Gluten Free Menu Swap- June 16, 2008

The ingredient of the week, cherries, was inspired by the Cherry Clafouti I made last week. I am not usually a cherry fan, but they were really good in that recipe. I am tempted to make it again this week! If not, I will be eating cherries as a naturally gluten free snack. The cherries have been wonderful, but they are anything but local! My sweet potatoes, however, are local Carolina Ruby. I am hoping to make it the Farmer’s Market this weekend to see what else made it through the drought this year.

I hope these menu ideas help those that are new to the gluten free diet.

My Gluten Free Menu

Monday: Gluten Free Waffle Night

Tuesday: Sesame Chicken with Jasmine Rice

Wednesday: Pork Tenderloin, Asparagus, and Sweet Potatoes

Thursday: Low Carb Hamburgers and Coleslaw

Friday: Almond-Crusted Chicken Breasts with Wilted Spinach-Orange Salad (from The Quick Recipe)

OTHER GLUTEN FREE MENUS:

Book of Yum: Sea has a beautiful zucchini salad on her gluten free menu plan this week. Her menu is both international and vegetarian. Go check out that pretty salad!

Asparagus Thin: Manda is making Cuban Black Beans with Plantains this week that sounds amazing. Her menu is mouth-watering!

Gluten Free Goodness: Cheryl is making a black bean brownie with cherries this week. She is also finishing off her almond rosewater cookies! She also has some delicious sounding entrees, so go check out her menu too!

Cooking and UnCooking: M-Elle has great ideas for getting through a gluten free week! I especially liked her idea of making a cherry fruit salad.

Monday Mommy Brag:

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Posted on June 16th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: gluten free menu | 5 Comments »

Cherry Clafouti

I have wanted to make a gluten free clafouti for a long time, but wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. When I passed this recipe a few days ago in The Quick Recipe (The Best Recipe Series) and had fresh cherries on hand, the time had come to give it a go. I was intimidated by what flour to use for a long time because I knew the flavor of the flour would come through in my custard. I ultimately chose sweet rice flour because of its neutral flavor and thickening abilities. I paired the sweet rice flour with an equal amount of almond flour. I was concerned that the almond flour would be too coarse for the custard but I knew it would be the perfect flavor. I used a commercially ground almond flour (I normally grind my own) and the custard turned out smooth. The custard had both a great texture and flavor. With that gluten free adaptation problem solved, I decided to change the recipe further by adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the original recipe. I frequently change the amount of vanilla I use in gluten free recipes. I also used fresh cherries in my recipe instead of the jarred sour cherries called for in the recipe. You can pit your cherries with a straw or use an unnecessary (although very fun) cherry pitter.

Note: If you have never tasted a clafouti before, it is reminiscent of a custard pie. If you like custard pie, you will love this recipe.

CHERRY CLAFOUTI

1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, steams removed and pitted (enough to cover the bottom of your pie plate)

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup almond flour (needs to be really fine)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

melted butter for greasing the pie plate

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 1/2 glass pie plate with melted butter. Place a single layer of fresh cherries on the bottom of the pie plate. In a blender, mix the eggs, cream, milk, and lemon juice for about 45 seconds. Add the flour, sugar, and salt to the blender jar. Blend for one minute! Place your pie plate on a cookie sheet (in case of spills in the oven). Carefully pour the batter in the pie plate. Place the pie plate (on cookie sheet) in the center rack in the oven. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. The clafouti is done when it is puffed and brown. (Don’t worry if your clafouti does not puff too much- they fall when they cool anyway) If the center is still jiggly (tee hee), the clafouti needs longer to cook. If you want to be sure it is done, insert a knife into the center to check. Cool the pie plate on a rack for a minimum of 15 minutes before serving. The clafouti should cut nicely into wedges, so if that is not happening- cool it for longer! You can serve the clafouti warm or chilled- my favorite is chilled, which makes this a perfect make-ahead gluten free dessert recipe for company.

Serves 8-10

I am submitting this to Gluten Free Gobsmacked’s Gluten Free BBQ event. I think I will also bring my favorite gluten free chocolate cake to this virtual BBQ because it looks like everyone’s coming! If you have a favorite gluten free recipe that would be great at a BBQ be sure to send Kate an email about it (non-bloggers too)!

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Posted on June 14th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: Fruit Dessert Recipes | 13 Comments »

Herb Scallion Drop Biscuits

biscuits Herb Scallion Drop Biscuits

These aren’t southern biscuits- notice the absence of shortening, lard, or butter. I made these with olive oil, herbs, and scallions instead. So even though they may not be traditional, they make a fantastic accompaniment to dinner. They are also great eaten the next day for lunch with a side of tomatoes and fresh basil.

