Gluten-Free Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

My mom used to serve a chocolate cherry cake back when we could both eat gluten. The good old days.

But now that Betty Crocker has the devil's food cake mixes, we are making this again. It is so yummy.

1 box gluten free chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup water
1/2 can cherry pie filling

Mix cake mix, butter, egg and water according to the directions on the box.

When you open the cherry pie filling there will be cherries and some gel-like stuff. First divide your can of cherries into 2 portions. Scoop out as much of the gel stuff as you can out of one portion and mix it with the cake mix. You can freeze the other half of the cherries and filling to save for the next time you make these cupcakes.

Pour a small amount of batter into each cupcake cup. Place about three cherries on top of the batter and then fill the cup almost until the top. I did this with most of my cupcakes and I think it tastes the best, but I did have trouble getting the cupcakes out of the cupcake holder without breaking. I also experimented with placing the cherries on top of the batter. These cupcakes did not break, but they didn't taste quite the same. Experiment with it and see which works best for you.

Bake per the directions on the cake box. Enjoy!

Silicone Bakeware

One thing that's different about gluten free baking is that the doughs are a lot stickier. One time I made my pizza crust without parchement paper. Can anyone say mistake? My husband and I were trying to chip it off of the baking sheet. Not exactly the result I was going for.

But for some odd reason the way to tear parchment paper eludes me. I cannot get it to tear in a straight line. Or anything that may resemble a straight line. So I always ended up having to fold some of the paper under and often tear off another small piece to patch up the side that doesn't have enough paper. Not fun.

So when I found out how easily food slides off silicone I was hooked. Until I priced it, that is. Yowza! They want how much for one baking sheet liner? Eventually I found a baking set on clearance. It was a bit more than I had planned to spend, but I got 2 huge baking sheet liners, 2 8"round cake pans, 1 9" square cake pan, 12 cup muffin pan, 2 bread loaf pans, and a meatloaf pan. I'm not quite sure about the meatloaf pan thingy, but the rest are awesome!

Most of gluten free baking requires 8" round pans or 9" square pans. When I used to bake with wheat flours a pan of brownies or a cake went into a 9" x 13" pan, but not anymore. This set is just the right size.

Now, I have been a bit surprised at how much better my bread turns out in the bread pans. Although they hold the same amount of bread dough as my old pan, they are longer and narrower. I think this helps compensate for the structure that is missing from the gluten in the flours.

When I took these pans out of the oven, one of the loaves of bread caught on the heating element at the top of the oven because it was so tall.



I just love my new baking set. It really does make gluten free baking much easier for me.

Gluten-Free Oreo Recipe

There are few foods that I truely miss after going gluten-free. Oreos is on the list though.

Come on, it's a classic. That chocolatey wafter with the yummy cream filling. Who doesn't love oreos?

So I was really excited when I found a recipe for homemade Oreo cookies one day on Smitten Kitchen's blog. Even though it wasn't gluten-free I copied it down thinking I could maybe alter it.

Yesterday I sat down at the computer and did a search for "gluten-free Oreo recipe". Zilch. Zip. Nada.

So I pulled the one on my computer and studied it a minute. The gluten free flour mix I use says that it can be substituted cup for cup for regular flour. What have I got to lose? I really want some Oreos and it's not like I can just waltz down to the store and get some.

So I started baking. This is what I ended up with.

Yep, that is a plate of homemade, gluten free, Oreo cookies. Yum!

They were easy and oh so yummy!

I will give you the recipe, but there are a couple of things I'd do differently next time so I'm going to make some notes on it too. Now don't freak out on me when you read the recipe. They really are not hard at all to make. And the only kind of cooking I like is easy and good. Okay, ready? Here it is!

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (if you are making this gluten free, I used this flour mix)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

As always, if you are baking these gluten-free please verify each of your ingredients is gluten-free before starting.

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar, then beat in the butter, and the egg. Continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass. This is where I made my first mistake. Maybe you all know this, but if you put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then add the butter and egg when you start to beat it the cookie mix will explode out of the bowl and all over the counters. Very messy. (Don't ask me how I know this, I just know.) Next time I will cream the butter and egg and then slowly add the dry ingredients.

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set on a rack to cool. If you read my other recipes you know I don't follow directions very well. So I had to experiment. For about 2/3 of my cookies I rolled out the dough and used a round cookie cutter. I put the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and rolled it out thick 1/4-1/2 inch). The cutter is about the size of a regular Oreo. If you do this, be aware that your cookies will still spread and leave room on the pan for this. Otherwise you will end up with one giant cookie. These took about 7 minutes to cook. The rest of the cookies I used a cookie scoop and then flattened them slightly.

