For the cake:

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• rounded  1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• rounded  1/4  teaspoon ground nutmeg
• rounded  1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups Pamela’s Ultimate Baking and Pancake Mix
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• generous 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then beat in the oil, then add in the brown sugar and mix until smooth.
3. Add in the yogurt, vanilla, orange juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
4. Add in the Pam’s Mix, baking soda, and baking powder, mix thoroughly.
5. Stir in the carrots, raisins, and walnuts.
6. Pour into the pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting:

• 8 ounces light cream cheese or neufchatel cheese
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• juice from one small lime, more or less to taste

1. Combine the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl and beat until fluffy.
2. Add in the vanilla, then gradually add in the powdered sugar.
3. Once all the sugar has been added, add in the lime juice and beat until the frosting is smooth.

It’s probably easiest to make the frosting using a mixer, but you can hand mix if need be. You may want to chill the frosting before decorating the cake; make sure to cover the frosting if you do chill it. It’s also good to let the cake cool before you frost it.

Mike’s family came to visit us last week so we didn’t do much wheat-free meat-free cooking. We did have lots of fun visiting with everyone though. Mike’s dad also has Celiac disease so there’s frequently a lot of food talk. His mom was nice enough to bring us a bag of Meister’s Gluten Free Flour Mixture. Apparently it’s well know throughout the St. Louis Celiac community for being a great mix to use for more delicate baking projects like angel food cake, pie crust, pastry, etc.

I used Meister’s pie crust recipe and based the filling off of this pie recipe from Allrecipes.

For the pie crust:

• 1 1/2 cups Meister’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour or other all-purpose flour mix*
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick cold butter
• 3 tablespoons milk

For the filling:

• 2 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
• 2 cups fresh raspberries
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch

*Please note Meister’s Flour Mix contains xanthan gum so no extra binder was included in the recipe.

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine the berries, sugar, and tapioca starch in a medium-large bowl. Stir thoroughly and set aside.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, and the salt. Mix well.
4. Cut the butter into small chunks, then cut into the flour mixture. The butter should be in little balls. Add in the milk. Mixture will be slightly crumbly.
5. Press a little more than 3/4 of the dough mixture into a pie pan.
6. Spoon the berry mixture into the unbaked crust.
7. Mix the other tablespoon of sugar into the remaining pie dough. Sprinkle on top of the berry mixture.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for another 30-40 minutes until pie is done.

(Yield 1 9 1/2″ Pie)

Meister’s website says the recipe makes enough dough for two 9″ crusts or one 9″ crust and top. I, of course, didn’t bother to look at our pie dish and notice it’s 9 1/2″ until we had already started. Hence the crumble topping rather than a top crust.

Also, we found that the dough was rather dry, so you may need to add a little extra milk.

The filling is very thick. As thick as jelly. As you can see in the picture, you can make a clean cut. If you want pie filling that oozes all over the place, then decrease the amount of starch in the berry mixture.

I’m sure this will work with pretty much any berry mix you can think of, so mix and match according to what berries look best.

TheKitchn had a post about peanut butter snacks for the weekend and peanut butter ice cream was included. It was not very hard to convince Mike that we needed to make peanut butter ice cream.

We adapted a David Lebovitz recipe that we’ve used before and followed his instructions for how to make ice cream without an ice cream machine. I stumbled across the post last summer but never tried it until a few months ago. I have no idea why I waited so long. Homemade ice cream = Awesome

• 1 cup milk
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 cups cream
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Heat the milk, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl. Once the milk mixture is warm, gradually add small quantities to the egg yolks, stirring constantly. When the yolks are warmed add back to the saucepan. Add the vanilla extract.
3. Lower the heat and cook until the mixture thickens and can coat a spoon. Make sure to scrap the bottom of the saucepan. Stir in the peanut butter.
4. Pour the cream into a mixing bowl. When the peanut butter is incorporated, pour the custard into the cream.
5. Chill thoroughly.
6. Pour the mixture into a baking dish or bowl. Put in the freezer.
7. After 45 minutes, check on the mixture. If it’s started to solidify around the edges stir that into the liquid. Refreeze.
8. Thereafter, check every 30 minutes and give the mixture a good stirring. The point is to break up the ice crystals. When the mixture gets to milkshake-thickness add in the chocolate chips. Ice cream should be ready in a few hours.

