Gluten Free Bagels

I have wanted to make bagels from scratch ever since I saw them made on a Cooking show years ago. So I finally took the plunge when I saw a recipe for a pumpkin pie cream cheese I wanted to try. I found a recipe for gluten free bagels but I had to adapt it a bit to work with what I had on hand so here is what I did.

2 1/3 cups Bob's Red Mill  Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour

3 tablespoons dry milk powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) instant rise yeast

2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

1 egg, at room temperature

2 egg whites, at room temperature, yokes reserved

1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees), plus 1 teaspoon water

1/2 cup Masa Harina Flour (also called corn flour, or corn masa NOT corn starch) 

Nonstick cooking spray

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. When the oven reaches that temperature, turn it off.
2. Place the flour mixture, milk powder, salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar, cinnamon, and yeast in a medium mixing bowl. With the mixer on low, blend the ingredients.
3. Add the butter, egg, and two egg whites to the dry mixture. Whip on low speed until blended.
4. Add the water. Beat for 3 1/2 minutes. Then work in masa flour by hand.
5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and divide it into 8 balls.
6. Roll each ball into a 7-inch rope and then connect the ends of the rope to form a circle, sealing the ends securely.
7. Lightly grease a baking sheet with corn or olive oil. Place each bagel on the baking sheet. Cover the bagels with wax paper that has been lightly oiled.
8. Set the baking sheet in the oven for 40 minutes to allow the dough to rise. (It won’t double in bulk.)
   

   

   
   Remove the baking sheet from the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
10. Fill a large saucepan with water (about 4 inches deep) and add the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar. Bring the water to a boil.
11. Place 4 bagels at a time in the boiling water and boil for 1 minute, turning each bagel over after 30 seconds.
    

    
12. Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper and spray the paper lightly with cooking spray. (The bagels tend to brown too much on the bottom without the paper.)
13. Remove the bagels from the water with a slotted spoon and lay them on the paper.
14. Repeat Steps 11 and 13 with the remaining 4 bagels.
15. In a small bowl, whip the remaining egg white with 1 teaspoon of water until frothy. Brush the mixture on top of the bagels. If desired, sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar or sesame seeds.
16. Bake the bagels for 20 minutes.
    

    

Caramel Apples

I love caramel. Also caramel apples.

I am honestly not totally sure where I came across this recipe the first time but it is easy to make and easy to remember.

1/2 Microwave caramel:

1/2 a stick of butter (1/4 cup)
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk.

Microwave for 6-8 min stirring every 2.

To make caramel apples I find it easier to start with cold apples so put the sticks in them and put them in the fridge the night before. If you don't have them cold it will still work but I think it helps the caramel set if they start cold. Also I like to work with smaller apples I find the big ones to be a bit overwhelming to try to sit down and eat and I prefer to have my caramel apples be on a more manageable scale.

One of the tricks for getting good coverage is to not only dip the apple but to spin it in the caramel and if you like the caramel up to the stick like my kids do have a spoon in hand to drizzle the caramel higher up the apple. Be sure to let the excess caramel drip off before putting it on the wax paper. I usually scrap the bottom free of caramel you will get enough drip from the sides to make your foot as the caramel sets.

 Any left over caramel goes on apple slices for a "right now" snack.

Gluten Free Crock Pot Apple Cobbler

I was looking for a quick and easy apple breakfast recipe and stumbled on this one Easy Breakfast Apple Cobbler from Food.com

So I decided to give it a shot. Only 5 ingredients, naturally gluten free, and I just set it and forget it and wake up to delicious hot apple breakfast. Sounds almost too good to be true.

I did modify mine slightly. 
I used white sugar rather than honey as I was apparently out, and added a handful of golden raisins.

Just be sure if you want it gluten free to use a gluten free granola. 

I would say to go with the honey over the sugar it caramelized and then started to burn a little. This might be a side effect of my crock pot which I think needs to be replaced and the low might not be cooking on low. I suspect this because the apples were a little bit more mush than a cobbler usually leaves them but that may be because I picked softer apples and you will want to be sure to use good sweet baking apples like Braeburn.

Baked Apple Chips

Baked Apple Chips

This was something new to me this year. I love to eat apple chips have never thought about making them before but when I found this recipe I figured I would give it a shot. I used four large apples rather than the 2 small recommended so I doubled the syrup as well. And used more lime than lemon in the syrup mix.

I was also not able to cut them as thinly as I should. You really want them paper thin. So they look a lot longer to crisp than the 1 hour spesified in the recipe. 

I was pretty sure using huge apples and doubling the recipe would give us enough to last us a while. I was wrong. They are already gone. 
 

