Apple Cider Doughnuts

This spring I was a tester for a gluten free recipe book, I'm even listed in the acknowledgments.  One of the items I made was struffoli which involved deep frying marble sized dough balls that are then piled up with a honey glaze drizzled over all of them.  Since I only did one test of the frying the oil was still "clean" and I stuck it in the freezer to make doughnuts some other time.

Now that we are moving it is time to clear out the freezer.  I decided, instead of throwing away this oil, I would make those doughnuts I had been planning for half the year.  I happened to purchase some apple cider and wanted a fun way to use it.  I did a Pinterest search for apple cider doughnuts and reviewed my previous gluten free doughnut pins.  Then I made a conglomerate recipe that I adapted to be gluten free.  Does that make it my own recipe?  I cooked them two ways.

Baked in my mini doughnut maker.

and fried in my defrosted oil.

Apple Cider Doughnuts

Ingredients

1 cup apple cider

1 cup rice flour

3/4 cups glutonous rice flour

1/2 cup potato starch

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

6 Tbs melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup greek yogurt

1 finely diced small apple

Directions

Reduce apple cider to a syrup, roughly a 1/4 cup and let cool.  Stir together the dry ingredients.  Whisk butter sugar and egg.  Dump egg mixture, yogurt and apple in the middle of the dry ingredients and slowly bring together.  Knead the dough a bit.

Using a small cookie scoop, divide dough.  I was able to make 33 balls.  Fry for 4 minutes in 150-170° oil or bake for 5 minutes in doughnut maker.  Either one, you are trying to get a dark golden colour.

I glazed mine with a 1 cup powdered sugar/3 Tbs apple cider mix.

While both versions were very yummy, we all agreed that the fried doughnut holes were the best.

Brownie Batter Ice Cream

For months after I received my ice cream maker I attempted to make Brownie Batter Ice Cream.  I would make a batch of brownie batter from the Brownie Lady/Sacrament Brownies recipe we have.  I would make different modifications, omitting the marshmallows, baking powder, eggs, replacing the eggs, etc.  I adjusted the ratio of batter to ice cream base (baking the leftovers for brownies that were sometimes used as a mix-in for a brownie batter/brownie chunk ice cream).  All iterations resulted in yummy, chocolaty ice cream, but not THE brownie batter ice cream I was envisioning.

In March I pinned a recipe for brownie batter ice cream that simply used brownie mix -  DRY and added cocoa powder.  This was a novel concept to me, and exciting.  Except, I had moved on to other delicious ice cream creations.  I will share my Al-Mound of Ice Cream Joy recipe.  With Lex's corn intolerance I had also been on the hunt for a new brownie recipe (we have found two).  Until now.  This week I made my own version of brownie batter ice cream.  It was spot on to my imaginings and I had to stop myself from eating eat out of the ice cream maker to save for tonight.  I knew I needed to write this down before I lost my page of scribbled starting points, adjustments, ratios, etc or simply forgot what I did with all those numbers, especially the parts that weren't written down.

Brownie Batter Ice Cream

Ingredients
Base
1 (14 oz) can of coconut milk (we use GoldenStar brand)
1/4 tsp salt
3 egg yolks
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 oz dark chocolate (we use bittersweet chips from Ghirardelli)
1 tsp vanilla

Dry Mix
2 1/2 Tbs rice flour
1 Tbs potato starch
1/2 Tbs tapioca starch
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cocoa nibs

Directions
Heat coconut milk and salt in a double boiler.  Put chocolate and vanilla in a separate bowl.  In another bowl, whisk together egg yolks and brown sugar.  Temper egg mixture with heated coconut milk (150-160°) then add to the double boiler.  As mixture reaches 160°, stir for 2 minutes.  Pour thru strainer into bowl with the chocolate and vanilla.  Stir to melt chocolate and combine.  Allow mixture to cool in refrigerator overnight.

