all kinds of coconut cake

After my failed almond bread (which was nicely recycled as French toast sticks, but I never got the chicken sandwich I really wanted) I decided to try something fun. I'd recently seen Coconut Bars from Elana's Pantry. There's a lot of coconut here so they should have been great.

They were just okay. They were not what I expected and I'm calling them cake because they seem softer than what I think of with bars.

Almond meal, shredded coconut, coconut milk and coconut oil where no problem for me to find. The coconut flour here is not as fine as American commercial coconut flour, but a few seconds in the mixer takes care of that. (Notice all the coconut products? That's why I've renamed it "all kinds of coconut" cake.) There's no stevia here, and I don't like it much anyway, so I just omitted it.

Maybe I over mixed the batter, but it was much runnier than I expected. As it baked, huge bubbles rose. After the specified thirty minutes I took it out of the oven and popped the bubbles. The batter was under baked so I put it back in the oven. After five minutes, though, I could see that the bottom was going to burn.

The dish was supposed to cool on the counter for thirty minutes and then go into the refrigerator until "chilled." So I trusted that maybe the mushiness would disappear after chilling for a little while. Several hours later I cut a little piece. Hmmm. Coconut. But something was missing from the flavor and the consistency wasn't quite right.

I let the dish sit in the refrigerator for a couple days, mocking me and my weekend of baking failures. This morning I took it out again and offered a piece to Muffin on a whim. She's had a cold, which has made her a picky eater, and I wasn't expecting her to even try it. She loved it. I cut her a piece and it's not the end of the world that she had coconut cake for breakfast. The consistency was much better after being refrigerated for a longer amount of time.

I like the coconut flavor a lot but something is still missing from the overall taste of the cake. I have two solutions to that. I'm going to try a batch with golden syrup instead of honey. It's not in the same universe of being healthy, but it has a nice toasted marshmallow flavor that I really like in some baked goods. I'm also going to try a batch with dark chocolate chunks mixed in. I need something to complement the coconut.

One long weekend, two baking projects to take back to the drawing board. 

thanksgiving wrap-up -- cranberry breads!

Our internet was out most of the day on Wednesday so instead of telling you about the cranberry breads I planned to make, or telling you that I posted a Thanksgiving article at Gluten-Free Works, I spent the day making a This-Isn't-Really-How-Pilgrims-Dressed dress for Muffin:

So now I will give a summary of my Thanksgiving cooking: Yum.

We were invited to a potluck dinner with some friends and our contribution was rice and cranberry bread. I cheated a bit and had my housekeeper make a rice pilaf (from the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook) while I made the cranberry breads.

Earlier in the week I tried a cranberry apricot nut cake from Anja's Food 4 Thought. There's no flour in it and if you use unsugared dried fruit then it's sugar-free as well. I had to substitute some of the nuts and I used cranberries that I'd brought back from the United States with us last summer. Ocean Spray Craisins can be found here sometimes, but I didn't want the expense and the inconsistent supply chain to keep me from making cranberry bread at Thanksgiving so I've been saving them to use since September. Anja calls for a mix of pecan and hazelnuts, but I haven't seen hazelnuts here in months so I used all pecans -- which hadn't been around for a few weeks and miraculously arrived on the shelves last Sunday. I bought enough to get me through Christmas. You could fool around substituting different fruits and nuts. (I bought some amazing dates this week, too, that would be good.)

Muffin and I ate most of that cake, which was evidence enough that it would be a good Thanksgiving dish. I had chopped and pre-measured the fruits and nuts when I made the first loaf so on Thursday morning I could make a fresh loaf in less time.

For my second bread I went back and forth on whether I should add cranberries to either the Pamela's baking mix banana bread or zucchini bread recipes. I went with the banana bread. I know the recipe by heart so it was quick to make on Thursday morning. I made it as muffins to ensure it cooked evenly and to save time and mess from having to cut it up.

Muffin tossed all breads and muffins aside once she got her first taste of turkey. Last Thanksgiving she was too young for real food. This year she inhaled the turkey off my plate and took a few bites of mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, and broccoli as well. We thought giving her a turkey leg to play with would make a funny photograph and we were surprised to see her bite right into it. She is definitely a Thanksgiving eater.

double chocolate pomegranate cookies

I read this recipe at MADE recently and realized that pomegranates are in season here, too. With a few modifications to make the cookies gluten-free and to allow for local supplies, these cookies were a success in our house.

