Ratio Rally Cookies

A few weeks ago, my mother and I were discussing what cookies I could make for the cookie walk at our church's Snowflake Jubilee. I have made cookies for this event every year (this is the fourth year), and they rarely sell. Mom suggested a festive shortbread of some sort as she didn't have any shortbread yet. I do love shortbread, and needed something to play with for the ratio rally so I dove in.

The first batch was a by the book (Ratios) ratio of 3:2:1 (flour:fat:sugar) for a chocolate shortbread that was good, but not quite the flakiness that I look for in a shortbread cookie. Mom suggested increasing the butter/fat, and she was right. The new ratio was 3:3:1, and it makes the most heavenly cookie. So heavenly it shouldn't be in my house as I can't resist.

For more recipes from this month's Gluten Free Ratio Rally please go check out Caroline of The G-Spot.

Candy Cane Shortbread

60 grams coconut flour

60 grams white rice flour

30 grams arrowroot starch

60 grams powdered sugar

6 ounces butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease a 8x8 or 9x9 with cooking spray. Set aside. In your large mixing bowl (I used a stand mixer), combine flours and sugar. Keep the beater running on low while adding the butter a bit at a time. This is similar to how I make scones. Your batter should look like this....

Pat the batter down in the pan with your hands. It should be as even a thickness as you can manage. Bake for 20-25 minutes. The edges should be starting to turn brown. Don't worry that the dough feels a bit soft to the touch. It will be okay.

Candy Cane "Frosting"

3/4 Cup Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips

Dump on top of the warm shortbread, and let sit for about 5 minutes. Taking a knife or spatula spread the chips out until they make a lovely variegated frosting.

Let cool for another 15 minutes. Cut into 16 pieces of roughly the same size. Don't eat them all at once!

Ratio Rally Dessert Pizza

When I realized that this month's rally was pizza, I knew that it would be the perfect opportunity to try out an idea the Monkey and I had been cooking up for his birthday in November. He heard about dessert pizza's back in July, and nothing would be more perfect in his mind than to have English muffin pizza's for his birthday dinner followed by a dessert pizza (and cake).

So in to the fray with a couple of different ratios I went, and finally went with the one that worked for Jenn of Jenn Cuisine. Of course I scaled it down for me since I was just feeding the Monkey and I. Jenn's ratio was 10:1:4 (flour:oil: water). I broke it down to the base of 1=50 grams, and worked up from there. Don't ask me to figure the exact ratio right now. It has been an amazingly busy month already, and my brain hurts. Maybe I will ask the math nerd, i.e. the Monkey, tomorrow. Until then, remember that 1=50 grams, and you should be able to tweak to your hearts content.

For the rest of the delicious pizza's, please go and check out our host for this month Karen Robertson at Cooking Gluten Free.

Chocolate Pizza Crust (use at your own risk!)

100 grams white rice flour

100 grams sorghum flour

100 grams tapioca starch

1 Tablespoon cocoa powder

1 Tablespoon coconut palm sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 ounces coconut oil, melted

4 ounces water

Weigh out flours and dump in mixing bowl. Add cocoa, cinnamon and sugar. Mix together. Add oil and water. Mix until combined. Divide in half. Press into oblong boat shape making sure there is a lip on the side. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Let cool and fill.

Note: Honestly, I think I over cooked the crust (note: 20-25 minutes is to long), and it is very shatter proof. Tasty, but hard on the teeth. Also, did it need yeast? I opted for no yeast, being a dessert pizza. Now I am not so sure, and I am out of time. Anybody want to take a run at it and get back to me?! :)

Ideas for fillings (garnered from friends and Facebook page): Fresh berries, berry sauce with a cobbler topping; Reese's using a combination of almond butter, chocolate peanut butter and chopped nuts; Lemon-Cream cheese custard with fresh sliced fruit; Custard, chocolate chips, apple pie filling and chocolate sauce (today's entry and the Monkey's concept).

Apple Pie Filling

2 apples

1/2 Cup sugar

1/4 Cup tapioca starch

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Dump everything in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, stir constantly for 2-3 minutes or until filling thickens. Cool.

Ratio Rally Fritters

Or something like that! There was some discussion about what ratio to use for this month's rally. Do we do yeast-raised donuts or cake doughnuts/fritters? The group decision was to leave it open and see what everyone came up with. I went with fritters, in parts as yeast-raised anything scares me a bit. Going to have to bite the bullet soon, but with everything that was going on in August I opted for something a little less difficult for me.

I have been playing with donuts off and on since January, but think they will be getting an overhaul now that I have this ratio thing under control. The ratio for fritters from Rhulman is 2:2:1 (flour:liquid:egg). I decided to go with the lovely apricot again this month. We both love them, and they were an unusual addition to a fritter. Now, I might have gone overboard with the fruit. I don't think that the traditional doughnut shop apple fritter ever has enough fruit in them. These are loaded. Reduce as you will the amount of fruit! :)

This month's rally is hosted by Meg at the Gluten Free Boulangerie. You can find all of this month's fabulous doughnuts there. For a little background on the rally, see the inaugural month at the Gluten Free Girl on pancakes!

