Gluten Free Dogs and People

Moving Day! Join us at Gluten Free Canteen!

2011-02-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hello GF Peeps!

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A Merry Holiday Multiple Personality Gluten-Free Butter Cookie

2010-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Right now there are four kinds of cookie dough chilling in the refrigerator and some will be relegated to the deep freeze so that we can enjoy holiday treats well past Christmas. In February when the skies are gray and the ground is soaked with endless rain, there is nothing like the smell of gingerbread boys baking up in the oven to warm the soul.

All this annual cookie lollapalooza-ing began because this little Jewish kid got a taste of the holiday tree trimming and brightly sparkled cookies one Christmas when she was 5 years old. And though I didn’t get a stocking filled with treats that year although I begged, I did add a festive and cookie filled Christmas, sans the religious part, to my things-I–will-do–when-I-am-all-grown-up list I kept in my kidlet head. The list was varied; I never did get to fly on a spaceship with Major West from Lost in Space, but I eventually did get to make all the holiday cookies I wanted.

From the first year we lived on our own, I happily embraced the other festive holiday tradition aside from latkes and made more Christmas cookies than the bakery down the street. Even having to live gluten free didn’t stop me.

A big fan of bakery butter cookies, and the store brand, Stella D’oro, I wondered for years how they got those little confections into those spiffy shapes. And then one day I learned about cookie presses and rushed right out to find one. I’ve gone through several varieties including the spiff-o-matic electric thing, and I’ve come back around to the simple cheap manual press. Once a year I drag out the tattered box and set out to make fabulous copies of my favorite bakery and Stella D’oro treats. And every year I end up with something slightly the same only different.

I am not organized. If it weren’t for my blog, I might never remember the recipes I create. I write them down as I bake and promptly do something stupid, like forget to label the paper with what the cookie is, or even that it is a cookie. I put it in the junk drawer only to find it years later with no recollection of what the list means, if I can even read the bad penmanship at all. Sometimes I put it in a special place where I am sure not forget it. I still can’t find any of those. Other times I write notes in a cookbook when I modify the recipe with annotations that make perfect sense at the time. And later, reading them over, I’ve no idea what “yippee” means next to baking soda.

Consequently, I redo the whole recipe deal every year and search for something that sounds right, or a new one that seems improved. And then I mix it up a little. But I warn you. Recipes are fluid and meant to evolve. So don’t be surprised if I make the same thing next year, but it is slightly different. Try it.

Multiply the recipe to accommodate larger batches. You can store the extra dough in the refrigerator for a few days and in the freezer for quite some time. Bring to a chilled room temperature before using. Happy baking!

Gluten Free Black & White Butter Cookie Dough: Spritz, Pinwheels, and Thumbprints

Almond & Vanilla Dough

2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter (1 cup)
¾ cup ultra fine sugar or 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond
1 egg
295 grams gluten free flour (no gritty stuff because it has no place to hide) about 2 and a scant ¼ cup
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt

Double Chocolate Dough

2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter (1 cup)
1 cup ultra fine sugar or 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond
1 tablespoon strong coffee (leftover from the morning joe)
295 grams gluten free flour (about 2 and a scant ¼ cup)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup unsweetened cocoa sifted (your favorite)
½ cup of melted bittersweet chocolate
Pinch salt

Blend together the flour, xanthan gum, salt, (cocoa for the chocolate dough only) and whisk to lighten.

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until pretty. Add the flavorings and the egg. On low, mix in the flour (and cocoa) until blended. Finish incorporating with a spatula and don’t over mix. For the chocolate cookies, add in the melted chocolate and blend in thoroughly with a spatula.

Bake each at 350. Makes at least 3 dozen per recipe.

Spritz
Using parchment paper, place a long-ish rope of dough toward the edge of the paper and like roll up like sushi, into a sort of log that is slightly less than the width of the cookie press tube.

Refrigerate (or freeze) until ready to use but at least two hours. You want the butter to chill thoroughly.

Take one log or two logs at a time out of the refrigerator and as soon as it is workable stuff into the press and pop out designs on silpat or parchment sheets. They won’t spread much so you can get a lot on one sheet.

Add decorations, like sprinkles or colored sugar, cherries, or chocolate chips now. Bake 5 minutes and rotate. Bake for about 4 minutes more. You want the light cookies just very lightly browned and the chocolate are better slightly less brown.

Black & White Pinwheels
Roll the plain and chocolate dough separately to the same size on parchment paper. Place one on top of the other and roll them up with the aid of parchment paper (the dough is sticky) as tightly as possible. Refrigerate overnight for best results. Unroll the dough and slice at ¼ inch intervals with a very sharp knife. Place on silpat or parchment and bake about 10 minutes depending on thickness. Rotate and bake about 5 minutes more or until the plain dough is slightly brown on the bottom.

Thumbprints
Scoop dough by teaspoons size and roll into a ball. Place on silpat or parchment lined cookie sheets and with your index finger, press a dent in the center. Refrigerate about an hour before filling and baking. Fill with jam (about a ¼ teaspoon) or a chocolate chip or two, or candied cherries, or nuts or crushed peppermint candy canes. Bake about 5 minutes and rotate. Bake about 4 minutes more.

Cool and eat. Store in separate tins.

On Thanksgiving, I am Grateful for You

2010-11-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

grateful - the little reminders

To my virtual and otherwise embodied friends & family:

I know that so many of you are going through challenges, that 2010 has been a year filled with anxiety and questions, largely without answer. To say that this past year has been full of underwhelming hope and disappointing results is an understatement.

But I am proud to be your friend. Honored, actually. If anything, I’ve learned from each of you a great deal about humility, grace and how to operate with compassion when life is dealing a hand that should be tossed back into the pile of discards. Not once did you complain and say your plight was unfair. Mostly you said that you were still better off than so many others and that it was just time to muster up more patience and fortitude.

Sadly, one of you folded your tent before anyone could reach out and grab your hand, leaving us breathless with grief and questions without answer. We kept going anyway, missing you every single day.

Then there are those of you who can make even the most unfortunate event seem like a glass half full. You’ve no idea how much your attitude catches on and makes life bearable and even inspirational for so many more around you.

I’ve watched some of you invent great alternate universes that keep the sanity alive. I’ve watched some of you create some innovative solutions to ordinary life altering issues. I’ve seen some of you march forward with enough chutzpah to lend some to others who are in need. I’ve seen some of you part with precious gifts just to make the world a better place all the while dealing with a pile of things that would undo an ordinary soul.

You are some of the most brilliant people on this planet. Keep marching. Keep on speaking. Keep on being who you are. That’s all.

In gratitude I say, pie for all.

And thank you.

A Very Gluten Free Thanksgiving

2010-11-22T20:39:00.000-08:00

Holiday food memories are like a family photo album with scratch and sniff pages. Ask anyone about their earliest Thanksgiving memories and chances are it is a combination of the Macy’s parade and the smell of yams with toasted marshmallows or pumpkin pie. Then again, some of us might only remember Uncle Zeke’s shiny flask filled with something that added a certain charm to the boring punch bowl filled with preseason eggnog.

My brother reports that we always had a Thanksgiving dinner growing up; that the Ad Man recited the same typed poem/prayer of thanks each year. But I cannot muster up one solitary memory from childhood about the holiday. There aren’t even any family photos from Thanksgiving to use as a memory crutch. I’m puzzled that the guy- the Ad Man- who photographed anything and everyone would skip a major holiday opportunity. I suspect that we actually ate liver and onions for Thanksgiving and that is why I’ve blocked out those early years.

My Thanksgiving memories actually begin when I was a 17-year-old bride attending the famous holiday feast with combined families at the newly minted in-laws. Just because it was Thanksgiving and the new lemon loving in-laws were hosting my father and stepmother, assorted siblings and guests meant there was something nothing to be nervous about. The gathering would take place in their beautiful colonial on a wooded lane where the neighbor parks his helicopter. Perfectly Norman Rockwell – in theory. Spending most of that memorable holiday with a “nervous” stomach ailment was mortifying. The Ad Man even rustled up the family doctor by phone who diagnosed “stomach ache”. It would still be years before the gluten intolerance diagnosis, but I was suffering all the way back then.

Since that Thursday 30 something years ago, we’ve spent some happy and almost pain-free Thanksgivings with the in-laws. We came to enjoy the time together and I prepared in advance for the onslaught of not feeling well by keeping a giant assortment of stomach remedies in my bag. It also helps that we avoided mingling the two entire families ever again after that first crazy year.

That first memorable in-law Thanksgiving Day is where the early hints that gluten was not my friend were apparent. Those “stomach aches” that everyone assumed were merely stress related were pain inflicted by the invasion of wheat, barley and rye making me sick. And Thanksgiving dinner is nothing without a pile of stuffing, freshly baked rolls, pies and even those awful green beans drowning in mushroom soup and topped with fried onions; lots of wheat.

These days we prefer a small holiday dinner. Neither of us enjoys turkey so we feast on a chicken or duck and after the gluten diagnosis we avoided stuffing, but now that we have access to some great gluten free breads, we indulge this one time of year. Loading up on fresh veggies, lightly sautéed and seasoned along with the chicken makes for a wonderful feast and none of the stress, physical or mental.

My favorite stuffing is Stove Top (quit snickering). It was a sad day when I realized I couldn’t eat it any longer. And there are those that subscribe to more is better, loading up the savory bread with chestnuts, apples, nuts, sausage and other little goodies. I like the old original version with a little sautéed celery and onion, seasonings like sage, thyme, (poultry seasoning), salt and pepper and moistened with chicken broth and butter. Tossed lightly and either served from the pot or a casserole that bakes to make the top a bit crunchy.
I worked on this version until it tasted quite similar to the old Stove Top and nothing makes me happier.

On this holiday, I salute the long gone Ad Man, the long gone family doctor who meant well more than he was accurate, and the fabulous house that was on the lane with the helicopter pad. We raise our glasses in a toast to our younger selves – and say a small hallelujah that we got this far in one piece to enjoy our gluten free holiday feast.

Gluten Free Fabulous Stove Top Stuffing

Savory Cubes

Ends of old loaves of gluten free bread (variety is good), cubed into ½ inch pieces
Olive oil
Herbs and spices: thyme, chopped sage, poultry seasoning, a pinch of rosemary, salt, pepper
Butter
Chicken broth

Cube up the bread into ½ inch pieces. If you have the opportunity, leave it out overnight uncovered to dry out a bit. Otherwise just proceed after cubing. The prep and recipe are very flexible and resilient. In a large bowl combine a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and enough herbs/spices to make your nose tickle. Add the cubes of bread and fold gently (don’t break up the bread) to coat. If you need more just drizzle and fold.

On a lightly oiled baking pan (I use a half sheet pan size) lay out the cubes about one layer high (you will have a small pile). If there is too much use a second sheet.

Place in a preheated 350 oven for about 15 minutes. Turn the oven to 300 degrees and bake for about 35 minutes. You want the cubes to toast and dry, but not burn. Turn the oven off and don’t open it. Leave the pans in there for as long as you are able – overnight is great. You want them as dry as possible.

When completely cooled store in a double zip-lock bag or container and refrigerate. Because they have so much oil in them, you don’t want it to get rancid before you use them all.

Gluten Free Stuffing

6 -8 cups of stuffing cubes
2 ribs celery chopped to a medium fine dice
½ onion chopped to a medium fine dice
½ stick butter
Poultry seasoning to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley (until it looks pretty)
½ cup gluten free chicken broth (and more if needed)

Sautée celery and onion in butter and oil mixture over medium low heat. When very soft add the spices and stir. Take stuffing cubes and place in a bowl. Drizzle the softened mixture over the cubes and fold in being careful to not break up the cubes. Add broth until just moistened. Place in a buttered casserole dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes and uncover for an additional five to ten minutes.
Just remember that the whole thing is adjustable to your own tastes – add more or less spicing, veggies or broth.

Gluten Free Drunken Pumpkin Pie

One gluten free pie crust: Whole Foods or your favorite recipe
One 15 oz. can of organic pumpkin
1 cup of half/half
½ cup of milk
4- 5 tablespoons of really good whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup of superfine sugar
¼ cup of maple syrup (the real stuff)
3 eggs
Ground ginger, a pinch of ground clove, a bit of cinnamon and a large twist of the black pepper
A ton of whipped cream

Preheat oven to 325. Bake pie shell (9”) for about 20-25 minutes or until lightly brown.

Place the other ingredients (except the whipped cream) in a large bowl and whisk together until fully incorporated. Add as much or as little of the spices as you like – they mellow with time so more is actually better. The black pepper is an old trick (not mine) that seems to provide a happy back note to the whole thing.

Pour through a mesh sieve into the pie crust and bake for about 55 minutes, checking at 45 minutes. The center should be slightly wiggly. Do not fret if cracks form (although they should not) because you can cover them with whipped cream when serving.
If you have the time, leave the mixture to sit for about 30 minutes to mingle before pouring into the shell. Even better – bake the pie the night before because it tastes best the 2^nd day after the flavorings and whiskey have a chance to hang out together. Store in the refrigerator but take it out about 30 minutes before serving for best flavor. Pile on the whipped cream and enjoy.

Happy Gluten Free Thanksgiving!

*cross posted from my new food blog at Wordpress:

http://glutenfreepeople.wordpress.com/

You Know You Want One: Peanut Butter Buckeyes

2010-11-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

fully dressed little peanut butter buckeyes

Even though most of our street celebrated Hanukkah, there were neighbors and friends who brought us homemade holiday food gifts and by far the favorite was chocolate peanut butter fudge. If candy were currency we kids would have been able to pay off the mortgage with the amount that we hoarded. We were allowed to buy candy with our allowance, but rarely was any sweet stuff purchased by our mom; Brach’s Bridge Mix was for, well, bridge games.

Halloween was the most important holiday of the year and none of us failed to fill up pillowcases filled with goodies. We were only interested in the good stuff which would have been by today’s standards, enormous chocolate bars and peanut butter cups.

At an early age I fell in love with the partnership of anything peanut butter and chocolate. It was limited to Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups when I could afford them with my allowance.

Syracuse is not all that far from Ohio yet I never knew a buckeye was anything but a tree thing until I saw the recipe on Smitten Kitchen. How did this confection remain off my sweet tooth radar? For God’s sake – it has peanut butter and chocolate, two of the holy grail candy ingredients.

Smitten Kitchen was borrowing from the Baked boys and that version has cream cheese and graham cracker crumbs. I wondered how the origninal Buckeye candies were prepared.

A Google search came up with a zillion recipes and mixed reviews as well as several techniques.

The common complaints turned out to be rather simple. People had an expectation that mixing up butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar and flavoring and covering it with chocolate could be done by a door knob.
Even the most simple looking confection requires a little skill, practice, and attention to detail. Chocolate seizes – it doesn’t harden, or the inside mixture crumbles if too dry, or oozes condensation if too wet and messes with the chocolate coating. All things chemistry have to coincide to make it work. Though it isn’t rocket science, it is the kind of thing that takes a bit practice and patience.

I might find darker creamy peanut butter next time. When the ingredient list is that small, the main character, peanut butter, needs to be stellar and taste deeply roasted. I used organic (ordinary) peanut butter from Whole Paycheck and it isn’t peanut-ty enough. But that might just be me.

But about one thing everyone agrees - be careful. They’re addictive.

happy little (linty) buckeyes

Peanut Butter Chocolate Buckeyes

3 cups sifted organic powdered sugar
1.5 cups creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon flaked salt (you want salt that will dissolve)
1 bag (12 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon Crisco or other shortening

Prepare a large baking sheet with a silpat or parchment. Sift the sugar into a large mixing bowl (I used a stand-mixer). Drop in the peanut butter and butter. Set the mixer on low until the sugar is incorporated and then turn it up just until everything is fully mixed. With the mixer running on low, slowly add in the salt and vanilla.

Using a tablespoon scoop, place on the cookie sheet until you’ve used all the mixture. Form into round balls. Keep your hands clean and a little moist with water and the rolling will go smoothly. If you start to build up the mixture on your hands, the balls will get slightly linty (see photo).

Once done, set the pan in the freezer. You can leave it overnight but you will want to cover it with foil. Right before dipping, in a small bowl over a tiny pan of simmering water (tiny tiny simmer!) melt the chocolate with the Crisco. Once melted, stir until fully dissolved. Cool slightly.

Using toothpicks or forks, dip each frozen peanut butter ball into the chocolate, let it drip a bit and place on the frozen cookie sheet; it helps set the chocolate faster. Either cover them entirely with chocolate or just leave a little “buckeye” peeking out.

Freeze or refrigerate. And serve cold – straight from the freezer or refrigerator.

And watch them disappear!

Dear Insurance Company: Really?

2010-11-04T17:15:00.000-07:00

avoid this!

Even the fancy aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies doesn’t banish the persistent ode-de-stink; nothing like the imaginary smell of an old wet down jacket or stinky boot-liner to clog up the sinus.

Battling an ongoing sinus war is certainly not a good way to enjoy the beautiful fall weather. Oh wait. At 85 degrees things are continuing to bloom long since past their prime; including mold and fungus which accounts for the spectacular Petri-dish fusion up inside my head.

For going on a decade I’ve lived with the persistent muse called sinus fungus that mimics a sinus infection. In fact there is more research these days that points to fungus being the culprit of more sinus problems than infections as once thought. Antibiotics, while effective for treating real infections, only provides a better playground for the other stuff once the good bacteria are wiped out in the grand slam from the pharmaceuticals.

With some spot treatment over the years, most times I am adept at handling the August/September onslaught of allergies and can keep invasion of the clinical mud room in my sinus to a minimum. But once it takes hold, the battle begins. I bring out the McNeil rinses, the sprays, the OTC Claritin, and a huge pot of chicken soup. In some cases it requires a battlefield of little soldiers called antifungal that attack the monsters hiding deep inside my breathing passages. I take no prisoners and take the battle seriously because I want them gone. Banished.

Only a few times during the decade, (ok, a few more than a few) have I had to succeed to intervention on the part of the torture machine inside my ENT’s office. It is with mighty fortitude and the promise of a good fine red wine afterward that I even get near that contraption. If you’ve seen one, you know what I am talking about. Think Dyson, made especially for the sinus; only the wand is longer than one is tall. Impossible it would seem that it would not go straight into one’s brain, but the Doctor is quite skilled in not poking a hole into the tiny bit of gray matter that remains intact at my age.

After one treatment, I once waited to faint until I was outside his office because I was too embarrassed to do it inside. That required not only copious amounts of wine, but some very fine dark chocolate to rid me of that nightmare. That is why, the actual incentive why I try valiantly to take care of it myself with all the tools at hand – at home.

I finally ran out of the antifungal meds and now with a new insurance plan find myself perplexed at how they are so stingy with the cheap ass drugs. First they would not allow the doctor’s prescribed dosage saying it was too many. I am supposed to take the stuff for a few weeks at a time – but the insurance company insists I cannot take more than two weeks. Of course I don’t remember them conferencing in on my doctor’s visit, but apparently they were there in spirit.

Trying my best to not get too upset with their machinations, I relented and went for the copious refills allowed at the first moment possible. And that was nixed as well with the slap that one treatment is plenty and the drug is not for chronic issues.

Oh, really?

So, now the Pharmacy has to submit a form from the doctor that double pinky swears that I really need this cheap ass medication that costs less to buy than the fax machine and man power it will take to give uber special permission to use.

Got that?

Good. Welcome to our health care system, revised. Let’s just say it needs some fine tuning.

And let’s just wish my visiting fungus a fond farewell, just as soon as I get my medication once again. Meantime, I am parceling out the last doses like they are the very last pieces of dark chocolate on earth.

Thank you, health care company. So glad to have you in my corner, all the time, 24/7 and making sure my treatment fits YOUR guidelines.

I never knew you cared so much.

Book Review: Gluten Free Girl & The Chef

2010-09-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

my new favorite cookbook

It took three days to pore through the entire book because I’d stop and savor the recipes and the stories. Or I'd have to go into the kitchen to check for ingredients of everything I was planning to make from the book.

But after cooking along with Shauna and Daniel through their blog, Gluten Free Girl and the Chef over the past years as they created this book, I almost feel like a proud distant relative as do many of their other faithful readers.

That feeling of comradery shouldn't be a surprise to other people who also must eat gluten free. Gluten free people often feel a kinship when they meet others like themselves. It’s like showing up for the Bar Mitzvah and finding out that the special meal you had to special order was made for two other people too; you all end up at the same table, grateful for one another’s company.

But this book is so much more than that. They’ve raised the bar on gluten free cooking and baking, making it as mainstream and fresh as it can get. Each recipe is gluten free, but not taste free. Each recipe comes with a story, a background, and a history and through that you feel like you want to recreate it right now. I almost didn’t get past the first recipe – the baked eggs with taleggio cheese because I wanted to run right into the kitchen and bake that dish. It was ten o’clock at night and common sense won, but I still will be hunting down a good ripe taleggio this week for baked eggs this weekend.

For once, a gluten free book is not laden with recipes that try to imitate gluten baked goods or food. It is a book about real food including an introduction to all kinds of flours that go into baking and cooking gluten free. Shauna and Daniel introduce readers to a fabulous array of great flours and how to mix them together for different types of food.

They also introduce the concept of weighing ingredients for a variety of good reasons – not the least of which is that all flours are not created equal. One cup of superfine brown is not the same as one cup of sorghum flour and your results will suffer if you merely substitute cup for cup.
But if you are no stranger to their blog, you already know this. I am grateful that all the recipes offer weights because I have given up the measuring cups for everything dry and most other ingredients. (Another proponent of weighing ingredients is Alice Medrich whose Chewy Gooey Crispy Cookie book is due out in November- she offers some gluten free recipes in that new book).

The Ahern’s are also fans of fresh ingredients. Over the past two years in our house, we have been working to buy locally and as fresh as possible. I really like that they emphasize that in their book, and how to make choices about what to buy at the market just in case this is new to the reader. They lead gently with such kindness that any reader would feel confidence in following.
This book certainly changes the landscape for any other gluten free cook books to follow. No one would feel deprived or feel like they were on a special diet when cooking from this book. Instead of looking for this cookbook in the special diets section, I would hope it is shelved in the mainstream cooking section under a category called something like, smashing success.

I’ve already incorporated many Gluten Free Girl and the Chef recipes into my own cooking and baking. Gluten Free Flying Rocky Road Squares use Shauna’s gluten free graham crackers for the crust, and a gluten free adaptation of Alice Medrich’s Rocky Road Bars from her Cookies and Brownie book. Last night I par boiled some Yukon potatoes in an ocean of salted water with a little fresh thyme and garlic, drained them thoroughly and baked them until they were crispy on the outside, and soft and perfectly salty on the inside. All thanks to their instructions in the book.

Anyone gluten intolerant or living with celiac disease needs this book on their bookshelf, but I would also buy this book for anyone, living gluten free or not, who loves to cook and bake – it is that good.

I'm off to the kitchen to bake a one bowl wonder; chocolate peanut butter brownies from their book. After all, I still have a cupboard full of good chocolate to use up so I can make room for at least four new flours.

School Night Chopped Salad

2010-09-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

It isn't like when we were kids and the streets were jammed with marauding school children swarming down the sidewalks, metal lunch boxes in hand, dressed in new clothes heading for the first day of classes.

These days the first sign that school is truly back in business around here is the monumental traffic jam early in the morning. Lining up to spit out the kids are the mini vans, giant SUVs, and the ever more present limousine and Bentley, though the schools do ask parents to refrain from the delivering children in the latter.
By the time I arrive, the coffee shop is packed with moms (and some dads) who have finished the morning drop-off and gym routine and are taking a java break before speeding off to the next errand.

My favorite coffee hangout, which always does a brisk business caffeinating the Geek Squad around here, is regularly jammed after school begins. There are no solo tables available from 8AM to 10:00AM and everyone shares space.

Recently hearing a collective murmur of “what’s for dinner” I replied with some smarty pants remark like ask Martha Stewart. Forty one eyeballs (someone had an eye patch) turned to me and I’d be dust if those glares were lasers. I never did that again – but I was ready the next time to win friends and influence mothers.

