Peach Tassies/Mini Peach Cups

Well, if anyone thought that I was done with peach recipes for the summer, think again!  I just love fresh peach season, and one of the newest and greatest treats my family enjoys is a gluten free peach tassie recipe.  The word 'tassie' means a small tart or miniature pie.  I grew up gulping down my Mom's most amazing nut tassies...which she still bakes to this day!  Just drop off a couple dozen anytime , Mom!!       ; - )

I experimented with several wheat dough recipes until I found a really tasty gluten-free tassie dough version.  It is so scrumptious, no one who eats them can tell them apart from their wheat brethren!  The peaches add a sweet summer fruit taste.  Pears and strawberries can been substituted for the peaches in this recipe.  Both have met with approval, although the peaches really do work!

This is simple recipe that I hope you will take the time to try...it's worth the effort.

Ingredients:


For the dough:

1/2 pound butter  (2 sticks), softened to room temp
1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened to room temp
2 cups gluten-free flour (Bette Hagman's Featherlight Blend)
Slightly less than 1 tsp. xanthan gum


For the Peach mixture:

3 cups chopped/diced peaches
3/4 cup sugar
2 TBSP instant tapioca
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small sauce pan, mix the diced peaches, sugar, instant tapioca, and lemon juice.  Heat the mixture over medium heat until it just boils, stirring often.  Lower heat to medium-low and continue to cook until mixture thickens...about 15 minutes.  The mixture will become thick and translucent.  Remember to stir often to avoid sticking or burning the fruit.

Meanwhile, mix the dough.  Add all the ingredients into a large bowl, and with your hands, mix the ingredients until thoroughly blended together.  The dough will be a bit sticky and tacky.  Divide the dough into about 1 inch balls, and place in mini muffin tins.  Using your thumb, press the dough in the center and form a cup with the dough.  The rim of the pressed dough cup should rise above the flat surface of the top of the mini muffin tin so as to hold more of the peach goo!  Once you have finished pressing the dough into cups (there should be between 34-36), fill each cup with your peach mixture.  There might be a bit extra peach goo, so fill the tassies as full as they they can be filled.

Bake the tassies for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F.  After 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 250 degrees F, and cook the tassies for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or until you reach your desired browned dough color.  We like them done well, so I leave them in at 250 degrees for the full 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and let cool on cooling racks for 10 minutes.  Then, remove the tassies from the pans and let cool on a cooling rack until room temp.

I must admit, they almost NEVER get to that 'room temp' stage before we have swiped a few to "try them" and make sure they're good enough!    :  )

Again, you can substitute diced pears or strawberries for the peaches.  I'm particularly fond of the pear tassies.  They make a great fall treat and they are just a bit less sweet than the peach tassies.

I have also used this dough to make mini quiche loraine cups.  They are a great savory, yummy treat as an appetizer, or if you are like me, an entire meal!  I'll post that recipe soon.

I truly hope you'll try these and let me know what you think.  Thanks.

-Scott

Savory Mac And Cheese: Great Taste, No Gluten!

This American classic can be made in so many different ways… but for celiac diets, so few ways.  So I'd like to think that I came up with an easy recipe that is both extremely tasty and gluten-free.



I took ideas from various sources, starting from the classic recipe all the way through the "not just for kids" versions, until I finally came up with a dish that I hope will appeal to everyone… we sure liked it!

You can vary the pasta type and cheese type to your liking.  I like the Tinkyada brown rice elbow noodles because they hold their body and absorb the cheeses well, not to mention that they're whole grain.

I find this recipe delicious, savory, and satisfying, easy to make and you'll have lots of leftovers... because it's filling.


Ingredients

1 lb gluten-free elbow macaroni
1 quart whole milk (could use 1% or 2%, but whole is creamier)
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup gluten-free flour (I use Bette Hagman's Featherlight blend)
10-12 oz Fontina cheese, grated (about 4 cups)
8 oz extra-sharp cheddar, grated (about 2 cups)
1/2 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
3/4 Tbsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 cups fresh white gluten-free bread crumbs, about 5 slices, crusts removed
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted


Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Add salt and olive oil to a large pot of water and bring to a boil.  Add the macaroni and cook according to package directions.  Err on the side of slightly-undercooked.  Drain well.

While water is warming, heat milk in a small sauce pan, but do not boil it.  Melt the 6 Tbsp butter in a large (4- or 6-quart) pot and add flour.  Whisk this over medium-low heat for two minutes.  While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for another few minutes until mixture is thickened and smooth.  Remove from heat and add Fontina and cheddar cheeses 3/4 Tbsp, pepper, and nutmeg.  Add the cooked macaroni and stir well.  Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.

Combine the fresh bread crumbs and 2Tbsp melted butter in a bowl.  Sprinkle over the top of the macaroni and cheese.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the macaroni is browned on top.

Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.



Enjoy!

- Scott

Aarti's First Show!

Hey, any of you who know how faithfully I followed the Next Food Network Star show, and pulled for Aarti, are probably aware of how much I anticipated her first solo show.  Well, I must say it was an overall winner.

There was a bit of Aarti's humor, her sweetness, her cooking savvy, her humbleness, and her Indian culture.  The only problem I found, was there was also the inevitable Food Network 'stiffness' and 'script-like' dialogue that was present for most of the show.

Her recipes were simply yet interesting...especially her Indian take on the Sloppy Joe (Sloppy Bombay Joes).  I will definitely try that.  Her infusion of spices were predictable but welcomed.

I look forward to Aarti's next show, but hope the powers that be allow her to grow, and yet, stay true to herself...showing The Food Network why they crowned her winner of their contest in the first place!

Let 'Em Eat Focaccia!

Greetings, all! I had a request...a recipe for what turned out to be a delicious flat bread that I made for some friends of mine for dinner last weekend. Debbie and Will, and their children Nina and Maggie, as well as Vicki and Dave, and their daughter Abriana all seemed to take to the bread with gusto. It is a gluten free version of a flat bread (also called Focaccia) that is great to serve with any hearty meat dish or even with just a salad or soup.  Toppings on the flatbreads can be pretty much to taste.  I used fresh rosemary from my garden, and sprinkled some sea salt on top.  This recipe makes one 8 or 9 inch bread, but I doubled the recipe for my dinner, and I'm glad I did...even the kids wanted more!  In doubling the recipe, I actually just made the recipe twice rather than actually doubling ingredients.  I wasn't too sure how well this would work as is, let alone doubled.  Maybe next time I'll just double the ingredients.

Rosemary Focaccia

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix*  (see below)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 tablespoon sugar
1 packet dry yeast
1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 cup warm water  (about 105-110 degrees F)
Olive oil
Fresh rosemary, as much as you like, rough chopped
Sea salt, coarse ground

First, butter (or spray) a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan.  Dust the pan with any gluten free flour...I used sweet rice.

Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Pour the warm water and olive oil into the dry ingredients, and mix until just blended.  Then beat at high speed for about 2 minutes.

Pour the dough (it will be cake-batter like) into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.  Place it in a warm part of the kitchen/house and let rise until it's doubled in size...about 30-45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F while the bread is rising.

Drizzle olive oil over the dough and carefully spread it very gently with your fingers, covering the entire surface of the bread.  Then sprinkle the rosemary and sea salt on the oiled dough.  This is where you can top the bread with anything you like...any combination of herbs or caramelized onions and peppers, cheeses, or just about anything!

Bake the bread for about 20-25 minutes if you use an 8 inch pan, or 15-20 minutes for a 9 inch pan.   Remove the bread from the pan and allow the bread to cool on a baking rack for 15 minutes.  Then, slice like you're cutting pie, and serve.

*For these breads, I prefer a heartier flour blend than the usual Featherlight Rice Blend I use for much of my baking.  I use the following mixture:

1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup potato starch
1/4 cup sorghum flour (I prefer the lighter colored sorghum)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup millet flour

This makes enough for 1 focaccia.  Just double or triple the flour recipe and keep in it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator to have ready for next time.  If you are like me, I'm way to lazy to do it every time...I'm much more likely to mix a big batch and store it for the next time.  I use that with my pizza crust flour ( a future post).

Well, this recipe can be made with regular wheat flour as well as the GF version.  Follow the same directions.  Just omit the xanthan gum.

 Let me know if you guys try it...I hope you will love it as much as I do.

Congrats, Aarti!!

It was an amazing journey for Aarti, but in the end, all the hard work paid off. If you watched The Next Food Network Star as fervently as my family did, you were both excited and satisfied with the results. Any of the final three contestants would have been great winners, but my heart was pulling for Aarti.

The final episode was both suspenseful and fun. Herb and Tom both had great promo shows, but in the end, I think it was the consistentcy of her weekly performance that made the Food Network judges select Aarti. She seemed to have both a unique niche with her food, as well as a personality hard to find flaws with.

I cannot WAIT for her first show next Sunday! You can bet, God willing, I'll be watching. I have already found a recipe on her blog that I am going to try next week for my family...Friday Shrimp. I am sure that it will be great. The recipe already appears on the food Networks recipe search!!

Well, once again, congrats to Aarti!!!

Hey, Dad, It's Saturday... Pancakes!

At our house, the best thing about Saturdays is... there's no school!

The SECOND best thing about Saturdays is... PANCAKES!

For many years now, Saturday has been pancake day.  I don't know how this tradition started, but now, every Saturday morning brings the delicious smell (and taste) of homemade pancakes.  Of course, pancakes have been known to show up on any day, at any time, for any meal... but Saturday morning is definitely pancake time!

