Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies, the Gluten-Free Way

In the last few weeks, the weather here has shifted from autumn to winter. The leaves are gone from the trees, and snow has been falling every couple of days. Brrrr. Though I love everything related to the holidays and winter sports (when appropriately dressed in 158908 layers), I adore warmth and sunlight even more. Cloudy, snowy winter days give me the urge to hibernate, or at least to hole up on the couch in front of a fire with a hot drink and a book. My two active little boys heartily disagree with my opinion of winter. As a result, I usually grit my teeth and spend the majority of my day outside, lumbering around in slow motion, as the blood in my veins turns to slush. 

Today is one of those days where it feels impossible to get warm.  Though it's not terribly cold, hazy clouds are low to the ground, and a flurry seems imminent. I have free range of the house, so the heat is turned up five degrees higher, a fire is burning in the fireplace, and I'm huddled under a blanket.  Must be warm before I can practice the violin.  

I can't imagine a better way to enjoy a cold winter day than sitting just as I am, with a mug of hot cider and some of these soft, chewy, and deliciously spicy molasses cookies within reach. Want to come over yet?

I deserve to be sitting here on the couch enjoying the spoils of my labor.  In all honesty, the cookies pictured above were my fourth batch. Though the taste of the first three batches was great, I had a terrible time getting the texture just right. The first batch was chewy, but rather unattractive- they flattened out too much in the oven, and after cooling, took on a gummy texture. The second batch wasn't chewy at all, and was way too dry. The third batch was almost right, but the flour combination I used was a little bit too grainy. After some brainstorming about my starches, the fourth time was the charm.  

At any given time, my pantry is filled with at least ten different types of grain flours, nut meals, and commercial flour blends. Though I often use commercial blends when I'm in a hurry, I find that they often don't work as well when I'm looking for my recipes to take on specific characteristics, for example, chewiness. I prefer to make my own mixes, adapting the amount of starches, flours, and binders to my needs.

My final flour blend included brown rice flour, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, and xanthan gum.  I don't typically use a lot of tapioca, because it makes dough sticky and has a peculiar flavor. In this case, though, the tapioca was what gave these cookies their chewy texture. Because I wanted the cookies to both retain their moisture during the baking process, and to be solid enough to roll into balls (and dip into sugar-that's what makes a molasses cookie a molasses cookie!), chilling the dough was actually the most important step in the whole process. Right after mixing all the ingredients, the dough was wet and sticky, not workable at all. I let mine chill overnight in the fridge. By the following morning, the flours had soaked up most of the moisture, and the dough was perfect for rolling and sugar-dipping.

A quick 7-minute bake in the oven left me with just what I was looking for. When they were still slightly warm, the cookies had a crisp, sugary outer shell, and the insides were soft.  After cooling for a few hours, the cookies became slightly softer on the outside, and a lot more chewy in the inside...just right  

The boys liked the cookies just as much as I did, so two dozen didn't last for long.  As I sit here enjoying the last one, I'm glad I made it to batch number four.  

Recipe:

3/4 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 heaping tsp ginger

1/4 tsp allspice

pinch black pepper (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons milk

sugar for rolling dough

Directions: In a large bowl, combine flours, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, and spices. Whisk to combine.  In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients, and stir until smooth.  Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ones, stirring until mixed.  Dough will be very sticky.  Cover and chill for at least two hours, preferably overnight.  Once chilled, roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls, dip in sugar, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (a greased baking sheet may cause these cookies to spread).  Flatten balls with your fingers or a fork to form disks, and bake for 6-8 minutes at 375 degrees.  Makes about 24 cookies.

Modification for sea level: double baking soda and omit 2 tablespoons milk. Bake at 350 for approximately 6 minutes.

Pumpkin Muffins...or Cupcakes???

I love muffins. I love cupcakes. What, however, is the difference between the two? When I asked my husband what he thought, his reply was something to the effect of "cupcakes are sweeter than muffins." Hmmmn. Are they really? I've definitely had a super-sweet gingerbread "muffin" that I have convinced myself was nutritious enough to consume for breakfast. And what about carrot muffins? Same ingredients as carrot cake, right? What if you slap icing on a muffin? Does that make it a cupcake? Could you serve un-iced cupcakes as muffins, and as such, pretend they are a healthy-ish food? (The lazy person living inside me likes this idea very much.) Out of curiosity, I did an internet search for "muffin vs. cupcake," and my computer nearly exploded. People seem to have strong opinions about their baked goods.