This time when they got around to the predictable dinner discussion, I said to no one and everyone, chopped salad with chicken. This time, no eyeballs turned to laser me into dust and eye-patch-mom was fully functional again. One cup of coffee later, I heard conversations around me mention salad fixings and that Trader Joe’s sells things already chopped, even the chicken. I was not exactly winning friends, but I was influencing people. One out of two isn’t bad that early in the morning.

Let’s try it here.

What’s for dinner?

How about chopped salad with chicken? And don’t go buy those veggies already chopped – it is easier and less expensive to do it yourself on the weekend. Roast a chicken on Sunday, chop up most of the veggies at the same time (after the farmer's market sojourn) and you can have dinner ready for Monday, a side dish on Tuesday and lunch on Wednesday. That leaves only two more weekdays to worry about and that my friends, is success for a very busy household.

Chopped salad used to be that oddity on the menu which usually meant the end of the ice berg lettuce with bits of tomato tossed in for color, and everything swimming in a sea of bottled Italian dressing. No more. These days chopped salad is making an improved appearance everywhere.

There is a chopped salad that I wait for each springtime at a favorite restaurant and hope that it is on the menu once the early spring vegetables have hit the market. It has a tiny bit of dill, some of those first baby peas that are actually green and sweet, some freshly blanched fava beans, and all kinds of other goodies. Once I see it on the menu, I hit the farmer’s market or the best grocer’s produce section and buy a smattering of all the newly minted goodies.

But other times of year I still crave a good chopped salad so we go with what’s ripe and local. Sometimes we will have tiny pieces of freshly roasted beets, a little bit of blanched chard, and other times, just a variety of peppers, tomatoes, artichokes hearts, avocado, cukes, and herbs along with the freshly chopped varietal greens which always include nutty arugula, baby spinach and anything else that is fresh.

Add in a little bit of leftover chopped roasted chicken and some hearty provolone or fresh mozzarella cheese sprinkled with grated asiago and it’s a meal. A very pretty and very filling meal.
The key is to find stuff that is in season and local which is always cheaper, fresher, and way better tasting. Take a walk around the weekend Farmer's Market to see what is in season right now. Avoid produce from the grocery that is trucked from far away, if you can, because it is picked for shipping, not flavor or freshness.

Dressing? Just a little bit goes a long way. You want it to dress up the chopped stuff, not drown it. I’d recommend your favorite homemade or artisanal vinaigrette. Add an extra drizzle of your most special olive oil over the top and a smattering of freshly ground pepper and et voila!

I'm patient. Perhaps soon, instead of the dinner murmurs at the coffee shop, someone will start a conversation about dessert. I have 750 different ways to mention chocolate.

Chopped Salad with Chicken

(Suggested) Ingredients

1.5 to 2 cups of finely chopped leftover roasted chicken
12 cups of mixed greens moderately chopped into ½ inch dice
Fresh or roasted red pepper ¼ inch dice
1 cucumber ¼ dice (no seeds)
2 tomatoes chopped (seed them) ¼ inch dice
1 carrot peeled and ¼ inch diced
Jar of artichoke hearts cut into ¼ inch dice
1 cup of cheese ¼ inch dice
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
Sprinkle of fresh thyme
Other favorite veggies, either ¼ inch diced or finely chopped

Directions
Prepare the chopped items and store overnight in the refrigerator separately (if you are working ahead). To assemble, drop everything into a huge bowl and give it a good toss. Add in tiny amounts of the vinaigrette until the salad just slightly glistens.

Portion out four hungry person servings (or more not so hungry person servings) and add a sprinkle of grated cheese, a splash of really good olive oil and a dash of freshly ground pepper. Croutons are nice but not mandatory.

Optional (diced) items

Charcuterie
Hardboiled egg
Other cheeses (goat cheese is great)
Cured olives
Other herbs
apple or pear
nuts
dried fruit

Merci à Ma Belle-Mère with Rainbow Birthday Cookies

2010-09-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

my college graduation: Ad Man, Step-Mom & future Rabbi

As a half-orphaned 12-year-old, I grew five inches, several pounds, one or two shoe sizes along with a few other assorted things that branched out during the year I spent with the widowed Ad Man.   When my soon to be step-mother arrived on the scene I was ready for a makeover from gawky child to ever more awkward and sullen adolescent. My shoes were way too tight, my clothes were slightly small, and my very first training bra had long since navigated past safety pin RX.

I am pretty sure the woman took one look at me, grabbed the Ad Man’s credit card, shoved me into her car, and took me to the best department store in the city.   The Ad Man had probably exaggerated his fairy tale wealth and so she assumed buying the best (read: expensive) stuff would be a no brainer. Too bad he blanched to the shade of winter blizzard white when she showed him our loot.

The outing was to buy a complete makeover ensemble for their nuptials – something that hopefully would not embarrass anyone. The idea was to start with the first layer and move on out to the stuff people actually would see. Until she took me to the department called foundations (which is now affectionately called lingerie) I had no idea that underwear came with so much hardware. We left there with two complete matching sets of stuff with enough wire to build a bicycle. But not before I was mortified beyond reason by someone called a fitter who actually makes you stand there naked and measures you from more angles than I thought possible on one teenage human body.

We left the store that day with all the layers to completely transform me into a young lady, or a newly minted secretary as played by a giant 12 year old; the outfit was a tailored suit with little black pumps. My face said kid, but my outfit said dictation.

Fortunately my step-mother also knew that stopping by the Snowflake Bakery on the way home to bring the Ad Man a special treat would probably soothe his shock at the final tab for all the fabric it took to make me presentable. I was allowed to get some of my favorite things which amounted to a half moon treat along with their famous rainbow cookies.

Just to make sure I had my role in the newly formed family pretty well nailed down, I did what any self respecting hormonal teenager would do. I perfected sullen. Even on their wedding day, banished to the end of the one of the long tables, far away from the happy couple, I undoubtedly did my best pouting teen look for the audience of none. Self involved teenagers rarely know that the world is not watching them, especially at an occasion where they are not the star of the show, like a wedding.

I am not even sure she remembers this early getting-to-know-you-through-undergarment-before-the-wedding shopping escapade. But it was a beginning I’ll never forget, and have come to treasure as the years fly by. It has been many decades now and today she celebrates a very big birthday that comes after 30 (plus four more decades). If the old Snowflake Bakery were still in business I might buy her a little pastry and tell her that having her as my second mom is my lucky fortune, wired undergarments or not.

Judy's Birthday Rainbow Cookies

Ingredients

2 to 2.5 packages of (fresh) almond paste (about 16 ounces total)
4.25 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups white (ultra fine works great) sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
splash of vanilla
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons xanthan gum (for gluten free flour only)
3 cups of gluten free flour or all purpose flour
8 eggs
about 25 drops of red and green food coloring (each)
1.5 - 2 jars of dark red jam (seedless is best)
pinch of your favorite liquor, Godiva, Cherry or whatever smells good
12-15 ounces of really good quality bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons corn syrup

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Butter and line three jelly roll pans with parchment that overhangs slightly. Butter parchment. Set aside.

Mix almond paste with sugar in a food processor thoroughly.

In a stand mixer, incorporate the butter, almond/sugar. Add eggs one at a time
Whisk flour, xanthan gum (for gluten free flour only) and salt in a bowl. Add to wet mixture until incorporated.

Separate batter evenly into three bowls. Add green food coloring to one bowl, red in another bowl and leave one without color.

Spread each batter in your prepared pans. Bake about 12 minutes total and rotate half way. Let cool completely.

Heat jam until liquid. Add liquors to taste. Strain if necessary & cool to room temperature.

Loosen edge of green cake. Lift parchment slightly so that it is free, but keep it in the pan. Spread thin layer of jam on top.

Loosen edges of the layer that is not colored. Flip layer onto layer with jelly using parchment to help. Gently push it into place. Spread jam on that layer. Place the last layer on top as evenly as possible.

Cover final layer with clean parchment. Wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap. Place a large cutting board on top to weigh it down. Set aside two hours or more.

The Finish

Break up the chocolate and melt it in a double boiler over barely warm heat, stirring occasionally.

When almost melted turn off the heat. Stir in corn syrup. Let chocolate cool slightly.

Trim the edges of the cake with a serrated knife. Drizzle half the chocolate over top and spread. Refrigerate about 15 minutes to set the chocolate.

Place a piece of clean parchment on a large baking sheet. Place that on top of the chocolate coated side and in one movement, flip over.

Peel off parchment. Drizzle remaining chocolate to the edges. Refrigerate until set.

Use a serrated knife or a very small sharp knife to cut the cookies into small squares. Tastes best the next day after liquor and other flavors fuse. They keep well frozen, or at room temperature in a tin for about a week.

Happy 36.8 Million minute birthday, Judy!

It's Summertime and the Catalogs Are Caroling Their Wares: A little fun

2010-09-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

hey WS, santa needs a vacation, too

The mailbox is beginning to overflow with holiday catalogs even while the temperature is a toasty 89 degrees outside. While we are still eating freshly picked corn on the cob, summer berries, and enjoying perfectly vine-ripened tomatoes, a faint fa la la la la is dressing the covers of most incoming catalogs.
Perhaps the holiday catalogs are arriving earlier with hope that we will be fooled into thinking that gift shopping days are running out. I've been peeking, and some of the most famous and once upon a time, sane cookware sellers have lost their ever loving collective minds.

It was always a treat for those who love cooking to see what new gadgets were emerging or what new pans might be available. But I’m afraid that this year, we are seeing an entirely new beast. This is the year of “say what the hell is that?” and holy craptastic. And why would anyone want that thing in their kitchen taking up valuable real estate?

For the sale price of $99 you can own your very own monogrammed cutting board. One of those giant wooden boards with a well around the edge to catch the meat juices now comes with your very own initial carved in the center of the board. But does it come with a little brush to clean into the deep crevice of letter W? Or perhaps Uncle Ernie is carving and he could give a rat’s ass about your hoity toity monogrammed cutting board and makes that fancy letter C turn into a somewhat awkward letter E? So much for the sharp edge on that knife, by the way. Monogrammed cutting board, Chuck? Seriously.

The All Clad Deluxe slow cooker comes with an insert that is stove-top ready. All that deluxe-quality for $300. Rumor has it that they finally upgraded the stove-top deluxe insert so that it quit peeling. Let’s have a little insert with our stew, shall we? And here’s the part where it wins the stupid award; you can't brown anything in something with sides that tall. If you drop stewing meat in the bottom, it will steam, not brown on the stove-top. They sell the same slow cooker with a ceramic insert that can't go on the stove-top but it can go in the dishwasher. So for $100 less, buy the ceramic insert slow cooker, and brown the meat in a fry pan. The ceramic insert may develop little hairline cracks (they say that was fixed, too) but at least it won’t peel.

How about a Staub cast-iron pot? Used to be that in order to buy those you’d have to sell your firstborn, or take out another mortgage. Seriously though, unless you have spent some time at the gym, or like to work out, Staub is way heavier than Le Creuset and twice the price. They advertise that it is dishwasher safe, but guess what? Hand wash for a longer life will be the saleperson's mantra or I am willing to give you my first born.

A couple of cookware stores began carrying the Technivorm Moccamaster coffeemaker. If you can call it that. It is more like a space age modern muse for the kitchen counter. Technivorm drips very hot coffee into a carafe about 3 inches lower than the bottom of the cone drip and you could stand there and watch the steam vapors escape and freeze on their way into the carafe, dropping the coffee temperature by a fair amount. I’m stupid enough to own one. I’ve had it for a year now and every time I make coffee I shake my head in wonder at what possessed me to part with that much money for this machine aside from the modern art sculpture look on my counter. They came up with a fix and mailed me a part. It is a cover for the carafe that allows for the drip to drop, so to speak, but keeps most of the heat contained. A fine fix, but not a remarkable remedy. Still drinking tepid coffee. You could own one of these useless, but artsy machines for the mere pittance of $300. My French press thought it was destined for the useless appliance closet after I toted home the Technivorm, but it has yet to make the move to live next to the nonstick egg poacher insert. Technivorm might arrive there first.

And last, and especially least, we could not leave out the smoking gun. Yes, it is called the Smoking Gun. It is a gadget that spews some magical smoky flavor into your food through the attached tube. Just don’t point it at anyone and certainly don’t answer the door with the smoking gun in your hand – no need to create a misunderstanding with the UPS guy. It runs on batteries and if you forget to smoke it up while cooking you can add it later. The catalog says you can, so it must be true. At only $99 with an additional $25 wood chip assortment to complete the package, I think this might be the perfect mother-in-law gift for this holiday season. Imagine when you tell people that you bought your mother-in-law a smoking gun for the holidays – an instant conversation stopper if ever there was one.

Now, if they'd only start carrying the All Clad stainless 14 inch fry pan, I might actually buy something. But until then, I'm eyeing that Miele rotary iron for just $2000. Think of all the money I'd save ironing my own tableclothes, if only I had any.

Coming to America with Poppy Seed Cookies

2010-09-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

Lina & sweet Izzy, circa 1914

Where my mom was raised, in the tiny apartment on South 2nd Street in Brooklyn, the kitchen served as culinary school for mastering the art of our heirloom family recipes. She had a permanent front row seat in the classroom in her mother’s kitchen because her bed, a cot really, was located next to the stove. That kitchen was the first place in America where our culinary family history was carried forward, one recipe at a time.

There were no notes, no recipe cards, but there was a teacher and a willing pupil, usually covered in flour, speaking Romanian mixed with Yiddish at first, and then finally English. Undoubtedly some information was lost in translation, but each recipe has survived well over 150 years looking remarkably the same.

But those heirloom recipes had a long journey to get to where they are today.

Leaving behind family, friends and their home, four of a dozen siblings crossed the European continent on foot one hundred and ten years ago. During the great emigration from Moldavia in Romania in 1899-1900 they sought freedom from the overwhelming oppression of merely being Jews. Carrying only a few possessions that included precious woodworking and dressmaking tools, a couple of family heirlooms and photos, they walked alongside thousands of other Jews to Hamburg. Almost accidental Americans, they had an opportunity to emigrate to a host of countries, but because a distant cousin in the United States offered sponsorship, they finally boarded a ship sailing to New York Harbor.

Arriving in America, the siblings honored their new home by swiftly assimilating. Moise became Moses. Rosa became Rose. Marim became Mary and Lienor became Lina. Moses became a successful carpenter and with his new young wife, raised two boys in Manhattan, whose educations would never have come to pass in their old homeland because in Romania the law didn’t allow Jews to attend school or pursue higher education.
Rose and Mary opened a dressmaking business in New York that specialized in copying couture. They were enormously popular and specialized in creating one-of-kind wedding dresses. Lina, the youngest sister, married a man who had emigrated from the same region of Romania. Lina and sweet Izzy, as he was known, made their home in Brooklyn where they raised my mother and her brother.

Lina and Izzy’s was the place where friends and family gathered for Shabbat dinner. Lina spent the entire day cleaning, cooking and baking and followed the admirable European method of preparation – where every single morsel of food was used. Chicken parts would turn into savory broth. Extra vegetables and herbs would go into the soup pot. A leftover potato might be the beginning of a knish. The dried fruit would be split into portions for both tzimmes and strudel. Chicken fat would be used to make gribenes (fried chicken skin). Nothing was wasted or allowed to be wasted. Food was expensive and precious and even after decades of living in America they never forgot what it felt like to be hungry.

Because I lost my mom nearly at the beginning of my mentoring, I had only a partial concept of how to prepare those recipes. Fortunately while she was alive, my mother, who was a gifted letter writer, often wrote down those top-dog secret recipes for distant cousins though she never saved copies. And years later with a simple twist of fate when I was researching our ancestry, I was able to locate some of those distant cousins and reclaim some of the recipes that were almost lost to me.

I never met my grandmother, and I had very little time with my mother; finding my distant cousins who actually ate dinner in my grandmother’s kitchen and could tell me family stories was like finding a treasured heirloom hidden in the attic, long forgotten.

I can still see one very special cousin, sitting across from me the day we met more than fifteen years ago, painstakingly writing down the poppy seed cookie recipe on a card for me. From memory, she spoke aloud in a soft voice recalling the ingredients and preparation, carefully documenting all of it.

I don't need the card these days to make the cookies, but I have it safely tucked away as a reminder to continue archiving all those recipes for the next generation. Sometimes when I make the poppy seed cookies I imagine my grandmother standing in her mother's kitchen, over a hundred years ago in old Romania, carefully memorizing exactly the same movements I am doing. Perhaps not exactly, since I can't help myself - this recipe is modified just a bit for a little extra kick, and can be prepared gluten free.
Culinary ancestry; it's almost better than 100 year old photographs.

Lina’s Poppy Seed Cookies

Ingredients

1 egg
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ heaping cup of sugar
½ teaspoon almond flavoring
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 heaping tablespoons poppy seeds
Grated zest of one lemon
2 cups of almond flour
1 cup regular or gluten free flour (add pinch xanthan gum for gluten free)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375.
Mix flour, baking powder in one bowl. Set aside. In larger bowl mix egg, oil, sugar, poppy seeds, lemon zest and almond flavoring. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well. Pinch off small pieces and roll into balls (add a little more almond flour if necessary) about a half inch big. Place on silpat lined cookie sheets. Flatten with your hand or use the back of a spoon. Let set for about 30 minutes. Bake 8 minutes and rotate cookie sheets. Bake about 8 minutes more or until lightly brown. Cool. Makes several dozen cookies.

Where the Wild Shoes Are: With Nutella Meringue Drops

2010-08-23T19:35:00.000-07:00

After walking to every patisserie that sold French macarons during my first month in Paris, my once sensible walking shoes began to seriously malfunction. Fashionable in California but not exactly stylish in Paris, they were losing the battle with cobblestone streets and city walking. With one sole flapping in the breeze, they were clearly gasping their last breath. And given the awkwardness of encountering giggling little children and elderly women pointing at them, it was time to spring for something a little more, well, Parisian. And black.

I memorized how to say my shoe size in French and put the prettiest pink collars on the adorable, but fake Bouledogues Français, Lulu and Phoebe (they're really Boston Terriers but no one in Paris understood the translation). I’d already learned that dogs were always welcome everywhere in Paris and warmed up even the most sullen storekeeper. I was not beneath using them to get what I wanted.

Sure enough, la vendeuse des chaussures, and in fact everyone in the shoe salon greeted the dogs warmly in rapid fire French. But when I asked to see shoes in my size, the very proper elderly French saleswoman looked at me, looked down at my feet, frowned, pointed (again) and yelled out: MON DIEU! QUARANTE TRIOS!

The small shoe salon got awfully silent as every eyeball moved to my feet, which were sadly, still clad in the ugly American shoe now being licked by one bored dog. Satisfied that everyone knew the great dilemma the sales woman faced in helping the American with huge feet, she sighed loudly, and we moved up to the second floor where they apparently kept the clown-sized footwear.

She brought out an array of the ugliest shoes that not even a catalog of podiatry shoes from 1943 would have advertised. I politely rejected them all. After tossing her hands in the air, doing that rapid fire French again, which I understood far more than I wanted (big ox feet, ugly shoes will be only yours should you ever find anyone willing to sell you anything you American giant). And that was the kind part. I think she also asked Lulu and Phoebe to smell my feet, or to sell my feet. Clearly, that was lost in translation.

Finally, the shoes she began to bring out were from the downstairs public display; translation, pretty shoes. Perhaps the hideous selection was a test to see if I had a scintilla of good fashion sense which would not have been obvious given my current footwear.

Exactly 15 minutes after noon, the saleswoman started packing up the shoes and told me to pick something because she was leaving for her déjeuner. Lunch break, it seems, happens whether you have a customer or not. Though I wasn’t quite finished, to promote goodwill between the France and America, I purchased a pair of shoes. Good thing I noticed they had two more locations in Paris where I could be humiliated all over again in a new setting because I certainly wasn't going back to that store ever again.

And continuing on my quest for French macarons, we detoured on the way back to the apartment by way of La Printemps Department Store to visit Maison du Chocolat. They had just gotten in the most delicate and delicious French macaroons I’d tasted yet.

I tried to recreate the macarons when I was home in California months later. After several macaron wrecks (getting them out of the oven without any cracks on top is tricky) I came upon a different solution; meringues with filling.

These meringues are easy, inexpensive and dazzling. Each time I make these I am reminded not only of that shoe shopping day, but of both France's persistent use of Nutella on everything, and of course, Maison du Chocolat and those amazing macaroons.

The meringues are gluten free and elegant enough to serve at a party or to give as a gift; if there are any left, that is.

Nutella Meringue Drops

Ingredients

4 large or extra large egg whites
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon almond extract
½ cup Nutella, or melted bittersweet chocolate

Directions

Preheat oven to 225. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silpats.

Crack the eggs carefully and separate the yolks from the whites. Store the yolks for another use. Pop the whites into a stand mixer or in a very large bowl and add the vanilla and almond and the salt. Whisk away on high until frothy but no peaks are formed.

Whisk the sugar with the cornstarch and with the mixer on medium speed; pour the sugar mixture in a steady stream at the edge of the bowl until it is incorporated. Scrape the bowl once with a spatula to make sure all the sugar is incorporated. Now whisk on highest speed until stiff peaks form and mixture looks glossy.

Use a pastry bag or very large Ziploc bag with a 1/2 inch tip to pipe the Meringues onto both cookie sheets, filling them – they can be placed very close together. Or use a spoon to place some on the cookie sheet and use a twist of the spoon to shape them. They should be between 1.5 and 2 inches in diameter. Either way, the recipes yields dozens.

Bake 30 minutes and rotate the baking sheets. Add about another 35 minutes to the cooking time and then turn off the oven and don't open the door! Leave them in the oven 60 minutes more.

Remove and let them cool completely before handling.

While they cool, gently melt the chocolate (in a water bath or the microwave) or Nutella until spreadable. Let the mixture cool somewhat. Take two Meringues and spread a bit of Nutella or chocolate on the bottom of one cookie. Attach the other cookie. Cool the cookies completely before serving – if you can wait. Très bon!

Notes: Don't try to make them on a day when your house might be humid - they won't dry. Keep an eye on them in the oven because while they will still taste great if they brown, they won't look as pretty. Don't be tempted to open the oven door - and if you err on the side of too much time, not a problem. They might get soggy stored in plastic wrap. A tin is best.

Fromage Blanc with Framboises, In Your Kitchen

2010-08-20T16:48:00.000-07:00

yummy french berries and fromage blanc

Some of the food we ate while we lived in France are just memories, but some of it we have painstakingly recreated back home.


Fromage Blanc is one of those, and also one of our favorite foods.   It is delightfully easy to make and even more fun to eat.
It is something that might be related to our cottage cheese (if it was smooth), or yogurt, or a very loose cream cheese. Depends on who you ask. All I know is that once we discovered it, we ate it everyday, often with berries that were sublime.

Fromage Blanc is easy to make but expensive to buy here in the U.S. Vermont Butter and Cheese has one as does Cypress Grove Cheese in California. Neither taste like French Fromage Blanc though.

To make it, order the Fromage Blanc starter from New England Cheese Making Company along with the cheesecloth to drain the stuff.
Get a gallon of whole milk from the store. Heat it up in a large pot to about 78-80 degrees. Mix in the starter until dissolved (about 2 minutes), cover and let sit for about 14 hours on the stove top or counter.

Using a cheesecloth lined colander with a pot or large bowl under it, spoon the mixture into the colander and cover. Refrigerate and let it drain for about 4 hours, but no more than 6.

Pour or dump into a large bowl and whisk it until it is smooth, free from lumps. Use some of the liquid (whey) if it seems to dry to you. It should resemble the consistency of Greek Yogurt or sour cream.

If it looks like cream cheese you left it too long and you will want to stir some of the whey back in to the mixture. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. It makes about a quart plus and it lasts about 2 weeks in the refrigerator. It only gets more ripe, and that is not a bad thing.

Serve with berries or other fruit. I like it with bananas or honey. People in France serve it often for dessert with fruit or a honey topping.

Bon Appetite!

Short Cake Road Trip: Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake

2010-08-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

Ohio? Didn't we lose my brother in Colorado?

