Gluten, Dairy, and Egg Free Soft Pretzel Nuggets

Gluten, Dairy, and Egg Free Soft Pretzel Nuggets

I saw this picture/recipe on Pinterest a looong time ago, and now that I've decided to try to have my son go gluten-free again for a while, AND my gluten, egg, and dairy free nephew is here for Thanksgiving, I decided it was time to try this recipe. I had to adjust what the recipe is on Gluten Free On a Shoestring to avoid the dairy and the egg, so I was a little hesitant about how these would turn out. I even nixed the idea of making regular pretzel rolls so as not to torture my poor kid who does NOT like being gluten-free. Well, they ALL seem to love these pretzel nuggets. They taste GREAT, with no funky aftertaste or odor. The texture is actually bread-like, and they taste like soft pretzels! Woo hoo! I'm doing a dance! I will be making these again for sure. And the Better Batter flour, although pricey, is worth every penny. Thanks, Gluten Free On a Shoestring!

Gluten, Dairy, and Egg Free Soft Pretzel Nuggets
     ---adapted from Gluten Free On a Shoestring

Ingredients:

• 3 1/4 cups Better Batter All Purpose Gluten Free Flour, plus a few tablespoons more 
• 3 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Stick, melted & cooled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Gluten Free Egg Replacer mixed with 2 tablespoons warm water
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• baking soda bath for boiling (6 cups water with 1 tablespoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt)
• cornstarch wash (1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/2 cup water, mixed well)
• coarse salt for sprinkling

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line two or three cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, whisk together the flour, yeast, cream of tartar, baking soda, sugar, and kosher salt with a regular hand whisk. Add the cider vinegar, Earth Balance, and egg replacer & water mixture. Mix on low speed until mixed. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the water.
Once all the water has been added, turn the mixer up to high and let it mix for about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add more flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl in spots. The dough will still be pretty wet, but that's okay.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment or wax paper. dust the top lightly with flour and divide dough into four pieces. Then, cut each of those in half and form each into a rope that is about 1 inch in diameter. Cut each rope into 1 to 1 1/2 inch sections and set on parchment lined cookie sheets to rise, covered, for 40 minutes. Nuggets should be about 1 to 1 1/2 inches apart of the cookies sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.
While nuggets rise, bring the baking soda bath to a boil in a deep pan or large pot over medium heat. 
Once nuggets have risen and soda bath is boiling, boil 6-8 nuggets at a time for just under a minute, turning a time or two to make sure all sides get boiled. 
Remove nuggets with a slotted spoon and touch back of spoon to a paper towel to drain a little. Place nuggets back onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining nuggets on that pan. When all nuggets from one pan are boiled and back on the sheet, brush with cornstarch wash, sprinkle with coarse/Kosher salt, and cut a small slash into each nugget with a sharp serrated knife.
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until well-browned. Remove from oven, allow to cool a few minutes and enjoy.

Makes about 6 dozen nuggets

Cute dough nuggets

My GF,DF,EF nephew loved 'em.

Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls

Red Velvet Cinnamon Roll

Soooo...I've had this recipe sitting around in my computer for a while. Originally, I was saving it to enter in the Iowa State Fair Tones Cinnamon Roll Competition. It was at the tail end of the "red velvet" frenzy, at the intersection of Red Velvet Everything and S'Mores Everything. I figured I had a one-year window in which I could enter this. Instead of entering these, though, I took a chance on a more timeless German Chocolate Cake Cinnamon Roll. Sigh. Click on that link if you want to read a passionate post about my disillusionment with the Iowa State Fair food competition.

As with most cinnamon rolls anymore, I cannot enjoy these. Other people tell me they're delicious. They taste a little chocolatey, a little cinnamony, and very cream cheese frostingy.  They look impressive because they're so huge. Huge is what the judges like. They're an interesting slight twist on the cinnamon roll. If you like red velvet and you like cinnamon rolls, this might be for you.

At any rate, here it is. I sound so excited about it, don't I?

Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients

Dough

• 1 pkg dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• ¼ cup warm water
• ½ cup white sugar
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 egg plus one egg yolk, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ teaspoon (approx.) red gel food color
• ¾ cup warm milk
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour

Filling

• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup softened butter

Frosting

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a standing mixer, sprinkle yeast over warm water.  Allow to sit for 10 minutes, until soft and bubbly.  With the paddle attachment, stir in sugar, butter, cocoa, egg & yolk, vanilla, and food color.  Mix until smooth.  Switch to the dough hook attachment, and add milk and 3 cups flour.  Mix & kneed on medium low speed for 8-10 minutes, until smooth and elastic, adding additional ¼ cup of flour 1 tablespoon at a time if it seems too sticky.

2. Place dough in a large, lightly greased bowl, turn to coat, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise until doubled, 1-2 hours.  Meanwhile, mix brown sugar, cinnamons, and salt and set aside.  Butter a 9 x 13-inch metal pan and set aside.

