Sunday, June 26, 2011

Gluten free Strawberry Croustade with Almond Pecan Crust


Crust
1/3 cup pecans chopped finely in food processor

2/3 cup slivered toasted almonds (set aside after toasting at 345 degrees
for 5 minutes
*
1 cup gluten free flour (I used Domata).
*
1/4 cup sugar
*
1/2 teaspoon salt
*
7 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter (cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
*
2 eggs
*
2 tablespoons honey


Crust: In a bowl combine, pecans, flour, sugar and salt. Cut in butter using pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add eggs and honey and stir until dough forms. Gather dough into ball and place it on wax paper. Place wax paper on top of dough ball and flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic and cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes. (The dough can be made 1 day ahead. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften slightly before rolling out.)

Strawberry filling

1-2 cups of fresh or frozen strawberries
(If using frozen strawberries, defrost at room temperature before using or in a bowl of warm water for quicker thawing. If you use this method, thawed strawberries need to dry out before putting in sugar mixture.

1 1/2 tablespoons of gluten free flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.


Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll out dough disk between 2 floured sheets of parchment paper to 9-inch round. Remove top sheet of additional flour as necessary. Remove top sheet of parchment. Sprinkle dough evenly with 1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds. Replace parchment atop crust and roll to 11-inch round, embedding nuts into dough. Invert crust and parchment onto heavy baking sheet, nut side down. Remove top sheet of parchment. *No parchment paper should remain on dough or go into the oven.

Place strawberries in the center of the dough. Fold up the side with tucking the edge of the dough under. Bake for 20 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Father's Day edition: Gluten free Chocolate Cheesecake with Almond Honey Crust


Happy Father's Day!

To celebrate this day, I made this dessert for my family's Father's Day lunch.

The recipe below is not from the Bon Appetite cookbook, but I found it just as delicious. Enjoy!

Almond Honey Crust variation from "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall
( I used Almond flour. You can also put almonds in a food processor to make your own almond flour)

2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla

Put almond flour and butter in food processor. Blend until it looks like a "meal".
then add the vanilla and honey. Don't over blend. Grease bottom of spring form pan and spoon and spread dough onto bottom of pan and slightly up the side of the pan.
Bake for 10- 12 minutes at 325 degrees until crust is golden brown.
Let this crust cool.
While crust is cooling make the cheesecake.

Chocolate Cheesecake

3 packages Cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 package Semi Sweet chocolate, melted, cooled slightly (6 squares)
3 eggs

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in electric mixer until well blended. Add melted chocolate, mix well. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition. Pour over crust in the spring form pan.
Put three layers of aluminum foil on the bottom of the sprig form pan. Put spring form pan in a deep cookie sheet. Place in the over. Fill the cookie sheet with water, about half an inch deep. This technique is taken from the Bon Appetit cookbook. The water from the cookie sheet will boil and help to "steam" the cheesecake, so that it cooks evenly.
Bake for 55 minutes. Take cheesecake out oven and lay it on top of the oven for at least 3 hours. This technique is how I achieved a very smooth 'top' on my cheesecake. After 3 hours, place cheesecake in the refrigerator until ready to eat. This is best to make the night before.
Use a flat edge heavy duty knife to cut the cheesecake.

To melt chocolate- Boil water in the lower pan of a double broiler. Place 6 squares of chocolate in the top part of the double broiler. Reduce heat to medium high. Stir the chocolate continually until completely melted. Let it sit in the pan a few minutes before adding it to the cheesecake batter in the electric mixer.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Thank you!

I want to take a moment and thank all of the people who have viewed this blog. I see visitors from near and abroad. It's very exciting to see those from Australia to London to Michigan. Feel free to post comments on desserts that you like or share special recipes. In the coming weeks, more yummy gluten free recipes will be coming your way!