Half a century ago my family made a cross country sojourn in the old Ford. Six people were packed into a non air-conditioned car for thousands of miles in the middle of summer; three of them stinky teenage boys plus one chatty little four-year-old girl. This is the very stuff that makes warm family memories. Too bad I can’t remember any except the fuzzy-gray traumatic one where we lose my older brother somewhere on a mountain in Colorado. Fortunately there is proof we found him again, evidenced by his Bar Mitzvah photo the next fall.

Determined to subvert that history, thirty years later we piled our own two pre-teen girls into the tiny backseat of an air conditioned Subaru station wagon and took off west. It marked the beginning of the big move to California from Vermont, leaving behind very cold winters to happily bask in the fog and sunshine that would San Francisco Bay.
Road food would rule. Motels with pools were the late afternoon destination. Think Route 66, but not nearly as awesome. Also not awesome were the two sullen pre-teenagers and their battery eating Walkmans which killed the glamour of the road trip more quickly than running out of Dunkin Donuts. We called them the Misses Bickersons not 50 miles into the trip because they argued constantly. The oldest had just declared herself a vegetarian. The youngest had yet to realize that food came in more than the Gulp versions and that 7-11 was not owned by the government nor located at every intersection no matter how many times she asked.
Miss vegetarian Bickerson was getting cranky trying to find something beyond macaroni and cheese or salad to eat. Sadly, even her veggie western omelet (in Denver) was almost sent back because it had touched ham. It probably is fodder for therapy at some point, but we made her eat it anyway. Not one of us could stand her crankiness in the confines of the car for one more day. The girl needed some protein.
In an old keepsake box is the evidence; rules ratified and signed in the very first miles of the trip between the two warring Bickersons. The list is preserved for posterity or the national archives, whichever asks first. On it are classics – no spitting, burping or other gross bodily functions. No flapping lips unless it is your designated talking minute. No touching the other’s side of the (compact) back seat. No slurping drinks (my rule) and no singing aloud with the Walkman. The best rule? No talking until 7AM. Let’s just say that one child was quite cheerfully chatty from the moment her eyes opened, no matter how early. The rest of us needed shots of high-test coffee.
Starting out before dawn to beat the late afternoon triple digit heat, we’d begin driving at 5AM and stop at 3PM to seek the coolness of the pool and some early dessert. Aside from the gallons of really bad coffee we guzzled, almost 786 versions of tired American pie dotted the road food landscape. Thankfully, there was an alternative. Since it was late June there was also strawberry shortcake. Lots of it.
Sometimes the shortcake was a biscuit – other times it was pound cake gone awry. And once in a while it was a cross between a scone and a biscuit. The scones won our hearts. Not a summer goes by since then, that as soon as the berries show up at our Farmer’s Markets; we are making shortcakes until the supply is gone.
We’ve been thinking about a road trip again and it is almost strawberry season everywhere. This trip, the backseat will be filled by tiny Lulu and Phoebe who sleep when the car is moving. They will gladly eat meat and everything else offered, including strawberries.
The Walkman is long gone, replaced by the iPod – which magically plugs into the car. Sometimes change is a good thing, just as long as no one messes with strawberry shortcake.

Road Trip Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

Scones

2 cups flour (for gluten free flour – plus 1 tspn. xanthan gum)
¼ cup sugar
Pinch Salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter very cold, cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1 tablespoon lemon or orange zest
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup currants, dried cranberries, fresh blueberries, (optional)

Strawberry Filling

2 pints (or more) fresh strawberries cut into quarters
2 tablespoons sugar (1 per pint)
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Whipped Cream Topping

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
Splash of vanilla

Directions

Scones

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment
In a food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, sugar and pinch of salt (and xanthan gum if using gf flour). Drop in the cold butter pieces and pulse until it looks like coarse cornmeal. Remove to a large bowl.
Pour one cup of cream into a small bowl. Add the egg and mix well. Add the zest and stir. Pour into the dry mix and using a fork mix just until incorporated. Add the optional dried fruit and mix. Dough will be very sticky. Using floured hands, knead the dough a few turns until it is smooth. Cut in half. Roll each half into a ball and place on floured board.
Flatten slightly and cut into four pieces. Place on silpat lined baking sheet. Bake about 18 minutes until lightly brown. Cool.

Strawberries

Wash, dry and quarter berries. Mix in sugar and liquor. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Whipped Cream

Whip the heavy cream with a mixer or by hand after adding sugar and vanilla. Keep cold.

Assembly

Using serrated knife – cut the scones in half. Spoon a generous serving of berries and juices onto bottom half of scone. Top with whipped cream and place other half of scone, offset on top.
Bon appétit and happy trails.

Once Upon a Home Ec Cake Wreck: Marble Cake Gluten Free

2010-08-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

clearly I should have been paying attention....

Home Economics was a mandatory (girl) course in 7^th grade and every single project seemed to require a mother. Unfortunately I was fresh out of mothers for most of that year.

First up in the Home Ec curriculum was the "sew a dress with mom" project. My fondest wish tended more toward meeting the Beatles or marrying Illya Kuryakin, not learning to sew. My father enlisted a neighborhood mom to help and she thought girls only came in one size; small and dainty. Over 5’9” with feet past a size 10, I was nothing close to small. I did get credit for completing the dress and lucky for me the teacher never noticed the masking taped ~~seams~~ hem, or that it was a thousand sizes too small.

The next project, "baking with mom" lamentably meant one thing. Cake. The Home Ec teacher had great affection for all things cake, evidenced by the unending stash of Little Debbie treats in her desk drawer. I pleaded my case using the poor-sad-orphan-card to get a reprieve, but the teacher knew that I had one breathing parent left, which meant I was only one-half orphan. I was toast.

We had to bake the thing from scratch which involved purchasing ingredients that were not labeled Jiffy Cake Mix. I didn’t have a lot of cash, so I brilliantly figured I’d buy only the important sounding ingredients for my chocolate cake.

Nesquik seemed more versatile than Hershey's cocoa. Margarine was cheaper than butter and sort of looked the same. I'd use water instead of milk; who would know? Powdered sugar for frosting seemed extraneous since I had to buy the regular kind anyway. Why not use the same stuff for both? Why buy vanilla flavoring if the cake was going to be chocolate?

Baking at 350? I preferred even numbers, like 400 which sounded as though it would bake the cake faster. It did. Well-done to burned cake transpired in a matter of minutes. But hey, it was already chocolate; the dark part was well hidden and it still smelled mostly like cake.

The granulated sugar frosting was, well, lacking. When I found some sliced almonds in the pantry to pat strategically into the grainy frosting, I was feeling quite smart. It looked rather elegant if you squinted, which I hoped my home economics teacher would be doing when I brought it to school the next day.

I needn’t have worried about carrying it – the thing was heavy as a brick and just as petrified. I dramatically carried the cake like it was fragile; leaving everyone to imagine that it was delicate. There were so many cakes that I easily shoved mine behind the surplus. Other girls were clamoring for the teacher to taste their creations. Something about the law of averages saved me; there were only so many bites of sweetness a person can eat before they surrender. Mine was left alone. But because it looked like cake I got credit. Even motherless, I managed the façade of cake and passed home economics. Barely.

These days I never forget to use vanilla even when I make a chocolate confection. The one lesson I learned from making that 7th grade cake wreck was that any cake can be made to look presentable, but not all presentable cakes taste good. Given a choice, I opt for both, but taste wins every time. This chocolate and yellow cake is a favorite, and one day I will actually learn the art of marbling.

(Gluten Free) Marble Layer Cake

2 ¼ cups cake flour or featherlight gluten free flour sifted
1 teaspoon xanthan gum (if using gluten free flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup almond flour sifted
Pinch salt
2/3 cup cream
2/3 cup milk
6 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
½ teaspoon fiori di sicilia
¾ cup boiling water
2/3 cup valrhona unsweetened cocoa sifted
2 scant cups white sugar (superfine works well)
2 sticks unsalted butter softened

Preheat oven to 350. Butter bottom and sides of two 8x3 or 9x2 inch round cake pans. Line with parchment and butter. Coat with flour. Tap out excess.
In a bowl, whisk together sifted flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add flavorings. Add flour and milk/cream mixture alternately until incorporated. Don’t over mix.
In a bowl, mix sifted cocoa with boiling water until it is sludge. Scoop about 3 cups of the batter into the chocolate mix. Whisk until incorporated.
Alternate scoops of chocolate and vanilla batter in baking pan until both pans are filled evenly. Using a butter knife, gently draw a figure eight to marble the batter.

Tap pans on counter to settle the contents and remove air bubbles. Give pan a quick shake and place in oven. Bake about 35 minutes until lightly brown or toothpick comes out clean.
Cool five minutes and turn out on a rack. Cool completely.
Cut each layer in half.
Brush with simple syrup, if desired, and frost with your favorite: Ganache, butter cream, dark chocolate glaze or combination.
Notes: To marble correctly, don’t mush the knife through like I did when you make that figure eight. It comes out without the distinct markings. Less is more. Really. I used both ganache and butter cream just because I wasn’t sure which I wanted. Next time I would use a thinner layer of ganache between the layers and pour a glaze over the top and sides. Still, there is no such thing as too much chocolate.
Bon appétit and let us eat cake.

Chocolate Bread Pudding: From Ivy's Kitchen, Very Small

2010-08-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

Stashed in the back of our stuffed chocolate cupboard is a well loved box overflowing with hand written recipes, food notes and wrinkled wine labels. It's a repository of our life in food - a truer picture of our history than any ancestral chart.
Dearest to me are the hand written recipes from our adopted grandmother, 80-year-old Ivy; shared with us when we were teenage newlyweds living in our very first apartment far from our families. It was a simpler time when all we needed was a home cooked meal to make the world right again. I can even smell that first meal Ivy made for us, although at the time we weren’t quite sure what to call it.
Entering the dingy apartment house foyer on that gray, bone chilling, rainy New England autumn evening, the usual smell, old cat hair and l’eau de musty old building was replaced by the wafting and mouth watering aroma of warm-from-the-oven meat loaf and mashed potatoes. In the dark foyer we almost tripped over the foil wrapped gift by our front door. It was the very first care-package dinner from our neighbor, Ivy. That meatloaf was love in a 5x8 loaf pan.
That same evening, we returned the dishes and shared the first of many cups of tea with Ivy. In contrast to our modest junk-furnished flat, her apartment was a cozy chintz filled slice of her previous life in England. Though she had been in the United States for decades by then, she still was a very proper English marm in diction, grammar, manners and food making. That probably explained why her meatloaf was a cross between an American Good Housekeeping recipe and Shepherd’s Pie. It was topped with some of the mashers, almost like Ivy couldn’t help herself – along with the inclusion of very squishy peas scattered throughout the meatloaf. Nonetheless, it was comfort food to a couple of kids who relied on dry cereal and boxed macaroni and cheese to survive thus far.
Once she caught on that we were not fit to feed ourselves, Ivy left her version of a balanced meal on our doorstep many evenings. We thought she possessed some crazy crystal ball because the food was always piping hot, but we soon realized that from her living room window, she could see us getting off the bus a block away. That gave her just the right amount of time to spirit the dish to our door and disappear like a magic food-elf. She had three or four dishes that were rotated and every single one included squished peas and potatoes. The only one we could not eat, but never told her, was the thing that included canned salmon. Even potatoes couldn’t make that dish edible.
Ivy also introduced us to her favorite post dinner delight, English bread and butter pudding. We ate so many variations of bread pudding, we lost count. Our favorite was toll house chocolate chip, again Ivy's way of being half American, half British. The chocolate was warm, gooey and a perfect accent to the bland pudding.
Many chilly winter evenings over bread pudding and tea, I would snuggle in one of the handmade afghans she was continually crocheting. The blankets were stored in a cedar chest that looked like an antique you’d find at auction deep in the New England countryside, but it had been in her family for generations.

On that late spring day when we said good bye because we were moving back to our hometown, we also told Ivy that we were expecting our first baby. Over one last shared pudding, we promised to come back with the baby to visit that next summer. Before leaving, Ivy gave us not only the handwritten recipes, but another gift that we still cherish; the afghan and a bow-covered cedar chest. Thirty six years later the cedar chest stores not only the beautiful afghan but a tiny crocheted blanket that Ivy made for our first baby. Sadly, that next winter, before we could bring the baby to meet her, Ivy died quite suddenly.

Each one of her hand written recipe cards begins: From Ivy’s Kitchen - Very Small. Her cozy apartment kitchen may have been tiny, but her heart was huge and generous. I’ve a long way to go before I turn 80, but I hope I can be someone’s Ivy one day. Bread pudding is very forgiving and easy to prepare. Intended to use up old stale bread with a few eggs and milk, the recipe deserves a little update. Use some brioche or challah (egg bread) for a richer flavor and instead of toll house chips, chop some bittersweet chocolate. I’m pretty sure Ivy would approve and be thrilled that I finally figured out the purpose of a kitchen.

Ivy’s Kitchen, Very Small - Chocolate Bread Pudding

Ingredients

2 cups of day old challah, brioche or pound cake, cubed (or gluten free pound cake or bread)
3 cups of (whole) milk, scalded
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon
½ cup of chopped bittersweet chocolate

Directions
Preheat oven to 325. Butter an 8x8 baking pan. Scald milk, add butter and let stand about 15 minutes. Add the other ingredients (except bread & chocolate) to milk mixture and whisk to incorporate. Drop cubed bread and chopped chocolate into the prepared casserole dish and gently pour tepid liquid over it. Cover with foil and place in hot water bath in the preheated oven. Keep covered for at least 30 minutes and bake for a total of one hour or until just a tiny bit wiggly in the center. Serve slightly warm with whipped cream on a puddle of dolce de leche.
Notes: Cube the bread the day before and let it sit uncovered overnight. It needs to be slightly stale and dried. A serrated knife will chop the chocolate easily.
Bon appétit.

Uncle Milt's Half Moon Cookies (gluten free)

2010-08-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Uncle Milt's Half Moon Cookie, Kitchen Version

When life gets challenging, I retreat to the kitchen and bake. I've been baking a mountain of confections and feeding our neighborhood since we found ourselves in the growing land of the suddenly unemployed two weeks ago. And whenever I listen to the news and hear some talking-head cheerfully report that the economy is improving, it merely means another baking flurry is about to commence.
Yesterday I decided to bake with purpose. This time, I'm tackling everyone’s favorite, the holy grail of childhood memories; Snowflake Bakery's Half Moon cookie, the kitchen version.
Converting Baking Hero, Milt Ziegler's commercial ingredient list for the Half Moon mix to a kitchen recipe takes a certain amount of good faith and apparently a very competent geek who happens to have some spare time these days. Converting 15 pounds of cake flour to a manageable quantity that would fit in my Kitchen-Aid mixer, along with the balance of other ingredients is similar to one of those pesky math word problems. There I was, biting my lip, double checking my math with a calculator, hoping I was not making a mistake. Math word problems give me hives and a headache.
From over my shoulder there was suddenly the sound of Pink Floyd's Money in the form of a tiny hum coming from the Geek. I paused, pencil in the air, waiting. With a small, but audible “ah ha” mixed into the middle of the song I heard footsteps receding to the kitchen. I followed.
Reading glasses perched carefully on his nose, he squinted and leaned in to watch the numbers shifting in a beaker filled with water; he was dropping in whole eggs, one at a time. Rising up from that stooped over, back-aching bend, he grinned and said “two large eggs and a half cup of milk”.
I looked at my paper and did some fast calculations and sure enough – two eggs and 4 ounces of milk. He'd gotten there faster, of course, and more accurately, like the good squint scientist that he is (hello: Bones). One fancy spreadsheet later I had my recipe.
I’ve auditioned many black & white cookie recipes through the years trying to duplicate the Snowflake Half Moon Cookie memory from my childhood. Alas, not a single one came close. Until now. Uncle Milt’s Half Moon kitchen recipe is quite probably the best version I’ve ever made.
There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t pass a bakery in my neighborhood and wish it were Snowflake. After the Snowflake article appeared in Salon’s Food page, a Facebook group, Snowflake Bakery Memories, was created by Milt’s son, Jeff. After just a couple of weeks almost 250 people have joined the group. Almost everyone whistfully remembers the fabulous Half Moon cookies (black & whites).
The Facebook page is the closest we will get to Snowflake Bakery these days, but with Milt’s generosity, now we can have a kitchen version of the popular Half Moon cookie. Go ahead. Close your eyes when you take that first bite. It will take you all the way back to those wonderful Snowflake days.
And every time you make Uncle Milt’s Half Moon cookies, be sure to send some love to the guy who made it all possible.

Uncle Milt's Half Moon Cookies

Ingredients - Cookies

2 oz. unsalted butter, softened
2 oz. Crisco shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs (mixed well)
½ teaspoon pure vanilla
1/8 teaspoon pure lemon flavoring
Splash of fiori di sicilia (optional but seriously worth it)
2 ½ cups cake flour ( gluten free flour, add ½ tspn xanthan gum)
1 scant tablespoon baking powder
Pinch salt
½ cup whole milk (plus a tablespoon if needed)

Ingredients - Glaze

2 cups sifted confectioner sugar (King Arthur has no additives)
2 tablespoons valrhona or other quality unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted)
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
Splash of vanilla and fiori di sicilia

Directions for Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silpats. Makes half a dozen, 5 inch Half Moon cookies.
Mix together flour, baking powder, salt (xanthan gum) and set aside. In stand mixer, cream butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add mixed eggs and incorporate well. Add flavorings. Alternately mix in flour mixture and milk. Beat on high just until incorporated and fluffy. Add a tiny bit more milk if the batter seems too stiff. You want the batter to be sturdier than cupcake batter, but not like cookie dough.
Scoop by half cups, five mounds to a baking sheet, well spaced. Using a small offset spatula or the back of a spoon, flatten the mound into a 4.5’ to 5” circle until it actually looks like a Half Moon/Black & White cookie. They will spread slightly, but not much.
Bake about 8 minutes and rotate pans. Bake about 10 minutes more until lightly golden. Cool completely.
Directions for Glaze
Sift the sugar into a bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of hot water and stir until the mixture is a spreadable glaze. Add the flavorings and let set for about 30 seconds. Spoon onto one half of the flat side of the cookie. Using a small offset spatula or the back of a spoon, spread the glaze thinly to the edges. Let set while finishing up the others.
Add the sifted cocoa to the remaining glaze and more water if necessary. Using the same method finish the glaze on the other half of the cookie.
Let set about an hour until hard.
Notes: Once scooped, you have to spread the batter to the diameter just under what you want for the cookie size. Don’t worry about it being too thin. They rise. Don’t over bake because they will get crispy. Half Moons should be soft.
The glaze can get runny if you add even a tiny bit too much liquid. To remedy that, add more sugar. You want it thin, but not liquidy. It is easier to do the white glaze first and then the chocolate. Just be cautious to not hold the cookie over the others while spreading the chocolate glaze or you might spill it onto the other white glazed halves.

I cannot emphasize enough the addition of fiori di sicilia flavoring from King Arthur. A tiny bit goes a long way and makes your pastry smell and taste like it came from the pastry shop, or in this case, from Snowflake Bakery. It is an enhancement that will make you swoon. I promise.

Bon appétit and thank you to celebrity baking hero, Uncle Milt!

Enterprising Dogs and Ginger Banana Cookies

2010-08-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Lulu and Phoebe signature cookies: Mine and Mine

My answer to our unexpected and ridiculously long stretch of unemployment has been to spend hours in the kitchen using baking therapy to work out those frustrations. I’ve baked all our old favorites at least twice, pounded dough, chopped until the cutting board looks like a sacrificial lamb, and started working on new recipes. My constant kitchen companions, Lulu and Phoebe have been quietly standing by just in case I need help sweeping up stuff from the floor, taste testing or waiting to bark in case Timmy falls in the well.

And, until recently, I hadn’t realized that they were actually waiting for me to get around to baking for them. You’d think after all this time they’d send a memo, a text or at least posted to Facebook.
I’d just finished baking some really fine triple ginger (gluten free) cookies for humans, when I looked up and noticed that both dogs were blowing bubbles; some serious drooling was going on.
Ginger-three-ways was apparently the holy grail of the doggy palate. I’ve seen them get enormously excited when I dropped things on the floor, but they had not yet been soaked with drool in advance of things dropping. Who knew that it would be all about ginger?
Perhaps I was on to something here. I got busy thinking up a good recipe using ginger that would be just perfect for these guys. Sometimes, the unexpected turns into an opportunity.
If the photos are any indication, they approve.

Lulu and Phoebe’s Ginger Banana Cookies

11 oz. (2 cups) mix of rice, sorghum and coconut flours
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
1 heaping tablespoon ginger root powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 oz (weight) or 1/4 cup organic molasses
3 oz (weight) or 1/4 cup organic honey
1 egg
½ cup peanut or olive oil
½ banana
¼ cup Greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 350. Line three baking sheets with parchment or silpats. In a large bowl, combine flours, xanthan gum, ginger, and cinnamon. In a small food processor or blender, combine molasses, oil, egg, honey, banana and yogurt and pulse until liquefied. Add to dry mixture and combine until well incorporated. The dough should be stiff.
Take one silpat and place it on the counter. Take ½ the dough and pat into rectangle on the silpat. Cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper. Roll very thin all the way to edges if possible. Using your favorite cookie cutter, cut into shapes and using an offset spatula, place on another silpat lined baking sheet. Or, using a butter knife, cut the rolled rectangle of dough into even sized pieces (think graham crackers) by cutting in half and then half again, repeat. Using the tines of a fork, poke each cracker a couple of times (again, think graham crackers). Slide onto baking tray without moving the dough.
Turn oven to 325. Bake 6 minutes and rotate. Bake another 4-5 minutes and remove from oven. When all the baking sheets are finished, combine the cookies onto two sheets. Turn oven off and place cookies in the oven and dry for 30 minutes more (remember to turn the oven off!) to crisp.
Cool completely.

Notes: Using a digital scale for baking will give you more accurate results in general. The combo flours give the cookie a more multi-dimensional flavor, but feel free to use plain rice flour. The dogs won't care. Try to not to use wheat flour- most dogs can't tolerate it.

Bon appétit happy dogs!

vulcan salute - prelude to cookies and cookies

My Three Moms with a Very Berry Tart

2010-05-06T10:32:00.001-07:00

circa; ultra retro - my three moms

Blame the twisted super-boondoggle called fate, but I was the first kid on the block to grew up with (my) three moms. I love them all, and there is not one I would trade for another. But the one who can always find Hostess HoHos in a blizzard might have a slight edge.

Mom 1.0 was a quintessential Brooklyn girl by way of old Romania and eventually became a stalwart 50's housewife, which included the wearing of pillbox hats on special occasions. She was already at work teaching me how to make the old Jewish family recipes when all I could manage was to toddle by her fabulous red shoes on the kitchen floor. It was never too soon to learn the heart and soul of those old recipes along with handy kitchen skills that serve me still. She could roll strudel pastry so thin you could see through it – all without tearing the dough.
She baked special Valentine cupcakes and provided mom-made matching clothing for both of us that was as good as couture. She inherited the dress making gene from her mother and aunts. Frail and ill, she died way too young and missed out on the best years with her children and grandchildren.
But her kitchen spirit carries on in my heart every time I bake Ada’s brownies, or when I roll out her strudel dough. And sometimes I swear I can hear her ~~snicker~~ smile as I add one more giant spoonful of chocolate to her brownie recipe.
The Ad Man remarried just a year after my mother died. Enter the very young, but determined Step-Mother. Mom 2.0 arrived just as I was turning into a pubescent cacophony of attitude-ness. If ever there was a poster child for wicked step-daughter, it would have been me. I give her a standing ovation for patience, fortitude, along with a medal of valor for keeping the worst of my dirty tricks from my father. I did take away more pearls of wisdom from Mom 2.0 than I’ve ever admitted. I learned that women could work in the outside world and be equal to men, especially in the Ad Man's world. That the art of a negotiation is nothing without charm, grace and kindness - all attributes she taught me.
I also learned supermarket 101; shop early and there will always be HoHos. That Red Jell-O mixed with cool whip was a dessert that never went bad, even if stored in the back of the refrigerator for weeks. And brisket has a sense of humor. She taught me that the biggest lesson of all – that I could count on her to have my back. I call it a mom thing.
And then along came the lemon loving in-laws and mom 3.0 – the granola version. I’ve known my mother-in-law since I was fifteen years old. Even back in the day when no one was sure that our teenage marriage would last the length of a teenage attention span, she was there. She introduced me to natural foods, co-ops, bread baking, homemade yogurt, granola and raspberries fresh from the backyard bushes.
She taught me how to warp a loom which I promptly forgot. She tried to teach me to sew, sure that latent DNA would kick in. It did not. So she created mom-made clothes for her granddaughters so they wouldn’t be embarrassed with stuff I tried to make. She taught me how to bake a pie. She showed me how both mayonnaise and lemon could partner with almost every food and make it oddly better. She gave me my first Christmas stocking with trinkets that made all my childhood Santa dreams come true. But most of all, she gave me her son – willingly.
I honor my three moms this Mother’s Day with a pastry that has something for each of them. For Mom 1.0 this contains a stellar crust similar to her old fashioned rugelach, but with a twist. For Mom 2.0 it has a fabulous raspberry-mascarpone whip, sort of like that red Jell-O with cool whip, but tastier and a shorter shelf life. And for Mom 3.0, the mascarpone is loaded with lots of her favorite condiment, lemon.

