Date Night Cream Puffs- Gluten Free

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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

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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

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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

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

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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

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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

1. 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.  
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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.  
5. 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.  
6. 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.
7. 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.  
8. To make the recipe not gluten free, skip the xantham gum, use the equvilant amount of all purpose flour, and skip an egg.
9. 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?