Herb biscuits are delicious and can be made with whatever herbs are overflowing in your herb garden right now. Sage and thyme would be a great combination too!

If you premix the dry ingredients these biscuits take no time at all to throw together. You can also freeze the biscuits and warm them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes (or until warm).

Gluten Free Menu Swap- June 2, 2008

The Gluten Free Menu Swap is back at Gluten Free Mommy this week! The ingredient of the week is cabbage, which is in season in North Carolina right now. My family’s favorite way to eat cabbage is stir-fried. My enthusiasm for cabbage can be traced back to my mother who used cabbage all the time in her cooking. She used to give us pieces of cabbage while she was cooking and we would scamper off to eat our share. Later, my sister and I would even go to the refrigerator and sneak the leftover raw cabbage out of the refrigerator. Considering cabbage is a super food, my mom probably would have just given us more raw cabbage (but we had fun hiding from her). My sister and I are just goofy!

My Gluten Free Menu

Monday: Flank Steak with Stir Fried Cabbage and Brown Rice

Tuesday: Avocado Sandwiches/Wraps

Wednesday: Lasagna (Jude’s favorite meal)

Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing (did not get to this last week)

Friday: Roast Chicken with Broccoli and Herb Drop Biscuits (hopefully this biscuit recipe will be up in the next few days)

OUR GLUTEN FREE MENUS

Gluten Free Cooking School has her vegan gluten free menu up. She is following a vegan lifestyle in order to lose weight and have more energy. I like the sound of her white bean burgers!

Cooking, Illustrated is trying some of Martha Stewart’s recipes this week in her gluten free menu. She is posting a recipe for smothered rice later in the week that sounds delicious.

Gluten Free Goodness is making salmon and a good-looking recipe for veggies with brazil nut butter sauce this week. Her menu looks just delicious!

Book of Yum has a super cute new blog design and a scrumptious looking corn flour pizza in her gluten free menu post!

Everyday GF has a yummy Mexican Lasagna and the classic Oven Fried Chicken on her menu this week.

Ginger Lemon Girl has some excellent menu suggestions too! She is hosting the Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free Event this month. The theme is one pot meals.

Asparagus Thin has an inspiring menu. I love looking at her recipe ideas- she is making a teff porridge this week which sounds very nutritious!

Esther at Lilac Kitchen has a menu for her busy week. Gluten Free fish sticks sound really good!

Fresh Ginger has her menu up! Those cabbage rolls sure sound good.

Aprovechar has a healthy gluten free menu up too! A great menu for such a busy week.

Cooking and Uncooking has her menu up! The cucumber sandwich sounds great.

Karen at Gluten Free Sox has a delicious menu too. She is making General Tso’s chicken!

Monday Mommy Brag:

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Posted on June 2nd, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: gluten free menu | 7 Comments »

Lemon Opera Cake

After seeing how much fun my fellow Gluten Free Bloggers were having with the Daring Bakers Challenges, I decided to join in the fun. And boy do they mean business when they say Daring! May’s challenge was to make an Opera Cake. When I read the ingredient list, the supply list, and scrolled down the list of instructions I knew I was in for quite an afternoon.

The Opera cake recipe is based on the Opera cake recipes in Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets and Timothy Moriarity’s Chocolate Passion.

The recipe itself was not hard to make gluten free. The joconde (cake layer) was already made primarily of nut meal and had tons of eggs, so I figured it would make a great gluten free cake. I chose millet flour and sweet rice flour to substitute for the 1/2 cup flour called for in the joconde (cake layer). I also added 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum.

Since we could personalize our Opera Cake, I chose to make mine lemon flavored. My only other problem was the jelly roll pan size. I did not have the right size nor could I find the right size (at two stores). I opted to make my joconde in one 12 x 17 jelly roll pan and bake the leftover batter in a smaller pan so I could taste the results before assembling the entire cake. I baked my cake layer at 400 degrees because of this change. This meant I had to make 2 squares and 2 rectangle cuts from the one jelly roll pan, which resulted in a cake that was half the size (still serves about 10, so I was glad it worked out this way). This actually made the cake easier to handle/transport because the layers were smaller. The cake actually wasn’t that hard to make, but the steps and bowls required were a little daunting. I really enjoyed this cake, but the white chocolate is sweet (although delicious). I think I will stick to the darker flavors next time, but there will definitely be a next time. I think an Opera Cake makes a wonderful gluten free cake! Next time I will work on making it look like a fancy Opera Cake. I think it will be easier with darker flavors and a more experienced baker (me)! I should have piled on more butter cream frosting between the layers. I need to get better at this food styling thing! Check out the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll for more Opera Cakes that look even fancier than mine. It is easy to swap out the flour (my recommendation is 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum), so go check out the flavor variations!

