Gluten-Free Lemon Olive Oil Cake

I made this cake a couple weeks ago on an evening when I had the house to myself. The Christmas tree was twinkling, its reflection making the living room windows glow with the light of a hundred fireflies. An old 1960 album was crackling on the record player, filling the air with ageless Christmas carols. I was in the kitchen, singing along to Bing Crosby’s “Frosty the Snowman” and baking the best cake I had ever tasted. I didn’t know this yet, at the time, seeing as I was still in the process of making it.

But an hour later, the house smelling delicious and the album having been turned a couple times, the cake was cool enough for me to try. I watched the knife slice right through its moist yet firm body and raised a slice to my mouth. That first bite hit my senses with such force that I found myself closing my eyes and gasping in startled pleasure. It was, quite literally, the best cake I had ever tasted.

The lemon gives this cake a light playful taste, while the olive oil adds an unexpected depth and just enough moisture to make each bite deliciously melt on your tongue. The consistency is similar to a pound cake, only this Italian-flared version includes no butter. Plain yogurt and extra virgin olive oil are the only ingredients used for moistness.

Sinless heaven.

This makes the best of gifts. It wraps up beautifully and everyone (gluten folks included) will think you handed them a little piece of ecstasy upon trying it. It also makes a wonderful hostess gift for that New Year’s Eve party you’re attending.

Enjoy with friends and deep belly laughs. Tis’ the season of giving!

Gluten-Free Lemon Olive Oil Cake, adapted from Olives & Oranges by Sara Jenkins & Mindy Fox

1-1/2 cups (210g) gluten-free all purpose mix (I used the Ahern Mix)
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup plain yogurt
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put oven rack in center position and heat oven to 325°F. Lightly oil two 7.5X3.5 baking pans (or a 9-inch springform pan if you want to make one round cake).

Whisk together the gluten-free flour, xanthum gum, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a medium-sized bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick on high speed (about 5 minutes). Add the lemon zest and yogurt and beat on low speed until well mixed. With mixer on medium speed, add the olive oil in a steady stream. Reduce speed to low and add the dry ingredients until just blended (or mix by hand with a whisk).

Divide batter into the two baking pans and place in the middle-rack of oven. Bake for 40 minutes, rotating once at the twenty minute mark. Let sit in pan for a couple minutes before taking cakes out and setting them on a cooling rack. Let cool completely before slicing (or at least until the cake is just warm - I couldn't wait until it was completely cool!).

If making one cake, pour batter in springform pan, bake in middle rack for 40-45 minutes, rotating once.

This is a wonderful cake to share with friends over a cup of tea during an afternoon break.

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins

Two weekends ago, Josh and I were at brunch at Watts Grocery enjoying a delicious Fall Egg Scramble when he leaned over to me, pointed toward the window, and in one excited breath whispered "It's snowing!" I looked outside, and sure enough, big white snowflakes were dancing everywhere. They were blowing this way and that, making little somersaults in the air and sticking to people's hair and coats as they walked by the restaurant windows. It looked like a scene from a movie.

I couldn't remember the last time North Carolina had seen snow this early. There was a buzz of excitement in the air. We walked onto the sidewalk and saw two little girls running hand in hand, mouths opened wide with tongues stretched out catching the snowflakes as they fell, giggling the whole time. Couples were smiling, walking arm in arm and looking up toward the sky.

There is something magical about the first snow of the season. It speaks of cozy winters, Christmas trees, hot chocolate, and warm evenings spent with friends and family by the fire. It also says "The holiday season is here!", which to me means baking time.

So the next morning, with a blanket of snow on the ground and crisp blue skies all around, I made cranberry orange muffins.

What I love about these muffins is that they taste of the holidays without all the excess sweetness you usually get. The tartness of the cranberries and the slight bitterness of the orange rind complement each other perfectly.

I find that each bite trails in its wake the memories of Christmas stalkings heavy with clementines...

Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins, from Rebecca Reilly's Gluten-Free Baking

1 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 tablespoons almond meal
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
1 teaspoon Egg Replacer
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup hot milk
4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
2 eggs
Grated zest of one orange
1 cup dried cranberries
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Mix together the brown rice flour, potato starch, sugar, tapioca starch, almond meal, baking powder, egg replacer, xanthan gum, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, and eggs. Form a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Mix until well blended. Fold in the orange zest and cranberries.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and sprinkle each top with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 15 minutes.

Take muffins out of oven and allow to cool in pan for a couple minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee or tea!

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie

Two years ago I would have given anything for the last couple days.

I was living in Kenya then, discovering a new country and trying to find myself. Those six months in Nairobi were an unforgettable and oh-so-important time in my life, but they were also very lonely. I didn't know many people and I spent much of my days in quiet solitude, writing. I spent the rest of them baking.