Apricot Fritters

20 grams potato starch

40 grams white rice flour

60 grams sorghum flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

40 grams turbinado sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

4 ounces non-dairy milk

1 egg (equivalent of 2 ounces)

2 small apricots

In a small pan, place the apricots in about an inch of water. Bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes. Turn them over half way through. Remove from pan to cool. Peel and dice the apricots. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon. Whisk together. Set aside. In a glass measuring cup, measure out the milk and egg. Whisk together. Add to dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in apricots.

Bring your favored oil (I used canola) to about 300 degrees. I can't tell you how much oil, because I just dumped. Drop by rounded tablespoon or small cookie scoop into the oil two at a time. Turn once as it gets golden on each side. Serve warm dusted with powdered sugar. Ah, heck. Serve cold dusted with powdered sugar.

Ratio Rally Cake

It is that time again! A fabulous group of bloggers taking on the world of ratios, specifically cake! Rhulman's ratio for a sponge cake is fairly basic 1:1:1:1 (egg, sugar, flour, butter). Mine came out almost exactly that ratio! If you want to see other cakes, and I know you do, click on the Rally button above. :)

I started with this recipe from Gingerlemongirl as the push for my cake. Oh, heck. The real impetus as usual was the Monkey. He wanted something with apricots and blueberries. As usual, I tried to oblige him.

In playing with ideas, I decided to keep it sort of white and added in some of my favored coconut flour. I can't seem to stop myself. I created a peach-apricot filling as the peaches were going bad. I am now wondering if it wouldn't be better incorporated into the cake, and then drizzled over the top of the frosting. I will, also, note that I used granulated sugar. Not my first choice, but my Whole Foods has stopped carrying my coconut palm sugar. And I wasn't feeling creative in the sweetener department.

White Cake

100 grams white rice flour

80 grams coconut flour

50 grams arrowroot starch

120 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon guar or xanthan gum

1/4 Cup coconut oil, melted

3/4 Cup + 3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk

2 medium eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 apricots

blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray angel food cake pan and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together coconut oil, milk, eggs and vanilla. In a medium bowl, pour each of the measure flours, baking powder, baking soda and gum. Pour slowly into wet mixture blending until just combined. Pour into prepared pan, and smooth out the top. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in pan.

Apricot-Peach Filling

2 medium peaches

2 small apricots

1/4 Cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon non-dairy milk

1 Tablespoon agave nectar

Boil peaches and apricots in water over medium heat. Let cool on cutting board. Remove peels and pits before placing in blender with powdered sugar, milk and agave nectar. Puree until combined and there are no chunks left. Place in an airtight container in the fridge overnight.

White Chocolate Buttercream

2 1/3 Cups powdered sugar

3-4 Tablespoons non-dairy milk

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter or non-dairy substitute

2/3 Cup white chocolate morsels

In a small bowl, melt chocolate and about 1/2 a Tablespoon of butter in the microwave for about a minute. Remove, stir, and microwave for another 30 seconds. Measure out 1 1/2 Cups powdered sugar in mixing bowl. Add white chocolate and butter. Mix well. Add milk a tablespoon at a time alternating with 1/4 Cups of powdered sugar. The frosting should be of a medium consistency.

Assemblage:

While still on the pan insert, slice cake horizontally. Remove top to paper towel and then place bottom on plate. Poke holes in the bottom with a fork. Spread apricot-peach filling over the bottom layer liberally. Let sit, and spread some more. Place top on, and begin frosting. Place your remaining 2 apricots, sliced thinly, in a pretty pattern on top of the cake leaving room for a small mound of blueberries around the mouth of the cake.

Remember since this is a buttercream with fresh fruit it should be refrigerated. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Mini-Donuts

So, I made something (for the life of me I can't remember what) recently, and put what was left of the canned pumpkin in a container in the fridge. I was looking for something to make for the monkey last week when I found the container again. Pulled it out, inspected the contents closely, and as it appeared everything was still good I started looking for a starting place for a pumpkin donut. I found this one at food.com, and started doing my figuring to convert it to a gluten free version.

Once I decided on ingredients and did my math (math is VERY important), I went to work. However, I couldn't seem to get anything done, because the Monkey and Boo were having constant meltdowns over the game they were playing on the Wii. It actually was so distracting that I forgot to put in the brown sugar, and didn't realize it until after I had the first batch out of the oven.

I remedied that oversight with some liquid stevia to the remaining batter before putting them in to bake, and starting on the lovely chocolate icing that had been the Monkey's request. Honestly, I liked them both with and without the stevia, but that might have been because of the frosting. The Monkey thought they were alright, but perhaps a bit spicy. The frosting got two thumbs up as anything chocolate always does.