Gluten Free Jewish Apple Cake

7 apples
2 cups plus 5 Tablespoons sugar 

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

2 3/4 cups gluten free all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup orange juice

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. grease a bundt pan. Peel, core and thinly slice the apples. Coat the apples with 5 Tbs of sugar and the cinnamon then set aside. Mix together gluten free flour, salt and baking powder in the large bowl. In a separate bowl- mix together orange juice, oil, sugar and vanilla then combine with the dry.     Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. Pour 1/3 of batter into bundt pan. top with 1/3 of the apple mixture. Repeat with remaining batter and apples to get 3 layers. Bake for approximately 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
  

Easy Caramel Glaze:
1/2 cup sweetened condenced milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 tablespoons butter
Microwave for about 4 min stirring every two.

Baked Apples

This was really simple I had several larger baking apples that I needed to use up so I cored two filled them with a brown sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Because they were larger I added a but of apple juice to the bottom of the pan and ended up tenting the pan with foil to help steam the apples to speed up the cooking. I put them in a pan in the oven at 300 for about an hour.

 Best served with cream whipped or otherwise. I did not get a picture but I put mine in a bowl with whole milk. The apple soaked up the milk and the milk took the cinnamon and apple juice and it was very very tasty. A very simple apple treat.

Gluten Free Fried Apple Pancakes

Carla Hall's Fried Apple Pancakes
 This recipe was another I found when looking for simple and yummy apple recipes. I like it because its easy to size up or down to suit your needs unlike a cake or pie. They make a great side dish, I served them with Swedish meatballs, or you can eat them on their own for breakfast or whenever. The original recipe, linked above, has an apple cider syrup to go with it but we prefered them with maple syrup or warm apple sauce.

1 Cup Gluten Free Bisquick Baking Mix
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1 tbs vegetable oil or melted butter
1 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

3 Medium Apples
pealed, cored, and sliced into 1/4 in rings

Prepare the pancake batter with the baking mix, egg, milk, oil, and spices. Heat your griddle to a medium heat. Dip the apple rings into the batter and then place on the well greased griddle. Let cook through. You want the pancake batter not to burn while the apple softens so if you need to reduce the heat do so.

Apple Butter

Apple Butter is a big deal in our house. Next to the strawberry jam its our go to spread and its so easy to make. I usually make mine with store bought apple sauce not homemade because the homemade is good and I want to eat on its own and I have not noticed a marked difference when made with all natural no sugar added store bought apple sauce and you can pick up some big can of it pretty inexpensively.

the below measurements are pretty rough its more of what ever suits your taste we like ours dark and spicy.

7-8 cups apple sauce
3 tbs cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves

Put everything into your crock pot and let it cook on low without the lid on you will want to stir every few hours or so and you can let it go over night. The basic goal here is to cook off enough liquid to get the apple sauce downs to a thick smooth spreadable texture. it will at least reduce by half after that is up to you how thick you want it.

Apple Sauce

I did mine in the crock pot for the first time this year. You can do it just in a pot over the stove but I was a little busy so I figured I would try the slower but less attention intensive way of cooking it.

The great thing about making your own apple sauce is that you can control what goes in it. Last year I made a few flavored varieties this year I stuck with plain apple sauce but I will included the recipes for the other flavors at the end.

I almost hesitate to call this a recipe.

apples
apple juice or cider

First you want to peel and core your apples.
Pour about a half an inch of your juice or cider into the bottom on the crock pot or a deep heavy bottomed pot on the stove.
Dump in your apples.

If in a crock pot heat on high for at least 4 hours with the lid on stirring it around every hour or so. If on the stove heat on medium high string every 15 min or so until the apples start to break down keep cooking and stirring.

Once you have a smooth thick sauce you can either cool it off and store it in the fridge/freezer or you can can it to get it shelf stable. If you are new to canning I suggest reading up on the details of it as we are talking about preserving food you want to be sure you are doing it correctly.

For some other flavors you can substitute orange juice in the beginning, mix in dried fruit, cinnamon, or other spices, you can add pureed berries near the end for strawberry, raspberry or black berry flavors. Last year I made an orange spice version, and an orange and cranberry, that we had for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

Apple Week!

Its Apple week here at Homegrown Strawberries. Which means that rather than the usual 3 (If I am on top of things) you will be getting at least 9 if not more posts most featuring apples! Yay apples!

You will get recipes for the following:

Apple Sauce

Apple Butter

Gluten Free Fried Apple Pancakes

Gluten Free Jewish Apple Cake

Baked Apple Chips

Gluten Free Apple Cinnamon Pop Tarts


Caramel Apples 

Gluten Free Apple Cider Doughnuts

Gluten Free Apple Fritters


Gluten Free Crock Pot Apple Cobbler

Peach Upside down Cake: Hot Milk Cake

I love love love hot milk cake. Its easy and simple and fast and a very flexible base. We had a recipe for hot milk cake I used all the time when I was baking in high school and after I moved out I have several times tried to find the cook book that the recipe was in but it appears to have vanished. So I have been on the hunt for a hot milk cake recipe that matches the ones I used to use. I think this one is pretty close.

