Pumpkin Spice Cake!!

To me, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are all about the dessert.  The food is just the appetizer to the dessert.  I probably get this from going to my grandmothers when I was young.  I was pretty young, but what I remember is the savory dishes being spread around the counters in her kitchen.  Then, the desserts covered her huge dining room table (these memories may be slightly exaggerated, but I think fairly accurate).  She would have several cakes, pies, and candies.  My sweet tooth gene that was passed on to me from my mother required me to taste every single dessert.  It was this sweet tooth that talked me into cooking 3 desserts to bring with me for Thanksgiving (1 for Michael's house so they wouldn't make fun of my crazed dessert obsession, and 2 for my mom's house to go with her other 2 desserts). 

My favorite dessert that I made was by far the pumpkin spice cake.  This was originally suppose to be pumpkin spice bars, but I am going to change it to a cake.  No, this dessert was not completely home-made (I am too scared to venture into the homemade GF baking as of yet).  But, it was easy and delicious!!

Pumpkin Spice Cake!!!
What do you need?

• 1 box of 1-2-3 Gluten Free Sweet Goodness Pan Bars
• 1 can of pumpkin
• Eggs
• Vegetable oil

What do you do?
Simply follow the directions of the side of the box!!  If I remember correctly, you just mix the pan bar mix with the eggs and oil until nice and creamy and then you add the pumpkin, then you put it in a greased baking dish and bake until it is done...  How easy is that?!!

With a name like pan bars, I was expecting these to be dense and able to cut into little finger-sized bars...  Well, these turned out much fluffier and cake-like than expected.  I was a little worried about the flavor and decided to make some homemade cream-cheese butter cream frosting to go on top.

Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.
2. With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary.
3. Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute.

With this frosting on top, the cake was to die for!!  I have probably eaten half of it by myself (well I shared some with Baby B).  Although the frosting is my favorite part, the cake was actually very fluffy and moist as well!!  This is probably the best GF baked good I have had (as far as texture goes).  

One day I will venture out into the homemade GF baking.  Right now I am scared off by the big words such as xanthan gum and all the different flours (rice flour, tapioca flour, chestnut flour, etc.).  I mean, how do you know when to use what?  I am also convinced I need a stand mixer for all of this (I think it will give me the confidence that I need).  So, why read my blog when I clearly don't know what I'm doing?  Because you don't know what you are doing either or you wouldn't be here.  You can learn along with me and I will speak on a level that everyone can understand.  Then all the baby-stuff doesn't hurt either. 

Recipe: Peanut Butter Pie

I'm sorry about the lack of posts lately.  School has really kicked up a notch lately, and I have been in a bit of a writer's funk.  So, I decided to go back to what this blog was meant to be in the first place: about gluten-free living.

With it getting close to the holidays, it is time to start posting some holiday foods.  This is one of my favorite, easy, desserts that can really impress at a party.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (16 ounce) package of cool whip (thawed)
• Chocolate syrup
• 1 box of gluten-free chocolate cookies
• Butter, melted

Instructions

1. To make the crusts, blend up the cookies in a food processor, then add just enough melted butter to be able to press the crumbs into a pie dish.  Cook the crusts at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  (I'm sorry I don't have any measurements here, I just kind of made this part up and it seems to work well every time.)
2. Blend the cream cheese, sugar, peanut butter, and milk together until smooth.  Fold in the whipped topping. 
3. Once the pie shells are completely cool, spoon the peanut butter mixture into the 2 shells.  Squeeze 6-8 straight lines of chocolate syrup over each pie.  Take a butter knife and make 6-8 lines perpendicular to the syrup (going in the opposite direction each time).  This will make the pie look so pretty!  Cover and freeze until firm.
4. Eat and Enjoy!!

Making the gluten-free crust is the hardest part of this pie, which is still easy (as pie...).  I usually make one gluten-free crust and get one store bought crust for the other pie (that way one whole pie is all for ME).  I have also made the crust with gluten-free oatmeal cookies.  There are tons of possibilities.  I can't wait to try out some more desserts for the holidays!

Keep an eye out for our gluten-free dressing recipe.  It is going to be our first time making it, but I just KNOW that it will be fabulous!!

Recipe: Rice Pudding

So, I made a recipe out of my new gluten-free cookbook (The Everything Gluten-Free Cookbook by Rick Marx and Nancy T. Maar).  I have been craving bread pudding lately, but I wanted something quick that didn't require baking my own bread (I will cross this bridge one day).  So, I saw this recipe for rice pudding and though it might be a close alternative ( I had never had rice pudding before).  It turned out so yummy and reminds me of Christmas time!

Rice Pudding with Apricots

Ingredients

• 1 cup dried apricots cut into quarters (I might cut them a little smaller next time)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup suger
• 1 cup rice (it says that basmati is preferred, but I just used some regular long grained white rice that I already had)
• 2 and 1/2 cups milk (I actually ended up adding another 1/2 cup of milk, will explain later)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• toasted almonds for garnish (I skipped this)

Directions (with only a few suggestions/alterations)

1. In a large pot, mix rice and milk.  Bring to a bowl and then turn down heat to simmer (turn heat down to low) and cook for about 60 minutes, stirring occasionally (I had my heat up too high, so my milk cooked out too fast, I had to add another half cup of milk. I still only got about 45 minutes of cook time, but it turned out just fine). 
2. Bring the apricots, water, and 1/2 cup of sugar to a bowl and then turn down heat (to medium-low).  Simmer until apricots are plump and the sauce syrupy (about 30 minutes).
3. Whip the heavy cream into stiff peaks (I have found that using a metal bowl and putting it and mixers into the freezer to get cold and then beating with an electric mixer works best). Place in the refrigerated until needed.
4. After rice is finished, add the vanilla, nutmeg, and 1/2 cup of sugar. Cool slightly. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding.  Fold the apricots into the pudding.  (Top with toasted almonds if desired).

It might not look too pretty, but blame that on my poor photography skills. For my first time cooking and eating rice pudding, I was impressed!  So far, loving my new cookbooks!

Recipe: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't really have time for a full post tonight.  I have been pretty busy procrastinating some school work.  So, I will post a very easy and yummy Gluten Free recipe!

One night a couple of weeks ago, my baby was craving some cookies (sounds so much better than, "I wanted a late night sugar fix so I made some cookies").  It was pretty late, and I didn't have many ingredients on-hand.  This is where I would like to say that I threw together some stuff and made up my own recipe, but I am not that creative.  So instead, I did a quick internet search for "easy gluten free cookies" and stumbled upon a great little website with a very yummy cookie recipe (Original Recipe).  It sounded quick, easy, yummy, and I had all of the ingredients!  I made just a couple of adjustments (because I was low on sugar).

(Gluten Free) Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of creamy peanut butter (I really want to try crunchy peanut butter one day)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I never actually measure, just drop in a handful)

Mix all ingredients together and put in freezer.  Then preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Once oven is preheated take cookie dough out of freezer and roll into balls (the bigger the balls, the bigger the cookie).  Place the balls on a cookie sheet (that has been sprayed with Pam).  Bake for 15 minutes (give or take, depending on how big your balls were).  They are done when the edges start to get brown.  Normally, I would eat my cookies immediately after pulling them out of the oven (burning my tongue and all).  However, these cookies actually do need to cool for about 10 minutes to get the nice crispy edges and gooey center (just have one when they come out and one 10 minutes later and be your own judge).  Enjoy!

I, personally, can't wait to try this out with butterfinger or snickers instead of the chocolate chips.  The possibilities are endless, really.