Project: Leftover Baguette

I hate wasting food and after having several loaves of  so-so tasting baguettes leftover from my baguette recipe review I decided that there were really only two things to make...gf garlic bread and gf french toast bake.  Yum!

We love meatballs and spaghetti in our house so I decided to make some spaghetti sauce and attempt a pinterest recipe for eggplant meatballs to eat with our gf garlic bread.   I have to say this meal was so much fun to make.  The meatballs were great and it was fantastic to use up all of the eggplant I have been growing in my garden.

eggplant growing in my garden

The meatballs are not gluten free, but to make them gf I subbed gf panko for the flour and a tablespoon of brown rice flour to the mix. They were still sticky, but they worked.  In the future I might add some cornstarch to them as well.  They look kind of strange in this picture, but I can say that they were yummy and my kids gobbled them up.  It also goes with out saying that the garlic bread was a hit. I spread some olive oil, minced garlic, and Parmesan on the loaves and put them in the oven on broil for a few minutes until they browned.   Super easy and quick to make.  Plus not so great gf french bread turned into pretty good garlic bread.  

gf garlic bread and eggplant meatballs 

As  the meatballs and  garlic bread were cooking I sliced the remaining loaf of baguette for my favorite french toast bake recipe by Ellie Krieger.  I have made this recipe for many brunches in the past and it was always a big hit. First of all I love anything by Ellie Krieger (she is so talented) and secondly I love to wake up to the scent of french toast in the morning.  So I assembled the french toast bake and put it in the fridge to soak overnight.  

french toast bake

I awoke early the next day to get the french toast bake in the oven before the kiddos woke up.  My kids wake up famished every morning so I knew that they definitely were not going to wait for the french toast to bake roughly 45 mins.  The bake time also gave me good motivation to put on some workout gear and head to my basement for a walk on the treadmill while the french toast did it's thing. 

The french toast bake was as tasty as I remembered and was enjoyed by all.  And I can honestly say that I couldn't detect that gf bread was used in place of the usual french bread in this recipe. Note that I left out the almonds and added some raspberries to the mix.  Delicious. If only french toast was calorie free.  I will have to work on that.  

slice of gf french toast bake

Project Zucchini

I love zucchini.  It is a magical vegetable eaten as either a sweet or savory for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack...you name it.  Not only that, but it is super easy to grow and pretty abundant.  With that being said we have been eating our fair share of zucchini this summer.

zucchini plant from my garden 

zucchini chips

One of my favorite Zucchini treats of the summer is zucchini chips.  They are so easy to make and are a great snack!  We used our mandolin to slice them (my husband jumps at any opportunity to use the mandolin.  I don't get what the excitement is about, but I am happy for the help).  I didn't want them sliced too thin so I would say that they were about as thick as a Ritz cracker - is that a 1/4 inch?  To make them: 1) line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 225.  2) Align your zucchini on the parchment paper and using a pastry brush and brush a light amount of olive oil on each slice (do not over oil or you will have some soggy chips).  3) Sprinkle a light amount of sea salt on top of the slices. My zucchini took about  3 hours to cook, but I would set your timer to 2 hours and check on your zucchini.  I also like to rotate my baking sheet midway through cooking.  4) When they are done and cooled peel them off the paper and toss them in a bowl.

zucchini fritters 

We are also big fans of zucchini fritters in our house!  My kids think that they are fantastic (which they pretty much feel about anything that is fried) and they are eating vegetables.  I used a zucchini and summer squash fritter recipe that I found on Pinterest.  Side note - Pinterest is my favorite time suck ever (well that and the Real Housewives).  I could spend days, weeks - who am I kidding I could spend months surfing Pinterest. Back to the fritters...I have made them a few times this summer and was able to make them gluten free by subbing flour for gf panko (1/2 cup) and quinoa flour (2 tbsp).  Note: stop the urge to add an extra egg - do not do it!  I made the mistake of doing this on one batch and the fritters tasted a bit like a scrambled egg patty with zucchini.  If you get the egg right - these are awesome.