One of the very few cookbooks I brought with me was Rebecca Reilly’s Gluten-Free Baking. I swear that cookbook saved my life. Or my sanity, to be exact. There’s only so much self-reflection one can take before starting to go a little nuts around the edges. And so, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I found myself in the kitchen.

I spent practically every day of those six months writing in the morning and baking in the afternoon. By 3pm, if you happened to drop by, you would find me covered in some sort of gluten-free flour, dancing (probably to the beat of Mamamia!), and baking anything from muffins to scones to biscotti...to, of course, pie.

It was in the late afternoon light of that African kitchen that I discovered my first truly delicious gluten-free crust. Straight from Rebecca Reilly's book, this crust is an all-around winner, working beautifully with both sweet and savory dishes. I once made a quiche with this crust and was told by someone who didn't know it was gluten-free that it was the best crust he'd ever had. I'm not kidding. If you don't have Rebecca Reilly's book, you should get it. The woman knows what she's talking about.

I loved those long hours spent in that white-tiled kitchen, hands covered in butter and flour, lost in my own little world. I loved the creativity, the experimenting, and the discoveries that came from trying new things. I loved it all.

Except when the holidays rolled around.

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays have always been particularly special to me. Not because of all the food and presents (although those are wonderful too), but because of the time spent with family. Growing up, Mom always worked relentlessly to make the holidays special. And to her, that meant everyone working together. On Thanksgiving morning, she would gather the whole family in the kitchen and start handing out tasks and potato peelers. We would sit around the kitchen table, listening to music, talking, teasing, and laughing as we prepped and cooked together. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, we would spend entire weekends baking together, filling the house with the intoxicating smell of cinnamon and cloves.

And so, two years ago, thousands of miles away alone in my kitchen in Kenya, this time of year was difficult, to say the least. I would have given anything to be in the kitchen cooking and baking, my mother next to me. Which is why I would have given anything for the last couple of days.

This Thanksgiving morning found me and my family in the kitchen, coffee in hand, ready for the day. Side by side, we sang to music and laughed as we worked, preparing mountains of food to share with each other and close friends. It was a day of warmth, joy, and love.

It was exactly what the holidays are all about.

I'm thankful to be home.

Gluten-Free Crust, from Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly

1 cup Basic Gluten-Free Mix (see recipe below)
2 tablespoons sweet rice flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar (omit if using crust for savory foods)
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice or cider vinegar

Mix the gluten-free mix, the sweet rice flour, the sugar, and the salt in a bowl. Cut up the butter into little chunks and work them into the dry ingredients with your hands to form a coarse meal. Make a well in the center of the bowl and break the egg into it. Add the lemon juice to the egg and work both into the dry ingredients with a fork until well combined. Form the dough into a ball or flat cake at the bottom of the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes (or up to a couple hours if you want to prepare the dough in advance) until it is hard enough to work with (if the dough is too warm, it will be soft and difficult to roll out).

Roll the dough out between two sheets of wax paper. Once rolled out, peel off the top sheet and flip the dough into a greased 9-inch pie pan. Peel off the other layer of wax paper, and form the dough into a pie crust, fluting the edges.

To prebake the crust, preheat the oven to 400ºF. Poke holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown.

Makes one 9-inch pie crust.

Basic Gluten-Free Mix

2 cups brown rice flour
2/3 cup potato starch
1/3 cup tapioca starch

Mix all ingredients together and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 cups flour.

Pumpkin Pie Filling

I made this pie with pie pumpkins (pictured above), but it is just as delicious with canned pumpkin. If using pumpkin that you cooked yourself, you may need to add an additional egg than what the recipe calls for. Mine was more liquid than usual, so I added another egg and it did the trick.

1 1/3 cup mashed pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups milk
3 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Preheat oven to 425ºF.

Mix all ingredients together with a whisk until well blended. Pour into pie crust and bake for 45-55 minutes. This makes a lot of filling, so you may have enough to bake a little dish of it on the side.

This filling is also delicious on its own without a crust, so if you're in the mood for pumpkin custard or pudding, omit the crust!

Gluten-Free Apple Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust

Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without apple pie.

Well, that's not exactly true. In my book, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie, but apple pie is a close second.

I've had trouble, over the years, finding a gluten-free apple pie that I actually liked. There have been plenty that have been passable, but I usually find them either too sweet, too bland, or they leave me with an aftertaste of some oddly bean-tasting or too-much-tapioca flour. So when I saw a recipe for apple pie with an oatmeal cookie crust in The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Molly Katzen, I knew I just had to try to make the gluten-free version. It seemed just different enough to hold a world of potential. And, boy did it.

People, I have a new favorite apple pie.