Grind cocoa nibs to powder.  Mix together all dry ingredients with whisk.  Churn ice cream mixture and dry mix in the ice cream maker.  Try not to eat it all as you transfer it to a container for the freezer.

Scharffen Berger

Lately, Paul and I have noticed that our tastes in chocolate have changed.  The easiest way to describe this change?  The darker the better.  Paul would pick up a bar of darker chocolate every few weeks until one day, while enjoying a Lindt 90% Cocoa Bar, we discussed how disappointed we were whenever we splurged on a normal candy bar.

According to The Pioneer Woman, and her Great Baking Chocolate Debate, Scharffen Berger is THE best chocolate to use when baking.  While Paul was in PA doing some training he ran across some Scharffen Berger at the local grocery store.  Wanting to be a good husband, and not having much luck on the Penguins memorabilia front, he picked up a few bars for me.

The Nibby Bar.

Semi-sweet chocolate with crunchy, toasted cocao beans (nibs).  This was nibbled over the course of two weeks while we debated the best way to use our other bars.  Each taste reminded me that whatever I made with the others, it would be sublime.

70% Bittersweet Chocolate

I made gourmet chocolate ice-cream.

14 oz can Coconut Milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 Cup Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
3 oz bar Scharffen Berger 70% Bittersweet Chocolate
1 tsp Vanilla

Combine milk and salt in double boiler to 170°.  Whisk together sugar and egg yolks.  Temper with coconut milk.  Return to double boiler for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  In a bowl break up chocolate bar (snag a piece to taste) and add vanilla.  Strain custard mixture into chocolate.  Stir 'til combined, and cool overnight in fridge.  Then freeze in the ice-cream maker.  It is so thick, this only took 6 minutes.

Paul and I loved this ice-cream!  It was crazy thick.  But, because there was not enough time for the ice-cream maker to churn in some air, it didn't make "as much" and was gone very quickly, which made us wistful for more, except it was extremely rich and we probably couldn't have handled more if it had been available.

82% Extra Dark Chocolate

Today I am making ice-cream with the last bar.  I have doubled the recipe, except for the chocolate bar, since I only have the one.  I also added half of the sugar to the coconut milk in the boiler at from the start.

We recently found Scharffen Berger chocolate at Central Market.  We purchased the cocoa powder.  I will be making our "magic shell" recipe (at the bottom of the Peanut Butter Ice Cream post) using this.  Freezing it into a thin layer (on wax paper), I am going to break it up and add while churning, to make our ice-cream Double Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

Thanksgiving Dessert

I know, most people have pie, pie and more pie for dessert on Thanksgiving.  We are the Jensen Family.  There are only four of us eating.  We can't eat a lot of dessert, so we pick one dessert to have after our Thanksgiving Feast. The Head Baker of the Family is not a big pie fan.  We can't even buy a ready made pie to satisfy the big pie fan of the family.  Instead, we have adhered to an Onines Family Tradition and indulged in Pumpkin Cheesecake every year.  I now admit to adapting the recipe  many years ago, and not just to be gluten free.  But wait!  This year, The Head Baker of the Family cannot consume such large amounts of dairy (thanks to the beloved, new addition to the family).  Why would I spend the time and energy making a delicious treat that I cannot enjoy?

During Family Home Evening a few weeks ago, the whole family helped to make the menu for our Thanksgiving Feast.  Alayna requested carrot cupcakes.  The Head Baker of the Family is not a big fan of carrot cake either.  We have a recipe; I've made it; the family has enjoyed it.  I didn't want that as the finale to our Thanksgiving meal.  Luckily for Alayna, I had just read about a Brazilian carrot cake the day before.  She just needed to accept that it would not be in cupcake form.  When she saw the Bundt pan we would be using instead, she stopped pouting.

