GFCF Gingersnap Bites

This may be a cheesy follow to my GFCF Gingerbread People recipe, but it's been very popular at my house the last couple of days with my kids and a few of their friends. So, I thought I'd post it too.

I'll just call this Gingersnap Bites. GFCF of course. Oh, and egg-free, soy-free, rice-free, corn-free and bean-free. Whew!

Make 1 recipe for Gingerbread People dough.

Instead of rolling out, divide dough into two chunks.

Take one chunk and using floured hands, roll it out into a long log on a floured surface to about 1/2" thickness.

Now, using a floured knife, cut the log into many small bite-sized cookies.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Repeat with the 2nd chunk of dough. You should be able to fit both on one cookie sheet.

BAKE 10 minutes, not 14.

GFCF Gingerbread People

This was a hit this week in my house. I thought I'd try this cookie recipe out before Christmas arrived to see if it worked. It does, and it's versatile. With a few changes, I made this rice free too. The source is the Special Diets for Special Kids cookbook, by Lisa Lewis. This was a contribution by Karen Seroussi. I made some changes to the original recipe and I'll note those along the way.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup brown rice flour (I used sorghum)
1/3 cup sweet rice flour (I used tapioca here)
1/3 cup tapioca starch (I also kept this 1/3 cup tapioca)
1 TBL cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (use more for a cookie with a real ginger bite)
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup molasses (I used Steens Cane Syrup)
2 TBL water

Recipe
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. So, my flour mixture was 2/3 cup sorghum and 2/3 cup tapioca. Then, add the liquids.

Mix well. Add tapioca if necessary to get a dough that you can knead.

Roll the dough out on a floured board or surface, using the tapioca, to about a quarter-inch thickness. Cut out gingerbread person shapes, flouring the cutter with tapioca.

Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 14 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a rack. This gave me a nice, crunchy cookie. Bake for less time to make more chewy and less crunchy.

If you want, add eyes and buttons with icing.

Gluten free stuffing ... just in time for Thanksgiving

You'll find this recipe for a basic, Thanksgiving gfcf stuffing at the GFCF Recipes site at Recipe Circus. I tried this the other day. Pretty good.

Garlic, Onion and Sage Stuffing
Source of Recipe: Angela Lowry

List of Ingredients
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted GFCF margarine (I just used canola oil in a pan)
2 small onions, finely chopped (I used 1 medium onion)
2 celery stalks, diced (I used 1 stalk)
5 garlic cloves, chopped (I used 3)
6 cups GFCF bread cubes (I used 1 recipe of Noah's Bread)
1 1/2 tablespoons rubbed or ground dried sage
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian Seasoning (I skipped this and added a pinch of cayenne pepper)
2 eggs, beaten to blend (I used flax eggs)
1 cup chicken stock or canned broth (I used homemade)

Recipe
Melt margarine/oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add
onions, celery and garlic and sauté until soft, about 8 minutes.

Combine bread, sage, salt, oregano, thyme, pepper and other spices in large bowl. Stir in onion mixture and eggs. Add stock and mix well.

Use to stuff goose, turkey, duck or chicken, or prepare as a side dish by baking in a casserole dish covered with oiled foil. I baked 20 mins at 350.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin spice cake

This is a great recipe to make for the kids -- or yourself -- for Thanksgiving. It's an easy gluten - casein - soy free recipe for a pumpkin bundt cake. I have to confess that I found this on the Web at a recipe site or maybe another blog, but I've forgotten which one. If this is yours, feel free to claim credit here. I've modified it slightly. It turned out great.

Ingredients

1 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger
¼ tsp nutmeg
Dash of ground cloves
1 tbsp carob or cocoa powder
3 flax eggs
1¼ cups sugar
½ cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin (Libby's is gluten free)
1 Tbsp powdered sugar (reserved for later to sprinkle over cooled cake)

Directions

In large bowl, combine flours, Xanthan Gum, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, and carob/cocoa. Mix. Set aside.

Place flax eggs (1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 3 tbsp water - microwave 30 secs., let sit 5 mins), sugar and oil in mixing bowl and beat until blended. Add vanilla and pumpkin, mix another minute. Add mixed dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Pour batter into 10 cup capacity Bundt Pan which has been greased. I use Spectrum organic shortening. Sprinkle pan with sugar (approximately 1 tablespoon sugar). Bake in 350° oven for up to 40 minutes, checking after 30. Turn Bundt out onto serving tray and allow to cool. Once cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Domino sugar is gluten free. Or, try a Wholesome Sweeteners product.

