Gluten Free Spiced Bundt Cake with Cranberries & Orange Glaze

Happy Halloween! Can you believe another month of 2020 is gone? Though Halloween is definitely not my favorite holiday (go here to read more on that!) I really enjoy the flavors of fall. And while I may not be in a witch’s hat, scaring small children that are looking for full-size candy bars, I do enjoying having baked goods that feel festive.

These past two months, I have not been able to spend as much time in the kitchen as I would like. My mom, sister, and I have been putting the rubber to the proverbial road, as we are chairing the largest Christmas market in Dallas. Due to Covid, we have pivoted the Market to be completely online. It has been a challenging and rewarding experience, taking a 43-year-old Market, and bringing it into a world of unknowns—all while raising money for the 14 beneficiaries that the Market supports. The hard work is worth it because the Chi Omega Christmas Market is going to open for the “12 Days of Christmas” on November 10th and over 100 small businesses will get to sell their wares! Our goal is to spread Christmas cheer across North Texas and we are so excited to share the online Market with the community.

But, as I mentioned before, I had to trade my apron in for my blue light glasses, as I stared at my computer, plugging away at my Market to-do list. I knew I missed the kitchen when, a few weeks ago, I had a dream about a bundt cake that had all of the flavors of fall. What—you don’t dream about baked goods, too? Inspired, I knew I had to carve out some time in the kitchen and to save some time with trial and error, I implemented a gluten-free cake mix and elevated it with spices, dried fruit, sugar, and applesauce! This perfectly spiced cake with dried cranberries and orange glaze and zest was the result. And I will even give you a few tips on how to get your bundt out of your pan without losing the top of the cake!

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1 box Simple Mills Vanilla Almond Flour Cake Mix (gluten-free)

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 2 teaspoons orange zest

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries, chopped

• 3 eggs

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted (cooled slightly)

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 1/4 cup applesauce

Glaze:

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted

• 5 tablespoons powdered sugar

• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, salt, baking powder, spices, sugar, zest, and cranberries. Mix until well incorporated.

3. In another bowl, mix eggs, vanilla, applesauce, and melted butter, that has been cooled. You don’t want to scramble the eggs!

4. Pour dry ingredients into wet and mix together.

5. In a well-greased bundt pan, pour cake batter into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

6. Once an inserted knife or toothpick comes out clean, take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

7. Now let’s get that cake out of the pan: After letting sit for 10 minutes, take a knife or an offset spatula, and run it along the sides and center of the bundt pan, releasing the cake from all sides of the pan.

8. Place a rack or plate on top of the cake bottom, and turn over. Hold breath while you uncover and discover your prayers have been answered!

9. Once the cool cake is cool enough to touch, let’s work on that glaze! In a bowl, whisk together: butter, powdered sugar, and orange juice.

10. Pour glaze on to cake—get into those crevices! Top with more cranberries and orange zest for garnishing, cut, and serve!

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bark

I love making cookie dough. I love setting out my butter the evening before to get soft. I love the mise en place of the dry ingredients. I love creaming the butter and sugar together until fluffy, and then the smell of the vanilla when it is added to the mix. I love making cookie dough. What I don’t love is making the cookie balls once the cookie dough has formed. You could say, the actual cookie part of the dough making process is not my jam. (Kind of like the folding part of the laundry process, also not my jam!) You have to create the dough balls to be the same shape and size so they bake evenly. Then your hands get messy, so then everything in your kitchen gets messy after you touch it—cough—OCD—cough. Most of time (well every other time before this) I soldier through the dough rolling with my trusty cookie scooper in hand and music playing in my ears. However, when I was making cookie dough last week, I thought to myself, “What would happen if I just scraped all of this dough onto the baking sheet, made the width uniform, and baked it?” I was already leaving out the flour (read: gluten) in an attempt to make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and gluten-free baked items already have a tendency to go for more of a crunchy texture. As I was rolling the cookie dough into the pan, I felt like I was making Peppermint Bark again, so I decided that if it turned out that’s what I would name it. Well, I am happy to say not only did it turn out, but it was delicious! And like Peppermint Bark you get to choose your serving size—whether it be a handful or a pan-full! There’s no bite in this bark—it is very nice to your taste buds!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter, 1 stick (softened)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup of sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups of oats

• 1 cup oat flour—which you can make simply by milling oats in your blender until powdery

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp espresso powder

• 1 cup of chocolate pieces (dealer’s choice of wafers, chips, or chopped chunks!)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together sugars and butter, add in egg and beat until well combined and fluffy, and then add vanilla.