Here is the recipe as I modified it. If you live in the United States or another country were basic ingredients are easily found, or if by chance you stumbled upon this blog but you are not gluten-free, you can read the original recipe at MADE.

2 cups Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (or half cup butter and half cup shortening, if shortening is available to you)
3/4 cup castor sugar (a finely ground white granulated sugar)
3/4 cup demerara sugar (a brown sugar substitute here that I really like -- it has more of a burnt sugar flavor and the large granules provide a nice texture)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I horde this stuff and buy it whenever I'm in an extract-selling country to bring back with me)

2 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or if you're like me and are unsatisfied with your local chocolate chip selection, chop up some chocolate bars; I chopped four 80-gram bars)
1 cup pomegranate arils, or seeds (you can slice a pomegranate in half and whack at it with a wooden spoon to get the arils out)

Do the standard cookie-backing stuff.

Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.

In one bowl blend together the baking mix, cocoa powder, and salt.

In another bowl, cream the butter then add the sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture. Then add the chocolate chips and pomegranate.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet. I like to line my sheets with parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes then allow them to cool on a wire rack for as long as you can keep your family's paws off of them.

Yum.

If any play group moms are reading this, I froze half the dough and will be making a fresh batch for brunch on Friday.

There were a few shady moments were I wasn't certain these cookies would be completed. I didn't soften enough butter at first and when I grabbed my second box out of the fridge, I opened it up to find mold! I'd never even heard of mold on butter. Of course India could provide that experience for me. We had a small bit of table butter, which has salt in it, but I added it to my unsalted cooking butter in order to save Mike a nighttime walk to the local grocery, which probably wouldn't have had unsalted butter anyway. The cookies turned out not to be too salty, as I feared, but perfectly salted for the chocolate and pomegranate.

I was also dancing around on a cruddy floor. When I was pulling sugar out of the cupboard I was so relieved Muffin was distracted and not trying to help me that I didn't notice at first what distracted her. She'd dumped a box of loose-leaf tea onto the floor and was having fun walking on it in her bare feet. I have yet to get it all swept up. I am not having as much fun stepping on it in my bare feet.

Earlier in the day Muffin had a glue incident. The tea leaves were not spilled anywhere near the faint glue spot still on the floor.

I forgot about all of that when I started eating cookies.

I couldn't get a good photo of the cookies, but if this isn't a good endorsement, I don't know what is:

It's cookies like this that have encouraged me to join the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge. I run to eat baked goods. At least these cookies have vitamins and antioxidants, right, due to the pomegranates? There's still time to sign up for HBBC. Come join me!

les premièrs macarons

Recently I wrote about my new obsession with macarons and how I was planning to battle the India humidity to make my first batch. I did battle the humidity and the little cookies came out much better than I expected.

Per the book Cecile Cannone's Macarons: Authentic French Cookie Recipes from the MacarOn Cafe I separated my egg whites two days before using them. Early in the morning on baking day, I took my egg whites and other ingredients out of the refrigerator to bring them up to room temperature. I also turned on the oven early and brought the dehumidifier into the kitchen to dry out the room as much as possible.

I had to dry out my almond meal before I started the real baking and that took about thirty minutes in the oven. After that things moved along much more smoothly than I expected. I used the Cuisinart food processor (nearly blowing a fuse but stopping when I could feel the electricity struggling) to grind the almond meal and confectioner's sugar (or icing sugar) into a fine, smooth powder. I had to use an electric handheld mixer rather than my KitchenAid stand mixer to beat the egg whites (because the KitchenAid did blow out a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to get it repaired yet) so it took a long time to get the egg whites and sugar to the stiff peaks they needed to be at but it eventually happened. And I did a little dance of joy because I was so relieved and happy to see them beat properly!

I carefully folded the egg whites with sugar into the almond meal with sugar to complete the batter -- yeah, lots of sugar. So far things had gone by the book but I actually had no idea if my batter consistency was correct. It seemed useable so I kept going.

