Gluten Free Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes with a Vanilla Marionberry Honey Buttercream

So today I decided to keep it easy. I can not be bothered to spend too much time in the kitchen when the weather is as nice, as it was today. My mom's coworker gave us a huge batch of homemade salsa (which is delicious) and tortilla chips. To say thank you I wanted to make her a little something sweet. I have raspberries in the picture but the recipe is made with a marionberry honey that I got when I went to Oregon. This is a super easy recipe for anyone

Oven Preheated to 325 degrees

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

Pamela's Vanilla cake mix (gluten free of course)

1/3 C oil

2/3 C water

2 lemons, zested and juiced

4 eggs ( I used 1 more to make the cupcakes more fluffy)

Mix all the ingredients together and pour in a lined cupcake pan.

I baked mine for about 23 minutes

Frosting ingredients:

1 C of butter

3 C of powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

3 tbsp of Marionberry Honey

Gluten Free Vanilla Chai Cupcakes with a Honey Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Today is my dear friend Sarah's birthday. Well actually it is not really her birthday, her birthday is at the end of the month. Today for all purposes is the day we celebrate her birthday. Sarah is loads of fun and she loves tea. My friend Marissa is going to be giving Sarah fun and tasty teas and a cute teapot. To go with Marissa's theme I decided to make Vanilla Chai cupcakes. That seems like they would go with the tea theme pretty well. Here is the list of things you need for this recipe.

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

• 1 and 1/3 C of milk
• 6 chai tea bags, I used Stash Chai Tea
• 4 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
• 3 and 1/2 C of GF All purpose flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 tsp of xantham gum
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 C (2 sticks) of unsalted butter at room temp.

• Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F.

Place cupcake liners in a 12 - cupcake baking pan.

In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea bags, careful not to let the paper tag fall into the milk. Remove from heat and allow the tea to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags and squeeze out the milk. Let the chai milk cool completely.

In a medium bowl mix the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk. Whisk together.

Combine the flour, xantham gum, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Beat on low for 30 seconds.

Add the butter and the remaining chai milk, on med-low speed.

Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions scraping the between additions.

Pour into the prepared cupcake pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes depending on your oven. I had to go the full 20 minutes when I made mine.

Ingredients for Honey Buttercream Frosting;

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tbsp whipping cream
• 1 tsp of honey

Directions

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.

Bon Appetit.

GF Flourless Chocolate Cake with a Caramel Lime Sauce

There are a bunch of different flourless chocolate cake recipes out there. You can literally spend hours looking at them all (as I did). Some recipes call for more eggs, some call for more butter, and some want you to whip egg whites and fold it in. A person could get very frustrated trying to figure out which recipe to make. After much time and deliberation I found one that had the basics of a flourless chocolate cake but I tweaked it a bit to make it easier for all.

One thing I did want to clarify is that this recipe is for a flourless cake not a torte.

For those of you who were like me and not really sure what is the difference between the two let me break it down.

Here comes the mind teaser, a torte is a cake. I am sure there is the look of confusion on your face, its cool it happened to me too. So yes torte is cake but it's much denser. A cake is lighter (more airy) than a torte. Usually (but not always) torte has its layer soaked in a liqueur or simple syrup. Ok enough of this lets get to the list of ingredients for our flourless (GF) chocolate cake with lime sauce. I like to make the lime sauce ahead of time (actually I make it the day before but what ever you are happy with you should do).

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, cubed
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp of instant espresso powder
• 
  
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 10 inch springform pan, and line with parchment paper (I cut mine in a circle to line the bottom of the pan)
• 
  
• Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in chopped chocolate, and continue to stir until almost melted. Remove from heat, and stir until melted and smooth. In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cups sugar, espresso, and the cocoa powder. Whisk in the eggs until well blended, then whisk in the chocolate and butter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
• 
  
• Bake for about 35 minutes in the preheated oven. Then I check every 2 - 3 minutes with a toothpick. You don't want to over cook it.
• Cool cake in the pan over a wire rack. Run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake, then remove the sides of the pan, and invert onto a serving plate. Remove the parchment paper.

Once the cake is cooled I like to sift some powdered sugar on the top to make it prettier.

Caramel Lime sauce ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 2 1/2 limes (juiced and zested)

*** I had to use the 1/2 for lime because one of my limes was dry in the juice department. Also depending on how you want your sauce to taste you can add more. I wanted just a hint of lime without it overpowering the caramel sauce.*****

In a large, heavy skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar and cook. The sugar will want to separate but this is normal. Just keep stirring.

Slowly stir in the cream (mixture will bubble up). Let boil 1 minute, then reduce heat to low.

The key here is patience. Make sure your butter/sugar mixture is medium brown in color. Once you add the liquid, that is the color it will be. Use medium high heat and stir continuously so sugar can dissolve and continue stirring until butter starts to brown. The butter will separate from the sugar; don't worry...you are almost there. Lower heat and continue stirring until it is a medium/dark caramel in color. Add liquid slowly. The sugar will set up again but don't worry. Just stir, stir, stir and it will all reincorporate. Bring to a rolling boil. Once I did this, I realized that the consistency was too thin so I just continued cooking at medium heat until it reached a nice consistency.

, stirring, until sugar is melted and light brown. Slowly stir in the cream (mixture will bubble up).

Let boil 1 minute, then reduce heat to low

I spooned a little of the caramel sauce on the plate and the put the cake on top and drizzled the caramel over it.

Bon Appetit.

Gluten Free Take on Ina Garten's Cracker.

