Sarah's Birthday Cake

Chocolate cake layered with strawberry sauce and whipped cream

My sister asked for a lighter gluten free chocolate cake for her Birthday this year. I decided to use a Gluten Free mix this time. I used Pamela's which is a company that makes gluten free baking mixes.
I added an extra egg to the recipe, so that the cake would be fluffier. I also baked it for 10 minutes longer than directed.
I used two 8 inch round cake pans and greased them with coconut oil.
After the cake cooled down, I divided each layer into two, using dental floss so as to get a smooth cut.
Then, I made strawberry sauce to put into between the 4 cake layers.
Strawberry Sauce
2 cups frozen or fresh strawberries. If frozen, thaw in microwave oven.
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice.
Bring all of these to a boil in a heavy sauce pan

After strawberries are boiled down, turn heat down to simmer and Add about 2 tablespoons of corn starch that is already mixed with cold water. 

Let the strawberry sauce completely cool down before spreading it on the cake layers.

Then, I made whipped cream and spread that onto top of the strawberry sauce. The final layer of cake has strawberry sauce and then I frosted the cake with the rest of the heavy whipping cream.

Heavy whipping cream: 
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar 
 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract 
Bowl used to mix these and beaters have to be cold before making this. 

Gluten Free Flours

    Gluten Free Flours

The main gluten free flour mix I use in my recipes is the Domata brand. Here is a link to their website, so you can see what the mixture contains and what store near you sells it. In my area, I can get it at Hyvee and Natural Grocers.

http://www.domatalivingflour.com/

Domata flour already has Xanthan Gum in it, so it really is more cost effective to buy this mixture. Domata brand is one of the best tasting gluten free mixes I have tried. However, the flour mixture is dense, so I suggest NOT packing the flour into measuring cups. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup.

Also, you can combine Domata brand with this Betty Crocker Bisquick Gluten Free IF you are making cakes, biscuits, pancakes, waffles or anything that you want to rise- BECAUSE..Betty Crocker already has baking soda in it.

I usually use half Domata and half Betty Crocker GF Bisquick.

Here is a link to their website. You can order it here. I have found it at Walmart in my area. 

http://shop.glutenfreely.com/Bisquick-Gluten-Free/dp/B0045KDDU0?gclid=COjIoZmHuLACFWQDQAod9zPN7

                                 TRICKS

One of the other tricks is that I always add one extra egg to any recipe that call for eggs. I do this because of the egg's Coagulation quality.  Basically, the conversion of the liquid egg into a solid, binds together other ingredients. 

Binding together ingredients is essential to gluten free baking as there is no gluten to "bind" the flour to your other ingredients, which is why most gluten free products fall apart when you eat them. The Xanthan Gum is supposed to help with this "binding" process, but I have found that it isn't enough. Adding the egg will assist in this problem.

Gluten Free Apple Crisp

This is taken from my Bon Appetit dessert cookbook.
The original recipe is for Apple-Almond Crisp
 Ingredients topping
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour- I used 1 cup Betty Crocker Gluten Free Bisquick mix and half cup of Domata brand GF flour
 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled salted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 cup sliced almonds (about 4 1/2 ounces) I used Pecans instead
 Filling
3/4 cup sugar
 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
 8 small Granny Smith apples (about 4 1/2 pounds), peeled, halved, cored, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
Preparation topping
Whisk flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in medium bowl to blend well. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture holds together in small, moist clumps. Mix in almonds; cover and chill until ready to use. DO AHEAD Can be made up to 3 days ahead.
  Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Combine first 5 ingredients in large bowl; whisk to blend well. Mix in apples, then vanilla and almond extracts. Spoon filling into prepared dish. Sprinkle topping over. Bake until apples are tender and topping is golden and crisp, about 1 hour. Cool at least 10 minutes; serve warm.

Gluten Free Strawberry Almond Tart

I wanted a simple, yet delicious, Easter Day Dessert. I found this recipe on Cooking Light's website. I modified it to make it gluten free.


Ingredients

Crust:
1 bag of gluten free Pecan cookies.Or you can use 30 gluten free graham crackers
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 teaspoons water
Cooking spray

Filling:
2 packages of 5 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Topping:
6 cups small fresh strawberries, hulled and divided
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted. I used a skillet to toast the almonds because it's faster. Or you can toast them in the oven while the crust is baking.

Preparation


1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare crust, place crackers in a food processor; process until crumbly. Add 2 tablespoons sugar, butter, and 4 teaspoons water; pulse just until moist. Place cracker mixture in a 9-inch round removable-bottom tart pan lightly coated with cooking spray, pressing into bottom and up sides of pan to 3/4 inch. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack.
3. To prepare filling, combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and extracts in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over bottom of tart shell.
4. To prepare topping, place 2 cups strawberries in food processor, and process until smooth. Combine strawberry puree, 2/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch in a small saucepan over medium heat; stir with a whisk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low; cook 1 minute. Remove glaze from heat. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
5. Combine the remaining 4 cups strawberries and juice; toss to coat. Arrange berries, bottoms up, in a circular pattern over filling. Spoon half of glaze evenly over berries. Put Tart in the refrigerator for 3 hours to chill.

             Light and Fluffy Gluten Free Biscuits

I have finally discovered how to make my biscuits light and fluffy.

1 1/2 cup GF flour. I use Domata brand. **Do Not pack the flour into the measuring cup. This is the first step in keeping the flour "light" and not condensed.

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Stir these three together very well with a fork. Then add: 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter. Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter. **Spend twice as much time as normal to make it look like a "meal".

Then add 2 eggs and half a cup of milk. (I use almond milk). **Make sure you stir the eggs and milk very well together.

Then make a "well" in the dry ingredients. Pour the liquid in and do broad, wide strokes to stir the liquid together with the dry ingredients. **The less you stir these together, the fluffier your biscuits will be.

Add a tiny amount of flour if dough is too sticky. **Then use a soup spoon and drop biscuit dough onto cookie sheet.

Bake Biscuits at 450 Degrees for 15-20 minutes on 2nd lowest rack in the oven.

Almond Crusted Salmon


4 Salmon fillets
1/2 cup almonds
Butter- about 4 tablespoons
Lemon
Salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Coriander

Put almonds and seasonings in a food processor. Then, Melt butter. Dip salmon fillets in butter and then in the almond mixture. Place fillets in shallow pan that has been greased. Squeeze lemon juice over fillets.
Bake covered at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until fillets fall apart when tested with a fork. Add butter and more lemon if fillets seem to be getting dry. Leave oven on.

After fillets are cooked. Add 1/2 cup butter to sauce pan at medium high heat, add 1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic. Add 1 cup heavy whipping cream. Stir until it is smooth and creamy. Take sauce off heat and add it to the cooked fillets. Pour about 1/4 cup chopped almonds over the dish. Put Fillets, with the sauce added to it, back in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Bon Appetit Pumpkin Cheesecake..gluten free!

I altered this recipe slightly.You will below that I substituted cream cheese for the ricotta and mascarpone. I also found Gluten Free Gingersnap cookies and skipped down below to how you combine the cookies with.

* Special equipment: A 9"-diameter springform pan; 18"-wide heavy-duty foil

Ingredients
Gingersnap Cookie crust:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line spring form pan tightly with foil. Butter foil. Wrap outside of pan tightly with foil (to create a watertight seal during baking), pressing wrinkles flat.
*
Put half a package of Gingersnap cookies, 4 Tbsp. melted butter , 1 Tbsp. flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 cup brown sugar in Food Processor. a large bowl. Press crumbs into bottom of prepared pan. Freeze for 10 minutes.
*
Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake until crust is fragrant and set, 20–25 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and let cool.


Filling

* 2 1/2 cups whole-milk ricotta - I used 4 packages of cream cheese instead
* 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp. mascarpone- See above. I used cream cheese instead
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 4 large egg yolks
* 2 large eggs
* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
* 1 cup canned pure pumpkin purée
* 1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
* 1/4 cup heavy cream
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom


Filling:

*
Preheat oven to 350°. Purée Cream Cheese or (ricotta and mascarpone), sugar, eggs yolks, 1 egg, and 1/2 tsp. salt in a food processor until smooth. Scrape most of cream cheese (ricotta) filling into a large bowl, leaving about 1/2 cup of filling in processor. Add remaining egg, pumpkin purée, brown sugar, cream, cardamom, and remaining 1/4 tsp. salt to processor; purée until smooth. Scrape filling into a medium bowl. Pour ricotta filling over cooled crust. Spoon pumpkin filling over. Using a spoon, gently swirl the 2 fillings in 6–7 places.

* Put cake pan in a large roasting pan. Add hot water to come halfway up sides of cake pan. Cover roasting pan tightly with foil. * I used a cookie sheet that had 2 inch sides.

* Bake cake for 1 hour. Open foil carefully to release steam. Reseal foil and continue baking, opening foil to release steam every 15 minutes, until cheesecake is set around the edges and jiggles slightly in the center when nudged, Then bake for another 45 minutes–1 hour longer until toothpick comes out fairly clean.


* Remove cake pan from roasting pan. Carefully unwrap outer foil from pan. Chill cake at least 6 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and keep chilled. Run a thin knife around inside of pan to release cake. Remove pan sides.