Gluten Free Cranberry Orange Loaf

This loaf is good. This loaf is so good, my gluten-eating family devours it, even though it is gluten free. The tartness of the fresh cranberries, the crunch of the pecans, and the fantastic orange flavour that comes through, should definitely send you to the supermarket to get the ingredients. You will not be disappointed! I haven't tried making these into muffins yet, but I think they'd work well for that too.

Source: Based on a recipe from AllRecipes
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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups featherlight flour mix (see note)
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp grated orange zest (I did from one orange)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup orange juice

For Glaze (optional):

• Zest of 1/2 orange
• 2-3 Tbsp orange juice
• enough icing sugar to make a slightly thick pourable icing

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour (with sweet rice flour) a 9x5 loaf pan.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in orange zest, cranberries and pecans. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in orange juice. Beat in flour mixture until just moistened. Pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 50-60 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bread springs back when lightly touched. Let stand 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire cooling rack.
5. Once cooled, top with the glaze (optional), let dry, and wrap in plastic wrap.

NOTE: The featherlight flour mix that I use is from Bette Hagman. It is as follows: 3 cups rice flour, 3 cups tapioca starch, 3 cups cornstarch, 3 Tbsp potato flour.

Gluten Free Onion Rings

Onion rings and I go way back. I remember being a small child in the backseat of my parents lime green 2-door Nova, sitting on the parking lot of the A&W, waiting for the carhops to bring our food. I always had onion rings & a small rootbeer. I remember my brother telling me that onion rings had onions in them. No...no they didn't. I like onion rings, but I hate onions. They can't have onions in them.

Well, 25+ years later I'll admit it...onion rings do indeed have onions in them. :) The smell of onion rings frying as you walk past the fast food joints calls you in. Nothing smells as good frying as onions. But, since celiacs has made it's appearance, the kids are enjoying the onion rings, and Mom's always got to pass them by. So, the challenge was posed...I would make my own onion rings at home! These were really delicious, and after doing a taste test with white, yellow & red onions, our family agreed...yellow was the way to go. These onion rings are really great right out of the fryer, but for some reason, they get soggier when you have them in the oven for too long. So, it's best to eat them right away. :)

Source: Based on a recipe from Recipezaar
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Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup Bette Hagman pizza/french flour mix (see note; I'm sure any other gluten free "all purpose" flour mix would work well too)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 large yellow onions, sliced & separated into rings
• 1/2 cup gf flour (for coating onions)
• oil (for frying; we use canola oil)

Directions:

1. Mix egg, oil, and milk on low speed of mixer for 1 minute.
2. Add dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
3. Coat onions in flour.
4. Dip in batter.
5. Fry in hot oil (375 degrees, at least 1-inch deep) until desired shade of brown.

Note: Bette Hagman's French Bread/Pizza Mix is as follows (for 6 cups)
3 1/2 cups white rice flour
2 1/2 cups tapioca starch
2 Tbsp Xanthan gum
2 (7-gram) packets unflavoured gelatin
2 Tbsp egg replacer
1/4 cup sugar

Crustless Pumpkin Pie

I've never been a fan of pie. Well, it ends up, I've never been a fan of pie crust. This crustless pumpkin pie is gluten free, and will be loved by both "gluten-eaters" and those of us that eat gluten free. This pie was very flavourful, simple to make, moist, and yet held it's shape well enough, you'd think there was a crust under there. :)

Source: Based on recipes from Recipezaar and Gluten Free Goddess
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Ingredients:

• 15 ounce can pumpkin (or fresh cooked equivalent)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 2 Tbsp tapioca starch
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 well beaten eggs
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk (see note)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a pie plate (I use a 9 1/2-inch Pyrex pie plate) with some oil.
3. Combine all ingredients & mix until well combined.
4. Pour into prepared pie plate, and bake in preheated oven for 60-70 minutes. The pie is done when a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
5. Top with desired topping (real whipped cream at our house).

NOTE: I did not have any evaporated milk on hand, so I mixed 1/3 cup dry milk powder with 3/8 cup water. This yields 1/2 cup.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Canadian readers! I hope you guys are all having a fantastic weekend with friends, family & of course...food. ;)

We had a gathering yesterday,and I brought this gluten-free pumpkin roll for one of the desserts (sorry for the poor picture, that's what happens when you try to get a picture before everyone eats it). :) Everyone really liked it, and the taste & texture was anything but gluten free. I had never made a roll before, and was especially worried trying to make a gluten free roll, as gluten things like to fall apart & crack, but this worked like a charm! I will definitely be giving more rolls a try now.

Source: Gluten Free Homemaker
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Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cup gluten-free flour mix (I did Bette Hagman's Featherlight Flour Blend)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup pecans, finely chopped
• powdered sugar, for dusting the towel

Filling:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. In a mixer bowl beat the eggs on high for several minutes. Add the sugar and beat until light in colour. Add the pumpkin and lemon juice. Mix until blended. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add to the pumpkin mix. Mix just until blended.
2. Pour the batter into a 10"x15" parchment lined jelly roll pan. Spread the batter to the edges of the pan and to even it out. Sprinkle the pecan pieces over the top. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 15 minutes. Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cake (pecan side down) onto a towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll the cake and towel lengthwise. Leave it to cool.
3. Combine the filling ingredients and beat until smooth. Unroll the cake and spread the filling over the surface.
4. Use the towel to help roll the cake back up, but do not roll the towel with the cake as before.
5. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

NOTE: To freeze it, you can wrap it twice with plastic wrap, and once with wax paper. Then put two rolls together and put a zip lock bag on each end (they are too long to fit into one bag).

NOTE: NOTE: The featherlight flour mix that I use is from Bette Hagman. It is as follows: 3 cups rice flour, 3 cups tapioca starch, 3 cups cornstarch, 3 Tbsp potato flour.