(yields ~1 quart)

We used regular sized chocolate chips, but I think mini chips would work better if you have them.

The more you can spread out the ice cream mixture (e.g. having a container with a larger base), the faster the solidifying process should go.

Note from Kalinda: Mike wanted to borrow the blog to share one of his food creations.

Sometimes, Kalinda decides to make things involving radishes or some such. So I’m forced to fend for myself for dinner. Last time that happened, I made a banana pizza.

Working on the premise that any meal can be improved by replacing the vegetables with fruit, I axed the whole tomato sauce concept and used mashed up bananas instead. I wasn’t sure what to use for toppings, so I opted to diversify my holdings. My asset allocation was as follows:

1. Blueberries: 50%
2. Walnuts: 25%
3. Chocolate chips: 25%

[Kalinda's note: Any guesses what Mike normally blogs about?]

Looks delicious, right? Yep, it was. All 3 of the sections tasted great (as if there had been any doubt that blueberries, walnuts, or chocolate chips would go well with bananas and a bread product). That said, it’s debatable whether the end result can truly be called a dinner (breakfast? dessert?).

I don’t so much have a “recipe,” as I just used a Whole Foods frozen gluten-free pizza crust. I really only have three tips:

1. 3 bananas should be plenty. I mashed 4, and I ended up with extra banana mash.
2. I’d suggest putting the chocolate chips on after cooking rather than beforehand unless you want them to get completely melted. (I like mine so that they’re soft, but still distinguishable as “chips.”)
3. Try putting the nuts and the berries together. That probably would have been even better.

(Serves 1 pizza’s worth of people.)

Enjoy.

We have a new niece born just this morning! (Well, now yesterday morning, as it took a day to get this post up.) Unfortunately, we do not live in the same city as Mike’s sister and brother-in-law, so we are not able to celebrate with them in person. But a celebration is still in order, so we made cupcakes.

As I’ve mentioned before, Pam’s Mix sure is handy to keep around. We used the yellow cake recipe right from their website and jazzed it up a bit with some tangerine zest. Then we topped our LadyBaby Cakes with a simple buttercream frosting.

For the cupcakes:

• 3 eggs, separated
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 cups Pamela’s Ultimate Baking & Pancake Mix
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of one tangerine

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line one 12-cup or two 6-cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. Whip egg whites until stiff, set aside. In a separate bowl, mix butter, Pam’s Mix, and sugar. Blend until the butter is evenly distributed, about 1 minute at medium speed.
3. Add half of the milk and the vanilla extract. Blend on medium for 1 minute. Add the rest of the milk, egg yolks, and tangerine zest. Blend for 1 minute more. Fold in the egg whites.
4. Pour batter into lined muffin tin. Bake until cupcakes are starting to brown around the edge and cupcakes are springy, about 20 minutes.
5. Once cupcakes are cool enough to touch, transfer to a cooling rack, and allow to cool completely.

For the frosting:

• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vanilla soymilk
• food coloring (optional)

1. Combine sugar, butter, vanilla, and soymilk and beat until smooth. If frosting is too stiff, add a tad more milk. Add food coloring if you so desire.

Mike’s thoughts: Delicious, easy to make, and good lookin’. Definitely recommend them if you have a birthday party or something like that coming up.

Happy Birthday LadyBaby! We can’t wait to meet you.

My sister was in town this weekend, so we had her and her boyfriend over for brunch yesterday. I’ve been wanting to make monkey bread ever since I came across Jill’s recipe a while back, and this seemed like a good opportunity to make it.

All in all it was pretty good. The only thing I’d note is that we used more cinnamon than she calls for (not sure exactly how much more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we doubled or even tripled the amount), and we still felt it could use more. So, if you like a caramel taste, make the recipe as is. If you really like cinnamon, you’ll need a lot more than listed in the recipe.

Either way I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Thanks Jill!

So, after all my griping about the cold weather, and soup after soup recipe, how about a recipe for ice cream?