3. In a bowl combine oats, oat flour, salt, baking soda, and espresso powder, stir to combine.

4. Turn the stand mixer back on a gentle stir and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once dough has combined, add in the chocolate of your choice and mix in!

5. In a greased and lined sheet pan, press dough into a flat rectangle—you can use your hands or put parchment paper on top of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin! Flaten until dough is about 1/4 inch thick (or just under the sides of the sheet pan!). I used a half sheet pan, if you need a size reference.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes—until golden brown and the center is set!

7. Let cool and then break into your desired size pieces for serving! And yes, if you see the full sheet as your preferred serving size, I affirm that choice.

Gluten Free Biscuits

As we close out September, a month that already holds some of my favorite dates (including my birthday!), who knew September was also National Biscuit Month? As if I needed more reasons to celebrate in September? Gluten free biscuits proved to be a tough feat and required countless recipe tests, including testing out different gluten free flours. The fluffy texture can be difficult to achieve; highly processed flour tends to be thirsty, so it is very easy for the dough to turn out too wet or too dry. In addition to those hurdles, getting the leavener to rice flour ratio correct will make you act like a pastor from the pulpit—praying over your biscuit dough out loud that it will be delivered! And let’s not even talk about the lack of browning issue. However, the Good Lord saw fit to give gluten free flour one fabulous redemptive quality: no gluten. Wait—what…duh, Savannah, they don’t have gluten. Let us not forget what causes biscuit makers ‘round world go red in the face—that’s right: gluten development. But allay your fears, because you do not have to worry about overworking this dough. Unlike your standard all-purpose flour when liquid is added, gluten does not develop its typical strands, because there is none to develop. My friends these were worth the wait and the countless testing because I am a big believer in biscuits for all! Recipe is below and now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go take a nap…

Biscuits to all and to all a good nap… Oh no, I’ve conflated Christmas and carbs again! Zzzz…Zzzz…..Zzzzz…

Ingredients:

 - 4 cups King Arthur Gluten Free Flour (plus one cup for dusting and flouring biscuit cutter)

- 1 teaspoon salt (I use Diamond Kosher)

- 1 teaspoon of sugar

- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda

-1 stick of cubed/cold european butter

• Plus additional 6 tablespoons of melted butter (3 tbs for greasing the pan and 3 tbs for brushing the tops once cooked)

-2 cups of buttermilk (Don’t have buttermilk, don’t be sour ;) … you can make it as fast as you can say “I’m out of buttermilk”… measure out as much milk as you need and then add in one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice per cup. Let sit for 10 minutes and you are good to go!)

Yields:

 12-14 Biscuits

Method

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.

2. Using a pastry blender or your hands, cut cubed, cold butter into dough. Breaking up into pea size pieces and a crumbling texture.

3.  Make a well in the center for the flour mixture and pour in buttermilk. I always add in the first cup and a half of buttermilk, and then add the remaining 1/2 as needed.

4. Use a spatula to wipe down sides of bowl while working to combine. Once brought together, turn out onto a floured surface.

5. Knead gently, about 5-7 times, until dough has a smooth consistency.

6. Then begin the folding portion: flour your rolling pin, and then begin rolling our your dough into a rectangle about 6 in. wide and 12 in. long and about half an inch thick, take bottom side of dough, and fold the dough in half. The bottom edge and the top meet. Turn the dough, to the right once, then roll out again (to about half an inch), and then fold in half and turn back to the left. Complete this folding process 5 times—you are building layers into your biscuits.

7. Flour your cutter and punch out 7-8 biscuits with 2¾ inch biscuit cutter (second to largest in set). Combine and roll scraps and cut out remaining biscuits. **Do not twist the cutter when you push down, this will pinch the seams shut that you just worked so hard to create. Keep the motion up and down, and flour your cutter between each cut.

8. Pour 3 tablespoons of melted butter into a skillet, and then place your biscuits. The melted butter will help the bottoms crisp and brown on the bottom.

   **Remember, biscuits are friendly and LOVE neighbors! So make sure they are touching!

9. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Brush tops with remaining melted butter immediately out of the oven.

GF Blueberry-Banana-Oat Muffins

Perhaps I should start calling these the law firm muffins? While I love the fictional law firms of Cooper-Banks-Mackenzie and Crane, Poole and Schmidt (shout out to you if you got the Father of the Bride 2 and Boston Legal references, respectively), these are my Gluten-Free-Blueberry-Banana-Oat Muffins, LLP. Yes, their title is a mouthful, but so is their flavor and heavenly texture. As the saying goes—if the shoes fits?