3.  Punch dough down and turn out onto a floured surface to form rolls.  Roll dough out to a 16 x 20-inch rectangle.  Evenly spread butter over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1-inch area of the dough free on one of the short ends.  Spread sugar/cinnamon mixture over the butter lightly using your hand.  Press in gently with a flat hand.  Starting at the short end that has the filling, roll dough, brushing away extra flour with a dry pastry brush.  Wet the end and seal by pinching gently.

4.  Brush off excess flour.  Using a 2-ft. length of dental floss, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces.  Place in buttered pan, cover, and let rise until puffy and almost doubled, about 1 hour. 

5.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Bake rolls at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, or until the center of a roll registers 188-190°F on a probe thermometer.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes before frosting.

6. While rolls cool, prepare frosting.  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese until creamy and combined.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla, and beat until smooth.

7.  Frost rolls and serve.  Keep leftovers in an airtight container.

Makes 6 rolls

Cranberry Orange Cookies

Cranberry Orange Cookies

I made my favorite cranberry orange scones a couple of weeks ago and froze some unbaked. Then I baked them up for my family who was here for Thanksgiving. I love those scones. I didn't quite get enough of them, but I didn't want to commit to a whole new batch of scones. I mean, even if I did freeze them, I know I'd eat too many. So I went googling for a cranberry orange cookie, and this is the one I decided on--probably because Land O Lakes had such great pics of them. 
I changed them a little bit, of course, by adding a teaspoon of orange extract to the batter and omitting the orange zest from the rolling sugar. I just didn't want to have to zest another orange, to tell the truth. I bought two oranges today, and the second one is for scones this Saturday for a baby shower.
This is a nice cookie, but next time I think I might omit the macadamia nuts. Or maybe I just need to make the scones. The cookies are pretty sweet, but definitely orangey and a little cranberry-y. The texture is slightly chewy in the middle, but crisp on the edges. I think they're more dense and chewy than I'd like. Maybe next time I try a cranberry orange cookie, I'll just do it with a shortbread recipe because I think I was expecting something more crisp. I'll have to try another one later today to see what I really think, but so far, these are just okay for me.

Cranberry Orange Cookies
        --Adapted from Land O Lakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup Land O Lakes Butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• zest of one orange
• 1 egg
• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped macadamia nuts
• sugar for rolling

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, beat 1 cup sugar, butter, orange extract, and orange zest, until light and fluffy.
Mix in flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix in cranberries and macadamia nuts.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll balls in sugar. Place on prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten to about 5/8 inch thickness with the flat bottom of a glass.
Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Cool one minute on cookie sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Oven Fried Bacon

Oven Fried Bacon Perfection

Non-stick foil is magical.

Bacon. It's just delicious. As Jim Gaffigan states in his King Baby video, "to improve other food, they wrap it in bacon." So true. I'm not eating it so much these days due to the high blood pressure that I seem to keep mentioning here on my blog, but it's still something my family enjoys and that I do indulge in occasionally, in moderation, of course.
My brother showed me this method of frying bacon, and it just makes sense. It also makes a little bit of a mess of my oven walls, but I can shut the door to that and it doesn't bother me. The bacon ends up flat, not crinkled up. Each slice is evenly and perfectly cooked. And the big bonus is that I don't have to drain the grease out of the pan or soak it and scrub it. I just throw away the foil. Bam! Clean. 
Thanks, Toby, for making my life a little bit easier.

Oven Fried Bacon

Ingredients:

• Bacon, sliced (as much or as little as you want/need)

Equipment:

• Non-stick foil
• Old rimmed cookie sheet
• Hot oven
• Metal Tongs
• Paper Towels

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a plate with paper towels and set aside.
Place a sheet of non-stick foil onto the cookie sheet. Fold up and pinch the corners so you end up with about a 3/4 inch rim, like a foil baking sheet within the baking sheet. This will catch all of the bacon grease and make for easy cleanup.
Lay bacon slices onto foil, not overlapping, but crowding, if necessary.
Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, turning bacon every 4-5 minutes. You may have to remove some pieces early to the paper towel-lined plate. When bacon is to desired doneness, remove from oven, and move slices to the paper towel-lined plate. Dab with another paper towel to remove excess grease, if desired.
Enjoy your bacon.

Croq-Tele (TV Snacks)--Buttery Shortbread Nuggets

Croq-Tele

I really don't have that much time to burn right now, but while I was checking email and blog stats, I saw that Simply Recipes is posting recipes again (Elise Bauer, blog author, said the site was getting updated), so I went clicking around. I found a post about butter, which led me to an awesome New York Times article about butter that mentioned this little treat, Croq-Tele (accents on the e's). The article also had a pic that intrigued me. So I googled "croq-tele" and found At the Baker's Bench, a blog that I will have to visit again. Baker's Bench also mentioned a book that was mentioned in the NY Times article, Field Guide to Cookies. After I finish this post, I think I am going to buy the book on Amazon.
What this cute little free-form cookie tastes like is a little nugget of buttery shortbread perfection. I was suspicious because there's no vanilla in the recipe, but it does not need it. The butter flavor is sufficient to blow you away. I love these things and will make them regularly from this day forward.