I mean, check out this crust:

It's a giant oatmeal cookie, only easier to make. There's no rolling out of finicky gluten-free dough. You just throw the ingredients together and then press them down into the pan, forming a deliciously thick oatmeal cookie bottom (that doesn't fall apart!). It couldn't be easier, and it goes perfectly with the tart, slightly sweet apple filling. The crust also makes a scrumptious topping. I'm already planning to use it for my next fruit crumble.

So for this Thanksgiving dinner, I give you a slice of oatmeal-cookie apple pie!

For more gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes, check out Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef's Thanksgiving Post. You'll be overwhelmed with the cascade of gluten-free deliciousness as everyone sends in their favorite recipes. There's no need to feel deprived this holiday season!

Gluten-Free Apple Pie with Oatmeal Cookie Crust, adapted from The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Molly Katzen

Crust:

1 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup gluten-free flour mix (I used this one)
1/3 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix the vanilla in with the melted butter. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix well. Press firmly into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan, keeping a handful of crust for the topping.

Filling:

3 medium-sized granny smith apples, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Put the sliced apples in a large bowl, drizzle with lemon juice and mix well. Add the spices, lemon rind, and cornstarch and mix well again. Gently stir in the sugar until well combined.

Layer the filling into the unbaked crust and sprinkle with the handful of reserved crust.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the apples are tender and the crust is golden.

Serve hot or warm. This pie is also delicious the next day (or two) reheated and served warm.

Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Biscuits

When Shauna and Danny from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef put out a shout-out to post a gluten-free recipe for Thanksgiving, my mind started racing with ideas. I was planning on posting gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes anyway (after eight years of eating gluten-free, I’ve got quite a couple), but this was something more. This was a project I was really excited about.

Years ago, Shauna’s blog (at the time, Gluten-Free Girl) came as a godsend - it was the first blog I found that actually offered recipes for gluten-free baking. In 2006, not wanting to spend another Christmas missing out on all the cookies and baked goods that fill our house during the holidays, I turned to the internet in desperation…and there it was. A warm-hearted, funny, and delicious blog full of gluten-free recipes. I never turned back. That year, thanks to Shauna, I made all sorts of Christmas cookies.

Really, it's thanks to her that I finally decided to start a blog this year. And now, I want to help her give to others what she gave to me. If you or someone you know cannot eat gluten, check out this post (you will find all sorts of delicious Thanksgiving recipes, all gluten-free). She and Danny also just published their first gluten-free cookbook. It’s a beautiful book, bursting with love, life, and scrumptious recipes. You want this book.

So I’m happily joining the throng of bloggers out there helping to spread the word. I will be posting more of my regular gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes in the week to come, but I wanted to start out with something completely new, something I had never tried before. Finally, after much flipping through cookbooks, I found what I didn't know I was looking for.

Sweet potato biscuits.

Biscuits are the type of food people who have been recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance think they can never eat again. Well think again, my friends. In truth, you’ll find that nothing is really ever off limits (as long as you keep an open mind and are willing to experiment!).

These biscuits are soft and fluffy inside, slightly crispy outside, and they taste of the holidays. Not to mention, they are super easy to make.

Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Biscuits, adapted from The World’s Best Recipes by Sarah Ainley

1 1/4 cups gluten-free flour (I used Shauna and Danny’s gluten-free all-purpose flour mix – I urge you to make a big batch and always have some on hand. It’s delicious and super handy!)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
2/3 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Add the sugar and mix in well (I find a whisk works best to get all the dry ingredients uniformly blended).

In a separate bowl, combine the sweet potatoes with the milk and butter. Mix well.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour the liquid ingredients into the well and mix everything until well blended.

Using a spoon, scoop mounds of batter out of bowl and drop onto a greased cookie sheet. You should have about nine biscuits. Bake until puffed and lightly golden, about 18 to 20 minutes.

Eat warm, plain or with a tad of butter. These are also delicious the next day, reheated in a toaster oven.

Happy eating!

Makes 9 biscuits.

Gluten-Free Banana Oat Muffins

Oats. For a long time this was a word that I dismissed quickly, casting it aside and throwing it in the “not-for-me” – deep sigh – bucket whenever I heard someone talk about it or whenever it appeared in a recipe. I cringed at how unfair it was that, just because this super-healthy grain contained a small amount of gluten, it was off-limits to me.

Well, not anymore! Ha.

I realize, of course, that I’m a little late in making this triumphant statement. Gluten-free oats have been available on the market for some time now, but I’ve been afraid of trying them. They were off-limits for such a long time that, once they became available, I walked by the packages glancing at their “gluten-free” announcement with a dubious eye…was this a marketing ploy? I mean, how can you extract gluten from something that naturally contains it?

I still don’t know the answer to that question, but I am happy to announce that I took the leap, bought the questionable oats, and tried them. I loved them. And so did my body! I don’t know how they did it, but they got the gluten out. Really.

