What I am loving: Cake Pops

I have heard so much about cake pops lately and although I have never had the pleasure of sampling one myself, I decided to give them a go.  What I love about cake pops is that they pack a big punch into a small bite, they are fairly easy to make, and most importantly my kids can eat them without making a huge mess.

I am one of those women who loves to bake, but lacks talent in the decorating department.  I just want to speed up the decorating so I can get to the eating part.  Hence, I probably should have watched a few tutorials about cake pop decorating before I am embarked on this adventure, but alas, I didn't and the result is typical of me...something delicious, but not the prettiest.  Oh well.  

For the batter I used an awesome recipe I found during one of my google-ing adventures.  This might be one of my favorite gf white cake batter recipes.  I simply followed the recipe directions and filled a cake pop pan.  I didn't have the babycakes cake pop maker so on a trip to Target I grabbed a Nordic Ware pan which did the trick.  Just remember not to put too much filling in each mold. (I overfilled my first batch and ended up with a very messy oven.)  After I cooled the cake pops I dipped each stick into chocolate, inserted the sticks into the cake popa and threw them in the fridge to harden a bit.  Next I dipped the pops, added sprinkles, and put them back in the fridge until it was time for dessert.  

I am happy to report that they were a hit among both kids and adults alike.  

Project Baguette - Part I

Project: Baguette

Bread is not something that I really miss much most days.  Yet there are days when I dream of a delicious french baguette to eat with a dollop of butter, jam, nutella...whatever it may be.  So I decided to take on the task of making french baguette.  I tested several recipes and have discovered that unlike replicating baked treats, it is very hard to replicate gluten-free breads with the intention of making them taste and feel similar to the real thing.  

I am the type of girl who likes to follow directions to a T.  So it was difficult for me to create french bread without the french bread loaf that each of these recipes recommends.  However I tend to skim directions prior to creating them and thus missed the part about the pan.  Perhaps I would have had better results had I utilized the correct pan, but perhaps not.  What I can tell you is that after creating four french bread variations this week I have found gf baguettes to be very dense.  

Two of the recipes that I tested were somewhat promising (the other two aren't even worth mentioning).  I thought that they both had good flavor even though they were not perfect in the texture department.  The first comes from the gluten-free goddess who utilizes Pamela's Bread mix in her recipe.  I had some Pamela's in the house so I gave it a shot.  While the texture wasn't what I remembered baguette to be, I thought the flavor was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed it after it came out of the oven.  The next recipe comes from the gluten-free diva.  This one has a yummy sea salt and rosemary topping that makes it the prefect savory bread.  While I loved this bread, it didn't quite evoke the feelings of the french bread I was looking for.  Although I would definitely make each of these recipes again, my hunt continues for the perfect baguette.  

The good news is that with so much bread lying around we were able to use it for french toast this week.  My kids are huge fans of french toast and in the past we frequently created this weekend special out of french bread.  Brian (my husband) is the king of french toast in our house and keeps it simple with mixing milk, an egg, and cinnamon together and then soaks the bread in the mixture prior to frying it in the pan (he really doesn't have specific measurements or I would share those).    

The results were an awesome french toast that we were not able to detect as having been made on gluten free bread.  Yum! 

And what could be better than some pint-sized satisfied eaters???

I hate wasting so I am planning on attempting a few more recipes with the leftover baguette this week...stay tuned.   

Project: Blueberry Muffins 

It's that time of year again...the blueberries are in season and what better thing to wake up to in the morning than some freshly baked blueberry muffins.  In my endeavor to find the perfect gf muffins, I decided to check out 4 of my favorite go-tos recipe sites/bakers: Sarabakesgfree.com, Erin McKenna of Babycakes, Glutenfreegobsmacked.com, and glutenfreegirl.com.  

First stop Sarabakesgf.  I love Sara's recipes and have had much success with them in the past (a few of my favorites being her lemon cookies, berry crisp, and chocolate chip cupcakes - yum!), however Sara's blueberry muffin recipe didn't do it for me.  I found the muffins to take 10 minutes longer to bake than directed in the recipe, and the consistency of the muffins was very moist - too moist for muffins (although cooked through) even after the extended baking time. The flavor was fine, but I have a hard time eating wet blueberry muffins. Don't get me wrong, I like my muffins to have a level of moistness, but I also want it to have a solid and more cake-like consistency.  

Moving on I tried one of my other go-tos - Erin McKenna of Babycakes.  I was given Erin's cookbook by a very good friend when I was first diagnosed with Celiac and used it as my bible for satisfying my sweet tooth after the first few months of my diagnosis.  As you can imagine I had high hopes for Erin's blueberry muffins.  After checking on them 15 minutes into their cook time, the muffins had really darkened in color and were not cooked all the way through.  I moved them to a lower rack in my oven and eagerly awaited for them to finish cooking as I was determined not to be detoured by their color.  Unfortunately for me I found these muffins to be very dry - completely the opposite of Sara's muffins.  Plus the flavor was a bit too bland for a blueberry muffin.  Bummer.

On to Gobsmacked which claims to have the "Best Ever GF Blueberry Muffins".  These muffins used oat flour and 7-up, which I thought was an interesting twist.  I really loved these muffins and would highly recommend them. The flavor and the texture were right on and made me a fan instantly.  These are exactly what you would expect a home cooked blueberry muffin to taste like and even reminded me a little of (dare I say) the Pillsbury box mix (only with fresh blueberries) that I really enjoyed in the past (yes I admit it, I used to be a big box mix fan).  

However as much as I liked Gobsmacked's recipe I decided to try one last recipe and came across my ultimate favorite Blueberry muffin recipe by Gluten-Free-Girl and the Chef.  I knew that I had a hit right away as I pulled these muffins from the oven and their scent enveloped me. It was so hard to wait for these babies to cool before I popped one into my mouth (I frequently scald my mouth with my impatience in the kitchen).  The muffins had the perfect consistency and every bite oozed with the deliciousness of freshly baked blueberries.  I felt as if I had just walked out of a gourmet bakeshop, except these were made in MY kitchen.  Hence in my opinion, this is THE perfect gf blueberry muffin recipe, the kind that you dream about finding  first thing in the morning awaiting for you at the breakfast table.   Success.