A Thanksgiving experiment

We've never cooked a real Thanksgiving meal for our kids. Without gluten or casein or soy or rice or corn -- what was left? Well, this year, we're going to try a modified meal that, if all goes well, mirrors the adult's dinner. That way, if the kids want something that's on an adult's plate, we'll have something for them. They may never know it's different. And, who knows, maybe some of the adults will want what's on the kids plates. So, I am cooking tonight and tomorrow night. I will let you know how these work out and post -- both the successes and failures. Here's the main lineup:

- Roast chicken
- Sausage stuffing
- Mashed potatoes
- Pumpkin cake
- Carrots

And if we don't connect again until later, Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween! -- safe gfcf candy lists

Anyone out there have a pile of candy tonight that your kids brought home from school, or a party, or trick-or-treating? Any clue as to what pieces are gluten - casein free and which are not? I just sorted through my daughter's bag of goodies from a school party. And, I used the following two lists to help guide me. If it wasn't on one of these lists, the candy went into my bag ... or, uh, the garbage.

First, check the candy list at GFCF Diet Support Group.

Next, is the list at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

Between the two, you have a heft list to review. Use your browser to search for candy names more quickly.

Halloween Candy

We don't do Halloween. It's not our favorite holiday, and never was. I'm not into the ghosts and spooky things. I tend to think it's a warped event altogether. Yet, I don't want the kids to be left out and now they're old enough to know when they're not getting candy and everyone else is.

So, this year, I bought some gfcf candy (also soy free) with a couple other treats and I'll put them in a birthday-type bag from the dollar store and send it to school for their Halloween party. They'll think it's great. To be honest, my kids don't eat much candy. We used to buy DumDums lollipops, but noticed when they had too many in a week that their behavior was warped. That's when we learned about the dangers of food coloring. So, we found Yummy Earth brand pops and College Farm candy. Good stuff. My oldest can stomach the dyes and corn syrup better than my youngest. And, it's the oldest's party I'm most concerned about. Oh, you can get chocolates out there too. Our kids just can't have it, so that's why I've skipped it. So, below, I've included some ideas of other safe candy.

- Sweet Tarts, from Wonka
- Necco Wafers
- Smarties, Ce De Candies
- DumDum lollipops
- Lifesavers (regular)
- Pez
- Starburst
- Some favorites like stickers, fancy pencils and a fancy pumpkin straw.

That'll be enough. It'll last her a long time. Like I said, we don't let her have candy very often. It's a treat.

The youngest will be happy with some DumDums, a Pez and Smarties -- with the toys, of course.

So, we'll make our kids happy on Halloween through sugar but I might just rename the holiday in our home, "Candy Day."

Easter Candy III

So, I now think I've got it. And, I plan to try it this weekend. I think the trick may be powdered sugar. So, I've found corn starch-free powdered sugar at Miss Robens and I've learned that shortening likely won't do. Cocoa butter should be used, but my kids can't have it. So, there's a similar butter called Mango Butter. I'm shopping for it now. So, I'll use mango butter, powdered sugar and carob. I'll let you know.

Easter Candy II

OK -- I'm about halfway there. I tried a second round of chocolate easter candy and it's OK, but not great. I'm using carob powder, sugar and organic palm shortening. I also tried using Ghee. But, the main problem is the cane sugar does not dissolve. I'm heating it and pouring into candy molds. That part works. It cools and pops out of the forms. But, the candy is grainy because of the sugar. So, I'm going to try another round using powdered sugar (corn free). The other problem, but not as crucial to me, is the candy melts easily. So, it needs to be stored in the fridge. I don't think the kids care about that. It'd be nice to get it to hold its form out of the fridge also. Maybe another base -- like palm or coconut oil? We'll see.

Easter Candy

I must confess that I don't know what to do about Easter, which is coming soon. My kids cannot eat chocolate. So, I use carob powder instead. But, now I'm faced with the king of all chocolate holidays -- Easter. I have promised myself that I will learn how to make one chocolate candy for them by Easter using the carob powder. I'm reading recipes online and in cookbooks and trying to figure out how to convert. Remember, we also can't use milk, butter or corn syrup. Looks impossible, right? I don't think so. We can use palm shorterning and agave nectar -- see the previous post. In fact, a trial run of a taffy-like candy over the weekend didn't turn out too bad. The kids love it. It's a cross between taffy, tootsie roll and hard candy. I want to make mold candies, like an Easter bunny. That's my goal.

Safe Easter candy

Just a tip on one candy that you might consider when searching for safe stuff to fill Easter baskets ... cane sugar candy. It's very simple -- cane sugar and water. No candy is really healthy. I found bags of this at the Asian grocery for 79 cents a pound. No preservatives, corn, soy, grains, etc. Just cane sugar and water. They're similar to hard candy. They will either melt in the mouth or crumble if bitten. Very good.