Well, whatever the answer is to this question, these muffins (cupcakes?) may be enjoyed either way.

I made an absolutely fabulous stew recipe this week (check out the recipe on Simply Gluten-Free) that called for pureed pumpkin, and I was left with an extra 15 ounces of puree. Sadly, I'm already sick of pumpkin pie (don't ask how many of the rum pumpkin pie bars I consumed!), so that was out. Since all quick breads have similar compositions, I decided to test my luck and modify last week's recipe into pumpkin bread.

As we were stirring the batter (I can't bake without one of my kids "helping"), my son Nate expressed his ambivalence towards pumpkin bread, but hinted that he wouldn't be opposed to cupcakes...I decided to roll with it, and out came our timeworn muffin tin.

Here's a shot of our joint effort before it went into the oven:

Since I wasn't sure about the baking time for this new recipe, I had to camp out in front of my stove yet again, checking for done-ness every few minutes. If any of my neighbors caught a peek of me through the window, I'm sure they questioned my sanity. Luckily, I took the muffins out at just the right moment. They were fluffy, golden on the outside, and tender and moist (boy, I hate that word, but there just isn't a good replacement for it!) on the inside.

Frosting doesn't really agree with my sensitive stomach, so I would have probably left them just as they were. However, Nate hadn't forgotten my promise for cupcakes, so on we went with the frosting. Either a buttercream or a cream cheese frosting would have worked well with this recipe.  We decided on a basic vanilla cream cheese frosting, and even I couldn't help myself from trying one. The tanginess of the frosting complimented the sweetness of the cake.

In the end, my muffin crossed over to the Dark Side (well, cupcake side, that is).




Recipe:

Pumpkin Muffins:

(Makes 12 large muffins)

1 stick butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
15 oz. (or one can) pumpkin puree
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon, plain yogurt
2 cups baking mix (recipe here)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips, nuts, or raisins (OPTIONAL-my kids don't like chunks in their muffins, so I omitted this step this time around)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and yogurt, and beat until smooth. Next, add pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice and again beat until smooth. In a separate bowl, combine baking mix, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients slowly to wet ones, and stir until combined. If desired, fold in nuts, chocolate chips, or raisins. Spoon into a muffin tin (either greased or filled with paper muffin cups), filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to rest at least ten minutes before turning out of pan. Allow to cool completely before icing.  



Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter, softened
16 oz. (one package) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Directions: With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat cream cheese and butter on high until fluffy. Add vanilla and salt, and mix until well-combined. Gradually add in powdered sugar until completely mixed. Turn mixer to high, and beat for two minutes. Ice muffins with a spatula or piping bag.

Modifications for sea level: double leavening in both flour blend recipe and muffin recipe. Add only 3T yogurt. Frosting remains the same. Bake at 325 for approximately 25-30 minutes.

Gluten-Free Banana Ginger Bread

I feel like a good portion of my life is spent feeding two insatiable toddlers. They have tiny tummies, so they don't need a lot of food, right? WRONG. At least in my personal experience, my 2 and 4-year-olds can put away just about the same amount of food as a high school linebacker. One breakfast?  Nope, at least two-that fuels two hours of running outside. Light lunch?  Never.  Snacks? Of course.  Dinner? Be prepared for the fridge to be empty at the end of the day.

Don't get me wrong, my kids are just as picky as everyone else's, they just REALLY love the food that they like.

Unless they get sick.

This week, both boys have had a nasty virus that has left them cranky, snotty-nosed, and sleepless. Us too. My huge grocery order (delivered weekly each Saturday afternoon) has barely been touched. Other than the precious berries that they can't ever get enough of, the majority of our produce is exactly where we left it a week ago. The poor kids have barely touched their favorite foods, and this includes the six pounds of bananas that are usually gone in two days. I like bananas, but only on the green side. My husband won't touch bananas with a ten foot pole, so I'm kind of stuck.

