Cool and delish

I made sorbet yesterday with fresh picked Raspberries – my favorite berries!  I used a recipe I found – I think in a Martha Stewart Magazine at the orthodontist, not really sure.  The recipe said to use frozen berries, but I used them fresh.

3 cups Raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

whipping cream

sprinkles

1.  Place berries (fresh or frozen) in the bowl of a food processor and process until they are the consistency you want them.

2.  Mix water and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

3.  With processor running, pour in sugar/water syrup.

4.  Place in an airtight container (say an old Nancy’s yogurt container) and freeze for several hours.  (My fresh berries were not frozen all the way through after six hours – had I started with frozen berries, it wouldn’t have taken very long).

5.  Serve in sundae glasses with whipped cream and sprinkles.

The sorbet did not taste as blurry as the photo looks.  They were delicious!

For Easter Tea this year I tried a new recipe.  A French tart.  I used their recipe for the sweet pastry, substituting Sans Gluten, SVP All-Purpose Flour for the flour in the recipe and adding a little Xanthan Gum.

I had to grind my own Almonds in the food processor for the Frangipane filling.

The crust turned out very well.

This was a nice finish to tea.

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MMMMMM!

This cake, Big Daddy’s Cake, from Maida Heatter’s Cakes, is soooooo good.  How good is it you ask?  Well, I’ll tell you.  It is so good, it’s worth aging another year for!

This wonderful cake, which is becoming a birthday tradition for me, has three cubes of butter, two cups of toasted pecans, 6 eggs, 2 1/2 cups of sugar and 12 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate.  Really, what more could a girl ask for?

Before the final chocolate drizzle.

The only change I made to the recipe was using 4 cups of Sans Gluten, SVP flour rather than wheat flour, and I added Xanthan Gum.  This is really a stunning cake.  It makes a chocolate and pecan tube in the middle.

Just because they're so pretty!

Happy Birthday Me!

Yesterday was Sunshine’s 14th Birthday!  As usual, she asked for the infamous Chocolate Ganache Cake.  This is truly an excellent cake – way back when, when I used to have a cake business – this was my most popular seller, either whole or by the slice at Farmer’s Markets or Festivals.

Here is the recipe for the cake:

2 5/8 Cups Sans Gluten, SVP! Flour Blend         1 1/8 tsp. Salt

2 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda                                                        1 1/2 tsp. Xanthan Gum

1 Cup Cocoa                                                                            2 1/4 Cups Sugar

3/4 Cups Shortening                                                           1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

3 Eggs                                                                                            2  1/4 Cups Buttermilk

1. Pre-heat oven to 350° and lightly spray one 10-inch round springform baking pan.

2. In large mixer bowl, sift together Flour Blend, Salt, Baking Soda, Xanthan Gum, Cocoa and Sugar.

3. Add Shortening, Vanilla, Eggs, and Buttermilk.

4. Beat at low speed for one minute.  Scrape sides and then beat on medium for one minute longer.

5. Pour batter into prepared pan.  To get the cake to turn out really perfectly for slicing and icing, after pouring the batter into the springform pan, wrap a damp towel around the sides of the pan.  This will keep the sides of the cake from baking faster than the center so you don’t end up with a high mound in the middle.   Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes, until cake springs back when lightly touched in center, or cake tester comes out clean.

6.  Cool for 10 minutes, then remove sides of springform pan and cool completely.

Now for the tricky part, getting that Ganache icing poured over the top and sides of each piece of cake.

1.  Using a serrated knife, cut the cake into 12 even pieces.  Spread a piece of wax paper on the counter and flatten 12 paper muffin liners.

2.  In a double boiler, melt 10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate with 1 1/4 Cups whipping cream.  Add 2 Tbsp. rum.

3.  Hold each slice of cake over the double boiler on a cake server, using a ladle, spoon hot ganache icing over the cake and let it drip down the sides.  Keep spooning until the top and sides are completely covered.  Carefully place the slice of cake on the wax paper to cool and repeat with the remaining slices of cake.

4.  Once the chocolate has cooled and set, pick up each slice of cake (I use an off-set spatula to do this) and place it on the muffin paper, so that the paper comes up the sides just slightly.  Place the pieces of cake on a cake plate or stand. 