My Three Moms Mascarpone-Berry Tart

Ingredients

Tart Shell

8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup almond flour
1 cup flour (gluten free flour, plus a pinch of xanthan gum)
¼ cup ice water (more if necessary)

Filling

1 cup mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup powdered sugar sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
zest of one large lemon
2-4 pints fresh, very ripe berries (I like raspberries)

Directions

Tart Shell

In a food processor pulse together flour & almond meal. Cut shortening and butter into small pieces and add. Pulse in short bursts until it resembles corn meal. Add ice water, a little at a time. Pulse until it comes together in a ball.
Remove to parchment paper and gather dough until it is all incorporated. Split into two pieces. Flatten each ball slightly, wrap in plastic or parchment and refrigerate for at least an hour. Dough will keep for a few days in the refrigerator and longer in the freezer.
Remove one disk from refrigerator and rest 20 minutes at room temperature. Place in 9 inch tart pan or in several small tart pans. Press to fit. Place on cookie sheet. Freeze for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350. Bake straight from freezer about 30 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove and cool completely.

Filling

Put all the ingredients except berries in a bowl and whisk until fluffy. Add in about 1/3 of the berries and fold with a spatula until incorporated, but some berries remain whole. Spoon a thin layer into cooled tart shell(s). Top with whole or cut berries.
Fill the same day you are serving. Shells can be baked a day ahead. Store in a tin.
Refrigerate filled tarts. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
Serve plain or with whipped cream.
Notes: You can find tart shells in the freezer at the grocery. Bake and cool before filling. Optional: drizzle honey over the top, add whipped cream, or spoon macerated berries over the top.
Bon appétit and Happy Mother’s Day

Wayward Violinist Meets Fudgy Pudding Cake

2010-05-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Oh? Really? Not B minor?

We come from a long line of classically trained, yet fickle musicians. We play instruments, compose, and some have even (briefly) attended Julliard. Careers as virtuosos don't happen in our family, but it is almost mandatory that an instrument be handed to a child at a young age, nonetheless. Careful not to anger the musical spirits of the ancestors, we enrolled the 4 year-old in a Suzuki string methods class.
The child attended philharmonic concerts from the age of three, sitting with us in our steeply student-discounted seats. Fidget free; she seemed taken with string instruments. When asked which her favorite string instrument was, she eagerly pointed a chubby finger at the violin section. Or so we thought.
On her first day of class she talked nonstop about getting her new violin - just like the philharmonic musicians. She skipped into class, dragging us by the hand. The teacher proudly presented the child with her first violin; a brand new 6-inch cigar box wrapped in wood-grain contact paper with a ruler sticking out of the end for the neck. The bow? A skinny little stick.
The child's face was pinching into the look that happens right before she melts into tears. She squinted at us like we had offered her worms sautéed with peas for dinner. Oblivious, the teacher sealed the meltdown by giving her a cardboard circle with two feet drawn in marker – a diagram for her stand on to get into the correct form for playing the violin.
We weren’t even worthy of her pitiful look anymore. Stifling a hiccup/sigh, she turned away and merely stared at the ground. Little tears fell on the floor. Did our health insurance cover therapy for victims of well meaning, but really stupid parents?
Her homework was to practice holding the pretend violin correctly using all the props. The girl was beside herself with misery, but she diligently practiced.
Her younger sister borrowed the violin daily for special projects, like smashing spiders. She broke it so often we finally ran out of duct tape. We also went through 3 containers of pick-up-sticks as substitute bows before we realized that the deviously clever little sister was using them as lock picks. Obviously, her career would clearly not be in music.
Finally, the 4 year old graduated to her first ¼ sized violin.
Have you heard the catchy tune, Mississippi Hot Dog? It goes like this; mis-sis-sip-pi-hot-dog. Repeat, a lot. If you’ve not had the pleasure of listening to a pint sized violinist play it (badly) four hundred times in a row, consider yourself lucky. It is hard to screw up the tune since it involves one solitary note. But given how many ways there is to bow a string on a violin, chaos will ensue; as in your ears will bleed.
Eventually, she was fiddling reasonably well and liked to practice with the door closed because she was shy. Each day it seemed like the sound got more muffled. That should have been a clue.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to find her in the closet sitting on pint sized chair. The little violin was now playing the role of cello. That’s right. Apparently she didn't have the heart to tell us that we'd been mistaken. She wasn't pointing to the violins at the philharmonic. She was pointing beyond the violins and the violas to the cellos.
We made a deal. She could play cello right after she finished the classes we had already purchased. Mississippi Hot Dog? Sounds exactly the same on the cello as it does on the violin.
Perhaps she had the right idea with that closet. Julliard would not be calling.
The other thing the wayward young musician and her lock-picking sister had to look forward to on Suzuki concert days was Uncle Jake’s dessert. He came to most of the concerts and always brought dessert. Knowing that fudgy cake was waiting for us at home made 30 kids sawing away in unison (sort of) at Mississippi Hot Dog tolerable. Almost.
The cake uses ingredients that are usually in the cupboard. Serve warm with a favorite ice cream, whipped cream or fresh berries. Or all of the above.

Jake’s Fudgy Pudding Cake

Ingredients
Cake:

1 cup flour or gluten free flour (don't add xanthan gum to this!)
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch salt
½ cup white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
½ cup whole milk
2 tablespoons butter melted
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon Godiva liquor (optional)

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1.5 cups boiling water

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 pan. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, white sugar, cocoa. Add in milk, butter, liquor and vanilla. Stir. Pat evenly into prepared pan. Mix together cocoa and brown sugar making sure no lumps remain. Sprinkle on top of batter. Pour 1 cup plus a scant half cup of boiling water over the top. Place in oven and bake for about 35 minutes.
Cool for about 5-10 minutes and scoop and serve. Best served slightly warm. It will be gooey. Serves 9-12.
Bon appétit.

Horsing Around with Cornbread

2010-05-06T10:29:00.001-07:00

remind me - what's next?

It was a charming 1800's Saltbox abandoned mid-renovation. Set on acres of field and woods, the house's real age could be carbon-dated by the number of field stones missing in the foundation. The glass-half-full realtor almost convinced us that missing stones meant natural fresh air for the cellar. We imagined picnics in fields of wildflowers, hikes through the woods and acres of gardens. So what if our water supply was some stream up in the wooded hillside? Unlike our old Victorian in the city, this was a country house with two (almost functional) bathrooms and we bought it.

We wore out two entire sets of friends finishing the renovations. Too bad not one of us realized that streams freeze in the winter and therefore so would our pipes. When the first thaw occurred we made improvements to the water supply and our thoughts turned to the acres of land.

The place screamed for barnyard animals. The homestead came with two barns, not quite finished falling down. We voted. No chickens because the oldest child was a newly minted vegetarian. Our rabbits kept dying from frightful night noises from the woods. Goats were mean. Sheep were hairy and smelled. We finally decided on a horse because it would not only look awfully Ralph Lauren but chestnut would accent the new color of the house. There are dumber reasons.

Learning quantum physics would have been simpler than taking on one Quarter horse named Bones (as in Star Trek Doctor McCoy Bones). He ate a lot more than dogs and didn't come when called. Apparently some horses are quite clever at undoing gate latches even if the fences are electrified. And they eat flowers and vegetable gardens. The horse developed quite the attitude when he realized we were neophytes in all things equestrian and took full advantage of our stupidity. Once in a while one of us would look out a window only to see a big horse face staring back at us, lips on the glass. The escapee had no shame begging for treats.

One Vermont photo-perfect fall morning I was in the kitchen making corn bread, looking out the window marveling at my young daughter slow walking in the field on her horse. They ambled behind a bump in the terrain out of view. Suddenly, out whooshes a galloping Bones with….wait. No rider? Blink, blink. I see it. There are human feet and hands. The horse turns and I see the blur of child and saddle, perpendicular to where she should be riding and parallel to the ground. The horse is galloping and she is hanging on for dear life. I manage to throw myself out the door just in time to see her flying over the top of the horse into the tall grass.

My brain is not processing this as quickly as it should. I am sidetracked by Bones. I only see the front end of the horse and it looks like he is sitting in the grass like some 1000 pound overgrown puppy. My brain, mesmerized by a sitting horse, almost misses my girl as she pops up with a bounce from the field and yells out in one breath - MOMMM! BONES IS SITTING AND HE WON’T LISTEN TO ME! MOMMM! Bones turns to me (I swear on all things chocolate) and winks before gracefully getting up and snorting at the child. Totally docile he lets her walk him back to the paddock.

Bones escaped regularly. When he wasn’t at a window begging, he would be somewhere close by eating someone’s garden. We’d be outside roaming the dirt road calling out his name. Soon enough someone would reply loudly through the woods which echoed better than any AT&T 3G service today.

We called it crystal clear woods-wireless. However, the traditional Vermont-speak was a little harder to decipher.

"Heh thair-uh? Yauh haawse iz't faam-uh Roy'z-uh god-en. Ahyup."

Translated? Bones is eating Farmer Roy's flower garden. Again.

Double duty electrified, triple duty latches were installed later that day. We found Bones the next morning, once again on the other side of the fence eating the last of our stumpy vegetable garden. The only thing still growing unharmed was zucchini which even the horse wouldn’t eat.

Not long after, Bones went to a home far better suited to his needs. Happily, the child moved on from horses to kittens. Not only did felines eat less, they never had any interest in the flower or vegetable gardens. More my kind of barn yard critter.

Just for payback, every once in a while Farmer Roy let his cows wander into our field, right up to the back door. There is nothing quite like opening the door early in the morning only to be greeted by a herd of 1200-pound cows chewing on the rose bushes.

Those woodsy hikes? Overrun with bramble and poison oak. Picnics in the fields? Lots of field mice and really really big snakes.

On cold mornings we still make a batch of cornbread almost the same way we did back then, slathered with fresh butter and jam. The only thing missing is a horse named Bones staring in through the window, and a herd of Holsteins knocking at the back door.

The cornbread can be made gluten free and is best served warm. Serve with softened butter – European is tastiest, and a little bit of your favorite jam.

Fletcher Fields Corn Bread

(Albers Brand Cornbread Recipe, modified)

Ingredients

1 cup yellow corn meal (Albers is great)
1 cup flour (or gluten free flour plus a pinch of xanthan gum)
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
Heaping tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk (for gluten free reduce milk to ¾ cup)
1/3 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 large egg lightly beaten (2 eggs if using gluten free method)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place an 8x8 ceramic pan with a pat of butter in the oven to melt. Swish it around to coat the bottom. Don’t let the butter burn.

Whisk together dry ingredients in one bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together in another bowl. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk those together until no lumps remain. Pour into buttered and still hot baking dish. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool about 5 minutes and cut into 9 pieces.

Bon appétit!

Author tags:

horse lips are big, yeah i'm hungry now, breakfast cornbr

Imps Go Rogue With Chocolate Nut Cookies

2010-05-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

one of these imps is not like the other

They were relying on the neighborhood imp to lead the expedition off the block and into the city wilderness. The imp, the one who had the most success regularly breaching the border, was me. Grasping hands, we went rogue. Stepping jauntily out of bounds, we turned the corner and never looked back.

Stuffed into our pockets were boxes of raisins, several Kleenex, paperclips, rubber bands, mom’s chocolate nut cookies and one small apple. Two 4th grade outcast girls, one geeky 2nd grade ballerina, and a developmentally delayed 14-year-old boy made up our motley crew.
Danny’s old sneaker soon started flapping as the sole separated from the canvas. ~~MacGyver~~ Alice secured it with rubber bands. Further along, Alice and Danny rounded up plenty of sidewalk insects, spiders and crustaceans to investigate. Alice jotted data in her little notepad. Danny was thrilled to be her science partner. My classmate, Shirley kept up the rear, loosening her tight ponytail. Unabashed, we trail blazed down one city street and then another.
Danny's uniform of dungarees, old converse high tops, and a bright white tee shirt also included his version of a Gilligan hat to block the midmorning summer sun. I snuck glances at Danny, wondering if I could magically see the actual hole in his heart through his tee shirt. Shirley’s too small, faded battleship gray school dress with long sleeves was getting damp around the middle from the heat. Petite curly red-headed Alice had on pink shorts and a sleeveless button down (white) shirt with a pocket for her pencil and notepad. I was wearing my favorite mom-made polka-dot shorts and matching top.
Two hours later, thirsty and sweaty we finally turned back onto our street from the lower end. Our parents were swarming all over the other end of the block calling out our names. My posse looked at me for a sign that we weren’t about to get sent to the stockade, but I think I let them down. I had told them at the beginning of the adventure that I was sure their parents would not mind us going on this hike. Add neighborhood hooligan-imp to my 4th grade resume.
Alice’s mom was shooting me a murderous look. Danny’s mother, out of breath from running to reach us, gave me a look that only indicated half of what she really wanted to say, but didn’t. That look was worse than any punishment I would get. Shirley’s mom was standing in her doorway with a scowl that made both of us cringe. Shirley ran right home.
My sentence was banishment to my room sans dinner and after that I was released to the ~~prison~~ back yard for two weeks. Mom brought me sandwiches and her wonderful chocolate nut cookies.
The second day I pulled a patio chair to the back gate just so I could see freedom. I still felt the full weight of being the neighborhood kidnapper. Engrossed in a book, I didn’t hear Danny’s mom approach the gate.
She stared at me for a moment with a much kinder look than the day before and threw a nickel at me. As she turned away she muttered something I couldn't hear. Red faced, I grabbed the nickel and stuck it in my pocket.
Every time I came across that nickel, I thought of all the lessons I learned that day. From science geek Alice I discovered more insects than I ever wanted. From Danny, I learned that brain damaged doesn’t equal stupid and having a hole in one’s heart doesn’t mean it isn’t any less full. From Shirley I learned that money-poor could still mean you were a rich family, at least in cottage cheese and milk. Her dad was a milkman. And from my two week sentence I knew that reading books was a good way to free your mind from forced solitude. Especially when accompanied by chocolate cookies.
Danny died a few years later from that hole in his heart. I think of him whenever I make this updated version of my mother's chocolate nut cookies. Danny ate every single one that day on our hike, and until my mother died she would bake extra just for him because he loved them that much. Eventually I learned why I had earned that nickel. He told his mother that it was the very best adventure he had ever had. That he got to be just like any ordinary boy that day.
This modern version of my mother's chocolate nut cookie is flourless, fudgy and crisp-chewy. I think my old friends would like it. Alice would love the chemistry of why flourless works the way it does. Shirley would have loved to eat a cookie that someone else made. And Danny would love them because they are my mother's chocolate nut cookies, redux. We call this version Danny's Cookies, in honor of one extraordinary boy.

Danny’s Flourless Chocolate Nut Cookies

4 large eggs, whites only
½ tablespoon each, almond & vanilla flavoring
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
¾ cup of Valrhona unsweetened cocoa, sifted
pinch of salt
8 oz. of chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Turn oven down to 325 once the cookies go in.
Sift powdered sugar into a large stand-mixer bowl. Sift cocoa on top. Add salt. Whisk together gently. In a separate small bowl mix the whites with the flavorings using a small whisk. With the whisk attachment on the stand-mixer on low, add in the whites mixture until fully incorporated. Turn mixer on medium high and whisk until glossy- just a couple of minutes. Stir in the chopped nuts with a wooden spoon.
Drop by heaping tablespoons (or scoop) onto silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Give them lots of space and limit to 5 per sheet. Makes about 15 large cookies. Feel free to downsize them and make a larger quantity. Flatten the dough slightly with a fork before baking – they will still spread into a thin cookie.
Let them sit about 30 minutes before baking.
Bake at 325 about 7-9 minutes for the large cookies, 6-8 minutes for smaller cookies. They will look gooey in the center. The tops will start to crack. Don’t over bake them!
Be sure to let them get stone cold cool before you try to remove them. Peel the silpat or the parchment from the back of the cookie. Store in a tin. They taste the best on day two, so plan ahead.
Bon appétit and here's to Danny's big heart!

One Old House, Two Flying Girls and a Rocky Road

2010-05-06T10:26:00.002-07:00

two small flying girls, one old house & a (hot) dog

One old house and a crumbling barn were all that remained of the original 150 year old farmstead. For all the wrong reasons we bought the place. Located on the curb of a busy intersection, there was little privacy. Windows, open all summer let in the traffic noise and odor. The plows constantly piled up the snow so that shoveling a small path to the door was an exercise in futility. With little insulation it was a freezing in the winter. No energy stars for that old house. But even with all the quirks and general disrepair it was a whimsical little home. The front had two separate porches. One led to the front door, the other to the kitchen door. People often came soliciting to both doors thinking the house was two apartments. Weren’t they surprised when the same little girl(s) opened both doors?
Upstairs, we fixed up a tiny space with a window overlooking newly planted shrubs and turned it into a sunny dollhouse-sized playroom. The old house had a hole from the dollhouse room floor into the kitchen to migrate the heat from the single woodstove located downstairs. The hole had an old iron grate, and was big enough for the cats to drop through onto the kitchen table. While we were used to the cats jumping through the hole, it did startle visitors when a gray and white fur ball came flying through the ceiling.
Baking brownies with tiny marshmallows one fall day, I lost track of the chatter from the two little girls above. That is, until I heard a deafening screech that certainly sounded like a feline, but was not. A child ran into the kitchen from the back porch. You can’t actually get outside except through the kitchen from upstairs. My brain addled through the logic. The conclusion was heart stopping.

Children upstairs.
Children now outside.
Hole in ceiling only big enough for cat.
Did not exit, apparently, through any door (or hole).
Craptastic.

The story was revealed through giggles and tears. Tossing your sister out the 2^nd story window was the theme of the day. And I have those lemon loving in-laws to thank for that. Since they could never remember the words to all the traditional nursery rhymes, they ended each the same way. And taught the little girls every single rhyme with this ending:

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider, sat down beside her & threw her out the window.

The window. The 2^nd story window.

Turns out one girl threw the other and then jumped after her. Landing in those most forgiving shrubs saved both from breaking their little necks. The poor shrubs took it on the chin and survived and even seemed to thrive.
Though we carefully discussed why tossing someone out a 2^nd story window was not such a peachy idea, I am pretty sure they continued to jump out that window based on the condition of the shrubs throughout the fall. I can only imagine what passing motorists thought when they were treated to the flying sisters’ act. I’m grateful no one called child services.
The last Google earth picture of the house shows that the porches finally fell off and weren’t replaced. But those shrubs are still there, bigger than ever.
Any time I bake with marshmallows I think of the two small flying Wallenda peanuts, the old house that will probably still never receive any energy stars, and most of all, those wonderful little shrubs.
I’m also quite grateful that the lemon loving in-laws redacted the 2nd story window ending to all things nursery rhyme.

Rocky Road Squares with Coconut, Gluten Free

(adapted from Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownie Book)

Ingredients

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs (Gluten Free Girl Recipe here)
½ cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2-3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
2 cups mini marshmallows (make sure they're gluten free)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl combine the coconut, graham cracker crumbs, sugar and stir in melted butter. Pour into an 8x8 pan lined with a foil or parchment liner that comes up the sides and press firmly. Bake 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.
Remove from oven. Place one cup of the marshmallows on the crust. Alternate the nuts and chocolate and remaining marshmallows on top and return to the oven. Bake until chocolate is soft and marshmallows are slightly toasted and melted.
Cool in the pan until stone cold! Using the parchment or foil liner remove from the pan. Cut into 16 squares using a serrated knife.
Notes: Gluten Free Girl and the Chef’s website is full of wonderful recipes and information for celiacs and the gluten intolerant. For her graham cracker recipe, I use brown sugar to replace most of the honey, although you should keep some in the recipe – it adds a nice flavor. I double the recipe. I leave out the final sugar cinnamon dusting. Best gluten free graham cracker recipe out there!

cat orbiting through ceiling holes

The Passover Story: Carp, Lemon & Coconut

2010-05-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

circa 1962, practicing the four questions on my unimpressed friend

Whitefish, carp and pike are swimming circles in the bathtub. The house cleaning takes on a fevered pitch as every last leavened crumb is vacuumed. As the sound of the Hoover reaches the hallway, that is the five minute warning. I scoop up the toys from my closet floor where I covertly (or so I thought) eat sandwiches and cookies. The year before, along with the secret stash of crumbs, I also lost all my fabulous Barbie stilettos to the Hoover.

The Jewish year is 5722 (1962) and Passover is approaching.
Preparing the Seder feast in advance, I watch my mother make chicken soup with matzo balls, dress chickens for roasting, and scoop potato kugel into casseroles. Thankfully, the family gets the bathtub back because Mom is finally using the very um, fresh whitefish, carp and pike to make homemade gefilte fish. Dessert is cardboard sponge cake, sweet and gritty with no flavor. Manischewitz canned macaroons on the side.
The evening of the first Seder arrives. I am sitting at one end of the small Passover table, squeezed between Fake Aunt Hope and my brother who seems to have eaten beans the day before. My 6-year-old stomach is churning from hunger and stage fright. As the youngest child I will recite the four questions from the Passover service booklet, the Maxwell House (yes, coffee) Haggadah. As the service drones on past my bedtime, I am so sleepy that all I want to do is lean on my brother and close my eyes, no matter how much he stinks.
Finally, all eyes turn to me. I squeak out the first questions in a whisper. Why is this night different from all other nights and why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzoh, but on this night we eat only matzoh? My elderly faux Uncle yells out “can’t hear you, missy!” Beet red and humiliated, I stutter, making my voice crack. Now I imagine that everyone thinks I am on the verge of tears. I am.
The Ad Man purses his ridiculously large lips, my mother audibly holds her breath, my brothers stifle giggles, and Fake Aunt Hope leans over and pats my arm enveloping me in her stinky perfume. I push the Haggadah up to my nose, adjust my geeky glasses, take a deep breath and loudly mumble each question into the fold of the book.
As the 4^th glass of sticky sweet Mogen David ~~swill~~ wine is poured, the front door is opened to welcome the phantom Prophet Elijah who whooshes in, drinks up his wine with a little help from Fake Aunt Hope and apparently leaves as the door is closed. We are all awake now from the cold rush of air - it is the middle of April and snowing in Syracuse.
Everyone raises their wine tumbler in a final toast - Next year in Jerusalem! they shout with imbibed enthusiasm. And it is finally time for dinner. The feast’s perfume has overtaken Fake Aunt Hope’s cloying scent and on this night, I am a grateful little girl.
But Passover isn’t over just yet. For seven days I construct matzo sandwiches for lunches. Tuna on matzo. Peanut butter and jelly on matzo. Egg salad on matzo. Ham and swiss on matzo. Ok, kidding about that one.
Try eating a matzo sandwich. It's a little like taking forty ritz crackers taping them together and smashing some filling inside, picking it up and crunching. The only possible outcome is a pile of crumbs. I use the matzo as the placemat and eat the filling with my fingers.
Over the years, Passover became more about how to make the food a little more interesting and still maintain the religious traditions. We tuned up the lowly, cloyingly sweet macaroon and made it a spring time delight. It has a deep coconut flavor infused with (Meyer) lemon.
Now, if only someone could think of a way to make matzo a little more interesting.

