Against the Grain

Ok, I just have to comment on a great store for anyone that has Celiac. Against the Grain is located in the Salt Lake area. A great store / resource for anyone that has issues with wheat. Everything in the store is 100% gluten free. They have isles of food, freezers full of things and even fresh bread that gets brought in every week from a Gluten Free facility (this is great bread). Every time my family makes it down to Utah they ALWAYS have to stop. They even have fresh sugar cookies - cakes - and pies all year long. Check them out. If you are not in the Salt Lake, Utah area they will ship your order directly to your door.

Betty Crocker.... Gluten Free?

What is that? Have you heard? Betty Crocker now has a gluten free line. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! After I heard I had to go and give them a try. We bought one of everything we could find. So we got her brownie mix which was very good (quite possibly my favorite) we also purchased the cookies which were great!!! I did add some more chocolate chips (because you can never have enough chocolate) and this last weekend we tired her Chocolate Cake which turned out very nicely. The only one that I have not made yet is the white cake. They did not have it at the store when I was there. And the best part about it is that you can buy it at Wal-Mart.
I was very excited (if you cant tell).
I have added some links below so you can see the box's. I'm our Wal-Mart we found the Gluten Free Betty Crocker boxes next to the frosting's and cake decorations.
Go give it a try. You wont be disappointed.

Another Great Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookie

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup gluten free flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375ºF (175ºC).
Line a cookie sheet or two with parchment.
Cream butter and sugars until creamy, then add egg and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Add Peanut butter and continue to beat until combined.
Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir to combine.
Add chips and stir again.
Drop small spoonfuls of dough onto parchment (you should get a dozen per sheet).
Bake 12 minutes or until just golden.
Remove from oven and allow to rest on the sheet 1 minute before removing with a spatula.

Gluten-Free Multigrain Miracle Bread

This bread is amazing. I can't take full credit - It's based on a recipe by a woman named Laurie on the Celiac.com forums and revised by a family friend.

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup amaranth flour

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup cornstarch or arrowroot

1/4 cup flax seed meal (ground flax seeds)

3 teaspoons xanthan gum

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1 cup water , room temperature

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F.

2. Sift the flours, yeast and all other dry ingredients together into a medium bowl. Stir in flax meal and combine.

3. Combine the wet ingredients in a separate large bowl using a hand-mixer on low or medium speed. When fully combined, slowly add dry ingredient mixture and mix until fully blended, with no lumps. Scrape the sides regularly.

4. Grease a 9x5" bread pan, and pour the dough into the pan. Turn off the oven and immediately place the pan in it. Do not open the door again, if possible. Allow the dough to rise for 90 minutes. It should rise to the very top of the pan.

5. Increase heat to 350F and bake for approximately 40 minutes. The crust should be golden-brown. Allow to cool slightly before removing it from the pan to finish cooling. Do not slice until the bread is no longer hot.

6. This loaf does not need to be frozen, but if there are leftovers after a few days, place slices in airtight bags and freeze.

Wonderful Gluten Free Carrot Cake

Gluten Free Carrot Cake
We just love this carrot cake. Feel free to play around with it, if you have a particular recipie you really like adapt it to be gluten free.

2 cups flour
(we really like the gluten - free Featherlite Rice Flour All Purpose Bake Mix, others have their favorite, whatever you like best will work just fine. depending on what flour you use you may want to add 1/4 cup more flour than what is called for just to compensate. Either way it wont make much of a difference. I acctuall used 2 1/4 cups of this featherlite flour)

2 cups Sugar
2 tsp. Soda
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 cups oil
(I usually substitute half of the oil for applesauce, all that matters is that you have a total of 1.5 cups of oil and applesauce combined)
4 Eggs
3 cups Grated Carrots
Nuts (if desired)

Mix the dry ingredient; add oil and stir well. Add eggs, one at a time, then add carrots. Bake aat 350 degrees for 50 minutes in a 9x13 inch pan.

Frosting for Carrot Cake
(This is my favorite frosting, if you have one you like better use it)

1 (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 cube butter or margarine softened
1 tsp. vanilla
Powdered Sugar (add enough powdered sugar untill you get the right consistance. Start with 1.5 cups and add more as needed)
1 cup of nuts (optional)

After the cake has cooled completely spread the frosting and enjoy!!!

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Cup Butter (softened)
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 1/2 cups Rice Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Xanthan Gum
1 tsp. Salt
1 Cup (give or take) Your choice of Chocolate Chips, Butterscotch Chips, Reese's Pieces or whatever you like in your chocolate chip cookies.

Preheat oven to 350
Whip all wet ingredients until fluffy
In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients
Combine wet and dry ingredients.
With a cookie scoop place dough on a cookie sheet.
DO NOT SPRAY THE PAN (your cookies will not hold their shape)
Bake for 9-11 min. take out when cookies are just starting to get light brown. They may not seem all they way done but you do not want to over cook them. they will become very crunchy if you do.
Let sit on pan for five min then move to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!!!

Gluten-free Calzones

• 1 1/2 cups warm water

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons fast-rise yeast

• 2 cups white rice flour

• 1 cup tapioca flour

• 3 teaspoons xanthan gum

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 egg whites, beaten slightly

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vinegar

Dissolve sugar in water and add yeast. It will foam. Mix other dry ingredients. Add yeast mixture and blend. Add eggs, butter and dough enhancer. Beat on high 3 minutes.

Use plastic wrap to help form pizza-crust shape. Place half of dough on cookie sheet, leaving other half with plastic wrap to fold over later. Place ingredients such as cheese, Canadian bacon, bell pepper, onion, olives, etc., onto half of dough. Fold other half over. It makes four calzones depending on their size. Let rise 20-30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, until golden brown.

Cook's notes: This dough recipe also bakes well as French bread, pull-apart cinnamon bread, etc.

-- Dough recipe adapted from GlutenFreeGirl at RecipeZaar.com.