I found it on http://www.heritagerecipes.com. And to test it out I made one of my favorite summer cakes. Peach Upside Down cake. since the recipe uses canned peaches you could make it whenever but it just feels more Right to me when the weather is warmer.

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour (I used Bob's Red Mill GF all-purpose and 1 tsp Xanthan gum)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1tsp vanilla extract or other flavoring
1 cup milk
1/4 pound (1 stick or 8 tablespoons) butter 

To make this Peach Upside Down cake you will also need

cinnamon

sugar

1 large can of peaches in light syrup
 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch cake pans.  (sprinkle well with cinnamon and sugar then lay our peaches to cover the bottom of the pans evenly, top with a little more cinnamon.) 

Beat eggs well -- until light (5-10 minutes). Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture and fold together. Heat milk and butter in a saucepan until hot. Add hot milk mixture and vanilla to cake batter and stir until combined, then pour into prepared pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or just until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Frost with favorite icing.

Makes two 8- or 9-inch layers. 

Let them cool in the pans for a little while. Then run a knife around the edge to loosen and invert one on to a plate. If it sticks then a good whack or two should get it loose. You will want to repeat this with the second right on top the first.

Pictures are a little dark because I baked this as night but the cake is amazing. It was cried wonderful by everyone even The Husband who rare says more than "it was really good, I like it."

Gluten Free Coffee Cake in a Mug

This amazing thing happened tonight I am sharing it with you now so that you may also have your life improved by it. So I was craving coffee and coffee cake. Which is harder to fix when eating "normal" cake makes you sick. The Husband suggested that I see if there was a Gluten free coffee cake that we could make in the microwave. Because you know, he is brilliant.

Well after an extensive 2 minute google search I found a coffee cake in a mug by Prudent Baby. I suggest you go there and look at the step by step pictures (and the normal recipe).

A Cup of Coffee Cake (in Under Five Minutes) By Prudent Baby

For those of you who want it without the Gluten I have a recipe below for you. Same basic steps as the original but you know without the wheat.

1 tablespoon of butter (soften in microwave for 10-15 sec)
2 tbsp sugar (mixed into softened butter until creamy)
1 egg
1 teaspoon milk (or sour cream)
small splash vanilla
1/4 cup GF flour (I use Bob's Red Mill's)
1/8 Tsp baking powder

Mix everything into the butter and sugar mixture and make the crumb topping in a small bowl.

Crumb topping:
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon GF  flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
Smoosh together with fingers until evenly crumbly
add crumbs ontop of mixed batter
Microwave for 2 - 3 min more or less. I would watch it. I started at a min and kept adding and adding so I am honestly not sure how long I had it in there but every microwave is a little different.

Banana Bread Gluten Free

Banana Bread is a rare treat in our house. Mostly because bananas never last long enough to need to be turned into banana bread. The Boy has literally eaten an entire bunch by himself in one day, (not with permission of course) The is also the competition of the slightly browned bananas which is smoothies. I love smoothies.. and banana bread. So I was very excited to find a highly recommended gluten free banana bread recipe on Taste of Home.

I made a slight adaption of the recipe, because honestly I never actually follow a recipe. Here is what I did. 
2 cups gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (I use Bob's Red mill)
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt 
4 eggs 
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (4-5 medium) 
1 cup sugar 
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce 
1/3 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup white chocolate chips 


Directions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, bananas, sugar, applesauce, butter and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Add the nuts and chocolate chips.


Transfer to a 9 x5 loaf pan coated with butter. Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes (not sure on this one my over is having a hard time keeping a consistent temp right now so that is just a guess) or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire racks. I think two pans would have been better and would have cooked more evening than I ended up with.

Pumpkin Bread

The Kids and I made pumpkin bread. LOTS of Pumpkin bread. Because we have LOTS of pumpkin.

We made both Normal and Gluten Free breads.

Pumpkin Bread
We actually doubled the recipe below when we made it:
3 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
4 cups white sugar
6 eggs
4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9×5 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, oil, sugar, and eggs. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir into the pumpkin mixture until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top of the loaf should spring back when lightly pressed.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
1 1/2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. all spice
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients together and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the melted butter, sugars, eggs and pumpkin until smooth (the batter will be thick). Fill each liner 3/4 full with batter and bake until the top feels firm and a toothpick can be inserted in the center and comes out clean (about 25 minutes).