Coconut Lemon Macaroons

2 large eggs, separated, using whites only
½ cup white sugar plus 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
Zest from 2-3 lemons (Meyers are perfect)
3 cups flaked unsweetened coconut (Bob’s Red Mill)
Pinch of salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Turn oven down to 325 once the cookies go in.
Mix the sugar and the lemon zest with your fingers in a large bowl. Let the two infuse for about 5 minutes. Then, with a wooden spoon, mix in all the remaining ingredients until thoroughly incorporated. With wet hands gather a scant ¼ cup of coconut dough and form into haystacks on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet. Pinch the tops to form loose haystacks (keep your fingers wet). Let sit for about 45 minutes before baking. Bake about 20 minutes at 325. Turn oven off and let macaroons sit until lightly brown about 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven and cool. Makes about 12 large macaroons.

Bon appétit and happy Pesach.

Hatching a Baby Lemon Square

2010-05-06T10:24:00.001-07:00

baby Annie with (skinny) lemon loving dad, circa 1975

Those three daily doses (or more) of chocolate throughout my pregnancy were as necessary as prenatal vitamins. Or so I suggested to my doctor. My impossibly curly hair frizzed at just the whisper of the word humidity and I couldn’t stand the sight of lemons (or fish) for those nine months. The extended in-law family of lemon lovers were kind enough to accommodate me, but barely.
The first clue that DNA has a sense of humor was when the child was born 4 weeks late with a full head of stick straight dark hair and needed her bangs cut so we could see the color of her eyes (brown).
But that crazy genetic lottery surely had the last laugh.   The chocolate addicted, frizzy-haired 19-year-old new mom gave birth to a child who loved lemon as much, or more than her grandparents and father. Sure, the child still enjoys chocolate and will swill it alongside her mother with gusto. But, through the DNA roulette, we had apparently hatched an 8 pound lemon loving baby. She arrived into this world craving all things lemon.
Little Annie would sit in her high chair, impatient for dinner to arrive. We peppered her with appetizers, cheerios or tiny pieces of fruit and veggies.   The child threw all those unfortunate morsels on the floor. Minus a dog to clean it up, that certainly got old. One day, at the lemon loving in-laws there was a bowl of (oh, do guess) lemons on the table in front of the child. The baby pointed and grunted until some obliging adult who would not be me, gave her a lemon. A whole lemon.
It was difficult for me to look both amused and scowl at the same time. I couldn’t believe they gave her a lemon and thought it was cute. She rolled it around for a bit and then with that special look in her eye that only a mother knows, and before I could grab it from her hands, she shoved the whole thing into her mouth and bit down. I expected a cacophony of unhappy screaming to ensue, but before I could reach her highchair, she was grinning, giggling and biting the thing again. The other adults clapped with unrestrained glee for the tiny heir apparent. I stood there stunned. How in the world could a 6-month-old like the taste of lemon? She continued to bite down with the few teeth she possessed until a hole was drilled in the lemon and juice started squirting out. Everywhere.
My mother in law cut the beleaguered lemon into fistful sized wedges and the heir apparent grandbaby grabbed as many as she could in her tiny fat fists. She gummed those wedges until her lips were puckered, cooing and giggling the entire time. Her clothes were bleached where the juice dripped, and she was totally pickled by the time I removed her from the highchair.
The stuffy professor family was all too dignified to high five one another. Instead they did that head nodding thing at one another with a look that said – we’re so proud! She’s got the right genes after all! Smiling at the chocolate loving daughter-in-law, I knew they were calculating the odds of whether the next dessert at our house would be lemon or chocolate. The smile, of course, was because they figured lemon to be the odds on winner.
That same fateful evening, my mother-in-law whipped up lemon squares. I never used to enjoy those lemon squares because I swear she always left out the sugar.   She, on the other hand, swears that there is sugar in them.   Does a teaspoon count?
I drew a line at other lemon surprises though, and the family was considerate enough, most of the time, to not cross it. I got used to lemon bits in the strangest places, like yellow cake, on top of fresh berries and in every single frozen dessert.   Apparently farm fresh strawberries were too sweet for my mother-in-law?
Those first few years I worked hard to impress my in-laws by bringing them lemon pie once in a while. But as time flew by, and we all got a little older, some of us (read: me) got a little more acquainted with lemons and branched out from lemon pie.   I discovered a lemon square recipe that is actually tart enough to suit my mother- in-law’s palate yet sweet enough for me if I use Meyer lemons.
Since I know that the first thing Grandpa asks for is lemon pie when he arrives, I will happily make him some Meyer Lemon Squares next time they visit.
The child eventually moved on from cooing to talking. Backle was Annie’s first word. Which I am sure when translated from baby-speak, meant apple. However, some people in the family still insist it means lemon.
Sadly, the adult version of the child breaks out with hives after eating lemon wedges.   No need to be disappointed. I hear they hide the bowls of lime wedges at the bars she frequents in the French Quarter. Apparently, limes wedges are the new lemon.
However, please don’t tell her grandmother.
These lemon squares are a gluten free adaptation of an Emeril Lagasse recipe. They are made with a lot of butter. Rich and delicious, perhaps they should be called butter lemon squares? But whatever you call them, they are fantastically perfect for the lemon loving in-laws.

Gluten Free Meyer Lemon Squares

(Adapted from Emeril Lagasse, 2004)

1.5 sticks of unsalted butter cut into small chunks
1.5 cups gluten free flour without any cornstarch (or regular flour) plus 2 tablespoons
¼ teaspoon each xanthan & guar gum (if using gluten free flour)
½ cup confectioners’ sugar (sifted so all the lumps are gone)
¼ cup cornstarch
Pinch salt
5 eggs
1 and ¼ cups white sugar
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon zest
Generous 2/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
¼ cup cream
1 tablespoon of lemon or other liqueur (I used orange and cherry)

In a food processor mix up the flour, gums, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Pulse to mix well. Add the butter pieces and pulse until it looks like coarse cornmeal.
Prepare a 9x13 square baking pan by buttering the bottom and lining it with parchment paper which hangs over the sides (you will use that as a handle later to remove it from the pan. Butter the parchment paper, too. Drop in the coarse crumbs and press into the pan until it is solid. It will seem fragile, but don’t worry about it. Refrigerate it for about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees while it is chilling. Bake for about 20 minutes until it is slightly brown.
While the crust is in the oven, in a separate bowl, mix the sugar and lemon zest with your fingers until it is fully incorporated. Let it sit for about 15 minutes to flavor the sugar. To that mixture, add the eggs, 2 tablespoons of flour and mix well. Add the lemon juice, cream and flavorings and mix well again.
When the crust is lightly brown, remove from the oven and mix the topping one more time.
Straining the filling through a mesh strainer, pour it gently over the crust and put it back in the oven. Bake at a reduced temperature, 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or just until the filling is set. Cool completely and take a knife to loosen the edges. Using the parchment paper, lift it out onto a cutting board carefully. Cut into squares. Top with additional, sifted powdered sugar when ready to serve. While there are usually none, do refrigerate any stray leftovers.

grown-up Annie with lemon loving dad, circa now

Inspired by The Chocolate Chip Bandits

2010-03-16T17:01:00.001-07:00

the bandits, circa 1954: meet Jell-o & Chocolate

There has to be a special name for someone who opens a Jell-O box, consumes the sugary contents and then glues the flaps back together so it looks like new. And there certainly is a name for people who eat almost every last morsel of a package and replace it on the shelf looking like it was never touched. My mom knew that in our house packaged food on the shelf might not actually contain any food by the time she got around to opening it.
Once in a while my mom bravely brought home bags of chocolate chips. Eventually, she learned to avoid disaster caused by the ever adorable chocolate chip bandit duo and their nightime pantry raids. Only phantom chips remained in a bag that looked unopened (read: glued). Not one to be thwarted, she turned those into nut cookies with extra nuts. She knew after that to make the cookies right away when she brought the chips home – otherwise she had to tote them into her bedroom overnight to keep the chocolate safe.
My mother slept with chocolate. And people wonder where I got my chocolate obsession from?
While she was a master baker when it came to all those heirloom Jewish family recipes that were inside her head, she was not as well versed when it came to reading and executing actual written recipes. I have little memory of those chocolate chip cookies which means that I didn’t enjoy them or my brothers ate them all before I got a chance to have any. I’d wager the later.
I was a preteen when a brand new little bakery opened up across the street from school. The chocolate chips were gooey, and the cookie was soft in the middle and snappy on the edges. The caramelized brown sugar was probably a little too sweet, but to a kid, that was just fine. The vanilla was pure unlike the fake stuff my mother used because it was cheaper. And the abundance of chocolate chips was regal.
The discovery of these perfect little goodies occurred at the same time I lost my mother. My home, the house of doom, as I called it, was now a place full of grief and silence. The Ad Man spent the first part of that year of mourning, literally sitting in the dark with a continuous chain of odiferous cigarettes providing the only light in the room. He tried to be a good dad and step up, but his depression weighed more than both of us. Dinner was usually a time of more solitude though we continued to eat together. He cobbled together meals from Veg-All and some sort of meat, cooked until it dragged itself into the sink for relief. Veg-All apparently can be served in so many more ways than it ever should.
At the end of the mourning period, the Ad Man started dating, leaving me alone many nights. To appease his parenting guilt, he gifted me with all kinds of strange items that he thought a preteen girl might like. I assume that he was getting these ideas from his dates who had never met his geeky daughter. Otherwise I might wonder how he ever knew that young girls coveted things like Tiger Magazine, or pony tail/barrettes or troll dolls. My hair was short, blunt, curly and always barrette-less. I never read anything but Mad Magazine or books. Troll dolls, however, were a hit.
The last gift before he remarried was the baby pink short trench coat that although very trendy for the time, was not my color, type, or size. I wore it anyway because the pockets were like tiny backpacks. I could stash almost half a dozen bakery chocolate chip cookies in them and bring them home sight unseen. Eventually it got to be way too small because I ate too many cookies. The poor pink trench got retired the day after I loaded it with my cookie treasures and was smacked silly on the way home. I had a couple of shoe prints on the back of the coat where the angry bullies had kicked me. Apparently, having spent my spare change on cookies rather than giving it over, made them angry. I offered the bakery bag but they wanted money rather than freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I was seriously mystified at that logic. The Ad Man just about had a heart attack when he noticed the foot prints and then he found the cookies and had a tiny bit of a stroke. He had been clueless about how I could possibly be getting chunky on Veg-All, 7500 ways.
The coat and my daily walk through the bakery on the way home were both retired from that day on. I had minders watching me long enough that I gave up. But I never forgot those cookies.
Those cookies became the ones by which all others are judged. I spent years trying to get it just right.
Fortunately, one day, quite by accident I found a recipe that came amazingly close to the real deal. I was taking a chocolate class (oh, surprise) from Alice Medrich where she was also signing books. I ran back into the store to buy a couple, and one was her Cookies and Brownies book. Anything that had cookie in the title was a safe bet. And to my surprise, there was the answer. The way to make spectacular chocolate chip cookies is not in the ingredients list, although you ought to use the best ingredients you can find. It is in the technique. When I smell them baking in the oven, I am a happy girl again. At least now I don’t keep cookies in my pockets. I’ve learned to share. A little bit.

Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies - Gluten Free

(adapted from Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies)

Ingredients

2 ¼ cups gluten free flour or all purpose flour
½ teaspoon xanthan gum (if using gluten free flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon finely ground espresso (decaf!)
¼ cup of lightly toasted unsweetened coconut shreds (optional)
2 sticks of unsalted butter, cut into chunks
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond flavoring
2 cups of (bittersweet) chocolate chips
¾ cup of chopped lightly toasted pecans

Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, espresso and mix to incorporate. Add the (optional) coconut and mix once more.
Meantime, in a large saucepan over medium low heat, melt the butter. When completely melted, stir in the brown sugar and mash any lumps until it is smooth. Then mix in the white sugar and remove from heat. After thoroughly combining, let it sit for about five minutes without touching the pan. Mix in the eggs first, one at a time until incorporated. Then add the flavorings. Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
Let the whole thing sit on the counter for about 30 minutes before you mix in the chips and nuts. If you add the chips too soon, they will just melt into the batter. Stir in the chips and nuts. Scoop (large tablespoon size) onto silpat or parchment lined cookie sheets about ½ inch apart. Flatten slightly with a fork.
Let them sit for about an hour.
Preheat oven to 350. Bake about 7 minutes and rotate the sheets. Bake about 5 minutes more until very lightly brown. Keep watching. Underdone is better than the other option. Let them cool on the baking sheet. Store in a tin. Cookies keep for about 5 days if they last that long!
Notes: Use the best chips you can find. It makes a huge difference. Scharffenberger bittersweet chunks are great. See’s chocolate chips are actually quite good and large. Ghirardelli bittersweet are very good, too. Be sure to store them in a tin – the container store has them for a reasonable price. Tins are mult-use tools for the kitchen and nothing keeps cookies fresher. To refresh them, just place on a cookie sheet and pop them into a preheated 350 degree oven. Turn the oven off once you place the cookies in there. Time it for ten minutes. They should be perfect once again, and an added bonus: the chocolate will be gooey.
Bon appétit

Rugelach with Chocolate and Hope

2010-03-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

gluten free rugelach, with chocolate and hope

When I tell people that the best rugelach I ever ate was at the Ad Man’s funeral, there is a momentary awkward pause in conversation, until I also mention that they were filled with bittersweet chocolate.
In fact, the only thing I can recall of my father’s funeral was that fabulous rugelach.   While the rest of my siblings were busy in the kitchen taste-testing and reviewing the platters of food that had arrived as condolence calling cards, I was in the living room, busy stuffing the perfect little rugelach into my pockets and running outside, stashing them in a paper bag I found on the floor of my car. The platter was emptied in a mere half dozen trips. All that remained was one broken pastry and a trail of crumbs from the plate sitting on the coffee table.
Arriving back in the house after my last sojourn to the car, I heard someone exclaim that the dog must have eaten the pastries and was now banished to the back bedroom. Thankfully no one used any common sense to think about how a 4 pound, 8 inch tall dog could eat over 4 dozen chocolate pastries and not look like the Goodyear blimp or worse.   Back then no one gave any thought to a dog eating chocolate. I owed that pup some biscuits which I delivered once the coast was clear.
The rugelach had arrived with a woman I knew as fake Aunt Hope, a family friend. I only knew her in one capacity and that was as the lady in a white coat behind the pharmacy counter. The small drug store, a few blocks from our childhood house, was a family business that she and her husband, Doug owned.
At age of 5 when I was appointed chief step & fetch it by the Ad Man, it was my job to run to the drugstore whenever he needed something. Something was usually cigarettes and a giant box of 1960 vintage Kotex for my mother. I had already tested out smoking behind the garage with my older brothers and knew what the stinky cigarettes were for. Fake Aunt Hope was the one who usually handed me the step & fetch it items along with my pack of Necco Wafers, payment for the job, but not nearly payment enough for the mortification I felt hauling that giant box of Kotex 5 blocks home. It was too large for a bag so I had to carry it like a walking advertisement.
Since that was the only place I ever really saw fake Aunt Hope, I assumed she lived in the drug store. Until the funeral, I hadn’t realized that she had a real home with a real kitchen, let alone was a fabulous baker. I wanted to ask her for the recipe, but at the time I was too busy trying to act like the dog was the thief. I thought if I made a big deal out of it, someone might really figure it out. So I kept quiet.
I deconstructed those rugelach by eating each one very slowly and carefully over the course of the next few days. I took mental notes on the character and flavor, but came up with no better explanation on what made them so special. Years of trying to find a recipe that came even remotely close made me get within postage stamp placement on a note to fake Aunt Hope to ask for the recipe. Once again, my good intentions were waylaid with a phone call from my in-laws.
The evening before, they had decided to hop over to the indie theater to catch one of the new art films. In line, they ran into fake Aunt Hope and her husband, Doug, whom they knew only casually from our wedding the decade previous. On occasion at the grocery or hardware store they would see one another and chat about the weather.   Fake Aunt Hope and Doug were thrilled to see the in-laws and expressed how pleased they would be to share watching the movie together. Since they were further up in line, fake Aunt Hope and Doug would save seats. When the in-laws got close enough to see the movie poster, they couldn’t run out of there fast enough. I could feel them blushing through the phone two states away. Somehow they missed the big giant marquee that had a giant red XXX running across it. Turns out, the old Indie was no more. Fake Aunt Hope and Doug were very disappointed when the in-laws remembered sudden prior headaches and hastily took their leave.
With that fine mental picture in my mind, I never did mail that note. Rugelach making took a back seat to raising kids and jobs. Once in a while I’d have a moment when I thought about how I could duplicate it and yet something was always not quite right. I thought about sending that note years later, but by then Doug was gone and Fake Aunt Hope had advanced Alzheimer's. After more than two decades I'd missed all the windows of opportunity.
Not long ago I took another look at what might have made her rugelach so special, aside from the chocolate. I read recipes, stories, and searched for old Eastern European recipes since that is where Fake Aunt Hope’s family was from. Most Jewish women of her age would have gotten the recipe from watching their mother or grandmother. No one ever wrote anything down, so it was a matter of collecting common themes.
And there was the additional challenge in making it gluten free. Recently I made several batches in a matter of days. I was beginning to give up when the mental light bulb flipped on and delivered me from total failure.
The last batch annoyed me to no end. I was tired and had run out of patience. The perky cream cheese and butter were still in the refrigerator and I had forgotten to take them out to soften. Annoyed at my own bad judgment, I took my frustration out on the ingredients. Instead of treating them like fragile, delicate ingredients, I slammed them around a bit. I tossed the unsoftened mess into the food processor, barely measuring and weighing the ingredients. If the measurement came close and it looked right, in it went. I whizzed it less than usual and dumped it unceremoniously on the counter and banged it around a couple of turns to get all the flour mixed in. I split it in two, bopped them into two disks with my fist, dropped it on parchment, folded it up and practically tossed it into the refrigerator.
Later, realizing I had forgotten about them, and running short on time, I pulled one disk at a time from the refrigerator, opened the parchment, grabbed another piece for the top and hit it with the rolling pin to make it pliable and rolled it out to about a ten inch disk. I tossed the filling on top and in my haste rolled the whole thing up like a big cigar and sliced off pieces for the baking sheets. It took about five minutes from the first rolling pin smash to finishing.
The second disk got the same treatment, but instead of the cigar tube, I began to cut it into the traditional wedges to make the crescents – the point at which the dough falls apart and makes me crazy. Instead, without any hesitation I made the circle into a square with a cutting tool and banged out several 1.5 inch squares. I dropped the filling on the whole thing and took each square at a corner and rolled it up. It worked easily and took a few minutes longer than the first cigar tube disk.
I placed those on the cookie sheet and they all went back into the refrigerator for more time cooling their heels. Again, worrying about time, I practically threw them into the oven even before it had finished preheating. When they emerged, they looked splendid and tasted even better than I had hoped.
I learned two things. They will never be exactly like fake Aunt Hope’s beauties. But they will always make me remember her quirkiness with fondness and affection. And second, they are hearty and appear to taste much better if you treat them like the peasant pastry they are. Less handling, less fuss.   Like a good pie dough, they benefit from as little work as possible. Fake Aunt Hope would be proud.

Gluten Free Chocolate Nut Rugelach

Dough

2 cups of classic blend gluten free flour (authentic brands is my choice)
2 sticks of unsalted butter (chilled)
8 ounces of cream cheese (full fat and chilled)
Pinch of guar gum and xanthan gum (for gluten free version only)

Filling

¼ cup white or brown sugar
½ cup chopped nuts
¼ cup chopped bittersweet chocolate
½ cup dried fruit (raisins, currents, cherries) optional
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Topping

1 egg or melted butter for brushing the tops
Pinch of brown or turbinado sugar for sprinkling on top
Cinnamon for sprinkling on top

Directions
Place all the filling ingredients in one bowl and mix well. Or conversely, set up several small prep bowls for each filling ingredient and add what you feel like when the dough is rolled out. Set the bowl(s) aside.
Place the flour, guar and xanthan gum in a food processor and whiz up with one pulse. Chunk up the cold butter, cold cream cheese and drop into the processor on top of the flour. Pulse just until it comes together, but before it turns into a ball. It will take under ten pulses. Drop it onto a floured piece of parchment paper and incorporate the remainder of the flour by kneading it just once or twice. Handle it as little as possible. Break into two even chunks and smash into a ball-like disk. Wrap in parchment and set in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to a day.
Remove one disk at a time. Open the parchment and place another piece of parchment over the top of the cold disk. Smash it with a good sized rolling pin and roll it into about a 10 inch disk. You want it to be thin, not thick, but thick enough to roll easily. Make sure it stays cold. If you have to leave it for any reason, toss it back in the refrigerator.
For the big cigar roll up version: take a handful of the filling and scatter it around the disk, all the way to the edge. Dorie Greenspan has a great suggestion that I will use next time. Put the parchment over the filling on the rolled out disk and give it once over with the rolling pin to secure the filling to the pastry.   Remove the top parchment. Using the bottom parchment, grab it and help the dough start rolling. Like rolling up a tee shirt for the suitcase, keep it going using the parchment as necessary to keep it tight and unbroken. You can pinch the dough together wherever it might crack.
Finish with the seam side down. It helps to refrigerate it before cutting. When chilled again, using a very sharp paring knife, or a serrated edge, and cut them into one inch pieces and place on a silpat lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for another hour at minimum.
Do the same with the second disk or follow these directions for baby cigar rolls: Get it rolled into a 10 inch or so disk following the directions above. Try to make the circle more square as you finish off. Keep it cold! Take a butter knife or other cutter (I use a pizza cutter or a pastry scraper) square off the edges of the circle. Now cut even sized squares so that each one measures about 1.5 inches.   You can actually make them any size you want, but if your goal is to have them all look the same when finished, make each square the same size.   Do the same with the filling, but even more gently because you don’t want to smash the cuts you made. Roll each square from one corner to the other. They will look like little cigars with points. Place them seam side down on the silpat lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
If you want, quickly brush the tops of each cold batch with a beaten egg or melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake for about a total of 25 minutes. Rotate and turn half way through for best browning. They are done when the pastry looks set. Remember that gluten free dough never browns up like regular flour. Leave on the silpat to cool.   Once stone cold, store in a tin separating the layers with parchment. The rugelach will keep for about 4 days, although you won’t have any left by the second day.
Makes 2 to 3 dozen.
Notes: The biggest lesson here is to not fuss with the dough and to keep it cold. The directions took longer to write than it would take to make the whole thing aside from the chilling and baking time. Once you have it down, the labor part goes quickly. Work the dough as little as possible. Obviously bakers made rugelach long before food processors were in our kitchens, so you can mix the dough by hand. Do it as quickly as you can without handling it very much. A food processor only means that you can create the dough base in under five minutes from start to finish. Create your own fillings. Jam, nuts, chocolate, dried fruits, spices are all possibilities. To make this recipe not gluten free, use all purpose flour and leave out the guar and xanthan gums. Different unsalted butters have different fat and liquid contents, so find one that works for you and stick with it.
Bon appétit!