Bolo de cenoura
(from Glutenfearless)

Ingredients
Cake
1-1/3 C  Rice Flour
6 Tbs + 2 tsp Potato Starch
3 Tbs + 1 tsp Tapioca Starch
1Tbs + 1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1½ tsp Xanthan Gum
½ t. Cinnamon (optional)

3 C Carrots, grated (rougly 4 medium or 8 slender carrots)
3 Eggs
1 3/4 C Sugar
½ C Oil
1 tsp Vanilla

Glaze
2T cocoa powder
2T butter
5T milk
8T sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350° grease and flour a 10" Bundt pan
• In a bowl combine flours, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and cinnamon.
• In your blender purée remaining 5 ingredients until smooth.
• Pour the blender concoction into the dry ingredients and stir together until everything is well mixed and very orange.
• Pour cake batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 40-50 minutes.
• While still warm, invert the cake onto the serving platter.
• While stirring, gradually heat glaze ingredients in a small saucepan.  When the icing bubbles, keep stirring for another minute.  Pour hot glaze over the cake while the cake is warm.

Notes/Verdict  Boy, did we all enjoy this cake!  Moist, fluffy, sweet . . . and the glaze, Wow!  Not only is it yummy, it is fun to make . . . in the blender.  It went from layers of ingredients to this bright orange slurry.  It became a lovely orange batter when mixed into the flours.

Chocolate Waffle Pillows

This treat was the most anticipated recipe from the Mrs Fields book.  I think that is because my kids KNOW waffles.  We make waffles almost every week.  We use our waffles as sandwich bread almost every day.  Cavell calls them "Goggles."  By 'them' I am referring to the waffles AND the sandwiches.  I have recently convinced him that the meal is called lunch, NOT waffles.  Just yesterday while playing with Alayna, he named the puppet he was characterizing, Goggles . . . I mean Waffles.  The kids were extremely excited for Chocolate Waffle Pillows.

Chocolate Waffle Pillows
(adapted from Mrs. Fields Best Ever Cookie Book!)
yield 2 dozen

Ingredients
2/3 cup Rice Flour
3 Tbls Potato Starch
2 Tbls Tapioca Starch
1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 tsp salt (because I use unsalted butter)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 cup Sugar
2-1/2 Eggs*
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions

• Combine flours, xanthum gum, baking powder, cocoa and salt.  Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Slowly add flour mixture until just combined.
• Drop by rounded Tablespoons onto each section of a hot, greased waffle iron.  Cook approximately 1 minute (or more) and carefully transfer to a cooling rack.
• Serve with any yummy topping(s), like powdered sugar, cocoa powder, raspberries, or whipped cream.  We used chocolate syrup.

Notes/Verdict
Because I halved the recipe I needed 2-1/2 eggs.  I beat 5 eggs together, weighed them and used half for the waffles and half for an omelet in the morning.  I don't think they need as much xanthum gum as I used; they might even work with none.  I liked these better off of our small squared waffle iron than from our larger/deeper, not quite Belgian, waffle iron.

These were easy to make.  I feel bad that it took as long as it did to get around to making them.  The kids LOVED them.  Paul did not like them.  I thought they were fine.  I would describe them as a brownie that is almost on the fudge-y side, but isn't cake-y  This might be because they were thin.  They were a bit better as a warm dessert than as "cookies" in the cookie jar.  If the kids think to ask for these again I would be willing make them, but I would suggest other treats instead.  I might try "baking" a few other types of cookies this way, just to experiment.

Please, Sir, can I have s'mores?

Because the family is watching Oliver right now . . .

and we made S'MORES!!!

That's right, we made gluten free graham crackers. We followed this recipe*, but ours didn't turn out quite the same. I didn't get a dough ball; just a mixture the consistency of frosting. The first time I tried to roll it out. It didn't work. The "dough" was too thick, and we ended up with soft cookie bars that barely stayed together. But, they tasted good.

This time I "frosted" the whole pan instead of rolling it out. That seemed to work, we ended up with some nice graham crackers. Some where a little softer and some where a little more crisp (and cracked). All tasted good. So good that I had to rescue enough from snacking fingers in order to make the REAL treat.

