Gluten Free Fudgy Oatmeal Bars

Oats used to be a complete no no in the Celiac world. However a study published in 2007 showed that oats are safe for most celiacs. Unfortunately most of the worlds oats are grown in rotation with wheat and stored in the same silos and hence are contaminated with gluten. If you call Quaker, they will tell you that all of their products, including oats and cornmeal are contaminated with wheat.

But now there are several companies that sell "pure" oats that are tracked from farm to packaging and are guaranteed to be free of wheat. So, I've been incorporating them into my baking more and more. Here is a recipe I tweaked from the gluten world that came out ridiculously good.

3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 egg
4 tsp. vanilla
1 c Pamela's baking mix
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 3/4 c. pure, gluten free oats
6 oz dark semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 can (7 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 8x8 pan with parchment or foil and spray with canola oil.

Combine oats, Pamela's and coconut flours and mix together.

While you are mixing up the oatmeal mixture: Heat chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk salt and 2 tablespoons butter in 2-quart saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate chips are melted. Remove from heat stir in 2 tsp vanilla.

Cream 1/2 cup butter in a heavy duty electric mixer until soft. Add the brown sugar and beat for 2 minutes or until fluffy stopping frequently to scrape the bowl.

Add the egg and 2 tsp vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, again stopping several times to scrape the mixture.

Stir in oat mixture on low until combined. The dough will be very thick.

Press remaining oatmeal mixture into the pan and reserve about 1/3 of the oatmeal mixture.

Spread over oatmeal mixture in pan. Drop reserved oatmeal mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls onto chocolate mixture. Bake until golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes.

While warm, cut into bars. It's even better the next day!

Walnut Cookies

I made these today and they were wonderful: both chewy and crispy at the same time. You can make them as little sandwiches between two cookies or just spread some melted chocolate over the top.

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• 1 3/4 Cup walnuts 1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg and 1 egg white 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 egg whites

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Instructions

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C ). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
   2. In a cuisinart grind the walnuts until the are fine, but be careful they don't become nut butter. Stop the Cuisinart and put in the eggs whites, sugar, and pulse until blended. Drop dough by small teaspoonfuls, three inches apart, onto the lined cookie sheets. They spread a LOT.
   3. Bake 10 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies should be lightly browned. Let cool slightly before removing from sheets. If the cookies are stuck, they need to be baked a little longer.
   4. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or over very low heat. Spread a drop of chocolate over the top of each cookie and freeze for a few minutes, just long enough to harden the chocolate
   Enjoy!
   

Gluten Free Buttermilk/Oatmeal Scuffies

These are a nice combination between a soft cookie and a scone.

Ingredients

• 1 cup pure rolled gluten free oats
  
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 TBSP vanilla
  
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
  
• 1 Pamela's Baking Mix
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
  

Directions

1. In a bowl, soak oats in buttermilk for 15 minutes. Stir in eggs, sugar and oil and vanilla. Combine Pamela's, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into oat mixture just until moistened. Drop golf ball sized batter onto parchment paper about an inch apart. Bake at 400 degrees F for 16-18 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Orange Herb Roast Chicken with Potatoes

2-3 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes

2-4 Large carrots (or about 1/2 lb baby carrots)

1 4-7 lb chicken

1/3 cup olive oil

2-3 TBSP chopped herbs (I usually use the fresh “poultry mix” available at the grocery store, which is sage, rosemary and thyme) OR 1-2 TBSP dried poultry seasoning such as “Bell's Seasoning”

1 Orange

1-2 tsp kosher salt

½ tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. You want to start this chicken with a VERY hot oven.

Finely chop the herbs and put into a small mixing bowl.

Add the salt and pepper.

Use a microplane or grater to zest the outside of the orange into the herb mixture and set aside the orange.

Add Olive oil to the bowl and stir. Set aside. Or, puree herbs and olive oil with an immersion blender or small food processor and add orange zest afterward.

Line a roasting pan with foil (I recommend Reynolds no stick foil. It makes a HUGE difference at the end, if you don't clean up is difficult, or you're scraping tin foil bits off the potatoes).

Rough peel the potatoes to get rid of any yucky bits and chop them into 1 inch pieces.

Peel and chop the carrots into 1 inch chunks as well.

Mix the potatoes and carrots into the bottom of the foil lined roasting pan.

Drop in about a tablespoon of the herb mixture and mix it with your fingers to coat.

This is where your hands get (temporally) very messy. Arrange the chicken onto a roasting rack directly over the potatoes and carrots breast side up and separate the skin from the meat and insert the herb mixture between the skin and the meat and coat the outside as well.

