce for this one. Layered it with mushrooms and spinach. I then added my chicken, red and green peppers and more cheese. I sprinkled a few black olives and baked for 30 minutes.

This Pizza is identical to the first one, I just used red sauce instead of an Alfredo sauce

I called this pizza “Forge Your Pizza Pantry” because I literally had no time to go shopping and prepare. Luckily I have a pretty well stocked pantry. My guests gobbled this pizza up. I literally grabbed a piece and it was gone. I will definitely be making these pizzas again.

Tonight is actually Halloween night and My household has been crazy decorating and getting ready for the festivities Living on an acreage doesn’t allow a lot of children to come out door to door, but for those who do it’s worth it. Treat bags are filled with candy, pop, and a bag of chips. We are totally the awesome house this year!

Tagged Baking, recipe

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