zucchini cake 

One of my other favorite uses for zucchini is zucchini cake.  It seems strange that I am a fan of zucchini cake, but not carrot cake - right?  Kind of like those people who hate tomatoes, but love ketchup.  Nonetheless I had a hankering for some zucchini cake.  In searching to fulfill my craving I found the best ever gf zucchini cake recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks Artisinal Gluten Free Cooking.  This cookbook is fantastic although I must admit that I am not a fan of their suggested flour mix and tend to sub other gf flour combinations.  

zucchini choc chip doughnuts

I also had a few zucchini failures in all of my zucchini cooking endeavors.  I would get into all of the details, but they weren't good.  Just ask my family who were subjected to these dishes.  

Zucchini tots - burnt 
Zucchini choc chip doughnuts - soggy (they don't even look good - right?)
Zucchini cheesy rice - eh 



The amazing thing is that is almost October and I still have more zucchini coming.  Now what to make next?  Hmmm....

Project: Pancakes - Boxed Mix Style

I really enjoy making most things from scratch, with the exception of pancakes (alright and sometimes brownies too or if I am in a bind and need to make something happen fast I will take advantage of a box).  I don't know why, but in my family Bisquick boxed pancakes were king and nothing else compared to them.  In fact I would choose a Bisquick pancake over just about anything to this day.  However, as I can no longer eat Bisquick pancakes I decided to test the four GF box mixes that my local grocer carries.  The results we astounding (OK not really, but didn't that make it sound more exciting?).

I tested Gluten Free Pantry, Bob's Red Mill, Pamela's, and Cherrybrook Kitchen. 

My husband Brian took on the task of manning the griddle and keeping track of all of the pancake varieties.  My daughter is convinced that if Brian makes pancakes they will ultimately taste better.  Plus I would have surely messed up this project if I had to keep everything straight and it would have resulted in a very confusing guessing game as we sampled each cake.  

The four pancakes looked quite similar.  (top left - gf pantry, top right cherrybrook kitchen, bottom left pamela's, and bottom right bob's).  

My husband with the ever so sophisticated palate said that he really couldn't taste the difference between the pancakes at first.  Then as he began to think about it, we both agreed that Bob's Red Mill definitely had a more distinctive taste than the others.  The flavor seemed more like that of a whole wheat or buckwheat pancake.  Not bad, but not what we usually go for.  We also came to the conclusion lead by my 4 year old daughter that the Cherrybrook farms pancake was too sweet.  I really couldn't eat this one because it was so sweet and I might add that my daughter took one bite and was finished.  If a four year old doesn't like something because it is too sweet, then there is definitely something wrong with it.   Both the Pamela's and Gluten Free Pantry pancakes were our favorites with the flavors being very similar. The Gluten Free Pantry cakes were slightly sweeter with Pamela's tasting a bit more like the traditional Bisquick pancakes that I had grown accustomed to.   

We came to the consensus that we would definitely buy either the Pamela's or the Gluten Free Pantry products again.  Yet being ever so practical (and having a love of creating spreadsheets) I decided to break down the costs.  I of course couldn't find my receipt from the grocery store (doh), so I used amazon as a point of reference and from what I can remember the costs on amazon are slightly better, but not that far off from my grocer.  As you can see below the cost per ounce and cost per box on Bob's were definitely the least expensive.  However cost doesn't trump flavor in our house.  Being that the GF Pantry and Pamela's were so close in flavor yet the cost per ounce is better for Pamela's, we will likely purchase Pamela's in the future.  Ah problem solved.  

Now what to do with all of those leftover pancakes that we cooked up for the taste test???

I find that mornings can be hectic so I usually take leftover pancakes, waffles, french toast...etc... and package them up into mini servings in plastic bags and throw them into the freezer.  Then breakfast is already prepared for those busy mornings as you are rushing out the door and trying to feed small people.  

I think we will be in business for a while and to be honest, they all taste pretty good with a little syrup on top.  I guess you really can't go wrong.  

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.