Getting the batter into the piping sleeves was a tricky, sticky mess and who knows how much I wasted. I had a blocked nozzle once or twice with some almond meal clumps but for the most part the batter flowed just as it was supposed to. I made my little circles on my parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, let the cookies rest for a few minutes, then popped them into the oven.

It's the resting and cooking time that can be difficult. The mixing of stuff is all mechanics, but the resting and cooking is a total crapshoot. The cracked cookies and the ones without the nice little shelf on the bottom are the ones that either did not rest long enough, or rested too long, or were not cooked long enough, or were cooked too long, or the oven wasn't opened enough times to let out steam while they were baking, or they were removed from the tray and parchment too early, or too late. There are lots of factors to worry about.

Although my introductory photograph is purple, I did not use food coloring for this first attempt. The purple is the result of my fooling around with some new photo editing stuff. I wanted to see what the macarons looked like naked, so to speak.

They looked pretty good. Much better than I expected them too. They were shiny on top and not all of them cracked. The cracking is the result of too much moisture but there are a few tricks I can use to combat the moisture next time, especially since we are moving away from the rainy season.

Fresh out of the oven. My first tray, before I got the hang of making perfect circles.

The best macaron from the whole batch.

Lots of them cracked.

They tasted great. They are sweet, that's for sure. But they melted in our mouths just like they were supposed to. We ate most of them plain, but when we had some friends over for dinner I made sandwich cookies, some with chocolate frosting left over from birthday cupcakes a few days earlier and some with cherry preserves.

I'm game to keep trying. I have some colors and flavors in mind to play around with. I've purchased several macaron cookbooks lately and I love the colorful photos. I kind of want to make them just so I can take photos of them, too!

Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click on the book link and ultimately decide to buy it, I will receive a small amount of money.
All photos taken by me. 

laddu

For Diwali this week, our housekeeper showed me how to make laddu, one of the traditional sweets. They're made with besan, which is lentil flour.

She started with 500 mL ghee, which is clarified butter. She heated it up on the stovetop until it was clear. Then she took small spoonfuls of the ghee and put it in a frying pan with a few spoonfuls of the besan, heating it all up together until it was all incorporated and the mixture was free of clumps. She did this for a long time, until she'd combined the ghee with about half of a kilogram (about one pound) of besan. It takes a while because you have to do such small amounts at once, in order to keep the besan from burning.

Then she put half of a kilogram of sugar in the food processor until it was very fine, and she stirred that into the besan-ghee mixture. She also added a few shakes of ground cardamom.

Once everything is mixed and is the right texture, you pick up small handfuls and form little balls. You can also add chopped nuts to the mixture and our housekeeper did half with cashews and half with pistachios. They sit in a cool room (we had to blast the air conditioner over the dining room table) until they've hardened up enough to not fall apart. Then they are eaten!

I liked them. They are heavy and sweet, but also quite filling because of the lentil flour so I tried to convince myself that one or two with a cup of coffee wasn't the worst treat in the world. Muffin enjoyed them as well.

According to our housekeeper, laddu are also given to women in labor to help ease the pain and they are also given the children who are deemed "too skinny."

These are easy to make, but I probably won't make them again until next Diwali because they are too sweet and heavy to enjoy on a regular basis. Next year Muffin will be old enough to get her hands in the dough and help shape the little balls.

Heating up the ghee.

Heating up the besan with ghee.

After the sugar and cardamom is added, shaping the dough into little balls.

A tray full of laddu.

More laddu pleeeeeeeeease!

dreaming of macarons

For some reason I've become obsessed with macarons. Not the coconut macaroons, the French macarons made from almond flour. I've only had them once in my life, in Paris, but I've decided that one of my goals by the end of the year is to perfect making macarons in India. India loves sugar and food coloring, which are part of the specialness of macarons. But once my supply of almond meal from the States is used up, I'll have to grind my own from almonds that are expensive here. There's also a bit of a humidity problem this time of year. And I may have to grind granulated sugar in order to make it "superfine," as many of my recipes call for. It's going to be tedious and messy and time-consuming -- but hopefully delicious -- and I will have to run many miles to combat all the sugar and butter I'll be test-tasting over the next few weeks.

Armed with Cecile Cannone's Macarons: Authentic French Cookie Recipes from the MacarOn Cafe, I'll be making my first attempt this weekend. I'll be separating the eggs tonight, as Cecile suggests, in order to bake on Saturday or Sunday.