4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy. I used butter flavored Crisco as my shortening and it turned my cream yellow although it came out white in the pictures. Just a note in case that kind of thing would bother you.

5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Remember when I said not to freak out? Okay good, keep reading. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. I don't have a pastry bag and I don't know how to pipe. That would be in direct opposition of my love for easy cooking. I tried just spooning the icing on the cookies, but it was kind of messy and didn't work well. So I loaded the icing in a ziplock bag and smooshed out all the air I could. Then I sealed the bag and cut off one of the lower corners. I squeezed the icing out of the hole into blobs on top of half of the wafters. Much easier than the spooning method. I got all the icing on in less time than it took me to load up the baggie.

The Verdict

Oh-my-goodness-these-cookies-are-awesome! Someone pass the milk.

I love them. The ones that I made with the cookie cutters were much thinner and more Oreo-like. The ones that I scooped and flattened ended up about an inch thick in the end (with filling and all). Now initially that sounds like a good thing, but ends up being a little much. If I try that method again I will have to flatten them out more. And maybe try a smaller scoop.

They do not taste like they are gluten free. I gave one to a friend who stopped by this morning (who is not gluten-free) and she declared them to be "better than Oreos!"



Oh, and because this is how my life works.... As the cookies were cooling I found a gluten-free adaptation on the web. It's very similar to the one I used and if the gluten free flour blend you are using does not already contain xantham gum, I would follow her suggestion to add 1/2 t of Xantham gum.

Making Hostess Cupcakes

I've been debating whether this little tip is even blog-worthy. It's such a simple little thing.

My mom, who also has Celiac, used to love Hostess cupcakes. Now that she has to eat gluten free, they are off-limits. She came up with this little trick to make these gluten free cupcakes at home. I think you could also do this with regular cupcakes.

1 box Betty Crocker gluten free cake mix
1 stick of butter
1 cup water
3 eggs
Marshmellow fluff.

Make your cake mix according to the directions on the box, or you could use my slightly healthier version of making this mix.

Put a small amount of cake batter into each cupcake tin. Add a generous dollop of marshmellow fluff and top with remaining batter. Bake as directed.

The marshmellow fluff will rise to the top, but the taste is remarkably close to Hostess Cupcakes.

And just a side note, I tried to duplicate her results by using marshmellows instead of fluff. It was not nearly the same. I just thought it would be easier. Next time I'll just use the fluff

Summer Spaghetti

This is one of those a-little-of-this and a little-of-that recipes. The kind that's hard to translate into something on paper for another person to be able to follow. But summer's coming, and so are the fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes in my garden are starting to flower and I am looking forward to being able to make summer spaghetti again. Since fresh tomatoes are the base you really need home grown ones, not the kind you buy at the supermarket.

Summer Spaghetti

One large tomato peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
2t oil
2T vinegar (I've used red, white, balsamic and a mixture of the three)
2 cups cooked pasta (you can use gluten-free pasta for this)

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Okay, those are all the essentials for this dish. But there are lots and lots of things that you can add to make it taste better depending on what you have in the fridge, how much time you have and what you like to eat. Here are some of my favorites...

Sliced black olives
1/2 inch chunks of sweet pepper
1/2 inch chunks of cucumber
minced garlic
Thinly sliced onion
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Mix tomatoes, oil and vinegar together in a bowl. For a dish with more bite to it, let the tomatoes marinade in the vinegar and oil for up to a day before serving. Add olives, sweet pepper, cucumber, garlic and onion. Serve over cold cooked pasta. Mmmmm...

Chocolate Cake Mix Experiment

I had a couple of the Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake mixes in my cupboard and I wanted chocolate last night like crazy. But as any of my reader's know by now, I really have trouble following a recipe. It's not that I can't, but I don't want to be limited by the directions on the box.

But since it was a success I thought I'd share.

In the freezer I had a couple of cups of cherry puree. This is a mix of fresh spinach leaves and frozen cherries pureed together. I don't remember the ratio, but maybe I'm guessing roughly half and half. (This would be no fun if I remembered everything, now would it?) So I made up a new recipe.

1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1 cup cherry puree
1/2 stick of butter (softened)

Combine all ingredients. Once combined mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Bake according to directions on the box. Check your cake a little sooner than the directions say to. Mine was done in 30 minutes in a 9 x 9 pan.

I was hoping the cake would taste like a cherry chocolate cake, but it really didn't. It was moist and chocolately and yummy though! And the best part was that I cut out 1/2 of the butter and 1 egg that the recipe called for. And I replaced it with fruits and veggies! Much healthier and I thought it tasted better than the way it is supposed to be prepared.