5.  Decorate as desired.

While touring Bob’s Red Mill last week, the tour guide mentioned making a Risotto with Quinoa for dinner the previous night.  Sooooo, I bought some Quinoa and did some searching for recipes on-line.  Turns out there are quite a lot of recipes for Quinoa Risotto.  Here is what I came up with (and it satisfied every member of the family).

1/2 large onion – minced

4 cloves garlic – minced

2 Tbsp. Butter

2 Cups Quinoa – rinsed well

4 Cups broth (I used low sodium Chicken)

1 tsp. Sea Salt

Crushed Red Pepper to taste

Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste

1 Cup frozen Peas

Flaked Parmesan Cheese

1.  In a large saucepan, saute the onion and garlic in the butter.

2.  Add the quinoa and saute for 3 or 4 minutes.

3.  Add 1/3 the broth, bring to a boil and then simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Do this twice more.  (Takes about 15 minutes).

4.  Add the salt, crushed red pepper and black pepper.

5.  About 5 minutes before serving, add the peas.

6.  Place a serving on a plate and sprinkle with flaked Parmesan Cheese.

For the 4th of July, I decided to try a recipe from Baking with Julia, a wonderful book for the photos alone!  I made Johnnycake Cobbler using nectarines and blueberries.  I followed the recipe as written except for substituting Sans Gluten S’il Vous Plait! All Purpose Flour  for the flour in the recipe.  Plus, I added 1 tsp. of Xanthan Gum.

I was anxious to bake after being on vacation for two weeks and started the fruit too soon.  It should have been piping hot when I put the biscuit top on and baked the cobblers.  Because it was just room temperature, the biscuit wasn’t cooked all the way through, even though the top was crusty and browned.

But, never mind.  It was a very festive, patriotic looking dessert and no one complained!

Yep!  It was good!  I used the recipe Marlene wrote down when she was with us last summer.  I haven’t translated it from the French equivelants yet.  I just used my scale with has grams/oz. on it and guessed at the oven temperature.  So here it is:

750 grams of seasonal fruit

100 grams Sans Gluten, SVP All-Purpose flour

1/2 yeast sachet

125 grams sugar, plus more for sprinkling

2 pinches salt

1 tsp. xanthan gum

4 eggs

25 grams butter, melted

250 ml milk

vanilla extract

1.  Spray a baking dish 8 x 10 or large pie plate and place fruit in bottom of dish.  Sprinkle with sugar.

2.  In mixer bowl, beat eggs.  Add sugar and salt and mix for 5 minutes.

3.  Add flour and yeast.  Mix.  Then add melted butter, milk and vanilla

4.  Pour over fruit and bake at 475 for 45 minutes.

Gluten-Free a la Francais

We are just returned from a fantastic trip to France and Italy.  I took 477 photos in 14 days! 

Previously I posted about the gluten-free foods I would be taking with us, so that Sunshine and I would be able to eat.  But, I was also on the look-out for what I could buy in Europe as I have read that they are rather more aware of gluten-intolerance than in the U.S.  We found an organic store (really similar to a vitamin/health food store here) that had quite a large selection of gluten-free products.  I bought a couple of loaves of bread made by Gluta Bye that was especially good.  The ingredients weren’t any different than what we use, but the bread was superior to anything I have purchased here.

Also, Schar – the brand shown above, had some excellent peach filled cupcakes (they really reminded me of a fancy, fruit filled twinkie).  The crackers in the photo were the perfect compliment to Nutella, certainly as good as French Bread.  I saw regular versions of the crackers in the grocery stores and they looked just the same as the gluten-free version.  I will be checking to see if I can get Schar locally or on-line.

As for the items I took with us – We didn’t use the pasta or the flour, but everything else was consumed.

As soon as the photos are organized, I’ll post a picture of the most decadent, gluten-free desert we enjoyed!

For now, after two weeks of no baking, I’m in the mood to bake a clafoutis!

This is the Lemon Ring Cake from The Gluten-Free Gourmet Makes Dessert.  I’ve made it several times before and it is a delicious cake.  I made it just the way the cookbook says, so I won’t write out the recipe here.  Just a note, I used Sans Gluten, S’il Vous Plait!  All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Mix.

Happy Graduation Sunshine, I love you!