Stay tuned!

Image from Ladies Day to Play, "Interview with Cecile Cannone."
Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click on the book link and ultimately decide to buy it, I will receive a small amount of money. That will go toward purchasing almonds, most likely.

labonel fine baking

The people of Hyderabad like their sweets. There is no shortage of chocolate cakes at bakeries, coffee shops, grocery store bakery counters, and restaurants. It's been difficult, being a gluten-free chocoholic and having to face cakes every time I leave the house. Some places offer a chocolate mousse, and I've been eating my way through the mousses of the city, but those are a topic for another post.

A couple weeks ago Mike came home and announced he'd found a gluten-free bakery. They are not specifically gluten-free, but the head baker is familiar with the gluten-free diet and has perfected a few treats with the local flours. For Mother's Day, Mike brought home a chocolate cake from Labonel Fine Baking.

Labonel uses millet flour as the base for their gluten-free cakes. The texture was great, but the flavor was a little off. I loved the chocolate icing, but the millet lends sort of a grassy flavor to the cake. It grew on me, though, and we've been picking away at the cake all week long.

Whether gluten-free, eggless, or "regular," Labonel's treats are only available as custom orders. They are a little tricky to find, being that the office is on the side of a house behind a gate with no sign. It's like a secret society. A secret, chocolate-cake-loving society. You can find their products and directions to the house on their website.

pineapple

Since my great sugar reduction, I haven't been able to completely break my cook of the habit of making cakes and ice cream for dessert (um, I haven't really tried too hard), but he does serve plain fruit for dessert more often. And he gets creative with it, too. This lovely pineapple was served one day last week.

Pineapple is one of the staples of my diet here. It's cheap and when someone else is cutting it up for you, it's easy. And it's so sweet it's like eating candy, but it's good for you because it's fruit. It goes into my smoothies every day. Several times a week it's my lunchtime dessert or afternoon snack. And there's nothing more refreshing on a hot afternoon than a cold pineapple juice (remember my fruito post?).

I've been looking for some magical nutritional properties of pineapple other than vitamin C, but it seems there aren't any. But what a lot of vitamin C it has! It's also a decent source of fiber and has teeny, tiny amounts of vitamin A, calcium, and iron.*

I don't know what I'm going to do back in the States this summer, where fresh pineapple is expensive and canned pineapple is tasteless in comparison, and pineapple juice comes from concentrate rather than pineapples. And where I have to drive to the air-conditioned supermarket to buy tropical fruit. How can anyone live without fresh pineapple being sold roadside in the heat (and where the good vendors will bring out their machete to slice it open for you, if needed)?

*According to nutritionaldata.com. 

mariposa, oakland, ca

The Mariposa Baking Company in Oakland, California, was a baked-good dream come true. It's an entirely gluten-free bakery and many of their treats are so good you'd never even know they were gluten-free. While on a recent visit to the Bay Area I popped into the shop and bought cinnamon toast biscotti, cheese ravioli, a coconut cupcake and a red velvet cupcake (I'm usually a chocolate fiend for but for some reason I wasn't feeling chocolate that day), multi-grain bread, and sesame seed bagels. I was on the go, so didn't stop to eat and get coffee in the cafe area. You can get many of their baked goods fresh on the spot, with a cup of coffee or tea to complete your snack.

The biscotti, ravioli, and cupcakes were totally awesome. The ravioli was one of those items that, to me, tasted exactly like the "real" thing. The cupcakes were moist and cakey and my non-gf husband liked them a lot too. The package of biscotti lasted me for several days' worth of afternoon tea times.

The bread and bagels weren't bad, but were noticeably gluten-free. Part of the quality issues were admittedly my own doing, because I left them in the refrigerator for several days, then they lived in the back of the car and in a hotel room for several days before I got around to eating them. Not exactly ideal conditions. But they toasted well and were a good vehicle for jams and cream cheese.