A few months back, this exact same scenario led me to the realization (or rather, reminded me in a terrible way) that altitude plays an enormous role in how your baked goods turn out. Back in DC, having too many ripe bananas just meant I could whip up a few loaves of my favorite banana bread (using my much-loved, trusty recipe), and freeze a few for future use. Here in Colorado, not so much. The first time I made banana bread here, I followed my old recipe verbatim. As soon as I looked in the oven about 15 minutes into the baking process, I realized my mistake. The dough was rising at an alarming rate. At 30 minutes, the outside looked almost done, but the inside of the loaf was still raw. At 45 minutes, I had a semi-burned, rubbery, hard, disgusting and inedible brick of something that resembled banana bread. Bleh. Into the trash it went.  

Luckily, the internet, as well as my new local friends, helped set me straight (or at least get me on the right track) about the whole high-altitude baking thing.  I'm slowly learning that certain recipes need more cooking time, some less.  Some need a higher temperature than at sea level.  And some of my recipes, including my banana bread, regrettably needed to be completely rewritten.  

Some good came out of BananaGate.  Well, two good things, to be precise: 

• I grew a pair, and finally rewrote my recipe
• The new recipe was even better than the one I've been using for years

Full disclosure: there were some hiccups in the road, and the recipe I'm posting here is actually my second rendition.  I won't get into the first-it's too gory to mention.  

Because I make quick breads so often, I keep a flour blend on hand to avoid having to mix together 6789 ingredients each time I bake.  Because of the difference in altitude, I effectively halved the amount of leavening, both in my mix, and in the banana bread recipe. Additionally, I realized that in order prevent the bread from drying out during the baking process, I needed to add acidic moisture to the batter.  (It turns out that acids help quick breads retain moisture better than eggs, milk, or water.) In this case, I decided to use plain yogurt. 

After the batter went into the oven, I waited with baited breath, and pretty much camped out in front of the oven to check the bread's progress.  Luckily, it rose just as it should.

The baking time was still shorter than the hour or so that it used to take, but the bread came out really well.  Crisp on the outside, just the perfect amount of moisture in the inside, and a nice added kick from the yogurt and ginger.  

Recipes

Laura's Baking and Pancake Blend:

1 1/4 cups sorghum flour

1 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup coconut flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp xanthan gum

Note: I like to have this on hand all the time, so I usually triple or quadruple the recipe and store it in a gallon Ziploc bag.  You can use this blend in place of flour and leavening in recipes that require only baking powder.  You will need to add baking soda if your recipe calls for it.  

Banana Ginger Bread:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 tablespoon milk

3 tablespoons plain yogurt

3 ripe bananas

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tablespoons finely minced crystallized ginger 

2 cups baking mix (recipe above)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Directions: Preheat oven to 350.  Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla, and mix until smooth.  In a separate bowl, mash bananas with yogurt and milk. Add banana mixture to sugar mixture and stir until combined.  In a separate bowl, add the baking mix, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda, stirring well to combine.  Add the dry mixture slowly into the wet mixture and mix until smooth. Fold in crystallized ginger.  Pour batter into a greased bread pan, and bake for 50-55 minutes.  Allow bread to rest for ten minutes after baking before turning out of pan.  

Modifications for sea level: double leavening, add only 1 tablespoon of yogurt.  Bake at 325 for 50-55 minutes.

Gluten-Free Rum Pumpkin Pie Bars with Pecan Crust

I love, love, LOVE everything about the fall. For some reason this particular season always gives me a feeling of hope and nostalgia. This year, we are experiencing fall for the first time in Colorado, and it hasn't disappointed. The changing of the leaves has been spectacular, and I was amazed at the spectrum of hues I could see right out my front door.


For me, fall isn't complete without the food and drinks I've grown up with: spiced apple cider, anything made with pumpkin or squash, halloween candy (of course!), and lastly and most importantly, pie.


When I was small, I often helped my grandmother, in the kitchen. Granny, as we all affectionately called her, was not the retiring old lady with permed white hair that we often imagine when people talk about their grandmothers. Instead, she was a stubborn, opinionated, loud, and extremely passionate woman. This extended to her cooking. Granny took her food very seriously; dreaming up elaborate meals preoccupied much of her time. She worked mostly from memory, an astounding feat considering the number of recipes she knew.