I digress.

While I am not 100% gluten-free, recently, I have parked it over to my weekend food consumption list. When I did my MRT testing earlier this summer, wheat came back as a yellow food for me. Meaning it could cause a reaction, so I took it out of my diet for 30 days, and I did notice a difference when I added it back in—sadly, noticed a difference I should say. Your girl still loves her some banana bread though, and I was not about to park banana bread on my weekend only food list. So I went back to my food science/nutrition knowledge from college, determined to give one of my favorite baked goods a makeover. As Galinda says to Elphie in Wicked, “We’re gonna make you pop-u-lar!” For this exercise, me being Galinda and the banana bread being Elphie. If you don’t know what song I’m referring you, please bless your day with this gem.

I’ve been testing out these muffins and recipe on both the gluten-free and gluten-full people in my life. Happily I can report that both populations have asked for second and in some cases a third.

The prosecution rests, your Honor. These muffins are in fact delicious. Recipe is below and can be amended to suit your dietary needs. Want to use coconut oil and sugar instead? Please do! Cut the milk, butter, and egg and make them vegan? Why not! Want to go full freight and use AP flour and white sugar, honey, you have my blessing!

Ingredients:

-2 cups of oat flour (remember you can make your own in a blender!)

-2 1/2 tsp of baking powder

-1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

-1 tsp salt (I use Diamond Kosher)

-3/4 cup of oats

-3 over-ripe bananas, mashed to your liking

-3/4 cup of brown sugar (or get coco-nutty and make it with coconut sugar)

-1 stick of room temp. butter

-1 large egg

-1/4 cup of milk with 1 tbs. of oil (oat flour and oats are thirsty girls—the oil helps keep everything hydrated)

-1 cup of blueberries, dusted in a flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin pan or put in muffin liners

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together oat flour, oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate bowl, cream together sugar, and butter. Add in milk, the egg, and then bananas last. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients then add in blueberries (Tip** dust your blueberries in a few teaspoons of oat flour before adding them in. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom.

4. Divide batter evenly between prepared cups, a full Tovolo scoop or about 1/3 cup to each. Bake until tops spring back when lightly touched, about 20-25 minutes. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler

Two truths and a lie: I once cast over 500 votes for Kelly Clarkson in finale of season one of American Idol (Kelly, feel free to send a royalty check at any time) using both land lines at my parents house, my mom’s cell phone, and the cell phone I got in 5th grade for “emergencies,” I was once featured on episode of a hunting show filmed on my family’s ranch, and I am gluten free.

What’s that you say? Gluten free is the lie? You are correct! For those curious about the truths: the show is called Brush Country Monsters, the episode is “West Texas Whitetails.” I was also on the opening credits for season one of the show… I digress.

I am not gluten free; however, many people in my life are. Namely, my sister. As someone who views the making and giving food as one of the love languages (sorry, Gary Chapman), the thought of someone having to watch everyone else enjoy a treat that they can’t makes me sad. I wanted to change that and the Good Lord gave us oat flour—His mercies are indeed new every morning.

My friends, I give you Gluten Free Blueberry Cobbler...

Ingredients:

-1 cup of sugar

-1/2 tsp kosher salt

-2 to 3 cups of blueberries, depending on your berry-enthusiasm scale (mine is on the higher end)

-1 cup of oat flour

-1 tbsp of baking powder (these are generally gluten free, but always double check the starches in the ingredients)

-1 tbsp of the juice of an orange

-1 tsp orange zest

-1 cup of milk

-1 tbsp of vegetable oil (or your preference of neutral flavored oil)

-1 stick of butter

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine: sugar, salt, oat flour and baking powder and mix together. Add in the milk, oil, orange juice and zest and stir. Why the extra oil? Well, oat flour is a drier flour and it will be receiving moisture from the butter we add in later, but this oil is going to help the batter stay tender while baking.

In a baking dish (mine was 9x13), butter or coat the dish with a nonstick cooking spray. Add in your batter mixture to the baking dish. Then cut a stick of butter into 1/2 tsp size pieces, there are 8 tbs in each stick of butter, so you will have 16 pats of butter. Distribute the butter pats evenly on top of the batter. Then pour your blueberries on top of the batter and butter. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until cooked and golden brown.

Goes perfectly with ice cream and that’s no lie.