At the cafe in Oakland, they serve pizza by the slice daily from noon to 3:00 pm. They have a shop in the San Francisco Ferry Building (I don't believe it's a cafe, but I don't know for sure) and some of their products are available at nationwide retailers such as Whole Foods. You can also order their products online (and they're having a special right now -- a free brownie with the online purchase of a gift set -- I don't know how long this offer lasts, but a certain gf blogger has a birthday coming up next week...). :) They also supply pizza crusts for several restaurants in the Bay Area. Check their website for more information on locations, distribution, and special offers. I unfortunately did not have a chance to try the pizza, so someone else will have to try it and report back to me.

Mariposa is a must-visit for anyone living in or traveling through the Bay Area. In the Oakland location there's ample parking and the San Francisco location is easily reachable by BART.

*I was not compensated in any way for this post. All items were purchased by me for personal consumption.

halloween candy

It's the time of year for candy. It's everywhere you look and it's too tempting to say no every time. But some of us have to say no to certain treats. There's just no getting around it. 

Gluten-free candy lists have been circulating the 'net and I think they should be repeated. I've combined lists from different sources and added some of my favorite chocolates that hadn't been included. (References are at the bottom of the post.)

Halloween isn't the only time for candy. Christmas and Valentine's Day will soon follow. We'll be dodging candy landmines for the next several months.

Remember, ingredients and labeling change. And many products have warning labels saying that facilities or equipment may be shared with wheat products. It is up to you to read labels, contact manufacturers, and decide for yourself if you want to eat these products or not. Also note that many candies contain nuts, soy-based products, and other allergens. I have not noted them below.

Airheads
Airheads Bars regular and sour
Airheads Pops
Whistle Pops

Cadbury Adams
Swedish Fish
Sour Patch Soft and Chewy Candy Kids

Ce De Candy
Smarties
Bubble Gum Smarties
Candy Money
Smarties in a Pouch
Tropical Smarties
X-TREME Sour Smarties
Smarties Parties, Double Lollies, Mega Lollies, and Pops

Divvies
Boo x2 Chocolate Ghosts
BinGo! Divvine Chocolate Bar
Benjamint Crunch Bar
Halloween Jelly Beans

Enjoy Life
Boom CHOCO Boom Dark Chocolate Bar
Boom CHOCO BoomCrispy Rice Bar
Boom CHOCO Boom Milk Bar

Fannie May
all candy bars
English Toffee
all solid chocolate novelties
Hostess Mints
Apricot Bon Bons
Apricot Cream
Assorted Nuts, Cashews, Chocolate & Pastel Meltaways
Chocolate Toffee
Chocolate Wafers
Citrus Peel
Dark Filbert Clusters
Irish Toffee
Ivory & Chocolate Bark
Milk & Dark Almond Clusters
Milk & Dark Walnut Clusters
Milk Peanut Butter Crunch Bar
Pastel Toffee
Pastel Wafers
Peanut Clusters

Farley's and Sather's
Super Bubble and Super Bubble Blast
Rain-Blo Pops
Atomic Fireball
Jawbreakers
Trolli Gummi Bears
Trolli Sour Brite (Frite) Crawlers
Jujufruits
Smarties
Sweetarts
Now and Later regular
Now and Later Soft
Jujyfruits and Friends (Heide candies)

Ferrara Pan
Chewy Atomic Fireballs
Lemonhead
Red Hots
Chewy Lemonhead and Friends
Applehead, Grapehead, Cherryhead
Jawbreakers

Hershey
Milk Chocolate Bars
Milk Duds
Heath Minis
Kisses, Special Dark Kisses
Almond Joy
Mounds
Mr. Goodbar
Baby Ruth
Jolly Rancher Hard Candy and Hard Candy Sticks
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Jelly Belly
Jelly Beans

Just Born
Mike & Ike
Hot Tamales
Peeps Marshmallow Candies
Peanut Chew Brand candies,
Teenee Beanee Jelly Beans and
Just Born Jelly Beans

Mars and Wrigley
M & Ms Plain
M & Ms Peanut
Snickers
3 Musketeers
Starburst
Skittles and Skittles Sour
Lifesavers Hard Candy, Pops, and Gummies
Hubba Bubba Gum, Glop, Max, Pop
Wrigley's Spearmint gum
Freedent gum
Doublemint gum
Extra gum
Big Red gum
Eclipse gum
Juicy Fruit gum
Winterfresh gum
Orbit and Orbit White gum
Altoids Mints, Sours, and Gum
Cremesavers

