Christmas Foods

So, I have been plenty busy with baking and cooking this past few days as most of our family's traditional Christmas Eve/morning foods are not naturally gluten free or any other sort of free. This was our first year with someone in the family who has food allergies. I talked with the monkey and he decided that a french toast bake with blueberries and cranberries would be great for the morning. So, I made bread from a recipe by Carrie at gingerlemongirl to be our base.


It wasn't an all out success for me, but I have a good idea where I went a bit wrong. It was good enough for making the french toast bake, which turned out good. No recipe yet as I want to make some changes to the bake itself. The sauce however is beautiful all on its own, and I recommend heading to Simply Sugar & Gluten Free for the Cranberry-Clementine Sauce that was poured over the top.


The three of us (myself, monkey & boo, my nephew) made gluten free chocolate chip cookies to put out for Santa on Christmas Eve. We were going to do them in the monkey's new Easy Bake oven, but we had some issues so into the oven they went!

Boo

Monkey

I offered to provide dessert for Christmas Eve dinner, but what I had planned was made a bit tricky by the fact that I had to make cherry pie filling. Did you know that cherry pie filling had cornstarch in it? Now, I had no idea how they made it, but I don't think that corn ever occurred to me. I have discovered that pie filling and pudding may not be something I can make on a regular basis or at all like my lamented lack of talent in candy making. Sigh. Still it was tasty, and I will be eating on it for breakfast for the next couple of days.

Aloha Cake
(original recipe from an old church cookbook that called for the use of Oleo!)

Double batch (or two cans) of cherry pie filling
2 cans pineapple chunks, drained
1 recipe Homemade Gluten Free Cake Mix from gingerlemongirl
1/4 Cup unsalted butter
1/4 Cup chopped pecans, optional

My method of pie filling derived from the above linked recipe:
1. Place 2 cans of drained cherries in a pan with 3/4 Cup sugar, 1/3 Cup tapioca starch and 2 Tablespoons lemon juice.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Reduce heat to a simmer, and continue stirring until thickened.
4. Remove from heat and cool.

Assembling the dump cake:

1. Drain cans of pineapple leaving just a bit of juice in them. Pour into an 8x8 pan, and spread evenly.
2. Pour the cherry pie filling over the top, and spread evenly.
3. Dump the cake mix over the pineapple and cherries.
4. Cut butter into small pieces and place all over the top. The 1/4 Cup is an approximate. Feel free to use up to a 1/3 Cup. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the top.
5. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 30-40 minutes. Butter should be melted, the top should be cooked (no stray flour powder), and the cherry should be bubbling. Serve warm.