Raspberry Muffins

Last weekend we had some "surprise" overnight weekend guests....well a surprise to me, anyhow. My wonderful husband had planned a surprise birthday party for me. Two of the out of town guests, Brooke and Jamie, had arranged with Jeremy to stay overnight at our house after the party on Saturday night. Naturally I was SUPER excited...Brooke is one of my dearest friends, however I was also a bit stressed...if you know me, you know I like to have control and order in my life, and this would include having an as-close-to-possible immaculate home if I have guests ;). Ok, immaculate is probably a bit strong ;). CLEAN, at least ;).

Thankfully, things weren't TOO bad around here ;). Just my "hoarding room" aka, the office, was REALLY bad...and I needed to last-minute scramble to clean up my bathroom (the bathroom they'd be using) to make it at least somewhat clean and presentable! :)

Sunday morning I got up before the three of them had gotten up and searched my kitchen for something acceptable to make for breakfast. I happened upon some delicious organic raspberries (had been on sale at our local Meijer that week) in my fridge and paired them up with a recipe in Carol Fenster's 1000 Gluten Free Recipes (which had been a gift from my sister about two years ago and is still my favorite gluten-free cookbook...go grab one if you don't already own this treasure!!). I basically used the recipe/adapted it a bit (I tend to take liberty with all recipes and adapt them to make them my own. This is a "skill" I learned from my mother, the great Sally ;)).

The muffins received rave reviews from my guests and Jeremy. Jamie ate three. The rest of us had one :). I also made some cheesy scrambled eggs to go along with the muffins (I think Brooke and I were the only ones who ate the eggs, though :). We are biiiig cheese aficionados ;).)

Here's what I did:

(based off of Carol's Raspberry Muffins with Streusel Topping on page 29 of the cookbook)

LIQUID INGREDIENTS

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk (I used organic Horizon 2%, a staple in our home...but you may substitute with any kind of milk...rice, almond, etc.)

1/3 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract (make sure it's GF!)

(Carol also called for grated lemon zest, which I don't care for...so I omitted)

DRY INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups flour blend (I tried out my new GF Bisquick! Carol called for her Sorghum Blend)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour (Carol called for Expandex modified tapioca starch)

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (more than she called for)

1 teaspoon salt

1 6 ounce container fresh raspberries, gently washed and patted dry

3/4 cup Streusal Topping

(She has a recipe for this on page 566 of her cookbook...but I made up my own. I put 1/2 cup brown sugar in a bowl, along with 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a large handful of crushed up corn Chex cereal, and 3 tablespoons of butter chopped up into little pieces. I mixed this all up with a fork)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with papers.

2. Beat eggs with an electric mixer on low speed until light yellow and frothy, about 30 seconds. Add milk, oil, vanilla...beat on low speed until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened.

3. In a different bowl, mix together all dry ingredients except raspberries. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients until the batter is smooth and slightly thickened. Gently stir in the fresh raspberries.

4. Spoon batter into muffin cups and sprinkle some Streusal Topping on each muffin, gently pressing down the topping into the batter slightly.

4. Bake 20-25 minutes or until the muffin tops are firm and the edges start to pull away from the pan.

5. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack or plate for approximately five more minutes...serve warm!

YUMMY! :)

Enjoy! :)

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies

So yesterday I decided to "pretend" to be "domestic" again.

Don't get me wrong...I actually really do love all things "domestic." Cooking, cleaning, baking, laundry...it all gets me sorta high. (just don't show me an iron...I refuse to iron. Jeremy does the ironing around here....for real)

However, I just haven't had TIME lately to do many of those things.

This weekend, however...this weekend was a catch-up weekend. It was the first weekend we had been HOME since early March. Seriously.

So, among many, MANY other things...yesterday I baked!

I adapted a "new" (new to me) recipe from my 1000 Gluten-Free Recipes book (By Carol Fenster)....Double Chocolate Chip Cookies. What I did was inspired by her recipe, but I tweaked it, slightly. The result? AMAZINGLY delicious. Jeremy likes them, too! :) The cookies are totally soft and cake-like. Delectable, really! :)

Recipe....
Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cookies
(the recipe in Carole's book is "Double Chocolate Chip Cookies)

3/4 cup Land O' Lakes butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free flour blend
1/2 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup sweet white rice flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sprinkling of salt
1 pkg (minus a few that prematurely made it to my mouth...haha!) chocolate chips

(as always, make sure that all of the ingredients you use are GF!!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place baking mat on a baking sheet.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer on low speed until very smooth (approximately one minute). Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually add the flours, cocoa, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. Continue beating on low speed just until blended. The batter will be rather thick. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop 1 1/2 inch balls of dough at least 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Bake 13 minutes. Cool on baking sheet, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Voila! They are soooo yummy, esp. when still warm and served with a glass of milk!

ENJOY!

GF French Toast

So my brother, Dan, and his girlfriend, Laura, stayed with us Saturday night so I made a big breakfast for all of us on Sunday morning. I performed an experiment (risky, I know ;)) that ended up being decently successful. I used slices of my Whole Foods Cinnamon Raisin Bread (kept in the freezer section at Whole Foods and stays in my freezer at home) and dipped it in a mixture I made of 1 egg, 1 cup of milk, and some cinnamon...then cooked each side in a frying pan (I used non-stick pans so I didn't need to add any butter or anything for frying). I served the slices with the obligatory maple syrup...and they were actually pretty good! I'd say it's definitely a viable GF breakfast option...pretty tasty, and really easy! :)

Also, this past week I performed another experiment...gluten free cheesecake brownies. I used a Namaste mix (I hadn't used that brand before; I found it at Naturally Yours here in Bloomington) and prepared it as instructed on the package. After spreading the batter in a 9x13 pan, I mixed 1/2 brick of 1/3 less fat cream cheese with 1 egg and some powdered sugar (maybe approx. 1/2 cup; I just sprinkled some randomly in there ;) That's how I tend to bake/cook!!) until it was well blended. Then, I spread this out in a swirly pattern on top of the brownies. I baked the brownies as directed on the package...and they turned out pretty yummy!

Ok, as long as I wrote about 2 success stories, I should confess that approx. 1 1/2 weeks ago I did have a baking failure ;). I wanted to try to make a pound cake (from my 1000 Gluten Free Recipes book) but didn't have eggs...so I substituted banana for the egg (something I had read online was a viable option for people with egg allergies). Well, it may work...but I under baked it and didn't realize it until about 30 minutes after I had removed it from the oven and was cutting a slice for Jeremy (I planned to serve it with vanilla ice cream and strawberries...good thoughts, right?!)...I realized that the center was kind of gooey...in a really odd way. So, I threw it back in the oven for a while ;). Let's just say, it never really recovered ;). I sulked, as is my typical reaction when I fail at something, and left it on the counter for a good two days before throwing it away. What, did I expect that it would miraculously turn into something edible?! ;)

Oh well, 2 for 3 isn't TOO bad, now is it?! ;)

Have a great day! Happy GF eating to you :)