So, I can now (gleefully) state that oats, dear reader, are back in my kitchen. Along with all their high-fiber, cancer-fighting, heart-promoting, immune-enhancing benefits. Life is good.

Gluten-Free Banana Oat Muffins, adapted from half-baked baker’s recipe

The second I knew oats were back on the table, I found myself experimenting. I started looking around for inspiration and recipes and was thrilled to find a recipe for oat muffins that called for no flour other than oat flour! I am always trying to find ways to bake gluten-free with less highly refined flour, but it’s hard to do since all the very-white very-refined flours (like cornstarch or tapioca starch or potato flour) are what give gluten-free baked goods their light quality.

I immediately tried this recipe and was delighted with the results. You can even make your own oat flour from gluten-free oats by milling them in a food processor (1.5 cups oats equals about 1 cup oat flour).

These banana oat muffins are packed full of nutrients with 4 grams of fiber, 10% of your daily iron requirement, and 9% of your daily need for calcium in each one. I replaced the oil with unsweetened organic applesauce, so there is no saturated fat!

1 1/4 cup gluten-free rolled oats
1/2 cup yogurt, plain low fat
1/2 cup milk, low fat
1 1/2 cups gluten-free oat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 bananas, large, ripe, mashed
1 egg, large, lightly beaten
1/2 cup lightly toasted chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

In a bowl, mix together the gluten-free rolled oats, yogurt, and milk. Let soak 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix oat flour, salt, spices, baking powder, and baking soda in another bowl. In yet a third bowl, mix brown sugar, applesauce, mashed bananas, and egg. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix well. Add to the rolled oats mixture. Gently fold in the walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 2/3 full (they may end up being a little more than 2/3 full in order to use up all the batter, which is fine). Bake for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Eat warm out of the oven!

These will last about a week if kept in a sealed container and are delicious after a couple days reheated and served with butter and honey. Enjoy!

Peaches and Memories

The air is still. The house is quiet. I sit in the living room watching the leaves outside slowly float to the ground.

It is a day of heaviness in the heart. Time stands still. And yet, as I watch the brown leaves fall, I am witness to the exact opposite: time, unstoppable, passes.

My grandfather passed away a couple days ago.

He was 88 years old. His life was long, full, and happy. He was ready to go.

But it is still hard to say goodbye.

I sit here, feeling the loss, and I find myself grasping for memories. I want to remember it all...the laughs, the games we used to play, how he used to call me his poupée, his princesse and twirl me around the living room.

As I let my mind wander, I am brought back to my childhood and all the summers I spent in the mountains of Switzerland where he and my grandmother lived. I remember him bringing fruit out, sitting on the porch together, feeling the bright summer sun warm my skin, and biting into the ripest most delicious peach I had ever tasted. I can still feel the tickle of the juice as it ran down my arm. We didn’t have peaches in Africa and I thought they were the best thing on earth.

I remember him asking me and my brother if we wanted to dance, a twinkle in his eye, and then laughing as we jumped up and down excitedly shouting “Oui! Oui, grand-papa! La Danse des Canards!” We would watch intently as he pulled out the old record and placed it on the record player, gently, allowing it to crackle a couple seconds before the music came on and filled the room. Then we would all quickly move to the middle of the living room and the three of us would start dancing around in a semi-crouched position, wiggling our butts, flapping our “wings,” and altogether being as utterly duck-like as was humanly possible. We sang at the top of our lungs, and my brother and I tried not to fall over laughing watching my grandfather do his best to be as silly as he could be. No matter how many times we danced to that song, I felt the same thrill and excitement every time.

Those are the memories I cling to...cheeks aching with laughter, deliciously sweet peaches, and endless bear hugs.

So this morning, searching for some comfort and the memory of childhood summers spent with grand-papa, I found myself in the kitchen baking peaches.

Gluten-Free Peach Muffins

In an attempt to make these muffins healthier, I replaced the oil with unsweetened applesauce. I was thrilled with the result! If you don’t have applesauce, you can use canola oil or melted butter instead.

1 ½ cups gluten-free flour mix of your choice
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
3 small to medium peaches or 2 large ones (preferably organic as they are not peeled)

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Mix well until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl mix the eggs with the applesauce, and vanilla extract.

Wash and dry the peaches. Cut them into slices and then cut the slices into small chunks.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid ingredients into the well. Mix slowly with a whisk until just combined. Add the peaches and gently fold into the batter with a wooden spoon.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners and fill each cup 2/3 full. If you have batter left over, distribute evenly across the cups. Mine all ended up being completely full. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

When ready, take pan out of the oven and let sit for one to two minutes. Take out muffins from pan and put on cooling rack.

There is a lot of fruit in these, so they are very moist and don’t require any toppings.