Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

These may be the best muffins you'll have period. That doesn't even account for the fact that they are gluten free. Seriously, you have to try these.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins

In your mixer bowl combine you wet ingredients:

1 can (15 oz) canned pumpkin

2 c sugar

1 c oil (I use extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil)

4 eggs

Make sure this is mixed thoroughly.

Add to wet mixture:

3 c gluten free flours (today I used potato starch, corn starch, brown rice flour and tapioca flour. Coconut flour is outstanding in this. Highly recommend.)

2 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

2 t cinnamon

Mix until just combines. Some small lumps are fine.

Scoop into muffin tins lined with muffin liners.

Bake @ 375 for 20 minutes.

  

Top with the cream cheese frosting of your choice. I combines a brick of soft cream cheese with enough powdered sugar to make it stiff. Added a splash of vanilla and a couple splashes of milk to make it creamy.
Super easy and yummy.

Th

Gluten Free Macaroon Recipe

Gluten Free Macaroons

Preheat oven to 325. In your mixer bowl, mix 2 egg whites until stiff.

In another bowl, combine 1 1/3 c coconut, 1/3 c sugar, and  2 T corn starch.

Add 1 t  vanilla extract to the egg whites and then slowly add dry mixture. Fold in until just combined. (Be gentle.)

Drop by teaspoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. 

Bake for 20 minutes or until top start to brown.

While cookies cool, melt 1/2 c chocolate chips in the microwave. I do it by 30 second increments. You can  either dip the top in the chocolate or spread it over the tops. Let the chocolate cool or they get really messy.

Homemade Granola

Last year I got this great idea to start eating greek yogurt. I'm not a big yogurt fan but I love it with granola. Guess what? My family does too. We learned this fact when they were eating a box of granola a day. It gets expensive. Especially when we have to search for a gluten free kind. So, I decided to make it myself. My last batch was great. And half of it was gone by morning, so my kids must agree. Here is the recipe. I triple it when I make it.

Granola

3 c rolled oats

3 T brown sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

1/3 c honey

1/4 c coconut oil (you can substitute any oil)

1 t vanilla

1/2 c chopped pecans (can use slivered almonds)

1/2 c sunflower seeds

3/4 c rice krispies

1/2 c coconut

1/2 c dried fruit (I used apricots).

Preheat your oven to 300.

Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, honey , salt, oil and vanilla in a saucepan and mix to combine. Bring to a boil and then take off heat.

In a large bowl combine oats, pecans, sunflower seeds and coconut. Pour sugar mixture over the top. Stir until everything is wet. 

Then you spread this wet mixture about 1/2 inch thick on a cookie sheet that you have sprayed with cooking spray (or rubbed with oil). 

Bake until the top is a golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Place browned ingredients into a large bowl and add dried fruit and rice krispies. Stir to combine. 

Good luck keeping it in the house. It's great. And mostly healthy.

Homemade Laundry Soap

I decided last year that I was going to start making my own laundry soap. Cash, our son, who is gluten intolerant, has skin issues. After thanksgiving (I'm pretty sure he snitched a glutenous pumpkin pie even though Grandma bought a gf one,) his poor feet and ankles had more sores than good skin. So I figured I should be aware of what was going on his skin. Soap and detergents, lotions, etc. So I started making my own soap. This will be good for when the foster kids come because anything harmful if swallowed has to be under lock and key. I guess you can eat this soap and won't be so bad. Anyways, that was I read online.

So the three ingredients I use are borax, washing soda and fels naptha soap. I chipped up the fels naptha in my vitamix. I use wide mouth mason jars to keep the soap in. Harder for the kids to spill with the screw on lid.



Then I added 2 borax to 1 washing soda to about 2/3 of the jar then I put half of the chipped up soap on top. Put the lid on and shook it up. I made up 2 jars full of laundry soap.


2 jars lasted 3 months or so. So for 1 box of borax, 1 box of washing soda and 2 bars of fels naptha I get 6 months of laundry soap. I do have 4 kids and we do alot of laundry with sports and 3 boys. So, it ends up being a great deal. I think I spent between $10-12 for all the ingredients. It smells really good and I notice less grease spots on the boys shirts.

Gluten Free Pizza Crust Recipe

We have been gluten free for almost 7 years now. We have really missed pizza. Up in Washington there was a pizza place called Garlic Jims that sold gourmet gf pizza.It was about $25 for a medium. We loved it. When we moved to a little town in Oregon, we didn't get to have pizza at all because there was nowhere that offered the gf stuff. (I was still intimidated by alot of the gluten free baking.) When we moved to Utah, we found Pier 49 had pizza but it was like $30 and it was small but pretty tasty. Five Buck pizza has gf but it's not really tasty but it's only $8. Dominos has gf pizza but it's not really great either. So, my sister decided we should make our own. We get to choose our own toppings and it doesn't break the bank. Here is the recipe:

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Proof Yeast:

1 1/2 c warm (as hot as you can get it from the tap) water

1 t brown sugar

1 packet yeast (I use the pizza dough yeast)

Combine the water, sugar and yeast and set aside.

Combine:

5 1/2 c of gf flours (yesterday I used corn starch, tapioca flour and brown rice flour)

3 t baking powder

2 t xanthan gum

1 t salt

3 T brown sugar

Mix the dry in your mixer bowl.

Add the yeast mixture to your dry ingredients and just combine.

In a small bowl whisk together:

1/2 c olive oil

2 eggs

1/2 c vinegar

Add the whisked ingredients to your mixer and beat on high until the batter is smooth.

From my experience with gf baking, the batter for most breads will be goopy. I haven't had any dough that I can just handle without flour and/or oil.

Spray your pizza pans and sprinkle cornmeal on them. Spread out your pizza dough. This is the messiest part. I use flour to help. Then I spread olive oil over the top and sprinkle fresh chopped garlic, salt and pepper and oregano, basil and rosemary. Then cook at 400 for 10-15 minutes. 

This is what mine looked like out of the oven.

This is what it looked like all dressed up and baked again.

More about my awesome Gluten Free Bread.

Okay, folks. Be prepared to eat your hearts out when you see these pics. I'm so sorry. I have finally achieved perfection in my gluten free breadmaking. I know you probably haven't even seen gluten free bread that looks this awesome. And I have eaten it daily for a few weeks. I even had 4 pieces of french toast at 10 last night just for kicks. Here you go:

:

And it really is gluten free. It's huge and awesome and yummy!