Sneaky Brownies-Gluten Free, Of Course

Over the past couple of weeks I have been cooking out of the Sneaky Chef cookbooks. Have you heard about these? It's a cookbook featuring recipes that hide healthy foods in dishes you would normally eat. She teaches you how to incorporate carrots and sweet potatoes into tomato sauces for pizza or spaghetti, blueberries and spinach into brownies and winter squash into macaroni and cheese. I've tried all three of these and the only thing I could taste was the blueberries in the brownies. It wasn't bad but I think I will try it with cherries next time. Doodlebug didn't seem to mind the blueberries or spinach one bit!



Not all of the recipies in the cookbook are gluten free, but several can be easily converted. I also found a version called The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue. This cookbook has many of the recipes in her other cookbooks that have been converted to be allergen free. There's even a whole section on gluten free! This is where I found the gluten free brownie recipe and there's a cookie recipe I hope to try next.

I love the idea of sneaking veggies into foods that I eat and love. Who couldn't use a few more fruits and veggies in their day? And even though it doesn't magically transform brownies into health food, it makes it easier for me to rationalize eating it. If it has spinach in it, I think I can count it as a salad, right?

Chex Treats

Since going on the gluten free diet I've had to give up Rice Krispy treats. Rice krispies seem like a cereal that would not have gluten, but they add a small amount of malt to it which makes it off limits to me.

But seriously, I want to make these with my son. I want to eat them too. I have childhood memories of the ooey gooeyness of the marshmellows melting and I want to pass it on.

My friend hit up on a brilliant solution. Substitue Rice Chex for the Rice Krispies. Why didn't I think of that?



Here's the recipe.

6 cups of Rice Chex
4 cups mini marshmellows
3 T butter

Melt butter over low heat. Add marshmellows and stir frequently until marshmellows melt. Pour into a greased (or sprayed) 9 x 13 baking dish and press down into an even layer. Let cool before eating.

We had a good time making the treats. I had 2 helpers. My official taste tester and my offical cutie pie.




Oh my, these were so good! My little helper (Doodlebug's friend who was staying with us that day) declared loudly, "I love this treat!" I couldn't have said it better myself.

Spinach Salad

Unless I’m baking, I don’t really follow recipes all that well. It’s not that I can’t, I just don’t. I can’t be bothered to measure out teaspoons of ketchup or cups of chicken broth. I sometimes discover I’m out of an ingredient ¾’s of the way through a recipe. I am lazy. Why drag out the food processor to grate an apple when I have perfectly good applesause sitting in the fridge. Those are about the same.

For sheer entertainment I’m going to write out this recipe along with the thoughts that go through my head as I am typing it out. This is not for the faint of heart.

Spinach Salad (I know it sounds really gross, but if it makes me want to eat spinach, it’s got to be pretty great. Trust me. I know what I’m talking about. I am a very picky eater.)

2 cups raw baby spinach (The ‘experts’ always tell people to wash their spinach. Should I mention that? I mean, this is a recipe not a cooking lesson. And that would be kind of hypocritical since I never wash mine.)

2 T vegetable oil (Seriously, I have no idea how much oil to use. I just pour a little in the pan. 2T sounds like a good amount though. And who’s really going to measure it anyway?)

½ minced onion (Or maybe a little less. Heck, just use whatever’s hanging around in the fridge. It’s just about adding some flavor anyway.)

2T brown sugar. (I think it’s supposed to be the same as the oil. Maybe not. I can’t remember. Just throw some it.)

½ cup Mandarin oranges (That sounds about right. Assuming you have Mandarin oranges. Last week I didn’t so I used dried cranberries. It was pretty tasty. Maybe I should change it to cranberries. Or both. I bet it would be good with both. I’d better remember to add both to the grocery list for next week. And spinach. I won’t get far without the spinach. Is there anything else we need from the grocery…? Wait, what was I doing? Oh yeah, typing up a recipe. Where was I?)

¼ almonds. (Use whatever nuts you have that seem to go with the other ingredients. Throw in what you want. Seriously. It’s not that hard.)

Heat oil in a small pan. Add minced onion and cook until translucent. (I hate using that term. When are the onions translucent? No idea. But it’s better than trying to figure out how long I actually cooked them last time. As long as they aren't burnt you will be okay.)

Take pan off the heat and add in brown sugar. (I know, it sounds insane. But think of it like dressing. It really does taste good. Promise. Cross my picky-eater’s heart.) Stir until well combined. Pour mixture over the spinach. Toss well to coat. (You’re gonna be standing there tossing for a few minutes. It doesn’t look like it’ll be enough, but it is. Promise.)

Top with Mandarin oranges and almonds. (Oh so healthy, and thanks to the sugar, oh so yummy too. I wonder what other fruits and nuts would work here.)