Can you believe my children have NEVER had s'mores before?!? Alayna thought they were the BEST and wanted us to make them again tomorrow. That's a no-go. But we will have them again. and again . . .


* We will make a couple of changes if we use this recipe next time. First, we will replace 1/2 cup of the brown rice flour with almond flour. We did that this time and it was extra good. Then, to try and get a dough ball, we will only add 3 Tablespoons of the milk to start with. If we need more liquid we will just add a little more at a time. Otherwise I think we might try this recipe.

Good News on the Gluten Free Front!

Why, yes, that is a Betty Crocker box, bought at Albertson's, that says GLUTEN FREE!!

Yes, it is very thick.

And, yes, I do let my daughter lick the spoon.

This is the only picture of the finished product. We were going to take pictures of brownies being eaten, but we were too busy eating brownies. They were yummy! One would not guess that they were made with rice flour. I think we will keep a box on hand, but Paul still loves the previously posted Brownie Lady Brownies, and I have two or three other "from scratch" recipes I want to try adapting to gluten free.

We also purchased the Gluten Free versions of Devil's Food Cake, Yellow Cake, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. Alayna is also happy to note that they are all Box Tops for Education products.

Brownie Lady Brownies (good enough to eat in church!)

These are the BEST brownies in the world. At least I think so. Stacy found the recipe on an online discussion board. The story goes that a lady walked into church with a 9x13 pan of brownies and a knife. She sat down in the pew, cut the brownies, and proceeded to consume the entire tray by herself. Everybody watched this woman hoover the brownies but nobody was brave enough to ask her about the incident.

Sometime after the second time this happened with the same woman in the same chapel, one soul was brave enough to approach the Brownie Lady as she became known behind her back. Turns out that the Brownie Lady was a pregnant lady and was succumbing to cravings. Now these are the kind of cravings I can get behind! Obviously a recipe for brownies that cause cravings so severe as to break a pile of rules of etiquette needs to be shared. So the Brownie Lady shared her recipe and it has been passed around along with the legend until it arrived at our appreciative home.

After hearing the story I immediately decided that I wanted to eat those brownies but I also dismissed the idea just as quickly because brownies have wheat flour in them. And gluten free brownies usually taste terrible.

Until now. Since this brownie recipe only contained 1 1/2 cup of flour, Stacy decided to substitute with our mix of gluten free flours. I almost literally held my breath while this thing baked. And the fudgey yumminess that came out of that warm little box became my favorite brownie of all time. Even better than the good stuff I had eaten before the family went gluten-free.

Here's the recipe in all of it's glory:

Brownie Lady Brownies
(good enough to eat in church)

2/3 C Cocoa
2/3 C Shortening, Melted (Not butter flavored)
4 Eggs
2 C Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 C Flour (Gluten free mix below)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 1/2 C Miniature Marshmallows
1 C Chopped Nuts (we substitute chocolate chips here)

Mix cocoa and melted shortening in bowl. In seperate bowl beat eggs, sugar and vanilla. Add to cocoa mix. Add dry ingredients EXCLUDING marshmallows to cocoa mixture. Mix well. Stir in marshmallows. Pour into 9x13 pan and bake @ 350 for 25-35 minutes. Your fork or toothpick won't come out super clean because of the marshmallows.

Gluten Free Flour Substitution
1 1/2 C Flour =
1/2 C Rice flour
1/2 C Tapioca starch
1/2 C Corn starch
1 1/2 tsp potato flour (not starch)
3/4 tsp Xanthan gum

OK, so that' s a little more than 1 1/2 cups, but it works.


Once you have this recipe perfected, you can start to improvise. As good as the brownie is, I like to use it as a platform for flavor. These are great with ice cream, fudge, and caramel. I have made two 9" rounds and sandwiched a peanut butter and chocolate filling between them making an incredibly huge Reese's Peanut Butter Cup concoction that is still referred to at work.

Oh the things you can do!