Lemon Opera Cake

Joconde (Cake Layer)

6 large egg whites, at room temperature

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 cups almond meal/flour

2 cups icing sugar, sifted

6 large eggs (Note: You will need a total of 12 eggs but you will not use 6 of the egg yolks)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons millet flour

2 Tablespoons sweet rice flour

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12 x 17 jelly roll pan (remember I had to change pan sizes from original recipe). You can also line with parchment paper but I did not have any handy. I also greased a small cake pan to pour the extra batter because of my pan dilemma. In your stand mixer (with whisk attachment), beat egg whites until soft peaks form and add the 2 Tablespoons sugar. Beat until stiff and shiny. If you don’t have another bowl for your stand mixer, pour egg mixture into separate bowl and clean for the next step. Fit your stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix the 6 whole eggs, powdered sugar, and almond meal together for about 3 minutes. Once fluffy, add your flours and xanthan gum. Combine but do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula gently fold in the egg mixture and stir in the melted butter. Pour most of the batter into the jelly roll pan (3/4 full) and pour remaining batter into a small cakepan. I used the joconde from the small cake pan as a taste test because I did not want to continue with the recipe if I did not like the results of the cake. However, the cake tasted great so I moved on. Bake for about 10-14 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. Loosen the edges and unmold on a piece of parchment paper. Let cakes cool to room temperature.

Lemon Syrup

½ cup water

⅓ cup granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let the syrup cool to room temperature.

Lemon Butter Cream Frosting

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup water

seeds of one vanilla bean (split a vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the seeds) or 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1¾ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Combine the sugar, water and vanilla and lemon extracts in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat just until the sugar dissolves.
Cook the syrup until the syrup reaches 225^◦F on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Once it reaches 225 degrees, remove the syrup from the heat.

While the syrup is heating, begin whisking the egg and egg yolk at high speed in the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment. Whisk them until they are pale and foamy.

Reduce the mixer speed to low speed and begin slowly pouring the syrup into the egg mixture- be careful not to get any of the syrup on the sides of the mixer bowl. Some of the syrup will spin onto the sides of the bowl but don’t worry about this and don’t try to stir it into the mixture as it will harden!
Raise the speed to medium-high and continue beating until the egg mixture is thick and the mixture is cool to the touch. This will take about 5 minutes.

While you are waiting on the egg mixture to thicken, mash the softened butter in a bowl with a fork. Once the egg mixture becomes thick, add the butter in small chunks until is all incorporated. The buttercream mixture will be thick and shiny at this point.
Mix in 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice and 1 Tablespoon lemon zest and beat for an additional minute or so.

Refrigerate the buttercream. Go back and stir it occasionally until it is firm enough to be spread on the cake- this will take about 30 minutes. Note: You can not use salted butter in this recipe!

Lemon White Chocolate Mousse

7 ounces white chocolate

1 cup plus 3 tbsp. heavy cream

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Melt the white chocolate and the 3 tbsp. of heavy cream over a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Add the lemon juice and combine. Set aside to cool completely. In the bowl of a stand mixer (you have to wash this like 3 times), whip the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate. If it’s too thin, refrigerate it for a bit until it’s spreadable. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.

This was my favorite part of the whole recipe so don’t skip it!

White Chocolate Glaze

14 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS:
Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream in a double boiler. Stir the mixture gently with a spatula until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled opera cake. Using a long cake cake spatula/frosting spreader, smooth the glaze into an even layer. Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

ASSEMBLY:

Cut your joconde into four layers. In order to do this, I placed a piece of wax paper over the joconde layer. I measured the width of the cake with a ruler and marked the half way point. I took this measurement and marked it on the halfway point on the length side. I drew lines outlining my 2 rectangular and 2 square pieces and then cut them. Place one square of cake on your cake plate and moisten it gently with the flavoured syrup. Spread buttercream frosting over this layer. Top with the two rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square. Also Moisten these pieces with the flavoured syrup. Spread more buttercream frosting on this layer and then top with the third square of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour). Do not add buttercream to this layer- this is where the mousse will go.

Spread the mousse over the top layer once the cake is firm. Refrigerate for at least two to three hours so the mousse will set.

Make the glaze right before you finish the cake. After the glaze has cooled, pour/spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze.

Serve the cake slightly chilled. This recipe will yield approximately 10 servings.

Candied Lemon Peels for Garnish

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