The Tart Will be Lemon

2010-03-16T16:58:00.001-07:00

groom & bride, grinning in-laws, and not lemon cake

After the wedding, when I was officially the 17 year old bride and newly installed daughter-in-law, I learned the holy grail of in-law 101.
We were being driven by my father-in-law to the bus for our destination honeymoon. Rochester, N.Y. By Greyhound. Stopped at a red-light, he turned to face us in the backseat of the old Volvo. In his most serious Professor voice, he warned us to never forget my mother-in-law’s birthday and that he loves lemon pie.   Long after the light turned green he continued to stare until we mutely nodded.
Little did I know that day, but retaining that in-law-101-trivia would land me in the favorite’s column for decades to come.
But at the moment, since I was a little bit scared of him, I thought it prudent to memorize the information. And the only way I could do that over the next 30 minutes without anything to write with, was to make up rhymes in my head that went with birthday and lemons. Not an easy task at all, and certainly not something you should be thinking about on the way to your honeymoon, even if it is Rochester by Greyhound. When we got our tickets for the bus I asked for a pen and wrote it on my hand. At 17, that was my version of a daytimer.
Our little tiny honeymoon was uneventful and not one lemon made an appearance either. We took the bus back to our hometown and no mention was ever made of that brief conversation. But I am happy to report that over the next few decades we have not missed one mother-in-law birthday. The lemon pie is a different story.
I had married into a family of lemon lovers. They apply lemon to anything that seems sensible to them. To me, it seems beyond reason that one would put lemon in, let’s say, vanilla frosting, but they do.
Fortunately, their fixation is almost always limited to lemons that are visibly baked in something. I consider that fair warning. But more times than I can count, there's been some mystery ingredient in dinner that ends up being produced from a lemon. It could be lemon peel in spaghetti sauce (um, wrong) , or a splash of lemon in mayonnaise (not bad) or lemon slices under the bottom layer of chicken pot pie (not all that good) or my favorite, lemon wedges baked inside an apple (a very bad surprise). Thankfully, the lemon desserts are much more appealing, though relatively scarce.
My father-in-law loves lemon pie more than anything. My mother-in-law rarely makes lemon pie.   But almost daily, he will ask if she made lemon pie for dessert. Frankly, if anyone asked me that on a regular basis I would probably learn how to put a bunch of lemons in a crust and hand it to them with a knife and fork. But that would just be me. My mother in law is much more kind.
She grew up in California farm country and they had lemon trees.   I am guessing that the lemon harvest was generously supplying her family with bushels of the fruit annually. Apparently this lemon pie thing is genetic. Every member of the family seems to find more uses for lemon than is reasonable. And the son thinks lemon pie is just as heavenly as chocolate pie.   And I still married him.
When Meyer lemons debuted at the market I actually began to pay attention. Somehow those little Meyer gems made lemon creations worthy.   It took a little bit of work, but there a few lemon desserts that make the effort worthwhile as a change from the chocolate moments. I cannot believe I said that aloud.
When they come to visit, I will sometimes make my father-in-law lemon pie-like things.   And once in a while because it might be Meyer Lemon season at the market, I will indulge in a lemon tart.
The best lemon tart filling is adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking Book. The crust is made with Fake Aunt Hope's rugelach dough. Something about the combination of cream cheese/butter dough with a lemon filling made with more butter not only sounds perfect, it is sublime.   This is not the dessert to eat if you are thinking lemon light.

Gluten Free Meyer Lemon Tart

Tart Shell (Fake Aunt Hope's Rugelach Dough)

2 cups gluten free flour (or regular flour)
pinch of xanthan & guar gum (leave out if using regular flour)
8 oz. cream cheese
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter

Mix the flour and xanthan gum in the food processor. Add chunks of the chilled butter and cream cheese and pulse just until it comes together. Turn out on a board and knead once or twice to fully incorporate ingredients and cut in half. Place each in a wrapped parchment paper package and refrigerate for at least one hour. Roll into a circle slightly larger than your tart pan. Place in tart pan and refrigerate for another hour. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until lightly brown. About 15 minutes in, prick the bottom with a fork to keep it from bubbling up. Cool completely before filling.
Meyer Lemon Filling (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking book)

3/4 to 1 cup sugar (less if you like it pucker worthy)
Grated zest of three Meyer lemons
4 large eggs
¾ cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
10 ounces of unsalted butter, room temperature cut into pieces (about 2.5 sticks)

You will need a blender for this variation. I burned out my Williams Sonoma Waring, so make sure you are careful with your blender. You will need an instant read thermometer and a strainer.
Put the sugar in a heat proof bowl (you are going to set it over simmering water) and add the zest. Mix it thoroughly with your fingers to blend it together. It looks like coarse sand when you’ve done it well enough. Leave it to sit for 30 minutes to flavor the sugar. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice until fully incorporated. Set over the simmering water and stir. Keep stirring until it reaches 180 degrees and is thick. It will get foamy and form some bubbles, but don’t stop stirring. The end comes quickly so keep an eye on the temperature. It does take some juggling to stir, take the temperature and make sure the bowl stays where you want it, but believe me, if I can do it, anyone can.
As soon as it reaches 180 degrees, remove it from the heat, and using the mesh strainer, push the cream through into the blender. Let it set for about 5 minutes and stir a couple of times. Get the temp to about 140 degrees. Start up the blender on high and as it is going, drop in the room temp butter pieces a few at a time until it is all in there. If your blender is overheating (as mine was) turn it off for a minute to cool it down and start it up again on high. Try to get three minutes of high speed blending going before you quit entirely after the butter is in there. Dorie says that is the secret of Pierre Herme's fine lemon cream – adding and blending the butter on high after cooking the cream.
When it is light and airy (you will see be able to see it) pour it into a container and cover it with plastic wrap on the surface before you cover the container with a lid. That keeps a skin from forming. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Don’t stir it up if you are putting it into the tart shell unless you have time to let it set again. I found that whisking it again before putting it in the tart shell made it too loose.
Tart Assembly Spoon the chilled lemon filling into the cooled tart shell. Top with freshly whipped cream, or cream fraiche and your favorite berries. Serve immediately. Refrigerate leftovers. Like there will be any (not).
Bon Appétit.

Date Night Cream Puffs- Gluten Free

2010-03-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

The reason for date night

The reason for married date night was about 25 inches tall and 22 pounds. It didn't take but a year to sign up.

And we have those lemon loving in-laws to thank for that.  For the in-laws, Friday date night was sacrosanct. None of their children were sure of where they went or what they did on Friday nights. Don't ask. Don't tell.
We adopted Friday-night-date-night after a short time into parenthood. Our humble beginnings were the best dates. We were not yet starving students, just merely starving.  The impetus for those first Friday date nights came from the simple coincidence that it was payday and we splurged.
But when we moved to starving student status and had the growing princess to consider and one more unknown (princess-to-be turns out) on the way, we started a new tradition of date night at home after the child went to bed.
We cooked something affordable but decadent. And for years, Friday date night included a third wheel named James Garner.   We were addicted to The Rockford Files and planned the entire food festival around the show. In the days before VCRs or DVRs, you watched in real time. Courses were timed for commercial breaks.
Our perch was the bed on the floor with the tiny black and white television at the edge of the mattress. The picnic seemed more real than not because our bedroom was actually a converted porch with a wall of windows that didn’t seal. It was more like a skinny freezing porch than a room, but we were young and hearty enough. The down side to Friday picnics in the winter was the fact that we’d have to wear hats, scarves and jackets. If it snowed (and it did snow in Buffalo a lot) with the wind howling, one of us would have to shovel out the snow drifts that blew in through the gaps.   The glass at least, frosted on both sides giving us privacy, but the shades would have icicles hanging from it by morning.
Dessert was served halfway through the Rockford Files. Sometimes the thought of waiting for dessert made the main dish seem less important, so we established a little thing called eat-dessert-first. Who really cared? One might think that after eating an entire platter of dessert pastries, we would not want dinner. As long as there were food courses to consume, we would eat. We could probably have eaten dessert, the entrée and dessert again if there were anything left.
It was in that tiny little apartment with the one radiator, a two burner stove and the company of critters that we eventually gave names, that I made the first cream puffs that would become favorites over the years. The very first time I tackled them it was my biggest accomplishment in pastry making to date. The only hard part is that they take time to make. The puffs have to cool, the custard has to chill, and the chocolate tops must set. Other than that, it was easier than I had imagined. The first batch was magnificent.
We filled a platter with cream puffs filled with custard and topped with perfect chocolate. Before the days of artisanal chocolate and European butter, and my ability to pipe pastry (still a challenge), these were very rustic. But for two 19 year olds they were an accomplishment. They were a date night stand out – even more than James Garner. And after countless batches over the years, the very first cream puffs are still the most special.
Along with the princesses who eventually grew up and left home, Friday night is still devoted to date night. And we still make a platter of pastries, but at least we have a DVR to pause the action if we wish, for far longer than a commercial break.
Use your imagination.

Gluten Free Custard Filled Cream Puffs

Dough for cream puffs

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup water
1 stick unsalted butter cut up into 8 pieces
teaspoon of sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup gluten free flour or all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if using regular flour)
3 large eggs

Vanilla Custard Filling

1 cup milk
1 cup half/half
Large (moist) vanilla bean scraped, or teaspoon pure vanilla
5 egg yolks
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar (a matter of taste)
1/4 (scant!) cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons butter cut into pieces

Chocolate Glaze or Ganache

1 cup heavy cream
8-9 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (Scharffenberger is best)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon light corn syrup

Directions - Dough

Preheat oven to 375.
In a good size saucepan heat the milk, water, sugar, salt and butter. Bring to a light boil. While that heats up, mix the flour with the xanthan gum. As soon as it boils add the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon like crazy, and keep stirring until the dough comes together and is shiny. The bottom of the pan will develop a crust, but keep stirring over low heat for about a minute more.

Dump the ball of dough into a large bowl or stand mixer. Let it sit for no more than 5 minutes to cool slightly. Add the eggs while mixing on medium speed one at a time, incorporating the egg fully before adding another one. The dough will look like it is falling apart but by the time you finish it will look fine. Keep mixing for about another 30 seconds after the last egg is added until the dough comes together. It will look shiny and sticky, but won't form a ball.

If you can pipe, use a 1/2 inch tip and pipe the dough onto parchment or silpat covered baking sheets into little mounds for puffs. Depending on how big you want to make them, you can get anywhere from 4 to 6.

You can also use an ice cream scoop for the dough, or two spoons and form them into little round mounds.

Immediately place in the oven until they are lightly brown. That should take about 25 minutes, but check after 15 minutes.
Remove them from the oven and slice a little slit into each one to let the steam escape and place it back in the oven which is now turned off, but still warm. Leave them in there for another 30 minutes to continue drying.
Remove and let the puff shells cool. Once cool, use a serrated knife and slice the tops off so that they can be filled. Remove any inner dough until you have a nice little cavity to fill with custard. Leave them out to dry a little while you prepare the custard.
You can keep them for a few days stored in a tin at room temperature (but not filled).

Directions – vanilla custard

Heat up the milk and half/half until warm and add the vanilla and the beans. Turn the heat off and cover. Leave it for about 15 minutes to infuse the milk with vanilla.
Prepare two bowls, one slightly bigger than the other. In the larger one add some ice and set the smaller bowl on the ice. It should be large enough to hold the pastry cream mixture. Add to that bowl, a mesh strainer which you will use to push the cream through to eliminate any lumps.
Meantime, mix the sugar and cornstarch together and add the egg yolks and mix with a whisk until smooth. Add some of the hot vanilla milk to the sugar/egg mixture to temper the eggs and warm them up. Then add that to the warm vanilla milk and turn the heat up to medium. Keep whisking the mixture until it comes to a boil. Simmer at a low boil for a minute or two as the mixture thickens, and remove from the heat.
Immediately turn the custard into the mesh strainer and stir and push it through into the bowl that is sitting on the ice. Once all the pastry cream is in the bowl, stir to cool the mixture a bit. Remove the bowl from the ice and add the butter and whisk to incorporate as it melts. Then return the bowl to the ice and let it sit for about 15 minutes, stirring often until the pastry cream is chilled.
You can also chill the custard in the refrigerator with a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the custard, and then with a lid on the bowl. Wait until it is very chilled, at least a few hours or overnight.
Using a small spoon, fill each cream puff and place the top back on. Line them up on a wire rack on the baking sheet for the chocolate topping fun.
Directions - Chocolate Topping
Place the chocolate in a bowl and heat the cream in a small saucepan until it simmers to a low boil. Pour that over the chocolate and leave it alone for a minute. Then begin stirring until the cream and chocolate are totally smooth. Add the butter and the light corn syrup and stir until incorporated.
Let the mixture sit for a minute or two until warm but not hot. Using a spoon pour chocolate over each pastry. Let them set for a few minutes. Or if you are in a hurry, just refrigerate them until set.

Serve immediately or refrigerate. Best the same day. And just in case you have any leftovers (which you will not) store them in a tightly sealed container. Warning: they will get a bit soggy overnight.

Bon appétit

Rolling Oats into Gluten Free Cookies

2010-02-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

a rolled oat winner

While it has been said that Shokolad might be my Hebrew name, it is not. To the best of my knowledge.

Opening the cupboard, you might think that someone here has an obsession with chocolate (shokolad). Jumbles of bars, bittersweet, dark, unsweetened, semisweet, all Scharffenberger are stacked mile high.   Tucked next to that is a pound (at least) of Valrhona unsweetened cocoa - just in case the supplier runs dry. And keeping it company would be Green & Black organic cocoa and more Scharffenberger cocoa. You can't miss the shiny bags of chocolate chips, Ghirardelli bittersweet and more Scharffenberger stuffed into the back seat behind the tower.

Some women love shoes. Some women love chocolate more.

But this time, Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats gets squeezed through the narrow chocolate passage. The perfume of chocolate confectionary goodness lingers long after the cupboard is shuttered. After all, while chocolate passes for a food group and the star of entire tomes, oats ought to have at least a chapter rather than just a footnote.

Oats deserve a day in the sun.

Junior High school was the first time I encountered what passed for an oatmeal cookie. They were sticky sweet, gooey and chewy and not chocolate. It was disgust at first sight. I'd sooner pass up a cookie than eat one of those beige, gnarly things.
Then, at the impressionable age of 15 I met my future mother-in-law, an oracle of the early whole foods movement. She had begun purchasing and cooking food from the co-op. A new concept, it was a compelling way to learn about real food that didn't come in a can or box.   For the next year or so the horizons of food eating expanded to include homemade Mexican - decades before there were the ubiquitous Mexican Food choices in our neighborhoods. She managed to make Asian food that didn't come from a Chung King or La Choy can.   And once in a while we ate a little Middle Eastern fare with mild curries.   It was an event to eat with that family.

At 17, it was my pleasure to marry into that same family where food was a daily adventure. Newly wed, we got to participate in buying from the co-op and sharing the mail-order bulk health foods from Walnut Acres. Like any good dealer, we drove around and distributed the goods from the trunk of the car. Lots of 17 year olds were doing something similar, but few were distributing soy beans, cashews and oats.

There were always the oats. Lots and lots of oats. Not only were we eating granola by then (hey, so many oats) but wearing Birkenstocks. Our children wore baby Birkenstocks and ate lots of oatmeal. No matter how much we ate, the bottom of the oats never materialized.

I learned to make oatmeal cookies that were sometimes edible and most times only fairly good when fresh from the oven. They were still too sweet and a bit beige and gnarly. Truth be told, chocolate still won out every single time. For every batch of oatmeal cookies, or bars, there would be a corresponding batch of hearty chocolate chip cookies or brownies.

The years rolled by. The oats rolled out of favor. The co-op went the way of Whole Foods Markets. And gluten intolerance and Celiac came knocking on the door.   Oats were on the forbidden foods list. Recently, though, Bob's Red Mill became the newest reliable source for gluten free oats.

Now it seemed time to rethink that cookie. After many hopeless batches were filed into the garbage, we were about to give up hope. Too gnarly. Too beige. And boring. But not long ago, it became clear that we may have just cracked that oat. Quite by accident, a handful of toasted coconut made its way from the food processor into the oats, along with some leftover pecans, and the rest was history.

This batch makes more than 4 dozen cookies. They will last for a long time stored in a tin, and won't lose a bit of that crispy edge. These are gluten free all the way, but they don't have to be made that way. Since I rarely remember to write this stuff down, this seemed like a good place to immortalize these oat cookies.

Coconut Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

2.5 scant cups of Gluten Free oats, lightly toasted
1 c. plus two heaping tablespoons gluten free flour
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, lightly toasted
1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
freshly ground nutmeg (about a quarter teaspoon)
pinch salt
1.5 sticks of unsalted butter, softened (12 tablespoons)
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup pecans, rough cut (by hand), lightly toasted
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup of Hershey's butterscotch chips* (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line four baking sheets with silpats or parchment.

Prep the oats, nuts and coconut by lightly toasting them on a cookie sheet in the oven. The nuts need about 8 minutes. The coconut about 5 minutes (or less- keep an eye on it) and the oats, about 15 minutes.

Once each of these are cool, proceed with the recipe.

Cream the butter and sugars together until fully mixed. It doesn't have to be light and fluffy, but you want it close to that. Mix in the eggs, one a time until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and stir.

Meantime, mix the flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, cinnamon/nutmeg and salt with a whisk in a separate bowl. In a food processor (small one is great) take most of the oats and give them a whirl or two- don't turn them into flour. You are going for a chopped oat. Keep about a 1/2 cup of the toasted whole rolled oats aside. Pulse all the toasted coconut just slightly. Now mix all of the oats and coconut with the flour mixture and whisk it up to fully incorporate the flour, coconut and oats together.

Gently add to the butter/sugar mixture and stir until incorporated. Add the pecans, raisins, and butterscotch chips. Mix thoroughly.

Using a tablespoon or scooper, drop balls of dough onto a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet. You should be able to get about a dozen cookies on each half-sheet pan. Flatten them slightly. You will probably fill all four baking sheets.

Let the scooped dough sit at room temperature for 45 minutes. Resting always makes them taste a little better. (A little tip from Alice Medrich- thanks, Alice!).

Bake two sheets at at time and rotate about halfway. They take about 11-12 minutes total, but watch them. Each oven is different. You want them to look slightly crispy on the edge but still soft in the center. As they cool, they will crisp up. Leave them on the silpat until cool, about 10 minutes. When totally stone cold, store them in a big cookie tin - if they last that long.

Notes: Toasting the oats, coconut and pecans gives them a deeper flavor. Just watch them carefully so none burn. Whizzing the coconut and oats in the food processor gives them a different texture making the finished cookie a little more cookie-like than granola-bar-like. The coconut adds some pizzazz and a hint of flavor. It isn't overpowering. You can substitute other dried fruits in place of the raisins. Don't use more than a cup - it will overpower the cookie. Rest the dough. It makes a huge difference. It works for gluten or gluten free dough. To make these with regular flour, just omit the xanthan gum, and use all purpose flour. Bake for less time if you like a soft cookie and more if you like them very crispy.

*Hershey's Butterscotch Chips are reported to be gluten free. The other brand (Nestle) are not.

Bon appetit!

Mastering the Art of Biscuit: Gluten Free Cream Biscuits

2010-01-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

a bit of cream biscuit: gluten free and warm

My mother, the baker, could make most any kind of old fashioned Jewish pastry with ease - strudel, rugelach, mandelbrot and even a brownie or two. But aside from a once-a-year pancake feast prepared by the Ad Man dad, my parents never ventured into the kitchen in the early morning for anything more than a cup of coffee.
We four kids were on our own. Before I could reach the top of the counter, my brothers would generously set out a cereal bowl and spoon for me.
In fact, breakfast in our house was routinely cold cereal, and the boring Corn Flakes kind at that. Fluffy white-bread toast could be had, if you were lucky and there wasn't a line for the toaster. With three older brothers the line was slow moving because they each had to toast several slices of bread. By the time it was my turn, if there were any slices left, it would be the heel of the heels.
Sadly, until I was a teenager I had no idea that people made biscuits from scratch, or that they ate them for breakfast. I thought the whole world got them from the Pillsbury Dough Boy and those funny little tubes of gooey dough.
As a grown-up with my very own kitchen, I tried making biscuits only to realize that making a seventeen layer chocolate cake with buttercream and ganache would be simpler. Biscuits were a mystery. The very best ones were flaky and light, yet substantial and always buttery warm. The very worst were lard laden, cold hockey pucks that took an electric knife to slice open.
Most of the batches I made were alternately close to good or not worth the effort. I finally gave up when my kids told me that McDonald's breakfast biscuits were way better than any I could make. And McDonald's biscuits taste like they are made from the same fake butter source they use on movie theater popcorn. That bad were mine.
It was entirely a lost cause. That is, until we were forced by necessity to become gluten free.
Once again, I thought I would bravely try to bake some gluten free biscuits because everyone knows that when you have to bake differently than the rest of the universe you might as well begin with something that was impossible before. Expectations were pretty low.
Et voila! Who knew that going gluten free would mean I could make a light and fluffy, yet flaky and substantial biscuit?
No more having to mourn the loss of that tasty little breakfast treat. We could make our own biscuit, sausage sandwiches, guilt free, aside from the fat in the sausage. And the butter in the biscuit. Or the cream. No matter. They were good.
Yes, they look a little bit funny, but these are larger in diameter on purpose because they were going to hold sausage patties and scrambled eggs.
The little flecks are from the various flours. In this case, a bit of Authentic Classic Blend which is brown rice flour, potato flour, and tapioca flour. And a tiny bit of Authentic Foods Featherlight blend made from cornstarch, rice flour, potato starch and tapioca flour. The gluten free equivalent to cake flour. Cake flour makes a wonderfully light biscuit.

Gluten Free Cream Biscuits

(modified from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Book)

1.5 cups of Authentic Classic Blend Gluten Free Flour
1/2 cup of Authentic Featherlight Blend Gluten Free Flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
About 1.5 cups very cold heavy cream
extra flour for rolling the dough

Directions
Preheat oven to 425.
Whisk together flours, salt, xanthan gum, and baking powder, and sugar until fully blended. Pour in 1 cup of very cold heavy cream and mix with a fork. Keep adding a little bit of cream until the dough almost pulls away from the sides. Knead it in the bowl for about 4-5 turns and slap it onto a floured cutting board.
Pat the dough into a circle or square about 1/2 inch deep. Using a biscuit or other cutter, make as many as possible cuts as tightly together as possible. You don't want much dough leftover. Brush the extra flour off the bottoms and place on a silpat lined baking sheet (or parchment lined).
Bake about 10 minutes and rotate the baking sheet. Bake about another 5 to 9 minutes or until they are very lightly golden. Gluten Free flours do not brown and if you get it to brown, it is going to to taste burned.
Golden! Barely golden. What they lack in color, they make up in rich goodness.
Serve warm.
Add a scrambled egg and sausage patty or serve with butter and jam.
The leftover biscuits can be reheated briefly in the microwave or used for shortcakes. Note: If you make these with regular flour, use a mix of all-purpose and cake flour (1.5 all-purpose plus 1/2 c. cake flour) and leave out the xanthan gum. Although I specified Authentic Brand Gluten Free flours, you can use all of one kind of gluten free flour - any brand, if you wish. They will be a little less light, but still taste great. The cream must be very, very cold. Also, the trick to light and flaky biscuits is to work the dough as little as possible. Thus the mixing with fork, just until it comes together, kneading it a bit, and patting it flat rather than rolling it to death.

Bon Appetit

Ada's Brownies (gluten free): Celebrating Mom's 93rd Birthday

2010-01-04T21:48:00.000-08:00

Mom (center) with her dad & the Ad Man's mom, circa 1947

My mother was married to a vapid version of a Mad Men character. Right decade, right self-important attitude, but wrong corporate milieu. My dad was his very own tiny ad agency. We will call him Ad Man. His office was a room in the tiny bungalow they called home for 2 adults, four children and a dog. My mother was co-opted into being his assistant without ever the acknowledgement that she worked not only in the home, but in the home office for the Ad Man. He worked not 15 feet from the kitchen, but would yell for her to get him coffee a hundred times a day. He yelled out when it was time for her to make him lunch. He yelled out for her to tell the kids to be quiet when they talked too loudly. Code: anything above a whisper.
I was born into that fray and thought it all perfectly normal until I was in kindergarten. I learned that most Dads left the house each day and came home for dinner. I could go over to other houses to play after school, but because of the whisper-clause, no one ever came over to my house. Only if the weather was fitting for outside play in the backyard would I be able to host friends. Most of my friends thought I lived in the yard because they never got to see my room, or even believe I had a room inside. That was cemented by the fact that mom brought us meals outside, too. All that was missing was a tent and a sleeping bag.
As an adult I realized how my mom came to be such a fabulous baker. She lived in the kitchen. She couldn't be in the living room near the Ad Man's office because the swish of the turning pages of her book would bother him. She read books in her bedroom on the other side of the tiny house, where I found her each day after coming home from school. She spent the day baking and relaxed before dinner with a book. Later, I learned that the relaxing had more to do with resting her damaged heart than just chilling.
Mom baked tons of goodies, but none more frequently than her brownies. She was the entire welcome wagon for the growing neighborhood back in the mid 1940's and would bring a plate of brownies to every new family. She baked them when requested and they became popular beyond reason. We loved when she made brownies because the crisp edges had to be carved off before being given away. The four of us fought over each edge though the pan was square. As the youngest, I got first dibs most of the time. I loved teasing my brothers and taking the imaginary largest sized edge from the square.
Thankfully, the recipe made its way into print in the 1964 Syracuse Hadassah Cookbook. Otherwise, none of us would have ever known how she made them. Most of her recipes were hand-me-downs and no one ever bothered to write them out. I still wonder how she got her strudel dough so thin and delicate. And while I watched her make rugelach often when I was a tiny kid, I do not know the ingredients list.
Undoubtedly these were oversights on her part, thinking she had lots of time to share them with us. She did not. Mom died from heart failure when I was ten. It is now fast approaching the bend in the road where she will have been gone almost as long as she was alive.
Fortunately, the brownies live on. I followed in her footsteps and made them as welcoming gifts for new neighbors when we lived in places that had neighbors. I make them as gifts. I've updated the recipe to reflect changing chocolate sources, but essentially I leave it alone. Some things deserve to be historic mom-uments, including recipes that have a heritage and taste really good.
Ada's Brownies? That would be the Ad Man's witty headline. When the recipe was to be immortalized in the cookbook, it needed a catchy title. A riff on Ate a Brownie became Ada's Brownies. You cannot imagine how many people ask me about Ada and was that my mother's real name? Um, no. Just the Ad Man's moment of Zen. Which is why he never was a Mad Men.
Happy 49.5 Million Minute birthday, Mom. Your brownies live on, and now they will be travel that magic highway, the giant world wide web, where they will live on for virtual eternity. Bon Appetit.