Milka

Milk Chocolate bar

Milk Chocolate with Chopped Hazelnuts bar

Milk Chocolate with Cream Filling bar

Chocolate Dessert bar

Milk and White Chocolate Cow Spots bar

Nestle

Spree
Sno-Caps
Goobers
Oh Henry
Butterfinger (not Butterfinger Crisp)
Raisinets
Bit-O-Honey
Baby Ruth
Nips Regular and Sugar Free
Treasures, including Treasures Bars

Necco
Necco Wafers
Mary Janes
Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses
Sweethearts Conversation Hearts (Valentines only)
Canada Mint & Wintergreen Lozenges
Haviland Thin Mints and Candy Stix
Clark Bars
Skybars
Haviland Peppermint & Wintergreen Patties
Necco Candy Eggs (Easter)
Talking Pumpkins (Halloween)
Squirrel Nut Caramels and Squirrel Nut Zippers
Banana Split and Mint Julep Chews
Ultramints

Ritter Sport

Alpine Milk Chocolate bar

Dark Milk Chocolate bar

Dark Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts bar

Milk Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts bar

Spangler
Dum Dums
Chewy Pops
Saf-T-Pops
Circus Peanuts

Surf Sweets
Gummy Worms, Swirls, and Bears
Fruity Bears
Jelly Beans
Sour Worms
Sour Berry Bears

Tootsie
Charleston Chew, including minis
Charms Blow Pops and Flat Pops
Dots, including Bat Dots, Candy Corn Dots and Ghost Dots
Tootsie Pops
Tootsie Rolls
Tootsie Fruit Rolls
Junior Mints and Inside Outs
Junior Caramels
Dubble Bubble Bubble Gum
Sugar Babies
Sugar Babies Caramel Apple
Sugar Daddy

Wonka
Bottlecaps
Gobstopper, Everlasting and Chewy
Runts and Runts Chewy
Fun Dip, Fun Dip Sour
Mix-Ups
Pixy Stix
Sweetarts (regular), Chew, Giant Chewy, Mini Chew, Chewy Twists, and Shockers
Tart N Tinys and Tart N Tinys Chew
Nerds
Laffy Taffy, Rope, and Stretchy and Tangy

Yummy Earth
Lollipops
Candy Drop
Gummy Bears
Gummy Worms

Some popular treats that do contain gluten:
Airheads Xtremes Rolls
Annabelle’s Rocky Road
Kit Kat
Twizzlers
Whoppers
Hershey Miniatures in bulk bags
Milky Way
Twix
Butterfinger Crisp
Nestle Crunch
Sweetarts Gummy Bugs
Sweetarts Rope
Rice Krispy Treats

References:
http://surefoodsliving.com/2009/10/06/gluten-free-halloween-candy-quick-list-2009/
http://www.divinecaroline.com/22107/37253-gluten-free-halloween-candy
http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenfreefoodshopping/a/GFcandies.htm

http://www.germandeli.com/rittersport.html
http://gdcom.stores.yahoo.net/mitab10.html

Image from Jupiter Images.

carrot cake with sweet cream butter

When our cook put this down on the table many thoughts went through my head. Carrot cake? How did he spontaneously learn how to make carrot cake? We've lived here over a year and no carrot cake. But one of the first American recipes I taught him was banana bread--with Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour substitute of course--and he came up with the carrot idea after leafing through my Martha Stewart magazines. 

Then I got excited over the marscapone cheese on top. I'd imported some from South Africa and been trying to explain to our cook that it's sort of like a dessert cheese, un frommage douce, that's good with fruit. I was impressed with his initiative to put it on cake. (We've never fully adjusted to having a cook and having to give him direction. We rely on him to read our minds sometimes.)

But when I tasted a little bit of the "cheese" it was less sweet and more greasy than I expected it to be. Mike agreed. It turned out to be sweet cream butter. Genius! Carrot cake with thick, fresh, creamy butter. It was quite a large pat so I only spread about half of it on my slices of cake. I run so I can eat things like creamy fresh butter, but I do have my limits.