Maybe I do know how the tradition started...  Once upon a time, in a not so far-off kingdom, there lived a very happy pancake maker.  He loved to mix flour and eggs and butter together and whip up batches of delicious pancakes that everyone in the castle flocked to the table for.

The kids loved to help out - Prince Louis learned how to crack his first egg while helping King Dad to prepare his special recipe, and Prince Curtis, at the tender age of two, learned that pancakes taste better when he puts the flour into the bowl rather than on the floor.  Who knows, perhaps the strength of arm that they developed while mixing the batter might even have contributed to their future successes on the jousting field, er, tennis court...

But then, disaster!

The evil Witch Celia of Sprue cast a spell over the merry little kingdom.  "Mwa-ha-ha-haaa!  I've had enough of your happy little bakery!  You shall no longer enjoy pancake Saturday!  Or any other baking, for that matter!  You will forever be allergic to wheat!  Mwaaaa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!"  And she cast a spell on the king so that he could never eat gluten again.

The king was sad... but only for a little while.  He went to the royal grocery store in search of a pre-mix!  Curses, he tried them all, and they tasted... well, they tasted OK, but they just didn't make Saturday special any more.  But the king was determined.

Week after week, he experimented with flours that Celia of Sprue had no power over.  Rice, potato, tapioca, corn... he mixed his flours, trying to duplicate the magical recipe that had once enchanted his kingdom.

At last, success!  A recipe that equalled the wheaty version!  Tasty enough that the kids love them and look forward to helping out on pancake Saturdays... even when school's out for the summer!

OK, maybe it isn't just my pancakes.  Maybe it's the time we spend making them.  But I'd like to think the recipe has something to do with it.  :-)

Curt

Louis

Here are both the gluten-free and wheat-based versions of the recipe.  Please note - there are subtle differences in the amounts of the ingredients between the two, and tiny differences do matter when you're working with gluten-free flour blends.




Scott's Gluten-Free Pancakes
(makes about 15-18 4"-diameter pancakes)


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour blend (*see note below)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/8 cup buttermilk
3/8 cup (1/4 plus one-half of 1/4) milk (I use whole for this recipe)
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil for brushing griddle


Instructions:
Prepare a griddle by lightly oiling the surface as needed.  Pre-heat the griddle to 325-350°F.

Melt butter in microwave.

In a medium-to-large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together with a whisk.  Add milk, buttermilk, and slightly-beaten eggs to the dry ingredients and whisk just until blended.  Add melted butter and whisk only until blended.  (With pancakes, it's important to not over-mix.  Over-mixed batter produces tough pancakes, even the gluten-free variety.  Don't worry if there are lumps in your batter.)

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle.  Repeat as space permits.  Cook until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake, or about 2-3 minutes.  Flip the pancakes over and cook for another minute or two until golden brown.  Top with maple syrup or fruit or powdered sugar and cinnamon... whatever you like!

(Tip: if you like butter on your pancakes, a good time to put it on is right after you flip the pancakes to start cooking the second side. It melts easier than if you try to butter them when they're on your plate at the table.)

(Tip 2: in my experimentation, I found that adding xanthan gum (a common additive to aid in gluten-free baking) is unnecessary for this recipe.)


* Gluten-free flour blend can be either Bette Hagman's Featherlight blend, but I make my own blend of:
1 cup white rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1 cup corn starch
1 tsp potato flour
I mix up a big batch of this and store it in an air-tight container in the fridge.


Scott's Wheat Pancakes
(makes 8-10 4"-diameter pancakes)


Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 large egg, separated
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk (plus a Tbsp or so extra if the batter is too thick)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil for brushing griddle


Instructions:
Prepare a griddle by lightly oiling the surface as needed.  Pre-heat the griddle to 325-350°F.

Melt butter in microwave.

In a medium-to-large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together with a whisk.  Add milk, buttermilk, and slightly-beaten eggs to the dry ingredients and whisk just until blended.  Add melted butter and whisk only until blended.  (With pancakes, it's important to not over-mix.  Over-mixed batter produces tough pancakes.  Don't worry if there are lumps in your batter.)

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the griddle.  Repeat as space permits.  Cook until small bubbles form on the surface of the pancake, or about 2-3 minutes.  Flip the pancakes over and cook for another minute or two until golden brown.  Top with maple syrup or fruit or powdered sugar and cinnamon... whatever you like!

(Tip: if you like butter on your pancakes, a good time to put it on is right after you flip the pancakes to start cooking the second side. It melts easier than if you try to butter them when they're on your plate at the table.)


If you're looking for a yummy pancake recipe, I hope you'll give this a try, and maybe it'll make your Saturday mornings as special and delicious as ours.  Enjoy!


- Scott