Ada's Brownies by Anne Stander

1/4 pound of butter
2 sq. baking chocolate
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
1 tspn vanilla
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Melt butter and chocolate and set aside to cool. Cream sugar and eggs. Add vanilla, then flour, salt and nuts. Add butter and chocolate mixture. Bake in greased, floured 9x9 pan. 350 degrees for 10 minutes, then 300 degrees for about 25 minutes.
My Notes
This is the original recipe written as was. Translated: 1/4 butter is one stick of unsalted butter. 2 squares baking chocolate is 4 ounces of unsweetened chocolate - use the best you can find. Cut back on the (white) sugar slightly. Nuts are optional.
For gluten free: use Bette's Featherlight gf flour blend from Authentic Foods and add 1/4 tspn xanthan gum. Under measure the gf flour just slightly.
Mix everything as little as possible. Brownies don't benefit from overmixing. Less fussing makes them dense and chewy.

Merry Holiday (Gluten-Free) Treats for Humans & Pups

2009-12-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

For a celiac, the holidays can be a real challenge. Cookies and tempting treats are everywhere. And none are usually gluten free. These are some of the best of the best (links) from Lulu & Phoebe's gluten-free test kitchen. These are easy to make gluten-free treats that everyone can enjoy this holiday. Simple, pretty to look at, full fat ass, and they make great gifts.

The chocolate espresso cookies are not only quick to make, you get that high-test jolt right in each bite. Best of both, espresso and chocolate. But another espresso on the side doesn't hurt.

a little chocolate high test cookie with your espresso

And who would want to be without the drunken snowflake cupcakes? Never mind all those relatives and pesky neighbors. Treat everyone to these and not one of you will remember that you are annoyed.

a very merry drunken snowflake cupcake

Macaroons are the easiest thing to whip together, already gluten free, and a fantastic holiday gift. They keep like crazy and the recipe can make an army of little delights. Drizzle with chocolate for extra fun.

coconut macaroons with chocolate drizzle

My personal favorite are the gluten free black & whites. Before celiac we used to order them from William Greenberg in NYC. What a treat that was. Expensive, but worth every penny. Then we had to recreate them gluten free. We worked on them for two years before we got it right. The black & whites keep for a few days in a tin, but rarely do they last that long. These are a bit more work but worth every bite.

gluten free black & whites

For the four pawed friends we love, these woof-licious cookies are all about the crunch. They take almost no time to prepare, but need to hang out in the oven to dry out. Lulu and Phoebe, if they could talk, would tell you that they enjoy these cookies even more than popcorn. And that says it all.

homemade cookie gifts for the pups

cookie taste-tester-catcher in action

From Lulu and Phoebe's gluten-free test kitchen to you -

Happy Christmas!

A Gluten Free Rainbow Cookie Coalition

2009-12-07T22:06:00.000-08:00

little gluten free rainbow cookies

Early last century our newly married parents left their home in Brooklyn, and laden with important supplies from various delis and bakeries, they arrived in that wilderness called Syracuse. When the supplies ran low, they realized only one bakery had the goods they longed for similar to the big city fare. Snowflake Bakery in Syracuse was an institutional wonder in an oasis of wilderness.
A couple of decades ago, after 400 years of baking, Snowflake closed their doors, and all those goodies became just a sweet memory.
That is, until the thing called The Internet. B&W cookies, rainbow cookies and the rugelach are there for the googling.
Rainbows are actually very easy to make. However, they require a good deal of time and tons of patience. Once a year, I suck it up and make the effort.
This particular recipe is gluten free. It is a combination of other rainbow cookie recipes and techniques, with the addition of our own enhancements. A big shout-out to Deb at Smitten Kitchen. And to our daughter, the inspiration for these little rainbows.

Gluten Free Rainbow Cookies

Makes about 4 thousand. Seriously, this recipe will make about 8 dozen generous 1.5 inch square cookies. Feel free to divide the recipe in half. Be sure to down-size the baking pans (I'd use 13x9)!
Equipment

3 jelly roll pans and/or the patience to bake one at a time.
Or buy three disposable 13x9 pans (for smaller batches).
lots of parchment paper
mixer
offset spatula or something to apply the jelly and chocolate
something to strain the jam or get seedless jam
a large pot of coffee (to get you through the day)
the usual baking suspects like measuring cups et al

the cast of characters for rainbow cookies

Ingredients

2 to 2.5 packages of (fresh) almond paste (about 16 ounces)
4.25 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups white sugar
2 tspns almond extract
splash of vanilla
pinch of salt
2 tspns xantham gum
3 cups of gluten free flour (the finest ground stuff you can find)
8 eggs
about 25 drops of red and green food coloring (each)
1.5 - 2 jars of dark red jam (seedless or you will have to strain it)
pinch of your favorite liquor, Godiva, Cherry or whatever smells good
about 12-15 ounces of really good quality bittersweet chocolate
optional: 2 tbspns corn syrup

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pans by buttering them, lining them with parchment that overhangs the pans on the short sides and butter the parchment too. (see photo).

fitting the parchment to the pan

buttered pan, buttered parchment

Chop the almond paste if necessary. Mix it with the sugar in a food processor to make it almost as fine as the sugar. (see photo). If the almond paste is older and dried a bit, it will remain lumpy. You can see that in these cookies. It doesn't alter the goodness. Tastes just as good.

cutting almond paste

almond paste and sugar, processed

In a stand mixer or large bowl with a hand held mixer, whiz the butter, almond/sugar, flavorings together until fully incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time. Really! One at a time.

adding eggs - one at a time

Gently whisk the flour, xantham gum, and salt in a bowl. Add that to the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Don't overmix!
Separate the batter into three bowls - evenly. (see photo).

dividing the layers evenly

Add the green food coloring to one bowl and mix carefully. Add more drops of color until you like the color. It will bake up slightly darker so keep that in mind. Do the same with the red color in another bowl. Leave one bowl without color. Don't get the spatulas near one another!

mixing the colors

Next, using an offset spatula, spread the batter in your prepared pan, evenly. Give it a little slam on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles.

spread it evenly

If you have room in the oven for all three pans, bake them for about 12 minutes and rotate them at about 8 minutes in. Otherwise, bake them in the center of the oven one at a time for about 12 minutes or until that toothpick comes out clean. They will look underdone! Don't overbake these things. Browning the cakes will not look great. And if gluten free is brown, it tastes like dust. They will look under-done, but if that toothpick is clean take them out! Let them cool completely on a rack.

cooling after passing the toothpick test

Heat the jam until it is liquidy. Add the liquors until it tastes and smells great. Strain it if necessary and then cool to room temperature (but still spreadable).

heating the jam, adding the liquors

strain it really well

Using a butter knife, loosen the edge of the green cake. Lift the parchment slightly so that it is free, but keep it in the pan.
Spread a very thin layer of jam on top (see photo). Be careful not to make it too thick or it will ooze like crazy when you layer the cakes. You will be trimming the edge so if it escapes down the side, no worries.

jam spread

This next step takes the patience of a saint. Using the butter knife, loosen the edges of the layer that is not colored. Very, very carefully pick up and line up the pan with the one that has the jam on it. And in one movement flip the layer onto the one with the jelly - using the parchment to help you. It may not line up correctly, so gently push it into place.
If you are using jelly roll pans this is really not easy. If you are using the smaller 13x9 pans, you can use your hands under the parchment to help place it on the layer, or a large spatula. It should be a bit easier to place.
Take care not to crack the layer if you can.
Once that layer is in place, use the exact same amount of jam and spread it around. Place the last layer on top as evenly as possible (see photo).

last layer added

The hard work is almost done!
Cover the layer with clean parchment (don't re-use any of the parchment you used for baking - see note #9). Then wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap. Place a large cutting board or two on top to weight it down. Add some books to make it a serious weight. Set aside for at least a couple of hours or more. Overnight is even better. No hurry. Give it at minium two hours. Some people refrigerate it, but not necessary.
The Final Finish
When you are ready for the final chocolate layer, take the weights off and unwrap the cake.
Break up the chocolate and melt it in a double boiler over barely warm heat, stirring it up once in a while. When it is almost all melted turn off the heat and let it finish melting. Stir in the corn syrup. Remove the bowl or the top of the double boiler, carefully to avoid getting any of the steam near the chocolate which can make it seize. Let the chocolate cool off until it is like a cool thick syrup.
Meantime - trim the edges of the cake with a serrated knife - about a quarter inch on the edges until it has an even clean edge.
Drizzle half the chocolate over the top and spread with an offset spatula. Try not to drizzle it off the sides, but if you do, don't worry. Trim the edges and eat those pieces yourself!

looking amazingly neat before slicing

Place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to set the chocoalte - about 15 minutes should do it. You are going to flip it to coat the other side, so you want the chocolate to be totally set.
Place a piece of clean parchment on a large baking sheet. Place that on top of the chocolate coated side and in one movement, grab the whole thing and flip it over. Now you should have the uncoated side with the original parchment attached to it on the top side.
Peel off that parchment. Drizzle the remaining chocolate on that side (reheated gently if it got too hard) and using the offset spatula, spread to the edges. Refrigerate until hard, or leave it out to set as well. It just takes longer, but it will set. (see note #9 again)

a little drippy jam

Cutting the cookies is another exercise in patience. The hard chocolate will crack if you use a regular knife. You have to use a serrated knife or a very small, very sharp knife.
To get around this frustration - a couple of things. You could cut it before the chocolate is totally hard - wait for it to set, but not harden.
Or, you could freeze it and cut it while frozen which some say works better.
You could also cut it into long strips after the weights come off and set them on a rack and top with chocolate that way. Then you need only cut them into squares by cutting the long strip rather than the whole thing.
You could also try a long skinny knife, dipped in hot water before each cut.
Someone else mentioned cutting it with a tiny sharp knife to avoid cracking the chocolate.
In the end, it doesn't matter - as long as you like how they look. They will taste so good no one will mind a little crack here and there.
The cookies taste better the longer they sit around. Think about making them ahead of when you will need them by at least a couple of days. They freeze well, too. They cookies will last about a week in a tin.

looking like little rainbows

Notes

Some recipes call for separating the eggs, whipping the whites and incorporating them into the batter. That does lighten the batter a bit. However, when stirring in the coloring, it really does defeat all that egg-white-whipping and folding. Having had them using both techniques, it really doesn't seem to matter. But feel free if you wish. Fold the whites in after you mix in the flour.
People wonder about the pan size. The only rule to remember is that you want them to finish in even size heights. You are stacking three cakes together to make a rather petite cookie, so keep that in mind. Think of it as a jelly roll kind of cake. Very thin - so that is why you have to use the toothpick test and almost underbake them. They will be done, but will still be moist. Just make the layers as evenly as possible. The green layer in these is a little higher than the others (see photos).
Some recipes call for apricot jam. Having grown up with the raspberry or red jam version, we would never use apricot. But it is a personal choice. Use what makes you happy. Just make sure there are no lumps or seeds in the jam. And be sure to add the liqours. It deepens the flavor. Fruit spread is fine too, just make sure to heat it enough to get it to thicken a bit. Some recipes also use a slightly thinner jam coating on the final layer right under the chocolate. If you do that, be sure to let it soak all the way in to the cake before applying the chocolate, or the topping might fall off.
The chocolate is going to work perfectly or it will be a pain in the rear. Always buy extra just in case you ruin a batch. Melt it gently over the water bath and don't allow any steam to escape or it will seize. The second problem is heating it too much - it will turn grainy and sludgy. And adding the corn syrup helps give it shine, and a pliability that you will want for spreading and cutting. Add the corn syrup at the end only. If you only use melted chocolate, you are actually tempering it while you melt it. The result will be a snappy shiny chocolate coating that is guaranteed to crack wherever you cut.
If for some reason you end up with that snappy chocolate (like these in the photos) try a variety of knives to cut it. The serrated should have worked best, but it cracked the chocolate. The long thin knife dipped in hot water should have done the trick, but it just made it worse. What worked was a little tiny very sharp paring knife and you can still see where it cracked in the photos.
Use the best chocolate you can afford. Bittersweet is a nice flavor against the uber sweetness of the marzipan. But most recipes call for semisweet and that works just as well. Your choice. But remember to have some extra on hand in case you need more, or wrecked the first batch. Been there, several times.
And - many recipes call for chocolate coating on only one side. Feel free to do that. It saves you money, time and grief. You don't have to melt as much. You don't have to flip the whole thing. And less opportunity for the chocolate to crack.
To make the recipe not gluten free, skip the xantham gum, use the equvilant amount of all purpose flour, and skip an egg.
The reason not to re-use the parchment? You buttered it. The greased parchment side acts as a seal and the chocolate can (and probably will) just lay there, not sticking to the cake layer. So, even though the parchment you are peeling off the layers as you stack them seems re-usable, don't do it! You'll regret it. I know I did! Yes, I did that and the chocolate on one side doesn't stick to the cake. This is the bottom side of the original layer that I left in the pan - you can skip coating this side and save yourself some grief. But always use clean parchment without any grease for covering that final layer before you stack the boards and books on it! Clean parchment!

Bon Appetit! And by the time you finish, it will be time for a glass of wine rather than a pot of coffee. Go for it. You deserve it after all that work!

cookies with a glass of wine?

The Flan That Would Be Pumpkin

2009-11-23T21:11:00.000-08:00

pumpkin flan with gluten free crust

naked pumpkin flan

If you still have pumpkin or ran to the store and bought out the dwindling supply, this recipe is for you. Pumpkin flan in a pate brisee crust, topped with a little cream fraiche or whipped cream will make your guests think you are Martha Stewart.

Oh, yeah. This is Martha's recipe. Sort of. Since it was made in the L&P gluten free test kitchen, it has, shall we say, been modified to meet gluten free standards and enhanced slightly. In addition, since it is a MS recipe, we sought to simplify wherever we could.

First, begin by making a pot of high test French Roast coffee. You will need it. Second, make sure you begin a couple of days before you want to serve the dessert. It tastes better the second and third day. It was not so good the first day.

You could get a gluten free (or regular) pie crust mix at the store. That is a great alternative to save you time.

But if you are a whiz at the pie crusts, you know these crusts are simple to make and don't take much time at all.

Just remember - the flan needs to be a little bit smaller in diameter than than the pastry crust.

The hardest task was the making the caramel. It goes from perfect to hard candy in a flash. Be careful. And no, the hard candy stage will not get you the caramel you need for the flan finish.

Just have patience and learn from our mistakes. The caramel is easy. It is simply water and sugar boiled gently on really low heat until the color is perfect. Martha said to make it a nice deep amber color. Don't!

It will be hard candy in about 5 seconds after it turns amber. Just get it to that light blond stage and by the time you pour it, the color will be perfect. And it will pour! Hard candy doesn't pour. My first batch made it to the ramekins and then became a hard shell.

The flan is flavored with real ginger - so beware. If you enjoy the sharp taste of ginger, by all means, use the recommended dose. But if you want a subtle taste of ginger, dial the portion back a touch.

And last, be sure to follow the directions to strain the flan into the ramekins unless you enjoy little stringy bits of ginger and pumpkin. It makes a difference. And don't press too much on the strained stuff or you will push through some things you don't want in there - speaking from experience.

And the biggest advice of all: Don't serve it with the pate brisee if you don't want to bother making the crusts. It is perfectly pretty and tasty all on its own. The pastry crust is fun, but really, it is the kind of thing we expect from Martha, a little over the top.

We made it so you don't have to - but you might want to. It is really good. But then again, I was dreaming of Smitten Kitchen's chocolate pudding pie as I was making the crusts. That should tell you something.

Pumpkin Flan in a Gluten Free Pate Brisee Crust

Ingredients for Caramel Sauce

2 cups white sugar
1 cup filtered water

Directions for Caramel Sauce

make sure the sugar and water dissolve

In a small saucepan with high sides, heat the sugar and water gently till disolved. Don't stir it at all. Just swirl the pan with the handle. Have a glass of cold water and a pastry brush nearby. Once the sugar is dissolved, heat to a gentle low-heat boil, keeping it simmering at the lowest heat possible. Use the cold water/brush to brush down the sugar crystals that form on the side of the pan once in a while. Swish the saucepan once in a while. Do not let it get to the deep amber color Martha suggests. Light blonde is good.

once it dissolves gently boil it

As soon as it is the right color, set the pan in cold water for a second - be really careful - boiling sugar is hot and can burn. It will sizzle like crazy when it hits the cold water. Immediately pour the caramel into the bottoms of 6-8 shallow ramekins about 4 inches in diameter. Don't worry about the size so much - just divide the caramel evenly. Let it cool on the counter while you prepare the flan.

this would be the perfect color

If you did this right, the caramel is runny. If you did it almost right, the caramel might be slightly hard, but still gooey. That will work too. The only instance where you need to begin again is if the caramel is hard as a rock. It won't make that nice runny stuff when you flip it and will stay in the ramekin. Do it over.

this is the do-over color, sigh

Ingredients: Flan

cast of characters pumpkin flan

1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups of whole milk
12 ounces canned pumpkin (not pie mix)
1 tspn grated fresh ginger root (MS uses 2 tspns)
1 tspn cinnamon (MS uses 1/2 tspn)
1/4 tspn freshly grated nutmeg
pinch salt
5 large eggs plus two large yolks
2 tspns vanilla

Directions Flan

flan ramekins in roasting pan

Preheat oven to 325. Place the ramekins in a roasting pan. Bring the milk just to a light boil on the stove. In the meantime mix the remaining ingredients until well incorporated. Temper the mixture by adding the hot milk slowly and stirring at the same time. Whisk it all together. Using a fine strainer, pour the flan over the caramel, into the ramekins filling about 2/3 full.

before the boiling milk, the flan ingredients

tempering the mixture should get you this

Place the pan in the oven and carefully add hot water until it is halfway up the sides of the ramekins in the roasting pan. Place a sheet of foil over the top - it doesn't have to be a tight fit at all - just covering it is fine.

in the oven, with a water bath

Bake for almost an hour or until a knife comes out clean from the center. It can take a little less than an hour. Over cooked flan looks a bit grainy and crumbly. So keep a watch out. Once you've done it successfully you will know when to fetch it from the oven. The first time is always the hardest.

Let them cool in the bath until they are room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for the next day.

just done - wait until tomorrow

Ingredients Pate Brisee

1.5 cups of gluten free flour
1 tspn xantham gum
pinch salt
1 tspn white sugar
9-10 tablespoons of ice cold unsalted butter cut into tiny pieces
filtered ice water

Directions Pate Brisee

Measure the dry ingredients into a food processor. If you are using a bowl, do the same. Drop the butter bits into the flour mixture in the processor or a bowl. For the processor: Pulse it until the mixture looks like cornmeal. For a bowl, using a fork or pastry blender tool, mix in the flour until it looks like cornmeal.

whiz this until it looks like cornmeal

Add about 1/4 cup of ice water all at once. In the processor, pulse until it just comes away from the sides into a ball. Add more ice water to get there if needed. In the bowl, add the ice water and work it in until it just starts to turn into a solid ball.

ready to come away from the sides, perfect

Grab the ball of dough and divide it evenly in half, and then again in half again until you have four to eight even-sized pieces. Gluten free pie dough does not roll easily. Since you filling 5-inch tart pans, smack the dough into the pan and work it up the sides until it is nice and thin and evenly done. The dough will be quite soft by now.

You want to bake it when the butter is very cold, so refrigerate the tart pans on a cookie sheet for at least 30 minutes or longer. You can leave them overnight if you like. They freeze well too.

chilled, ready to bake

Take them from the refrigerator or directly from the freezer and bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes or just until they look very lightly brown. GF pie dough never browns like regular pie crusts - so don't worry if they are light color. They are supposed to be that way.

Let them cool completely at room temperature.

toasted blonde, not browned

Assembling the Tarts

Take the flans out to come to about room temperature before serving. Run a butter knife around the edges a few times. Take the tart dough and remove the tin if you can. If not, don't worry about it. Put the tart shell upside down on the ramekin and securely holding it so it doesn't shatter, flip the whole thing quickly and remove the ramekin.

Once you've done this, the rest will be easy. I always make an extra so if I break it, or screw it up, it doesn't matter. The first is the hardest.

Serve with whipped cream or cream fraiche.

Or serve the flan naked and skip the tart shell. Both ways are great.

Happy Thanksgiving and Bon Appetit

Pumpkin Who? Thanksgiving Ginger Cake & Poached Pears

2009-11-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Gluten Free Ginger Cake & Poached Pears

Watch out, pumpkin pie.

This year, Thanksgiving is not just about that orange gourd-like squash. It will be all about another knobby little tuber called ginger root.

This gluten-free ginger cake with poached pears takes a little bit of time to prepare. It is one of those wonderful desserts that looks complicated, but is not. You can make the whole creation ahead of time and plate it at the last minute. While everyone else is eating that orange colored pie, your guests will be impressed with a dessert that will not only make them swoon, it'll help digest that ginormous Thanksgiving meal. Ginger is a great thing to eat after a huge dinner.

The original recipe comes from Fine Cooking Magazine, in an article from the husband and wife team of Nancy Oakes and Bruce Aidells. He, of sausage fame, and she, of Boulavard Restaurant fame. The modifications and enhancements come from the L&P gluten-free test kitchen.

Set aside a couple of hours to prepare this. A day or so before the holiday is fine. You can refrigerate the poached pears and sauce separately. The cake can be stored under a glass dome, or wrap it up in foil after it is completely cold and store it in the refrigerator too. Just make sure to take all the ingredients out the day you wish to serve it so that they come to room temperature. You can heat the sauce if you like it warm. It tastes great warm or at room temperature.

No one will guess that the dessert is gluten-free. The crumb looks like any other cake, and the ginger, molasses flavoring will make everyone swoon. The secret ingredient for the cake and sauce cannot be understated. It is key to the final flavor. And no one will ever know that it started as a bottle of artistan root beer. Many thanks to Bruce Aidells and Nancy Oakes for adding this crazy ingredient - who knew a bottle of root beer could be this versatile?!

Gluten Free Ginger Cake & Poached Pear

& Sauce with Whipped Cream

cast of characters

Ingredients: Cake

2 scant cups gluten free flour (lightly filled)
1 teaspoon xantham gum
1.5 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ginger root powder (make sure it is a new jar)
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 scant cup veggie oil (not olive)
3 large eggs or 2 jumbo eggs
1/4 cup dark molasses
1.5 cups of dark brown sugar
1 cup of the best crafty root beer you can find

Cake Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9 inch square baking pan with straight sides. Dust with granulated white sugar. Set the prepared pan aside.

buttered and sprinkled with sugar

Mix flour, salt, spices, xantham gum together in a large bowl. Thoroughly mix eggs, oil and molasses in a smaller bowl and whisk until completely incorporated.

gluten free flour & spices

molasses, eggs & oil do mix, eventually

In a small saucepan mix well, and heat to boiling, the root beer and brown sugar. Be careful. Boiling sugar is hot!

brown sugar & foamy root beer

Meantime, pour the molasses mixture into the larger bowl with the flour et al. Mix with a wooden spoon. If you use a whisk (like I did) it will get stuck.

Once the rootbeer/brown sugar mixture is boiling, pour it into the larger bowl and this time using a whisk, make sure it is all incorporated. It will be very liquidy and may bubble up some. Just keep stirring until it feels incorporated.

pour and whisk carefully - tis hot

Quickly pour (yes, it pours like liquid) into the prepared pan and place immediately into the oven.

really liquidy batter into the oven

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes and then turn the oven down to 325 and continue to bake for about 15 minutes more or until a toothpick comes out clean. It can still look under-done but as soon as the toothpick comes out clean, take the cake out and set it on a rack to cool, still in the pan. Gluten free batters should bake at a lower temperature.

center looks gooey, but toothpick is clean, so it's done

Take a butter knife and drag it around the edges after about ten minutes just to loosen the edge of the cake, but leave it in the pan to cool for about 30 minutes. Take the rack and place it on top of the cake and flip it out of the pan. You may have to tap the bottom of the pan with a butter knife to convince it to come out, but it will. Be patient.

Quickly place your cake plate on top of the flipped cake and holding the rack and the plate, flip it over so the top is up again. I used a glass cake plate that has a dome. You can use anything you want but be sure to anticipate how you will be wrapping up the cake to store when you plate it. Once is on the plate you will not able to get it off - you have to cut the pieces from there to plate the servings.

nice crusty sugary edges

Poached Pears

This is the fun part. The hardest part about poaching is peeling and coring the fruit. We used baby bosc pears from the Farmer's Market. You can use Bosc Pears from anywhere, big or small. They both take about the same amount of time to poach.

Ingredients: Poached Pears

Allow 1/2 pear per serving

4 large firm, but ripe bosc pears or 6 small ones
3-4 bottles of the same great root beer
peel from 1.5 small lemons or one large one (not the pith)
1/2 whole vanilla bean

Directions: Poached Pears

Peel pears, leaving stems intact if you can. Cut in half and core carefully. Use a tiny melon ball instrument if you can. Makes quick work of the core.

Pour root beer into a flat bottomed saucepan large enough to hold the pear halves laying down. Use enough root beer to cover the pears completely. Drop in large lemon peels and the vanilla bean.

Bring to a simmer and poach on low heat, so that the liquid slightly simmers. Don't cover the pan. Poach until the pears are soft, but still firm enough to keep their shape. It can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. Just keep checking back.

prepared pears, lemon peel, vanilla poaching in root beer

Once the pears are done, remove them with a slotted spatula or spoon to a container that you can close and refrigerate if you are not serving them immediately. Let them cool completely before storing.

little poached pears cooling off

Meantime, turn the heat up a little and gently boil the liquid until it reduces to a syrupy consistency. It takes about 15 minutes. Watch it carefully at the end because it can evaporate and burn. I like to take it off the heat a tiny bit before it turns thick. It continues to thicken up even off the heat. Immediately strain our the lemon peel and vanilla bean, and pour into a container or a pitcher and let it cool to room temperature before storing.

this ended up being about 1.5 cups when finished

Whipped Cream

Buy a can or make it at home. If you whip it at home, add a touch of sugar and little bit of vanilla.

Plating

Cut the cake into even sized pieces. Place the cake on a plate off-center a touch.

Take a pear half (we used two small halves for each serving just because we are piggies). And place it stem side up leaning on the cake.

Pour or spoon a little bit of the warmed or room temperature syrup over the cake and the pear. It will pool at the base of the cake. You want enough for each serving to have a tiny pool at the cake base.

Plop a little bit of whipped cream on top of each piece of cake. Garnish with mint leaves or candied ginger peel if you wish.

Serve and watch them swoon.

pumpkin, who?

Betty Crocker Goes Gluten Free: Our Test Kitchen Version

2009-11-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

When Betty Crocker offers gluten free cake mixes, you know that Celiac has become mainstream. The story about how the corporation came to develop gluten free products is on the box. A familiar tale - a child of an employee and a test kitchen employee were diagnosed with Celiac. No one wanted to leave them out of the joy of being able to eat Betty Crocker baked goods. Thus a rationale for the development of a new product was born.

Betty Crocker offers a chocolate devil's food and yellow gluten free cake mix. A gluten free chocolate chip cookie and brownie mix can be had as well. Their website offers a variety of recipes using each product.

In our test kitchen, we are mixing up the chocolate cake mix into cupcakes, adding a Betty Crocker frosting-in-the-can that seems to have no offending gluten ingredients, but is not labeled gluten free. One can assume that if they have gone to the trouble of developing a gluten free baking mix, the frosting will soon follow. Until then, finding the product that does not contain gluten is tricky because some do, and some do not. It pays to read carefully, or make your own from scratch.

We paired the chocolate cupcakes with Betty Crocker chocolate chocolate chip frosting.

Better with homemade frosting, or none at all

First, read the instructions and ingredients list on the box carefully. Gluten free is not fool proof entirely. The ingredients list is a tutorial in how the final product, once baked, might taste. The first ingredient listed is sugar. No decent cake should have sugar as the primary ingredient, even a gluten free cake. Especially a gluten free cake. But with a little innovation, you can improve the flavor.

The box requires that you add a stick of softened butter, some water, and eggs.

Always use unsalted butter. Water is a good because it blooms the cocoa powder and eggs are necessary. To this we added extra cocoa powder, some finely ground espresso (decaf) coffee, a tiny bit of vanilla and almond flavoring, a spoonful of sour cream, and one additional egg to compensate for the additional dry ingredients. The addition of unsweetened cocoa powder will cut back on the sweetness and enhance the chocolate flavor.

The Enhanced Ingredient List

1 stick of unsalted butter, very soft
1 cup of hot water (not boiling)
3 jumbo eggs or 4 large eggs (at room temp if you can)
splash of vanilla and almond flavoring or liquor
heaping tablespoon of sour cream
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
2 heaping tablespoons of finely ground espresso beans

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325. Make sure butter is very soft, but not melted. Eggs at room temperature mix better. Mix everything on low speed until incorporated. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed until fluffy. Scoop into cupcake pan (using paper liners) about 3/4 full. Bake about 22 minutes at 325 degrees. Toothpick should come out clean.

Cool and frost. Leave them out until frosting sets. If you cover them before that happens, the canned frosting will slide off overnight. Blah.

baked and cooling - they tasted best plain!

The Critique

Grainy - Not a bad mix, but they could use a better grade of gluten free flour that is not as grainy. That happens a great deal with commercially prepared gluten free products. There is no need for that anymore. Really finely ground gluten free flours are available these day.

Too Sweet - No adult would really enjoy a cake that sweet. It had to be cut with lots of unsweetened cocoa to lighten up the sweetness.

Overall Flavor - The initial flavor would have been flat. It needed a boost with the vanilla, almond or liquor. But it is a decent basic cake if you cut the sweetness.

Going Back for More? - Maybe. Probably would avoid having to do that, but in a pinch, with some modification, it might be a timesaver. But never would use that frosting again. It was pretty much the worst frosting we ever tasted. It could use substantial improvement but is not worth the effort. Would make our own next time, or just use a ganache.

Grade - A++ for the effort and production of a gluten free product. C + for the chocolate cake mix with sugar as the lead ingredient. And an F- for any of the Betty Crocker canned frostings.

just frosted, but later it all slid off the cupcakes...

21 Days of Food From the Other Side: The Gluten Challenge

2009-10-13T12:31:00.001-07:00

the universal sans gluten bumper sticker

For the celiac or gluten intolerant, gluten is evil incarnate.

It lurks in the heart of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies, in the soul of Izzy's Brooklyn Bagels, and in the crust of Sam's Chowder House deep fried popcorn shrimp located in dazzling Half Moon Bay.

It is the crusty loaf of an Acme Bread batard. It sings a siren song so wistful it brings tears while tasting the sublime and famous Citizen Cake Cupcake. Gluten is a friend to food, a sister to the bakery ensemble, and it proudly occupies more than 90% of the stuff on supermarket shelves.

Evil or not, it has been our vice, and sustenance for the past 21 days. And this day brings the moment we knew was inevitable, the divorce. The union is shattered, broken by the simplest of excuses. We cannot maintain a relationship without becoming severely ill in mind and body, and let's face it, spirit.

Why did we hook up in the first place?

Blame it on the doctor. She suggested we take the newer celiac panel tests since neither of us have had a modern day test. In order for a gluten antibody test to be accurate, one has to have ingested gluten, for a long while. Depending on the literature anywhere from one month to several is the suggestion. Since we have been gluten free for a very long time, the longer challenge is the preferred choice. If you are the counting type, it means stuffing anywhere from 8 to 11 equivalent slices of bread in your face on a daily basis.

Testing for celiac is not simple. Here is the scientific brouhaha . If you test positive, then the next step is an endoscopy to take a sample of the lining of the small intestine to test it for the disease. The lining gets totally stripped of the helpful villi if you are a celiac. Those consequences mean you don't absorb necessary nutrients and suffer from a host of ailments, like osteoporosis, malnutrition, and constant unhappiness in the gut.

The incidence of celiac in our country is much more prevalent than once thought. One of every 133 people. Those are big numbers.

The gluten challenge is simple in theory, harder to do in real life. While you are gluten free, your body heals, the symptoms abate and you lead a normal(ish) life. But once you ingest gluten, the dirty rotten scoundrel makes life miserable again. And in order to get an accurate reading, it must be for a period of time to start the damaging cycle. It sounds counter intuitive, but there is a good reason to do this. All ailments that seem celiac are not always celiac. There could also be underlying issues that need investigation that seem to also abate when gluten free.

The first few days of the challenge are like an illicit affair. The temptations that you've avoided until now are yours for the asking. Oh, the power. Oh, the choices. Oh, the misery. Gluten-free gave you good health, energy, and the ability to have a good day in body at least. After the first few moments of having your cake and eating it too, the bill collector comes calling.

Bent over, gripping the guts to hold everything in, and not paying any attention to the anvil and vice in your head was the mantra for that first week. Sleeping sitting up, discovering the old, but still good, Nexium in the medicine chest , downing Tums like candy, and chewing Pepto Bismal like breath mints got you through some of the day.

Milano cookies do not taste as good as they once did. Three times was the magic number for trying to find perfect ravioli, which do not exist. Several baguettes later, not one of them held up to what we ate in France. At least 300 croissants later we knew they didn't hold up to French standards. Oreos still tasted great if you removed the cookie and just ate the middle. Ring Dings look so much more appealing when Brenda Lee Johnson swoons over them.

Pizza is overrated, although cheese is not. Crispy fried seafood tastes like crispy fried bread crumbs if the seafood is overcooked. A lumberjack pancake breakfast is enough to feed the Jolly Green Giant and all of his friends. Who eats that stuff? And after several burgers with buns, not one was good enough to not peel away the bread.

This is the last day, the day before the blood tests. And there is not one item on our list that I want to eat. But like a good student, I will search for my 8 slices of bread in some form or another. I hear Izzy's Bagels calling.

Or maybe that is just the ringing in my ears from 21 days of too many Advil.

citizen cake cupcakes : worth every gluten laden bite

Drunken Chocolate Birthday Cake

2009-06-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

Drunken Chocolate Cake, Gluten Free and Tipsy

There is one other love in the lives of Lulu &Phoebe aside from anything named food. That would be their ever loving human Dad, the one who takes them for early morning and late evening walks.

They cozy up to him at night when the other human is radiating like a furnace, and they hide behind his legs when the cat that is bigger than a Great Dane pounces off the balcony above them. He will share his ice cream cone, take them for rides in the car, and throws the slimy ball endlessly.

For his 28.4 million minute birthday they have gifted him a day off from all things canine except for the early morning and late night walking, ball throwing, filling of food bowls, and protection from neighborhood feline bullies.

They've requested that I make an all time favorite cake which he last tasted about 15 years ago. They asked that I take him to the San Francisco MOMA to see the beauty of Ansel Adams and Gertrude Stein, partnered in one exquisite exhibit. They also requested that I take him to dinner at their favorite place where they can sit under our table, and look adorable while eating everything we drop.

Drunken Chocolate Cake, Gluten Free

Ingredients: Cake

1 package Pamela's gluten free chocolate cake mix
1 small box of chocolate fudge instant pudding mix
1/2 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/4 cup kahlua
1/4 cup creme de cacao
1/4 cup godiva liqueur
3/4 cup strong espresso
pinch of vanilla and almond flavoring

Ingredients: First Glaze

1 cup of powdered sugar sifted so no lumps remain
2 tablespoons espresso
2 tablespoons of each liqueur

Ingredients: Second Glaze

1 cup heavy cream, heated
1.5 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (or semisweet)
pinch of espresso, almond flavoring, and the liqueurs

Directions

Mix everything together on medium speed for about 3 minutes until fluffy and smooth. If it seems a bit thick, add a bit more coffee or liqueur.

Pour into a buttered and floured (I use cocoa to flour the pan) bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes and 325 degrees for 10 minutes more.

As soon as a toothpick comes out mostly clean, take the cake out. Overbaking a gluten free cake makes it a little rubbery.

from the oven - let it rest (quietly)

Cool for a few minutes and then invert onto a rack (using a cardboard cake holder while it cools on the rack helps).

Poke holes in the top of the cake with a skewer. Many holes! You want the glaze to get into the cake.

Mix up the first glaze and pour it over the warm, but not hot, cake. Get as much as you can into the holes. Let it set for about 30 minutes.

oversight management first glazing (K, C & G)

Mix up the second glaze and let it set for about 10 minutes. Then pour over cake until you are happy. Let this glaze set before serving, about an hour.

really happy chocolate

The pictoral version of the recipe is here, if perhaps you've taste tested the ingredients before assembling the recipe. And remember - do not eat and drive! Happy birthday and Bon Appetit.

One bag of Pamela's Chocolate Cake Mix, Gluten Free

add one small box of chocolate fudge instant pudding mix

save 3/4 cup of your espresso and pour it in too

add 1/4 cup of this stuff

add 1/4 cup of this too

and another 1/4 cup of this!

add four of these

add about 1/2 cup of this

Got Raspberries? Make Cake

2009-06-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

gluten free raspberry cake

Aside from the cupboard full of chocolate and another closet full of wine mingling with shoes, there is a refrigerator full of raspberries, blueberries and cheese. About the only thing these epicurean delights have in common is that you can drink the wine with any of them.

Right now chunky little raspberries are all around us. And they seem abundant this year. When we cannot keep up with eating them naked, it is time to think of other delicious ways to dress them up for the table.

This raspberry cake is simple to make. You need a bowl, a mixer or a strong arm and a measuring cup and an oven. It is best served freshly baked and slightly warm with either vanilla gelato or whipped cream. Extra berries on top are de rigour.

Of course, all of our recipes are gluten free. This one is adapted from Gourmet Magazine and fluffed up a bit to accomodate both a gluten free variety and our love of all things raspberry.

Gluten Free Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

cast of characters

Ingredients

3/4 cup gluten free flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch of almond extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup plus a tablespoon or two of buttermilk
1 to 2 cups fresh raspberries

Directons

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter and flour an 8 or 9-inch round cake pan. I used an 8 inch pan with high side. You can use a square pan too. Your choice.

Whisk together flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla and almond extract. Then add the egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in batches, alternating with buttermilk, and mixing until just combined. Don't overmix.

easy on the mixing

Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter at least one cup of raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.

batter and berries meet up

add remaining sugar to top

Bake until cake is lightly browned (remember, gluten free never gets golden) and a toothpick comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Place a cake plate on the cooled cake and invert so the top is up.

just baked, ready to cool

Serve slightly warm with additional raspberries and ice cream or whipped cream.

Ready to serve

Simple Simon's Apple Pieman

2009-05-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

apple pieman with vanilla ice cream

This is the easiest fruit crumble to make. I like to use old apples that have seen better days, but any fruit will do. Just remember to cut them into even sized pieces. Berries would be great too. And all the better with ice cream on top! No one will guess that this a gluten free goodie. Bon Appetit.

cast of characters

Gluten free apple tarts in a bowl. Simple pieman pie.

6 large apples (or other fruit)
1-2 tbspn white sugar
1-2 tbspn brown sugar
lots of cinnamon
nutmeg

Peel apples. (see the peeler for simple pieman use). Chop into even chunks, about 1/2 inch. Drop in a bowl, and add the sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir and let rest.

A word about the peeler. It is genius. No more extra finger peels in the food! Safety first, and because I am a supreme klutz, this is the best peeler ever. It will do an apple in a few seconds because you can whiz around and get almost the whole peel in swoop. It's the little things, people, the little things, that count.

make the fruit chunks even

add the dry stuff

really cool peeler

Meanwhile mix up the topping.

1.5 cups of gluten free flour
pinch of xanthan gum
lots of cinnamon
some nutmeg
1/4 cup of brown sugar
8 plus 2 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

Using a food processer, dump the flour, xanthan, sugar and seasoning into the work bowl. Place the chuncks of butter around and into the flour carefully (don't get your fingers near the blade). Give it a couple of whirls until it looks like pebbles or large sand.

Alternatively, you can also do this by hand with a fork or a pastry blender. Dry ingredients first, then the butter. Don't overwork it. Just get it to the pebble looking stage.

pop all the topping stuff into the processor

add the cut up butter on top

whiz until it looks like cornmeal

Place the apple (or other fruit) chunks into oven safe bowls. Tap the bowls to settle the apples. Next, spoon the topping evenly on all the bowls and again, tap lightly to distribute. You want some of the topping to sink into the apple spaces. Make sure the top is covered pretty much - a few chunks sticking out are ok.

apples into the bowls first

topping is topped with butter & cinnamon

Add more cinnamon and nutmeg (optional at this point). Take a couple more tablespoons of very cold unsalted butter and chop into small pieces and place in the bowls.

Place the bowls on a large cookie sheet for easier handling. Bake at 375 for about 40-50 minutes. You want the top to look set and a bit brown and the apples to be thoroughly cooked. You can stick a knife into the apple mix to see if they are soft enough.

piping hot from the oven

If the top is cooking too quickly and the apples are not quite done, turn the oven to 350 and keep checking.

This makes as many servings as you wish. You can use big bowls, or smaller bowls, or add more apples.

Optional but there goes the simple pieman: nuts, raisins, other fruit.

Serve alone or with a big scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream.

Ultra Thin Chocolate Chunks - The Oxymoron Edition

2009-05-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

As you've probably guessed, we have an awful lot of chocolate around here. We are always collecting it, like wine, and trying to find ways to eat it that require some sort of magical arrangement that results in gluten free treats.

More than intrigued with the numbers of ways to incorporate chocolate chunks in cookies, we came across a recipe that belongs to Alice Medrich, of the late Cocolat, and of immense chocolate fame.

We were once lucky enough to take a chocolate class with Alice and our life has never been the same. But then again, since having to maintain a gluten free diet, making great treats has never been the same. The science of one does not always translate easily to the other. It is a trial and error deal.

But I am happy to say that this recipe from the Scharffenberger Chocolate Book, The Essence of Chocolate and contributed by Alice Medrich worked out pretty well in the conversion to gluten free.

It is one of the fastest and easiest chocolate chunk cookies to make. I love ultra thin crispy cookies and this one does not disappoint.

chocolate chunks extraordinaire

the chocolate is still warm

Ultra Skinny Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Gluten Free

Ingredients

1 1/4 plus 1 heaping tablespoon gluten free flour
pinch of xanthan gum
heaping 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (but not hot)
very scant 1/2 cup toasted gluten free oats (Bob's Red Mill)
heaping 1/2 cup white sugar
tightly packed 1/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
2 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons cream (half/half or milk will do)
pinch salt
pinch of vanilla
1 bag of Scharffenberger semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or about 7 ounces of chocolate chunked with a knife

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Make sure to position racks in upper and lower third of oven. Line three baking sheets with foil. If the oats are not toasty, place them in a baking pan and toast for about 10 minutes. Cool. (I make extra for next time).

Mix the gluten free flour, xantan gum, salt and baking soda together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Melt butter in microwave just until melted. In a large bowl mix together oats and melted butter. Stir in sugars, corn syrup, cream, vanilla and mix well.

melted butter, oats

Stir in the flour just until fully incorporated. Make sure the mixture is at room temperature or cooler and then add the chocolate chunks, mixing just until incorporated.

one bowl, one spoon, easy to mix

Scoop (about 1/4 cup each) about 15 cookies and place them, 5 to a cookie sheet. Four in the ends and one in the center, leaving plenty of room for them to spread (and they will!).

five dough scoops to a sheet

Using a piece of saran wrap over the dough, flatten the cookies to about 3 inches. You can use one piece of saran wrap to do all of them.

flattened with saran wrap

Place two sheets in the oven and bake for about 18-20 minutes total. About halfway rotate the sheets. They should look brown and not shiny. Don't overbake them! Slide the foil carefully onto cooling racks without touching the cookies. Let them cool completely.

foil on the cooling rack

Makes 15 absolutely perfect gluten free cookies. They will last covered in a tin or a cake plate with a cover for about 3 days, but they won't last that long.

Enjoy!

espresso?

The Long and Rocky Road, Gluten Free

2009-05-04T22:01:00.000-07:00

Gluten Free Rocky Road Bars

Once in a while a bag of marshmallows finds its way into the house. Sometimes I make marshmallows from scratch for the heck of it. Then the inevitable happens. Rocky Road. I am a Rocky Road addict. I confess. RR ice cream. RR candy bars, RR anything. But since going gluten free, RR cookie bars have been a challenge. Graham cracker used to be the roadbed for the delightful array of nuts, marshmallows and chocolate. But graham is decidedly not gluten free. And all substitutes that pretend to be graham crackers are about as edible as wallboard.

But today, I present to you a simple and delicious Rocky Road bar, one that uses a made-up cookie crust for the roadbed. It is easy to do and much better than the same old boring graham cracker crust.

Though it is gluten free, no one will care or even know because they are just that good. A goodie that is piled high with mountains of toasted, salted nuts, dark chocolate, and marshmallows is a perfect treat and a brilliantly good day. Original recipe from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies. Adapted in L&P's gluten free test kitchen. New crust and a few tweaks. .

still warm, have a few

Rocky Road Bars, Gluten Free

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Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup of gluten free flour
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 mixed brown and white sugar any way you like
1 cup bittersweet dark chocolate chips
2 cups mini (or homemade marshmallows snipped to 1/2 inch )
1 overflowing cup of your favorite nuts, roasted and salted

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8 inch square metal pan with foil (the idea is to lift the foil out when they are done and place it on a board to cut into pieces - also, easy clean up that way!)

Melt butter in the microwave or stove top. Stir the sugar, salt and vanilla into the melted butter. Add the xanthan gum and flour and mix so no lumps remain, but just until incorporated.

melted butter, sugar, vanilla, flour mixture

Before baking, chop the nuts coarsely. I like almonds, but any other nut will do. Just don't chop them too much.

whole roasted, salted almonds

coarse chop those almonds

flatten the dough into the pan, add the nuts, press down

Drop the mess into the prepared foil lined pan. Using a fork or your fingers (or monkey finger if you wish) press the stuff down until it is pretty solid. Remember to get the edges too so they don't crumble after baking. Press the chopped nuts into the base and bake.

Place in the 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes or until lightly brown and just about baked. It will still be slightly soft in the center.

still warm from the oven

Once the base is out of the oven, while still warm, place half the chocolate chips and spread them around. Do the same with half the marshmallows. Finish up with the chocolate and then the marshmallows. The idea is to layer it so that once things melt they melt together in layers. Vary it any way you like.

adding the goodies, first round

adding the goodies, 2nd round

ready to bake again

Place back in the oven and bake for about another 12 minutes or until the marshmallows are just turning color and the chocolate is melted.

Let it set until cool, which will be hard to do. Keep a handful of marshmallows and chocolate out to eat while you wait.

toasted marshmallows anyone?

Once cool, lift out and carefully remove the foil. Use a serrated knife and cut into 16 pieces. Enjoy!

Voila!