Pumpkin Spice Mini-Donuts with Chocolate Icing

100 grams sorghum flour
80 grams white rice flour
60 grams tapioca starch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Cup pureed pumpkin (fresh or canned)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10-15 drops plain liquid stevia
2 eggs
1/4 Cup non-dairy milk (I used almond)
1/4 Cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flours, starch, baking powder, spices, and baking soda. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, stevia, eggs, milk and butter. Beat on low speed until completely mixed. Using a small cookie scoop, place rounded scoops in your greased donut pan. The batter is thick so you will need to kind of mush them down into the pan. Not pretty, but effective. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to the cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Makes about 2 dozen mini-donuts.
Chocolate Icing

2 Tablespoons butter
4 ounces baking chocolate (you choose your poison!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 Cup non-dairy milk (again I used almond)
2/3-1 Cup powdered sugar

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt the chocolate and butter together. Once melted remove from heat and add vanilla and powdered sugar a 1/3 Cup at a time. Stir constantly to remove lumps and fully incorporate. Icing should be thin enough for pouring, but not to thin. Using a spoon, drizzle/pour/slather the donuts on the wire rack over a piece of waxed paper with the icing. Let cool and enjoy!

Check out more fun recipes at Sweet Tooth Friday hosted by Alli-n-Son!

Pineapple Crinkles

I picked up a tiny cookie cookbook at the Catholic Church yard sale this past year. I was excited about the possibilities of making "old fashioned" cookies! It is a Spry cookbook from 1953. What is Spry? I didn't know either. :) Apparently Spry was created to be competition for Crisco, and did fairly well. (Read more about it here.) After the monkey's diagnosis, I was excited to think that we could do a number of different cookie conversions.


The cookies that caught my eye were the Pineapple Crinkles as the monkey and I are big fans of pineapple, and I used to make this luscious little confection with pineapple that I wanted to recreate. I thought about the variety of ways I could alter them, and decided on a basic flour mix and a replacement of the Spry with butter. Then the SOS Kitchen Challenge January ingredient was posted, which is coconut oil. I thought, "Hey, I could replace the Spry with coconut oil."


It was a really great idea. The dough turned out lovely, and smelled great cooking up in the oven. I was so excited to taste them that I burned my tongue on one right out of the oven. The downside is that they aren't really all that pineappley even with the glaze of powdered sugar and pineapple juice that I added. That said, I think we will just go with Crinkle Cake Cookies as the name to avoid the wish for a strong pineapple flavor. I am going to keep working on a real pineapple cookie.


Crinkle Cake Cookies

1/2 Cup coconut oil
120 grams coconut palm sugar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon orange peel, fresh or dried
1 egg or the equivalent egg substitute
1/2 Cup crushed pineapple, drained & reserved
110 grams sorghum flour
30 grams tapioca starch
30 grams arrowroot starch
60 grams white rice flour
1/2 Teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda

Combine coconut oil, palm sugar, salt, orange peel, and egg or egg equivalent in large mixing bowl. Beat thoroughly. Add crushed pineapple, and mix until just combined. In a medium bowl, combine all flours, starches, xanthan gum, baking powder, and baking soda. Pour a bit at a time into the wet mixture until completely combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls (I like my Pampered Chef small scoop) on a greased cooking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to a wire rack over waxed paper for cooling. Pour glaze by tablespoons over the cookies while still a bit warm. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Glaze (optional): In small bowl combine 1 Cup powdered sugar and 4-6 teaspoons reserved pineapple juice. Drizzle over cookies.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Fancies

So, I had this recipe that I had cut out of a magazine for Pumpkin Oatmeal cookies. What magazine? I have no idea as it was at least 6 years ago that I cut it out thinking that they would be fun to make. I found the recipe again when I was looking for something else to make for the monkey, and use up the pumpkin we had around. The first time around I did them with Jules Gluten Free flour for the Gluten-Free Cookie Swap on Facebook. They were good, but unfortunately we can't use the flour blend regularly as it has cornstarch in it (corn being one of the monkey's allergens). So, I started thinking of what I could do flour wise, and came up with this variation. They are a bit softer a cookie than I like, but I know I am in the minority on liking super crisp cookies.

Please note: I am looking for a fun name for these cookies. Some have been suggested but nothing that really strikes me. Feel free to suggest in the comments section.


Pumpkin Oatmeal Fancies

4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
100 grams brown sugar
50 grams turbinado sugar
4 ounces fresh or canned pureed pumpkin
1 egg (or egg equivalent)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
50 grams sorghum flour
40 grams white rice flour
30 grams almond meal
40 grams arrowroot starch
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground all spice
100 grams rolled oats

dried cranberries, handful or so
Enjoy Life chocolate chips, handful or so


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together butter and sugars. Add pumpkin, egg/egg equivalent and vanilla. Beat until combined. Mix in flour, baking soda and spices. Stir in oats, and cranberries and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (I like my Pampered Chef small scoop) on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 6 minutes, then flatten a bit, and bake for 6 more minutes. Let cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

P.S. Go check out loads of gluten free desserts at A Gluten Free Holiday!