Well technically this isn’t ice cream. It’s a semifreddo. Semifreddo translates to “half cold” in Italian, and can refer to various cold desserts. This one is basically a no churn ice cream. Now, because it isn’t churned, it’s not quite as smooth as ice cream.

I used a recipe from Carol at Simply…Gluten Free. I was very excited when I read her post. Who knew you could make ice cream without an ice cream maker? Not me.

I pretty much followed her recipe save for subbing peach juice for the pomegranate juice. (We really love pomegranates. Pomegranate juice on the other hand…nowhere near as good.) And I topped my semifreddo with pistachios. So, if you want the recipe, I’m going to send you over to look at her semifreddo recipe.

Hope you all enjoy, and thanks Carol!

I noted in my turnover recipe that the dough could have other uses. How about an example?

I’ve been in love with Asian pears recently, so a recipe using them seemed in order. Asian pears have a texture more akin to apples ie: very crunchy and very juicy. (Admittedly, baking them ruins their awesome crunchiness, so buy some extras to eat raw.) Amusingly enough, they are not “pear-shaped” but round like apples. They do have the characteristic grittiness of pears, though.

I figured if we made the same amount of dough as we did for the turnovers, we would have enough for two tarts, which works out well if you want dinner and dessert.

For the dough (enough for two tarts):

• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1 cup oat flour (make sure it comes from a gluten-free facility)
• 1/4 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon sugar

To make the dough:

Combine all the dry ingredients, making sure they are thoroughly mixed, set aside. Then combine the butter, cottage cheese, cream cheese in a mixer until well combined, then add the cider vinegar. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and continue mixing until a ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

For the dinner tart:

• 1 small pear, thinly sliced then cut each slice into small pieces
• 2 cups mustard greens, torn into small pieces
• 1/4 cup shredded gouda
• freshly cracked pepper
• 1/2 of the dough mixture listed above
• extra flour to work with the dough

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. On a well floured surface, press out the dough so that it is roughly an 8 by 11 rectangle. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Use a sharp knife to score a border about 1/2 inch from the edge (do not cut all the way through the dough). Prick the dough with a fork. Bake until dough starts to brown (about 20 minutes), remove from the oven.
2. Steam the greens just a tad so that they’re softened. (I steamed mine in the microwave for 20 seconds.) Evenly spread the cheese within the border of the tart, top with the steamed greens, then layer the sliced pear on top. Finish with a couple cranks of pepper.
3. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the tart is browned. Serve.

For the dessert tart:

• 1 small pear, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 of the dough mixture listed above
• extra flour to work with the dough

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. On a well floured surface, press out the dough so that it is roughly an 8 by 11 rectangle. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Use a sharp knife to score a border about 1/2 inch from the edge (do not cut all the way through the dough). Prick the dough with a fork. Bake until dough starts to brown, about 20 minutes, remove from the oven.
2. Mix the pear, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Arrange the pears on the tart, keeping within the borders.
3. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the pears are soft and tart is browned. Serve.

I wrote out the recipes separately for clarity, but you can (and I would recommend) that you make the tarts at the same time. (Unless you are only going to make one or the other, then please keep in mind you only need to make half of the dough.)

This dough recipe is slightly different from the one I used for the turnovers. Some buckwheat flour snuck in and replaced some of the brown rice, mainly because we had some buckwheat flour that I was trying to use up. Feel free to use your own flour mixture. (For the mathematically challenged, like myself, you need 2 cups flour grand total.)

As I noted in the earlier post, this dough is pastry-like, but don’t expect the light flakiness of gluten-filled pastry dough. However, I’ve decided I really like this dough mainly because of how easy it is to make. There’s much less fuss involved than there is when you try to make “real” pastry.

On to notes about the toppings: If you look at the top picture you can clearly see the cheese on top of the pear and greens. Well, that was attempt number 1. Trust me, it works much better to put the cheese underneath. Otherwise, you take a bite, and all your toppings come off at once. This is also the reason it’s important that the greens are torn into small pieces and steamed.