Croq-Tele (TV Snacks)
     --adapted from At the Baker's Bench who adapted it from Field Guide to Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond flour/meal*
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour
• 7 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, stir almond flour, sugar, and salt.
Beat flour and cold butter until mixture turns sandy in texture. Add almond/sugar/salt mixture and beat until small clumps form. (I had to turn off my mixer and scrape the sides to see that it was clumping.)
Use a teaspoon to scoop out small balls of dough. Pinch the dough in your hand until it holds together. Place on prepared cookie sheet about an inch apart. 
Bake at 325 degrees for 15-16 minutes, or until tips/edges are browned.
Cool cookies on pan for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. 
Store in an airtight container or freeze for later consumption.

Makes 8-9 dozen little cookies.

*Note: The recipe on At the Baker's Bench calls for you to take 3/4 cup blanched almonds, lightly toasted, and grind them in a food processor with the sugar and salt. I didn't want to bother with that step, so I used the Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour/Meal that I already had for the almond flour chocolate chip cookies I like to make.

Apple Spice Streusel Muffins

Apple Spice Streusel Muffins

When I was in college at Cal State Long Beach, my best friend, Kristin worked at the Marie Callender’s in Rossmoor.   Our group of friends would often go there when she was working, and my favorite thing to order there was their apple muffin.  It was huge, and it was more like cake than muffin (as are most restaurant muffins, really).  It was sweet, spicy, and it had pecans mixed in and on top.  I don’t remember there being much apple to it, but I remember it being warm, sweet, and satisfying. 

I’ve searched on and off for a recipe that would match those muffins, which I don’t even think they sell any longer.  Or they changed the recipe and it is no longer the yummy muffin I remember. I was hoping that this recipe would be "the one." (The recipe is no longer accessible on My Muffin Thursdays, but I'm posting the link to the page that tells you that you have to be invited to see the blog anyway so I can at least give that blogger credit.) It's been so long, that I can't exactly tell if it's the same as Marie Callender's, but it's a great muffin nonetheless. There are so many apples in it, that it makes it slightly chewy, if you know what I mean. The crumb is tight, but not dense. Still sort of cake-like. The butter, sugar, and spices work together nicely to make one tasty muffin.

Apple Spice Streusel Muffins

     --adapted from My Muffin Thursdays

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup applesauce
• 2 apples, peeled, cored, and grated
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Streusel:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons* cold butter, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Prepare the streusel topping first by mixing the 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add sliced butter and mix in with fingertips until all butter is incorporated and it looks crumbly. Set aside. (*Note: I didn't like how my streusel melted into the muffins so much, so next time I might only try 3 or 3 1/2 tablespoons of butter for the streusel.)

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, combine cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour. Stir with a whisk to thoroughly mix the dry ingredients.
Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs one at a time till well incorporated. Stir in applesauce and apples until combined.  Stir in dry ingredients just until incorporated and moist. Don't overmix. 
Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full. Top with about 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of streusel. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes 23 muffins (I tried for 24, but ran ever so slightly short)

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli Cheese Soup

I love Panera Bread's broccoli cheese soup. I love dipping bits of French baguette into the soup and enjoying the flavors and textures of two pieces of food perfection come together. Last time I looked, though, that soup was loaded, I mean loaded, with sodium--something I'm supposed to be cutting back on. Sodium makes things taste so good though.

Well, I honestly don't know what the sodium content of my soup is today. I used reduced sodium chicken broth, and it doesn't taste quite as good as when I use full sodium broth, but it's still a satisfying soup.

Oh, and I'm not saying this soup tastes exactly like Panera's, but it's close. I got the recipe from my beloved Allrecipes.com, and I changed it slightly to reduce the fat as well as the sodium. Sigh. I know. If you look around this blog enough, you'll see I rarely cut back on the fat, but today I did. If you're not concerned about fat and sodium, use regular Velveeta and full sodium broth. It will taste better.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

     --Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients: 

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (16 oz) package frozen chopped broccoli (or 1 lb fresh, chopped)
• ½ cup shredded or finely julienned carrots
• 8 cups chicken broth or stock
• 1 ½ pounds Velveeta, cubed (I used the 2% Milk Velveeta)
• 2 cups milk
• 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
• 2/3 cup cornstarch
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Instructions:

Reserve ½ cup chicken broth for later.

In a stockpot, melt butter over medium heat. Cook onion in butter until softened. Add minced garlic.  Stir in broccoli and carrots, and cover with chicken broth. Simmer until broccoli is tender (10-15 minutes).

While broccoli simmers, place cheese and milk in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave 45 seconds at a time, stirring in between until cheese is melted.

Stir cheese/milk mixture into broccoli/chicken broth. Add cayenne pepper. 

In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into reserved 1/2 cup of broth until dissolved. Stir into soup; cook, stirring frequently, until thick. Simmer 10-15 minutes.

Yields 10 servings