At Thanksgiving, I followed Granny around in an attempt to be her "helper." As a little girl, my sole responsibilities were fetching ingredients from the pantry, and peeling fruit, but she made me feel like I had the most important job in the world. As I got older, she taught me her secrets to making the perfect pie crust and fillings. When I was a young adult, Granny let me take over her kitchen and make the pies myself, as she oversaw me from her lounge chair across the room. Granny passed away a few years ago, but my memories of cooking with her are some of the most vivid I have.


I've been thinking about Granny (and her pies) a lot recently.  I've also been trying to get out of my culinary comfort zone while still working with ingredients and techniques I'm familiar with. What's more familiar than pumpkin pie? So, I decided to change it up a little, and instead of a traditional pie, I made bars that can be eaten either with your hands, or a fork. As for ingredients, I thought the old recipe could use a little kick.  Enter...

Rum, brown sugar, and pecans. Yup, these were the magic ingredients I added when creating this recipe.  Instead of a plain flour/butter crust, this one was made with the addition of pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon, creating a crunchy, praline-like texture. The filling was made with brown sugar and a healthy splash of rum (booze makes everything better, doesn't it?). I was afraid that these new ingredients would clash in the final product, but instead they enhanced the familiar flavors of the pie I know and love.

Recipe

For the crust:
2 cups ground pecans
1/2 cup gluten-free flour blend (I used Pamela's Artisan Flour)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter

For the filling:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2.5 tablespoons rum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
15 oz. pumpkin puree (1 can of pumpkin if using canned)
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk


Directions for crust: In a food processor, grind pecans to desired texture. (I processed them finely, but the crust will work with a coarser texture as well.) Add remaining dry ingredients to processor and pulse until blended. Add melted butter and pulse until all the butter is evenly distributed. Firmly press crust into a 9X13 baking dish, then chill in refrigerator for at least 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake about 30 minutes, or until dark, golden brown.  Pecans tend to burn easily, and since oven temps vary greatly, watch crust carefully after 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely before filling. The crust may be made a day ahead.

Directions for filling: In a large bowl, beat eggs. Combine eggs and brown sugar with a rubber spatula. Add rum, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, and stir until combined. Add evaporated milk and pumpkin, and stir until smooth. Let sit for ten minutes for air bubbles to disperse and flavors to deepen. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until custard is set.

*In custard pies, air bubbles are your worst enemy. Too many air bubbles cause the pie to bake unevenly, and can give the pie a pebbled or uneven appearance.  Only use a whisk to beat the eggs at the beginning.  The rest of the ingredients should be gently folded in.  

Sea-level modifications: decrease baking temperature to 325 degrees for both the crust and the filling. Baking times will be approximately the same.

Purple Mountain Majesties

Well...here I go! After years of thinking about it, I've finally decided to quit procrastinating and take the plunge. It would have happened sooner, but 6500 feet got in my way.

Just a bit.  


Well, maybe a lot.  


Baking is a passion of mine, and that didn't stop when I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2008. Sure, I had to make some major changes after my diagnosis, but I made it work. On the best of days, gluten-free baking is a science that requires finesse. I turned it into a full-on science experiment. After five years of practice, I felt like I was getting the hang of it. I worked up a large repertoire of cookies, cakes, pies, and candies. Recipes were repeated and revised until I got them just so. My friends often didn't know that my concoctions were gluten-free. Back then, I had no idea how easy I had it. I remember seeing the occasional high altitude modification in recipes, but I never paid them much mind. 


Then, in the blink of an eye, that all changed. My family and I happily packed our bags (as well as ten years of memories, kid-damaged furniture, and a crotchety cat), and moved across the country to paradise. The beautiful land that inspired term "purple mountain majesties." As we happily settled into our new home, the pots and pans made their way out of boxes and into our fancy new double ovens.  


And then...


Complete and utter baking failure. Multiple times. We're talking embarrassing disasters that I couldn't hope to hide with icing, or creatively placed fruit. They were the kind of mishaps that were secretly dumped down the drain before anyone could see or taste them. Flour, sugar, and eggs mysteriously vanished, never to be seen or heard from again.  


Luckily, my failures are always my biggest motivators.  


And with my motivation, comes this blog....and a goal: 

I will perfect and publish at least one recipe EVERY week for the next year.

After all, practice makes perfect.