I'm exhausted today so I just plan to do some yoga. We went on a long, mountainous hike yesterday and my abs are still a little sore from my Friday workout. Lately I have not been successful in bringing my mileage up to a good base to start a half marathon training plan. I'm starting the running regime fresh tomorrow. 

mango cobbler

Mango cobbler is the best term I can come up with to describe the wonderful dessert our cook made recently. (Yes, we have a cook. That’s why so few entries are about my own cooking adventures these days.) He goes into the pantry and riffles through my gluten-free flours and presents the results to me. Some of his creations are fantastic; some need work. But that’s the way it is for all of us gluten-free bakers. I think it’s great that he’s up to the challenge and he keeps trying. 

When this dish was first placed in front of me my initial reaction was “Peach cobbler!” But I quickly remembered we don’t have peaches here. Mango? Yup. Cobbler? Sort of. I think it’s a pie that may have gone wrong and then salvaged. 

Because of the language barrier, I can’t always get a great explanation about the food we’re eating. But I know it’s gluten-free (sans gluten) because I’ve forbidden him from buying local flour; he’s only to use what I provide.

starbucks orange valencia cake

Another mainstream gluten-free sighting. I first read it at Gluten Free Post, then I saw it in Forbes and finally from the horse's own mouth. Starbucks is introducing a gluten-free pastry. Those of us who have been unable to indulge in the sugary empty-calorie food display finally have our day! From the Starbucks Ideas in Action blog:

Hi, it’s Erin on the Food team. I am so excited today to share an update on our blog about Gluten-free offerings. Starting May 5 we will be launching the Gluten-free Orange Valencia Cake with Almonds. And even better you are among the first to know! Who better to get the first scoop than you who helped make it happen? This product was inspired by the passionate responses we heard from you on My Starbucks Idea.

The Orange Valencia Cake is a delicious moist citrus cake bursting with Valencia oranges and topped with crunchy almonds. Not only is it gluten-free, it is also prepared with 7 simple ingredients: Whole Eggs, Valencia Orange Pulp, Almonds, Sugar, Orange Peel, Gluten Free Baking Powder, and Orange Oil. Plus it delivers 30% of your daily value of vitamin C.

Keep on the look out for it in the pastry case with a sign that says “gluten-free.” A single cake will be displayed unwrapped so you can see it clearly, but don’t worry. They all come individually packaged to prevent cross contamination. And with the ingredient list right on the package, it’s easy to see exactly what you are eating. Whether you are gluten-sensitive or not, this product is delicious and satisfying and I hope you will all enjoy it soon.

Want to know how it’s made gluten-free? Come back to MSI in two weeks and Chris, the lead product developer will take you behind the scenes and share how this cake is made with care.

This makes travel throughout the United States a lot easier. I've always found breakfast to be the hardest meal to satisfy me on the gluten-free diet because I don't like eggs. When you take out eggs and gluten, you're left with few other options while on the road. No, this option is no where near healthy, but the mental aspect is almost as important to me. My body can handle the occasional breakfast pastry when it's combined with the ease of going into one of my favorite coffee spots.

Now to see about getting a Starbucks built in Bujumbura.

lilit cafe, bethesda, maryland

I now know that I don't have to go all the way to Edinburgh for gluten-free pizza and beer! Lilit Cafe in Bethesda, Maryland, offers a partial gluten-free menu with baked goods from Sweet Sin Bakery.

It's a funny little deli-pizza parlour-liquor store. They don't serve alcohol or other beverages, but you can walk to the convenience store section and choose from water, sodas, beer, and wine (which they'll uncork for you free of charge), and bring it back to your table to drink. For beers and sodas you can buy a whole 6-pack or single servings. We knew we were back on the east coast when we saw Old English 40s along with the selection of "fine" wines and beers. They offer a gf beer, Redbridge, which isn't my favorite gf beer but will do in a pinch. I think they also had Woodchuck ciders, which are gf.

The gf menu features pizzas and deli sandwiches. I decided on the margarita pizza. When it was served, it looked and smelled delicious. But one bite proved the crust to be mediocre. It was obviously a frozen crust that had been reheated, poorly, with toppings. I considered sending it back but I was so hungry, and the cheese and sauce were tasty hot, so I plowed on. When I brought the leftovers home and heated them up later, I was able to get a hot, crisp crust. The leftovers were better than the in-restaurant pizza. I wasn't completely turned off by the pizza experience though and will go back to try again (especially once we move closer to the Red Line--too much hassle to go from where we live now). The mental aspect of sitting down in a restaurant and ordering pizza and sandwiches is so positive that it outweighs a less-than-perfect meal in my opinion.

