Recipies: Blackberry Cream (No Crust) Cheesecakes

Blackberry Cup-Cheesecakes with Blackberries on top.

Ingredients:

1/2 (approx) Cheesecake Filling Recipe
12 oz. frozen blackberries (thawed and juice reserved)
16 oz. sour cream

Directions:
1.  Mix everything together!!  Including juice.  Fold it together with a spatula so as not to break up the berries (unless that’s what you want out of life).

Mixed up goo.

2.  Pour into appropriately sized containers and bake for 30 minutes at 350 F.

Cheesecake goo dished into small containers.

3.  Again, pray and/or make some kind of deal with the devil for good cheesecake.  This has been the best method I’ve found for ensuring that your tops don’t crack and that your middles set appropriately.

I clearly didn't pray hard enough. My sacrifices were found to be insufficient.

4.  Put in refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Recipe: Basic Cheesecake with Gluten Free Crust

Basic Cheesecakes, slightly ugly.

Ingredients:

1/2 (approx) of Basic Cheesecake Filling recipe
1 box Pamela’s Shortbread Cookies
1/4 cup butter (melted)

Directions:
1.  Pour melted butter into bowl of stand mixer.
2.  Turn mixer on low and toss in cookies one at a time.  There should be 12 or so in a box.
3.  When cookies are completely chunked up, press them into the bottom of a 9-inch pie pan or several smaller glass baking dishes.

Cookie crumbs pushed into the bottom of glass dishes.

4.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes to set crust.  Remove from oven and let rest until cool enough to touch.
5.  Fill with cheesecake filling until about 3/4 full.
6.  Bake in 350 oven for 30 minutes.
7.  Pray that your middles don’t crack.  Mine did.  It was a sad day.
8.  Put in refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Recipe: Basic Cheesecake Filling

A smattering of cheesecake making ingredients.

Ok, kiddos, we’re going to do a three parter here.  That’s because I want you to learn how to be clever for yourselves.  Here, we’re going to make cheesecake filling and in the next two, we’re going to do stuff with it.  How’s that for a deal?  I guess this should be at the top of the list, but since this is a blog, I hope you understand that up is down and down is up.

After I finished my cheesecakes, I found some helpful advice on keeping all the bad things from happening at AllRecipies.com: Clicky. Obviously I read this too late.

Simple Cheesecake Filling:

Ingredients:
4-8 oz. packages cream cheese (softened)
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

1.  Drop cream cheese into a work bowl of a mixer and beat gently.  Add sugar, almond extract and eggs.  Mix until smooth.

Recipe: Gluten Free Refried Beans and Quesadillas

Delicious Quesadilla with Refried Beans.

Beans, beans the musical fruit… so the song goes.  We enjoy a good bean here at Ye Olde Gluten Free Blogge.  They’re tasty, packed with protien, naturally gluten free and… well, beany.  Tonight I made the refried kind because, well, that’s what I wanted to eat.  The best thing about this sort of recipe is that it’s not really a recipe at all… you can add or subtract, whatever works for you.  I smeared my beans inside of a GF tortilla and broiled under the broiler, but that step is completely optional.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. dried pinto beans,
2 tblsp. bacon grease (yes, bacon grease… vegans look away)
garlic powder
chili powder
cumin
paprika
salt
pepper

Directions:

1.  The night before you feel inclined to make beans, take your beans and fill a vessel (not the sink this time) with about double the beans’ volume in hot water (so, if you have 6 cups of beans, use 12 cups of water, get it?)

2.  In the AM, check your beans to be sure there is extra liquid.  If there’s not much liquid left, your beans need to soak more.  Fill back up with hot water and leave alone.

3.  About 4 hours before you’re ready for beans, break out an appropriately sized pot, dump in beans (bean water and all) and bacon grease.  If water doesn’t cover the beans, feel free to add more water or chicken broth until it does.

Make sure there's plenty of liquid for your beans. Stir from the bottom to prevent sticking.

4.  Bring beans to a boil, then reduce to a low simmer.  Stir occassionally for the next couple of hours.

Beans after 2 hours of cooking.

5.  When beans are starting to get soft, add seasonings to your taste.  I always seem to skimp on the salt, don’t do that.

My favorite bean flavorants (the one on the end is bacon grease, the label says, "Breakfast of Champions").

6.  After about 3 hours, beans are soft and appropriately seasoned, mash them with your potato masher until you get… well, mashed beans.  Some will be whole, that’s ok.

Beans after mashing. If they get too dry, stir in a little water or chicken broth.

7.  Take bean mush and smear on half of a tortilla (make sure you turned your broiler on ahead of time!), doctor with cheeses, veggies and whathaveyou.  Fold top over and stick in the oven for about 2 minutes. (For extra crispy top, spray with cooking spray or spritz with oil before putting under broiler)

The quesadilla stuffing! Mixed heirloom tomatoes, beans, cheese, guacamole. Yum.

