Summer means Rhubarb Crisp

I am not sure how everyone else feels about summer, but to me, summer is the taste of a tart rhubarb crisp or cobbler. I really felt like I was missing out on great crisp once oats were not a part of my diet. I spent the better part of a decade without crisps or cobblers of any kind.

Of course now I can not believe that it took me so long to come up with a GF crisp -- especially since the gluten eaters at potlucks camp out around my crisps and rave about them. This recipe was inspired by a rhubarb crunch that a dear family friend, Zibby, included in her cook book.

Anyway, since I am still working on using up the 3-4 pints of raspberries we seem to be picking daily, why not throw some of them into a....wait for it.....rhubarb crisp!

Ingredients
4 cups rhubarb
1/2 C sugar
2T tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
1 C water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 C GF flourblend
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
6 T butter
1/2 C brown sugar

Fresh raspberries

Place rhubarb in a 7x11 pan (I only have a 9x11 so I just throw more rhubarb in). This crisp is fabulous with just rhubarb, but if you are trying to unload raspberries (or blue, black, or boysenberries) -- simply throw a bunch in the pan at this point. Combine sugar, starch, and water and cook until thick. Add vanilla. Pour over rhubarb.

Combine flour, nuts, butter, and brown sugar in a bowl. sprinkle over rhubarb. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

Tammy's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Disclaimers:
This recipe is not a "healthy" GF recipe. It has no applesauce, it uses SUGAR. It is for serious indulgence.

This recipe is not for the person who wants "a couple of cookies". It uses a 1/4 cup of vanilla - it is for serious quantities of indulgence.

This recipe, developed by my twinny-twin-twin, is beyond a doubt the best GF cookie of all time. It may be because there is so much sugar and fat in this recipe that the type of flour you use is really not of any consequence in the end. Have you been missing your Toll-house? If so, I suggest you get busy and start baking!



Tammy's Chocolate Chip cookies
makes 12 dozen cookies
preheat oven to 375

3 cups butter flavor crisco ( I use spectrum shortning)
2 1/2 C brown sugar
2 1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C milk (I used almond milk, any other milk substitute would work as well)
1/4 C vanilla
4 eggs
7 C GF flour blend of your choice
1 Tblsp salt
1 Tblsp soda
1/2 Tblsp xantham gum
chocolate chips to taste

Combine shortening and sugars. beat until fluffy. Add milk, vanilla, eggs and beat well. In a separate bowl sift remaining ingredients together. Slowly add flour mixture to the sugar mixture while mixing on medium. Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake on parchment paper covered pans. do 1 sheet at a time - (trust Tammy on this one, I did not and regretted) Bake 8-10 minutes. Slide parchment off pan IMMEDIATELY and cook cookies some before trying to remove them from parchment.

If this is more than you want to bake at one time, which is probably true for most of us, freeze logs of dough to have on hand. They work just like good ol' whats his name..... ah yes, Pillsbury, the gluteny dough boy! (see tips and tricks below)

TIPS and TRICKS

We usually bake cookies on the stone. These cookies are much softer than most, so I don't recommend using your stone unless you use parchment as well. The best part of using paper with this recipe is that you can simply slide the whole thing onto the cooling rack without disturbing the cookies. You want to get them off the pan IMMEDIATELY so they do not over bake. Once they cool a bit they will hold their shape and you can remove them from the parchment.


This is the look you are going for


If you get something that looks a little more like this - don't panic. My first batch came out really thin and "toffee like". Todd LOVED them, I actually loved the flavor, but this is not the look I was going for. I went back to the mixing bowl and added a few tablespoons flour mix, about a tsp. of xantham gum and mixed well. The next batch was the one you see pictured above.



I don't know about you guys, but if I had 12 dozen baked cookies staring me in the face - I would gain a few pounds...quickly. I have very little restraint for confections of any kind. SO - I baked the cookies we needed, and then plopped some dough onto some parchment, rolled the parchment over it and started to shape it into a log. Once I got a french bread looking roll I simply held onto the ends of the parchment and used it to roll the dough back and forth until it looked like the logs of premade cookies you can buy. Then I rolled it up like you see below and froze it. Once it was hard as a rock, Todd seal-a-meal'd them for me. (note - my logs were so long he had to break them in half to use the sealer machine....oops!) You may want to shoot for smaller rolls than you see here if you are using a machine. If not, you can do them this size and then freeze them in a gallon ziplock.

I pull one out, let it defrost for a bit, slice cookies onto parchment covered sheet, bake at 375 for 8 minutes....mmmmm.....cookies.


Now when I crave these delights again all I have to do is defrost a roll, slice, and bake.

GF Fudge Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream

These are SO yummy. They are easy to make and don't require a flour blend. The flour is Quinoa, which has a bit of a nutty flavor. Todd, who is a bit pickier than me (I assume it is because he can still eat a real live Cinnabon), says they taste a little like I made them with buckwheat. He also says they are, "really good". So there you have it - the gluten eaters thumbs up.

These were for Bryce to eat at a little kid birthday party, so I opted to frost them with good ol' buttercream. I made the frosting more "adult" by adding a whole bunch of coconut to it. You could use any frosting that suits your fancy, or do what I did today with the second batch - eat them plain.

GF Fudge Cupcakes
preheat oven to 375

1/4 C butter (or butter replacer)
1/4 C water
1/4 C cocoa
1/4 C almond milk (or any milk alternative - or MILK if that makes you happy!)
1 C sugar
1 1/4 C Quinoa Flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xantham gum
2 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla

Boil the water and the butter. Remove from heat and whisk in cocoa and then milk. Set aside. Sift sugar, flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and xantham gum into large mixing bowl. Add egg yolks, vanilla and cocoa mixture. Mix well. In another bowl, beat egg whites until they are stiff, but not dry. Fold into batter. Fill muffin tin lined with paper baking cups. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool. Store these in a Tupperware type container or a gallon plastic bag - it will keep them moist.

Frost or eat 'em up!

For the coconut buttercream - just find your fave buttercream frosting recipe and add a bunch of shredded coconut. You may need a little less powdered sugar than the recipe calls for. I made mine without measuring a thing - so I can not share it with you until I do it again and employ those pesky measuring tools. If I would have known how yummy my concoction was going to be I would have done it so I could share......really!