Desserts! I was so stuffed from my pizza and beer that I could barely sample the gelato. They have a wide range of freshly made gelatos and I'm looking forward to going back to try some of them. They also have packages of cupcakes, cookies, cakes, and breads from Sweet Sin Bakery for sale. I bought a 6-pack of chocolate brownie cupcakes. They. Were. Amazing. So moist, which is rare for gf baked goods. We were there for dinner on a Friday night... by Sunday I was eating my 5th cupcake for breakfast (I let Mike eat one). Hey, I don't get to eat chocolate cake often, so I indulged.

Lilit Cafe also has a full "regular" menu and plenty of vegetarian choices on both menus. Sandwiches and pizzas can also be made to-go, and since you can buy beverages there and other convenience store items, you can get everything you need in one stop. Even smokes!

Lilit Cafe
7921 Old Georgetown Road (about 1km from the Bethesda Metro stop)
Bethesda, MD
(301) 654-5454
10am - 9pm, Mon - Thus
10am - 10pm, Fri - Sat
10am - 6pm, Sunday

dolce senza grano tortes

"Sweet without wheat" is what it says on these frozen cakes at Trader Joe's. I tried the tiramisu torte and the black forest torte. I preferred the black forest, but it's low on cherries. You may want to consider serving with some canned or fresh cherries or some other fruit sauce or compote. The tiramisu is tasty, but the cream left a funny, sticky feeling on the roof of my mouth. Both of these are sickeningly sweet, creamy, cakey, and gooey, just as you'd want a decadant dessert to be. While neither are as good as baked from scratch, these will do in a dessert pinch.

These cakes come frozen and the box instructions recommend thawing for 4 hours in the fridge or 2 hours at room temperature. I did one in the fridge and found that 4 hours wasn't quite long enough. Two hours on the countertop was fine for the other cake. These are both a little messy to serve, especially the black forest. The little chocolate shavings fall off the top and get all over the place. While you can take a slice and put the rest in a large ziploc bag and back in the fridge, the messiness may put you off that strategy. (But they will keep well in the fridge for a few days.) I suspect these are best eaten in one sitting, like at the end of a dinner party.

They do not try to mask themselves as health food. They are full of dairy, sugar, and fat. But no gluten.

I bought these at Trader Joe's and I haven't seen them anyplace else. They are imported from Italy. Trader Joe's rotates its stock often so before you make a trip specifically for one of these cakes, give them a call.

(Click on the photo to see the larger size on flickr.)

blueberry pie

I have a blueberry pie in the oven, made with Gluten-Free Pantry's Perfect Pie Crust Mix.

I don't believe it is "perfect"; maybe "good enough" is more accurate. Right now the top is falling apart around the blueberries, looking more like a weird, thin cobbler topping.

Also, it calls for butter-flavored shortening. I had never even heard of that before today. And I didn't have enough butter, so I used the dairy-free modification, which means using double the amount of shortening. (Also, you can make it vegan if you use an egg replacer.) I wonder if I should have used regular shortening in place of the butter, instead of twice the amound of butter-flavored shortening? I'm thinking next time I'll make sure I have plenty of regular butter and shortening on hand.

The pie crust is yellow. They add yellow coloring to the shortening to make it look more buttery-licious. And I nibbled on a little bit of it of the raw dough. You know that fake movie-theater popcorn butter flavor? Butter-flavored shortening kinda tastes like that.

The dough handles well. I chilled the shortening and my rolling pin and used cold water. I left the dough in the fridge until the absolute last minute. It tears a little bit, but in a way expected from GF pie crust dough. It will take a little more practice before I can do an attractive top, like a lattice or cut-outs. For the time being, tasty but unattractive will have to do.

As it's been baking, it's starting to smell more like blueberries and less like fake butter. I think that's a good sign.

The finished product:



The baked crust is less yellow than the raw dough, so that's good. It seems pretty delicate, though. Maybe it will harden a bit as it cools. As for the taste, I don't know yet. I'm saving it for dessert tonight. The taste is in the hands of the blueberries now.