Depending on the size of your pears, you may end up with a little extra. I figured this would not be a problem, since you like pears (That’s why you’re making this right?), so you can have a little snack while you wait for your tarts to bake.

Quince strikes again! Mike’s mother sent us a recipe for gluten-free “crescent roll dough.” We couldn’t resist trying it out. There were some quince hanging out in the refrigerator. Crescent roll dough + Quince + a few extra goodies = Cherry Quince Turnovers!

Mike’s mother is in a Yahoo group for Celiacs in the St. Louis area, which is where the recipe came from. So thanks go to “Jen” of the StLouisAlerts Yahoo group for sharing this gluten-free dough recipe.

For the dough:

• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
• 1 cup oat flour (make sure it comes from a gluten-free facility)
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup potato starch
• 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons sugar

For the filling:

• 2 quince, cut into small chunks
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• splash of vanilla
• 1/2 tablespoon butter

1. Start by making your dough. Combine all the dry ingredients, making sure they are thoroughly mixed, set aside. Then combine the butter, cottage cheese, cream cheese in a mixer until well combined, then add the cider vinegar.  Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and continue mixing until a ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. When you’re ready to make your turnovers, mix all the filling ingredients, except the butter, in a bowl. Heat the butter in a medium sized frying pan over medium high heat. Once the butter is melted, add the filling ingredients and cook for about 5 minutes, until the quince are softened. Set aside.
3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 10 balls. On a well floured surface, press out the balls into a circle. Spoon some of the filling into one half of the circle, then fold over the other half. Finally, fold over the edges to create a seal. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat with the other 9 balls.
4. Cut a couple little slits in the top of the turnovers. Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

(Makes 10 turnovers)

Now, I will be up front with you: When you hear “crescent roll” or “turnover” you likely think of very light, flaky, buttery dough. This dough is good, and similar to pastry dough, but don’t expect the flakiness of normal wheat-filled pastry dough.

Also, we added an extra tablespoon of sugar to the dough, since we knew we were using it for turnovers. This dough certainly could have other uses if you lowered the sugar content (pizza dough, for example).

You can help the edges of the dough stick together by mixing 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water. Paint that along the edges of the dough before you fold the top half over the filling. You can use then paint the egg wash over the top of the turnovers to give them a little sheen.

As to the taste, I thought a bit more orange zest wouldn’t hurt, but Mike thought the turnovers were fine as is. I’m also sure many people would want to add cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves/allspice/cardamom etc. to the filling. And I’m sure that would taste great, we just didn’t feel like doing that this go round.

I suppose I should also mention that you don’t have to cook the filling. Mike just likes his sweets extra gooey. Decide based upon what texture you want your fruit.

Mike adds: While quince are great, they’d probably be just as good with apple instead.

No, the days right after the holidays are probably not the best time for posting a sweet treat recipe. But this one comes with a cute story. And true to the title, the recipe is easy. So easy, in fact, that our 4 year old niece could make them–and she did! (Well…an adult should be around, as the oven does get used).

This is the story as my mother-in-law related it to me: After my mother-in-law heated the Rolos, our niece sat for over half an hour, pressing the pecans into each Rolo, one-by-one. All the while, she made it very clear that she did not want any help making her gift for Uncle Mike and Paddy (that’s their name for Mike’s dad, who also has Celiac).

Apparently our niece only allowed Paddy to eat one before Mike got in town. Having been told the story via email a week before Christmas, I made sure to lord it over Mike that there was a secret surprise waiting for him at his parents’ house.

They were certainly much enjoyed on Christmas morning when Mike got to try them and heard the story of how she made them.

You’ll use a 1:1:1 ratio of the ingredients.

• Rolo candy, unwrapped
• gluten-free pretzels, (like these)
• pecan halves

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees.
2. Spread the pretzels on a baking sheet. Then place one Rolo on top of each pretzel. Heat in the oven for 4-5 minutes. You want the Rolos to be soft, but not melting.
3. Remove the sheet from the oven and push one pecan half into each Rolo, then let them cool.

(Serves as many people as you want, depending on how many Rolos you feel like unwrapping).

If it’s not obvious from the picture, you’ll want to use small pretzel twists for this.