First off let me say that Ina Garten is my favorite chef and also my favorite TV chef. The world could be coming to an end and I would be sipping my tea watching an episode of the Barefoot Contessa. Everything on her show is so calming, so relaxing and so east Hamptons, at least what I imagine to be east Hampton. Ina's recipes are always a hit. I have made several of her dishes and never have I been disappointed. The woman is an acclaimed chef for a reason. I have made her cracker before and it was phenomenal. Ina's (yes I am on a first name basis with her) was a Thyme and Parmesan cracker. My variation on the cracker was Rosemary and Parmesan. Reason for changing her cracker was simple, I didn't have Thyme on hand at the time when I made these crackers. So today yet another variation on her cracker, going Gluten Free. I love the taste of a homemade cracker, it's very comforting to smell the parmasean and rosemary baking in the oven and the recipe is super simple. Here is what you need.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

3 ounces of grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/4 C of Bobs All Purpose GF Flour

1 tsp of chopped Rosemary

1/2 tsp of black pepper ( I prefer fresh cracked)

1/4 tsp of kosher salt

Place the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix until creamy. Add the Parmesan, flour, salt, rosemary and pepper and combine.

Dump the dough on a lightly floured board and roll into a 13-inch long log. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the log crosswise into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick slices. Place the slices on a sheet pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Then turn them over and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Longer depending on how brown you want them.

Bon Appetit

Gluten Free Lemon Meringue Bars

I call this a bar because I used a 9'1/2 by 12'1/2 pan. It was a rainy Friday but I was craving that spring time lemon taste. I had a bunch of lemons sitting around and viola, the Lemon Meringue Bar was created but a gluten free twist. I have been loving Bob's Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour, so I decided to make a crust using that instead of Bob's All Purpose GF Flour. The coconut flour is sweet without being overpowering and the crust came out like graham cracker crust. This is another reason I love coconut flour. Anyhoo, this is my GF ( gluten free) take on the classic lemon meringue pie. Lets start on the crust first.

Ingredients:

Crust;

1 stick of cold butter. (I usually leave it in the refrigerator until right before I need it.)

1/4 C of sugar

1 1/4 C of Coconut Flour (can be found at most health food stores or Whole Food, Henry's, etc..)

1 egg yolk (save the egg white for the meringue)

Pinch of Kosher Salt

5 - 6 tbsp of ice water.

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.

9 1/2 by 12 1/2 pan

I used butter and greased my pan and added GF flour to coat the pan

I put the butter, sugar, egg yolk flour, and salt in my food processor and pulsed it for about a little under a minute (maybe 45 seconds). You want it to look grainy, kind of like Parmesan cheese. Then I started to add the water, a little at a time. To check the consistency of the dough, grab a handful and make a fist. If it stays together it is the right consistency. One thing with coconut flour is that it is more dry and dense than regular flour so you may need to add more water as you go along.

Ok, so once the consistency is what you want, I dump the whole thing out on a floured cutting board. I used the coconut flour on the cutting board. I basically used my hands to work all the flour together. You will find with GF flour that is it more loose and has a tend to fall apart on you, and this is where my rectangle 9 1/2 by 12 1/2 came into play. There was no way to roll this dough out like a traditional pie crust.

I picked up the dough, placed it in the pan (greased and GF floured) and using my fingers just tried to work the dough all around (something you might do if you make cookie bars.)

I covered the pan with aluminum foil and baked for about 10 minutes, took the aluminum foil off and baked for another 5 minutes. If your not sure about the dough, touch the center and it should feel dry if it is done.

Filling Time!!!!! You can now turn your oven down to 350 degrees F.

Lemony goodness Ingredients:

1 C sugar

2 tbsp of All Purpose GF Flour

3 tbsp of corn starch

1/4 tsp of kosher salt

1 1/2 C of water

3 lemons juiced and zested.

2 tbsp of butter

4 egg yolks beaten

In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 cup sugar, GF flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in water, lemon juice and lemon zest. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter.

Place egg yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 cup of hot sugar mixture. You do this so you temper the eggs without scrambling them.

Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture. Bring to a boil and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick.

Remove from the heat and pour the lemon mixture into you crust pan.

To make the Meringue

Ingredients:

5 egg whites

6 tbsp of sugar

I use my Kitchenaid mixer but you can use a handheld mixer or if you are feeling overzealous you can whisk by hand.

Whip egg whites until foamy. Add sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie, sealing the edges at the crust.

Bake for about 14 minutes, or until the meringue gets a light golden brown.

Bon Appetite.

Gluten Free Cream of Mushroom soup, is there such a thing?

Yes there is! It is a simple recipe that you can use when recipes call for cream of this or cream of that to be added.

I am making cream of mushroom but the mushrooms can be changed out for chicken, celery, or cheese.

Ingredients:

10 oz mushrooms (1 package diced up, I like the baby bella's but use what you like)

1 tb butter to saute the mushrooms

1 c. cold milk
3 Tb. sweet rice flour or rice flour, or 2 Tb. cornstarch
2 Tb. butter or olive oil
1 tsp. chicken bouillon or vegetable bouillon
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper to taste

In a frying pan saute the mushrooms with about 1 tbsp of butter. I do this to cook out some of the liquid in the mushroom. Once the mushrooms are reduced in size (about half) set aside.

In another pan, add the milk. I usually have all my dry ingredients already measured out and in another bowl so I can add everything easily. Add dry ingredients to milk. Whisk continuously. The sauce with start to thicken up. Once it starts to boil, turn off the heat and add the mushrooms. I whisk until everything looks mixed in.

The recipe is equivalent to one can of cream of mushroom. I like to double the recipe when I make it, mostly because it is a time saver for me.

The picture I took is the cream of mushroom sauce but I kind of think it came out looking like cookie dough batter. Bon Appetite.