Mexican Chicken Soup

We don't do many soups in our house. Neither my husband or I especially enjoy them but we do have a couple of recipes we pull out from time to time. This is one of my favorites because it is very flexible, quick and yummy. It's also a great way to use up leftover cooked chicken.

Ingredients

Boneless, skinless chicken (This can be cut into cubes now, or shredded with a fork after cooking.)
1 can Mexican tomatoes
1 cup chicken broth (If you are making this gluten free be sure the chicken broth is gluten free.)
1 stalk of celery cut into small pieces
1 cup of frozen or canned corn
1/2 cup frozen green beans cut to about 1" long
1 t cumin
2 t minced garlic

Puree tomatoes to break up most of the chunks. Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.

I have done all sorts of combinations in this soup. When I haven't had Mexican tomatoes I've used regular tomatoes and added some salsa. Sometimes I brown the celery and garlic before adding it to the crock pot. I have used this recipe with both raw and cooked chicken and it works either way. I omit the celery when I don't have it. When I'm reheating it I will often mix in some shredded Mexican cheese. It's a pretty flexible dish with very little prep work.

Yogurt in the Crock Pot

Yogurt can be really expensive. Especially when you are looking for the kind that doesn't have a lot of sugar or artificial sweeteners in it. And then if you want organic yogurt you'd better go get a home equity loan. Of course, Doodlebug loves yogurt.

I was shocked to discover that you can make your own yogurt at home. And I was even more amazed to find out that you can make it in your crock pot. Who knew?

But it must be really complicated, right? Nope! It is so, so, so easy. The hardest part for me is remembering to start it in time.

Ingredients

--8 cups (1/2 gallon) of milk
--1/2 cup of store bought* plain yogurt with live and active cultures

Directions

Put the milk in the crock pot. Turn crock pot on low and let cook for 2 1/2 hours.

After the 2 1/2 hours unplug your crock pot and let sit for 3 hours.

After sitting scoop out 2 cups of warm milk, put the lid back on the crock pot and wisk the milk together with the store bought yogurt.*

Pour the milk/yogurt mix back in the crock pot and stir to combine. Put the lid back on the crock pot.

Wrap your entire crock pot in a bath towel to insulate it and leave 8-12 hours.

Presto, you have yogurt!

Put the yogurt in the fridge and it should last 7-10 days. You can also freeze excess yogurt. I ladel it into zip top sandwhich bags and store in the freezer. Even if you freeze it you can use it to start your next batch of yogurt.

If you freeze your yogurt it will separate. You can either mix it back together or pour off some of the clearish liquid (whey) if you want thicker yogurt.

When you first make this yogurt it will be very thin. If you want thicker yogurt you can line a collander with a coffee filter and spoon the yogurt inside. Let it sit over a bowl for a few hours. It will gradually thicken up.

The yogurt will be more tart than store bought since there is no added sugar. You can add honey, fruit or whatever else strikes your fancy.

* for future yogurt making you can use 1/2 cup of your crock pot yogurt instead of store bought

And I have not tried this variation, but I plan to next time I have a little leftover milk.

Boil one cup of milk and let it cool to room tempature. Stir in 1 tablespoon of yogurt and let it sit, without moving, overnight. In the morning you will have yogurt.

No Noodle Lasagna

A couple of years ago, before I developed Celiac, I was trying to reduce the amount of refined flour and sugar in my diet. Since it was summer and zuchini was plentiful I decided to try to use it in place of noodles in lasagna. Much to my suprise, it worked! I really never missed the noodles and the zuchini blends in nicely with the tomatos and cheeses. Now that I can't have traditional lasagna noodles this has become a staple in my kitchen.

I do need to warn you that this gluten free lasagna does not cut into neat little squares. When it it hot and the lasanga is cut up it will spread over your plate. If you like it to be a little neater cook it the day before you need it. The leftovers always taste better and look better than the day it is served.

No Noodle Lasagna

1 lb ground beef (also works well with 1/2 lb ground beef and 1/2 lb ground pork)
¾ cup chopped onion
Cooking spray
1 can tomatoes
2 small cans tomato paste
½ cup water
1 T parsley
2 t salt
1 T sugar
1 T garlic powder
½ t pepper
½ t oregano
2-3 small zucchini
1 lb cottage cheese
4 cups mozzarella cheese


Cut zucchini into thin rounds and steam cook in the microwave for 2-3 min. Brown ground beef together with onion. Mix together with rest of ingredients except zucchini and mozzarella cheese. Layer a little sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish coated with cooking spray. Add a layer of zucchini rounds, cheese then sauce. Repeat until you have 2-3 layers ending with mozzarella cheese on top. Bake at 350°for 40-50 min.