8.   Remove food from oven and cut into pie shaped wedges with a pizza cutter.  Serve with sour cream or salsa or guacamole or whatever you like.  I like mine plain with lots of stuff inside.

Beans, tomatoes and Food of Life tortillas (not the best, but definately the biggest!)

Recipe: Super Awesome Gluten Free Peach Buckle

Gluten Free Peach Buckle. Ta Da!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, I’m terribly sorry for that.  School started on August 11th, so I’ve been, like, busy, man.  My goal during school will be to post at least once on the weekend, so at least you’ll have something beautiful and edible from me on a regular basis.  There will be tons of posts, no doubt, as Christmas nears.

I set out to make a cobbler in the way that I understood a cobbler to be.  That is to say, I was trying to figure out what was different between what I knew of as cobbler: a single crust over a fruit filling baked in a square dish and a pie: two crusts with fruit filling wedged inside.  I did not get a “cobbler,” I got a cobbler.  Specifically, it’s a buckle, as it turns out, if the web is to be trusted: clicky.  Despite it being nothing like I had pictured it turned out to be really good.  This buckle reminds me of really nice, slightly crispy-edged cinnamon rolls with fruit.  How can you not like that?!?

So here’s how you do it, if you think you might want to.

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh peaches, diced
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch nutmeg
3/4 cup milk

1.  Preheat oven to 375 F.
2.  In a large bowl, combine peaches, 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.  Set aside.

Peaches combined with sugar and cinnamon. It should get syrupy as the sugar leaches liquid from the fruit.

3.  Pour butter in the bottom of your 8×8 baking dish.
4.  Toss flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and 3/4 cup sugar into the work bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer.  Turn mixer to lowest setting and add milk 1/4 cup at a time.  Once all flour has been wetted, kick it up to high, just to be sure that everything’s mixed good.  Turn mixer off and spoon batter out onto butter in baking dish.  Batter will be very sticky!!!

Batter over butter. It's going to be lumpy, don't panic!!

5.  Pour peach mixture over batter and butter.

Peaches over dough. Stick this mess in the oven, uncovered!

6.  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.
7.  Cool 10-15 minutes before devouring like a hungry beast. A side of ice cream or Cool Whip might not be a bad idea, either.

Personal: Peanut Butter Cookie Success!

As some of you have read me repeat over and over again on various forums, Gluten Free baking is practically rocket science.  Baby, I think I’ve finally gotten my boosters!  The peanut butter cookies were such a hit I’m out after only a day or so.  I decided not to tell anyone that they were GF and see what happened.  Most of what I heard was “You shouldn’t be eating these!  They’re not gluten free!!”  Heck yeah they are.  DH devoured them silently and then snuck a bunch for breakfast.

I am very, very pleased.  I am also now incredibly confident.  Pie crust is in my very near future, I can feel it.  I also can feel the disaster it brings with it.  You have no idea how sexy a fresh lattice topped pie can be to someone who has been waiting a year to eat one.  The apples and peaches are finally ripening on the trees (took them long enough, sheesh!) and I’ve got a great source for berries… I can’t wait!

Recipe: Kristi’s Gluten Free Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

Delicious Peanut Butter Cookies

So, I’m still trying to find things I find suitable for breakfast (my most under attempted meal of the day) and today I thought maybe I’d like to make some peanut butter cookies.  They’re filling, they’re protein packed (ok, well, maybe not packed…) and they’re great with a glass of milk or on the go-go.

I couldn’t find a peanut butter cookie recipe that I really liked, so this is what I’ve come up with.  HOORAY.

Ingredients:
1/2 c. rice flour
3/8 c. tapioca starch
3/8 c. sorghum flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 c. butter, softened
1/4 c. butter flavored Crisco
1/2 c. brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c. granulated sugar (plus extra for rolling)
1 large egg
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter

1.  Preheat your lovely oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  Cream the butter, shortening and sugars together until fats are nice and fluffy.

3.  Add egg and combine.

4.  Switch to your paddle attachment and add flours, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda and baking powder a little at a time until combined.  Dough will be thick!  Add peanut butter last and beat until smooth.

5.  Portion out dough into 1 oz (by weight) portions.  Or, if you don’t want to break out the scale, make 24 portions.  Roll portion dough into a ball shape.

1 oz. portioned dough balls

6.  On a plate or in a shallow bowl pour out about 1/2 c. granulated sugar.  Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar until completely coated.

Roll your dough ball in good old fashioned granulated sugar.

7.  Put sugared dough balls on an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving ample room for expansion.  I got about 12 on an AirBake sheet.  Flatten balls with tines of a fork, then turn 90 degrees and do it again to form a criss-cross pattern (try not to do this too hard or you’ll have very flat, but chewy cookies).

Flatten with a fork until they look like this!

8.  Bake for 10 minutes, being sure to rotate the cookies at 5 minutes to minimize burning.  Allow to cool for 2 or 3 minutes on cookie sheet so cookies will set properly.  Cool and devour.

Ta Dah!