Flip the chicken over and separate the thigh skin from the meat and coat the meat and skin liberally with the herb mixtuer until the it is gone. Insert the zested orange into the breast cavity. This will help flavor the meat and keep it juicy and tender at the same time. Put the chicken breast side down on the roasting rack into the 500 degree oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes drop the oven temperature down to 350 and continue to cook about 20 minutes per pound (including the 10 minutes at the higher temperature).

About a half hour before it's finished you can take it out and flip it over to crisp up the skin on the breast side. Let it sit for about 10-15 minutes before carving.

Decant the potatoes into a serving dish with a slotted spoon to leave the oil from the chicken in the pan.

Yucca Buns

These are great. These rolls from Brazil have always been made with Tapioca Starch, so it's not an adaptation of a gluten recipe. You can put fresh rosemary in them and make them as dinner rolls, or a make them a little larger and use them as hamburger/sandwich rolls.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup tapioca flour, plus extra for kneading
• 2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
• 2 cups mozzarella, finely grated
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream, if necessary

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil, and coat with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine the tapioca flour and baking powder together in a large bowl. Stir in the cheese and eggs. Mix until the dough forms a ball. Knead the dough with your hands until the dough is smooth, even-textured, and not sticky. Add the cream, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it comes together and feels supple.

Divide the dough into 10 even pieces and with your hands, roll each into a ball. Shape the balls into ovals and place them 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the rolls are pale gold (not browned), about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes and serve while still warm. Serve with Pineapple Marmalade, if desired.

Lemon Poppyseed Coconut Muffins

A lot of kids don't like the taste or texture of shredded coconut, but they do like the flavor. I've been messing around with coconut flour for these last few days and I came up with these and they were a HIT.

Makes 12 muffins

2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Pamelas baking mix
1/2 cup coconut flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup light coconut milk
1/2 cup part skim ricotta cheese
1/3 cup poppy seeds
1 tsp coconut extract
1 tsp lemon extract
zest from 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 350

1 TBSP Brown or Muscovado sugar and 1 TBSP shredded coconut for topping.

Combine the brown sugar and shredded coconut in a small bowl.

Combine the Pamela's, coconut flour and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.

In an electric mixer, mix the eggs and sugar until they are light yellow and fairly thick.

While they are mixing, combine coconut milk and poppyseeds in a microwave safe container and heat for about a minute and a half to two minutes to soften the poppyseeds. Add the ricotta, extracts and lemon zest and whisk together with a fork.

Before combining have your muffin pan ready to go, either with liners or greased. You want to get this into the oven quickly because once the warm coconut milk combines with the baking powder it will activate it and they won't rise if you don't get them into the oven right away.

Drop the mixer down to low speed and dump in the flour and coconut/ricotta mixture and blend for about 30 seconds and finish by hand with a spatula.

Divide it into your muffin tin and sprinkle the tops with the sugar/coconut mix.

Bake about 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown and watch them disappear!

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

A friend of mine stumbled on a pizza recipe on this blog. But we don't keep all the flours in the recipe, so she used our usual "food philosopher" Annalise Roberts mix. But then one day we didn't have quite enough for the 3 cups she needed. Rather than mix up a whole new batch of flour, she threw in a cup of Pamela's Baking and Pancake mix and the results were fabulous. It is chewy and light and holds up well to lots of sauce and toppings.

Enjoy!

1¼ Cups Cornstarch
2 Cups GF Flour Mix (3 parts brown rice flour, 1 part potato starch, 1/2 part tapioca starch)
1 Cup Pamela's Baking and pancake mix
1½ Tablespoons Xanthan Gum
1½ Teaspoons Salt
¼ Teaspoon Dried Oregano
¼ Teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Honey
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 Egg White
1¾ Cups Warm Water (110-115°)

Yield: dough for two 12 inch round pizzas.

Directions

Place Cornstarch, flours, Xanthan gum, salt, oregano, garlic powder and yeast in mixing bowl; mix. Add, vinegar, sugar, honey, oil, eggs, egg white and lastly the warm water; mix. Increase mixing speed to high, and beat for 4 minutes.

Coat your pizza pans with cooking spray. Dough will be a bit difficult to work with (sticky). Work the dough out as best as possible with a spatula. I then spray surface of pizza dough with cooking spray (very light coating). Finish spreading the pizza dough out with hands - if still to sticky, try using a small piece of parchment paper or wax paper sprayed with cooking spray to help spread the dough. Form the dough around the edge of the pizza thicker than the inner region in order to create a nice edge/crust.

Allow to sit in a warm, dry location (free of drafts) covered loosely with plastic wrap for 60-90minutes.

Preheat oven to 375° and pre-bake crusts for 20 minutes.

Remove pizza crusts from oven. Increase oven temperature to 400°.

Add pizza sauce, cheese and any other desired toppings to the pizza crusts and then place back in oven for an additional 20 minutes (note: if using sausage or other raw meat, it should be precooked before adding to pizza).

Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting.