Archives for November 2020

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Casserole

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 24, 2020 | Posted In: Sides, Thanksgiving

This light and fluffy gluten free sweet potato casserole filling is topped with a sweet, nubby crumble topping that everyone loves.

Sweet potato casserole dish with serving spoon closeup image

How sweet is this sweet potato casserole?

When most Americans think of sweet potato casserole, it brings to mind a filling made of boiled sweet potatoes with plenty of added sugar. And, of course, a dense marshmallow topping.

I didn’t grow up eating that sort of sweet potato casserole, so it has no nostalgic value for me. If it does for you, I promise I’m not throwing any shade on that dish!

But if you were like me in assuming there was no way to make a sweet potato casserole that would be better than just puréed and roasted sweet potatoes, with maybe a touch of milk, this recipe is for you (us).

There is a bit of sugar in the filling, but only 1/4 cup in a filling made with 4 pounds of roasted and peeled sweet potatoes. It’s just enough to lightly sweeten the other ingredients we add to the filling, but not so much that the filling tastes sweetened.

Sweet potato casserole unbaked in white baking dish overhead image

And oh, that crumble topping…

The topping is made with two different types of sugar, and plenty of butter. It isn’t healthy and doesn’t even pretend to be good for you.

But the nubbiness of the mixture holds its shape during baking just like it does on a coffee cake. But it’s a thinner layer, with lots more cinnamon.

It is sweet, but it’s also toasted and crunchy. So it adds the most amazing texture variation to that pillow-soft sweet potato filling.

Sweet potato casserole serving on small white plate with spoons and serving dish

How to prepare the sweet potatoes

Rather than peeling, chopping, and boiling or steaming the sweet potatoes for the filling in this sweet potato casserole, I always roast them in their skins. Roasting sweet potatoes intensifies their natural sweetness and even caramelizes some of it.

The result is a much more complex flavor that retains all of its flavors (and nutrients), unlike boiling which draws many of the nutrients out into the boiling water.

The skin of a sweet potato is very thin, and becomes paper-like when it’s roasted. I bet you could even purée the sweet potatoes with their skins, rather than removing them for the filling.

Raw sweet potato in foil partially unwrapped

Can the sweet potatoes be made ahead of time?

Yes, you can definitely roast the sweet potatoes ahead of time. In fact, preparing the sweet potatoes is the first thing you should do, and can be done days ahead of time.

To roast them, wash them well with running water, then dry them thoroughly. Pierce through the skin of each all over the with the tines of a fork, and wrap it separately in aluminum foil.

Place the wrapped sweet potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in a preheated 375°F oven until a paring knife inserted in the center of the thickest part of each sweet potato doesn’t encounter any resistance (45 minutes to 1 hour+, depending upon size).

Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven, unwrap them, and allow them to sit until they are cool enough to handle. Remove the skins (they should slip or peel right off), and set them aside to use in the filling recipe.

Sweet potato casserole filling in white casserole dish overhead image

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

There is dairy in both the crumble topping and the filling, but they should both be replaceable. I’d use vegan butter in each.

My favorite brands of vegan butter are Melt and Miyoko’s Kitchen. You could also use Earth Balance buttery sticks in the filling, but not in the crumble topping as it won’t hold its shape properly during baking.

In place of the dairy milk in the filling, you can use any nondairy milk you like. I recommend using something unsweetened and unflavored, like unsweetened almond milk.

Sweet potato casserole dish with serving spoon closeup image

Eggs

I don’t recommend trying to replace the eggs in this recipe. There are 4 whole eggs, which is too many to attempt to replace with any egg replacer. Sorry!

Oats

“Purity protocol” gluten free oats are safe to eat, but if you avoid them anyway, you can replace them. The oats in the crumble topping recipe with 1/4 cup (35 g) additional all purpose gluten free flour (for a total of 1 cup (140 g).

For a complete discussion of substitutions for oats in gluten free baking, please see our substituting oats guide.

Sweet potato casserole in white baking dish with spoonful missing

Gluten Free Apple Snickerdoodle Bars

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 20, 2020 | Posted In: Bars, Cookies

Gluten free apple snickerdoodle bars have all the taste of snickerdoodles in an easy bar cookie, with plenty of rich apple butter for flavor.

Apple snickerdoodle cookie bar with glaze drizzle on a small white plate

Snickerdoodles are those thin and chewy cinnamon-sugar cookies with the tangy bite and bumpy lumpy tops. In my experience, the most universally beloved flavors of baked goods are: vanilla, chocolate, cinnamon, and lemon. Each deserves at least one cookie.

I don’t make a lot of cookie bars, since they aren’t as beautiful as cutout or drop cookies. But cookies have to go in the oven and out of the oven, spaced inches apart from one another, over and over. It can be a bit of a drag sometimes.

These snickerdoodle cookie bars are pressed into one standard 9-inch square pan, and then baked. You can slice them into generous bars, making only 9 total, or even slice them into thin fingers for dipping into a sweet dip for a little celebration.

The recipe does not translate well into drop cookies, though, if you were wondering. I started out making drop cookies, but the recipe, especially with the addition of thick and rich apple butter, was just too precious and prone to failing. These bars work every time, even if you cut a corner or two.

Apple snickerdoodle bars overhead image of bars in pan and on small white plates

What’s apple butter, and why are we baking with it?

I love applesauce, in every form imaginable. I love it smooth from the jar (unsweetened, please), and I love my own homemade super-chunk kind.

But applesauce, when used in baking, doesn’t taste like much of anything at all. If you want to flavor something with apples, you either need to use apples themselves (think apple pie, apple pie cookies, apple peanut butter cookies oh my!)—or apple butter.

Like pumpkin butter and pumpkins/squash, apple butter is made by cooking down peeled and cored apples with sweetener and spices. Cooking the apples breaks them down, like applesauce, but continuing to cook them concentrates and intensifies the flavors and reduces the moisture for a thicker paste.

I know it can be disappointing when one of my recipes calls for an ingredient that isn’t something you always have on hand, like pumpkin or apple butter. But I highly recommend you make a large batch of apple butter to use in recipes or just on a piece of toast all season long.

You might be able to take an apple butter shortcut, too. Try adding the sweetener and spices to jarred smooth applesauce, in place of the fresh apples, and cooking it down as you would the fresh stuff.

apple snickerdoodle bars raw in pan with white paper

What’s that white drizzle on top?

The drizzle on top of each bar you see in the photos is just the simplest confectioners’ sugar glaze. It’s made by placing about 1/2 cup (58 g) confectioners’ sugar in a bowl, and then adding water or another liquid (milk, apple juice, etc.) slowly until you have a thickly pourable glaze.

I place the glaze into a piping bag or zip-top bag with the very corner snipped, and drizzle the glaze in a zigzag pattern on top of each cookie bar. It adds a little visual interest.

The cookies are sweet enough as is, so the glaze is not necessary for taste. But it does make the bars look pretty, since cookie bars are so terribly quick to make, compared to regular cookies, but not quite as naturally beautiful sometimes.

Apple snickerdoodle cookie bars baked in pan on wire rack

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

The only dairy in these cookie bars is butter. You should be able to successfully replace that with vegan butter. My favorite brands are Melt and Miyoko’s Kitchen.

Eggs

There are three full eggs in this recipe, and they are responsible for a lot of the texture of the bars. You could try replacing them with one “chia egg” each, but I’m not terribly optimistic.

Apple butter

You cannot make this recipe with applesauce in place of apple butter. Please see the full discussion of apple butter above.

If you have pumpkin butter, it might be worth trying to replace the apple butter with that, and the apple pie spice with pumpkin pie spice. But when I tried to replace the pumpkin butter in our recipe for gluten free pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies, it did not work. At all.

Apple snickerdoodle cookie bars cut but still in pan with glaze

Classic Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 20, 2020 | Posted In: Cakes, Christmas, Desserts, Frosting/Icing, Holidays, Valentine's Day

This classic gluten free red velvet cake is everything you remember red velvet to be. Moist and tender, lightly chocolate cake that is my go-to recipe whenever I want to please chocolate and non-chocolate lovers alike!

A piece of cake on a silver plate

Is it age that gives us an appreciation for chocolate? I never would have thought so, until I started serving cake to small children. But it seems, given the choice, little kids will always pick vanilla cake over chocolate.

I have 3 children. Two of them love chocolate. The third, my gluten free son, simply isn’t a chocolate lover. With every birthday he celebrates, I expect the chocolate-lover in him to awake.

So far, no go. So when I make his birthday cake, and I want it be something everyone loves, I go with red velvet.

Classic Gluten Free Red Velvet Cake—Step by Step

We’ve talked about red velvet here on the blog before, but even though I know I might upset some by using red food coloring,* I don’t really tire of it. Neither does my family.

My kids love red velvet cake, and even though it’s really just moist chocolate cake with red food coloring, its real charm lies in its flavor. It’s not a deep chocolate cake.

There’s no melted chocolate in the batter, and there isn’t even an overwhelming amount of cocoa powder. It’s just right, and tends to please chocolate cake lovers and vanilla cake lovers alike.

*If you’re not comfortable using red food coloring, by all means just leave it out! I know that there are other recipes on the Internet that make red velvet cake with beet powder, but that changes the entire recipe and I honestly don’t think it’s worth the bother.

A close up of inside of red velvet cake on white cake stand

It’s also not an overly sweet cake, which means that the cream cheese frosting is all the more important. Remember that cream cheese frosting is not a stiff buttercream, so it will stay softer and more spreadable even when you slice into the cake.

Gluten Free Brioche Bread

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 18, 2020 | Posted In: Breads

Welcome back to the lightly sweet taste of gluten free brioche bread, rich with eggs and butter, and that golden bakery-style crust and soft yellow crumb inside.

Overhead image of brioche bread loaf on bread board with bread knife

I consider brioche bread a luxury. One single loaf calls for 5 whole eggs, and 5 ounces of butter, at room temperature.

(Be sure the ingredients are at room temperature, or they won’t combine properly.)

To me, all those eggs and butter in a fragrant loaf of bread, with a thick but tender crust and a rich flavorful crumb, sounds dreamy. It certainly has its place. And its place is often soaking in more of the same to make French toast!

This bread is not low fat, or low-calorie. It’s an indulgence, and I enjoy it more than if I thought of it like an everyday loaf.

I don’t count calories, and I don’t think of any foods as “bad.” Everything in moderation.

Sliced brioche bread on white paper on a bread board

What to expect during the rising time

The many eggs in this loaf of bread help it rise, but it does still call for yeast. You’ll find that it doesn’t call for a ton of yeast, though.

Since brioche has a somewhat tighter crumb than a classic sandwich bread, it’s meant to rise very high. It should rise to about 150% of its original volume, but not more. If you are tempted to add more yeast, know that the loaf won’t rise higher, but will just have a more jagged top.

Raw risen and scored brioche bread dough in loaf pan

Tips on getting yeast bread to rise

The linchpin to getting yeast bread to rise is no fun, and no one likes it but it remains true. It’s patience.

When I make this bread in the summer, and the air is generally warmer and more moist, it rises so much faster. Sometimes, it only takes 40 minutes!

When I make this bread in the winter, when the air is not only colder but significantly drier (even with a humidifier in our house), it can take nearly 2 hours.

If you bake it too early, it won’t likely rise and then fall, since it’s not a high-rising bread. But it will be shorter and denser.

Do not put it in a low oven. You’ll likely kill the yeast. Don’t put it in the dryer. Same deal.

I do often turn on my oven to about 300°F and place the loaf pan on top of the stove. That bit of gentle ambient heat helps it rise more steadily.

When is it done rising?

If your yeast bread is still set to rise, but you’re getting nervous that it might “overproof,” there is a telltale sign. If the surface of the dough has begun to rise unevenly, taking on a broken or pockmarked appearance, it’s a bit overrisen.

No worries, though. You can moisten your fingers and try to smooth out the rough edges, or just pop it right in the oven and bake as instructed.

Brioche bread baked in loaf pan with white paper

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

If you can’t have dairy, I would normally steer you toward a bread recipe that isn’t highly enriched with lots (and lots) of butter, like this one. But I think we can do it!

Try replacing the butter with vegan butter. My favorite brands remain Melt and Miyoko’s Kitchen. I love them equally.

In place of the milk, try any nondairy milk you like. Just make sure it’s unsweetened and unflavored.

Eggs

You can’t replace 5 eggs in a single recipe with any sort of egg replacer. Brioche bread is just not egg-free-friendly. You’d need a vegan-style recipe that was developed egg-free.

Instant yeast

This is a recipe for yeast bread, and cannot be made without commercial yeast. It also cannot be made with wild yeast sourdough starter, which requires a recipe developed specifically for it.

I always bake yeast bread with instant yeast, since it doesn’t have to be dissolved in liquid, and you need less of it. Instant yeast is also called rapid-rise and breadmaker yeast. It’s all the same.

If you don’t have instant yeast and would like to use active dry yeast instead, you’ll need to increase the amount by 25%. I’ve done the calculations for you in the Recipe Notes below.

Brioche bread 3 slices each on a separate small plate with butter in background

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Gluten Free Brioche Bread

This highly enriched loaf of gluten free brioche bread is a lightly sweet, buttery, bakery-style loaf with a tender yellow crumb and a deep brown, but not especially crispy, crust. Perfect for French toast!

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 3 days 12 hours 20 minutes

Servings: 1 standard loaf bread

Author: Nicole Hunn

Ingredients

2 ½ cups (350 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend (I used Better Batter; you must use one of my recommended blends)
1 ¾ teaspoons xanthan gum omit if your blend already contains it
½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons (5 g) instant yeast (See Recipe Notes)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ teaspoon (5 g) kosher salt
½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
5 (250 g (weighed out of shell)) eggs at room temperature
½ cup (4 fluid ounces) warm milk, about 95°F
10 tablespoons (140 g) unsalted butter at room temperature, roughly chopped

Instructions

Grease and line a standard 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan and set it aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (See Recipe Notes), place the flour, xanthan gum, sugar, yeast, and cream of tartar, and whisk to combine well.
Add the salt, and whisk again to combine. Add the vinegar, eggs, milk, and butter.
Place the bowl in the stand mixer and beat on medium-low speed for about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium-high, and beat for at least 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat on high speed for another 2 minutes.
Transfer the dough to the prepared loaf pan, pressing the dough firmly into the corners. Using a moistened spatula, smooth the top.
Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap, and place the pan in a warm, draft-free location until the dough has reached the top edge of the loaf pan. This can take an hour, or it can take much longer, depending upon the rising environment. In cool, dry weather, it may take significantly longer. Overproofing is not a function of time, but of rise. When the surface of the dough begins to take on an uneven, pockmarked appearance, it has begun to overproof.
When the dough has reached the end of its rise, preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the plastic wrap, score the loaf down the horizontal center using a lame or sharp knife at a 45° angle, cutting about 1/4 inch deep.
Place the loaf in the center of the preheated oven, and bake for 25 minutes. Rotate the pan 180° in the oven and bake for another 20 minutes.
For a less browned crust, remove the loaf pan from the oven and transfer the bread to a large piece of aluminum foil. Wrap the bread completely in the foil and continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the inside of the loaf has reached at least 190°F.
Remove from the oven, unwrap the loaf, and allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack. For a softer crust, keep the loaf wrapped for at least 20 minutes when it first comes out of the oven, and then unwrap to cool until no longer hot to the touch. Slice and serve.
For a deeper golden brown crust, remove the loaf pan from the oven, transfer the bread to a baking sheet and then return it to the oven. Continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the inside of the loaf has reached at least 190°F. Remove from the oven and transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool until no longer hot to the touch. Slice and serve.
Adapted from the book Gluten-Free on a Shoestring: 125 Easy Recipes for Eating Well on the Cheap Second Edition, by Nicole Hunn. Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. Copyright © 2017.

Notes

About instant yeast
Instant yeast is also called rapid-rise or breadmaker’s yeast. It can be replaced with active dry yeast, but you’ll need to 25% more active dry yeast than the instant yeast called for in the recipe, and handle it differently.

Here, instead of 5 grams instant yeast, you can use slightly more than 6 grams of active dry yeast (5 x 1.25 = 6.25). You’ll need to dissolve it in the milk first, though, and allow it to bubble up before adding it with the wet ingredients.

About using a stand mixer
I’ve never successfully made this bread without using a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can try using a food processor.

If I were to attempt to make this bread in a food processor, I’d begin by processing the butter, sugar, eggs, and vinegar first until very well-combined. Then add the remaining ingredients and process fully.

White Gluten Free Fruit Cake

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 13, 2020 | Posted In: Cakes, Christmas, Quick Breads

This recipe for gluten free fruit cake is packed with colorful, delicious, fruits—and actually tastes good. Douse it in spirits or simple syrup, or serve it fresh.

White fruit cake slices on brown paper

Why we make fun of fruit cake/why this recipe is no joke

I think we Americans are at fault for making fruit cake into a joke. I think we didn’t necessarily have the palate for it, but started buying it and then making it—and made it bad.

Bad fruit cake is too dense, has fruit that is cloyingly sweet, or simply isn’t to your individual tastes. Make it yourself, and you can eliminate every one of those concerns.

This is a recipe for white fruit cake, which just means that it’s blond in color, not deep brown, like dark fruit cake. I became optimistic about making a really good gluten free fruit cake only when I learned of the idea of white fruit cake.

The cake is incredibly moist and flavorful, and of course the fruit is plentiful. But you choose the type of fruit, and you don’t use anything that is covered in jelly.

large glass measuring cup filled with yellow, green, and red candied fruit

The best fruit for fruit cake

The original fruit cakes were undoubtedly not made with the sort of candied fruit we use today. I’m sure they were made with lovely dried plums, and apricots, soaked in spirits.

Instead of less beautiful, but perhaps more flavorful, dried fruits, I used candied fruits made by Paradise brand. I bought them on amazon.com, but they’re available during the holiday season in most U.S. grocery stores.

You can use their “fancy” mix, or buy individual containers of different varieties. The containers don’t say whether you can store any of the fruit for later use after the container is opened. But with all that sugar I can’t see why not!

I almost always add some golden raisins to the mix. They’re still beautiful, and I prefer to have a bit of dried fruit for texture.

Please be sure to rinse all of the candied fruit first, or at least most of it, or your fruit cake will simply be too dense and it will be much more fragile. Plus, the taste will go from delicious to intensely sweet in an artificial way. But mostly, rinse the jelly off because of the chemistry ? of it all.

White fruit cake batter in pan lined with white paper overhead image

How to cure your fruit cake (optional)

Many people douse their fruit cake after baking with rum, brandy, or dry sherry. This fruit cake recipe can be “cured” in that way, and there are full instructions in the recipe below.

You’ll simply pour about one tablespoon onto the top of the just-baked cake, and one tablespoon on the bottom. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and let it absorb the liquid as it sits.

You’ll add more liquid just about every other day, wrapping it tightly in between and storing in a cool, dark place, for the first week. Then, douse it again once or even twice a week until you’re ready to serve it.

You can also soak a large piece of cheesecloth in the spirits, then wrap that around the cake. I find that to be a much messier option, but if that is your fruit cake practice, do as you usually do.

If you want to slice it thinly after curing, refrigerate it for 8 hours (still wrapped tightly) before serving.

What spirits to use

Never cook or bake with any wine or spirit you would not like to drink. You will be concentrating the flavors, so you should really like it.

Brandy is a common spirit to use for curing fruit cake. Made from grapes and/or other fruits, brandy without flavoring should be naturally gluten free (but check labels and with manufacturers).

Rum, made from sugar cane, is also a nice spirit for curing. Like brandy, without additives, it should be naturally gluten free.

Dry sherry is also nice for cooking, but it tends to be a bit extra sweet. It’s really a matter of taste.

How to make a simple syrup to use instead

To keep my fruit cake (mostly) alcohol free (aside from the little bit of dry sherry in the cake batter), I prefer to douse my fruit cake in a simple syrup. It moistens and preserves the cake, creating a denser texture that lends itself to thin slices.

It’s so easy to make the rich simple syrup that you can use in place of alcohol for curing. To make any quantity of rich simple syrup, you’ll need 2 parts granulated sugar and 1 part water.

Cook the sugar and water mixture in a small, heavy-bottom saucepan over medium-low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture just begins to thicken. For example, you could use 1 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup water.

To flavor the syrup, add some citrus rind to the mixture while it cooks. Allow the mixture to cool completely and store in a container at room temperature. I like to keep the rind I used in the bottle with the cooled syrup, to continue to flavor it.

White fruit cake soaked in syrup wrapped in plastic in loaf pan

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

You should be able to replace the butter in the cake with vegan butter. My favorite brands are Miyoko’s Kitchen and Melt brands. I wouldn’t use Earth Balance buttery sticks, since the cake is already so moist and that has extra moisture.

Eggs

Since the only lift in the whole recipe comes from eggs, and there are 4 of them in one loaf, I do not recommend trying to make this fruit cake with an egg replacer. I wish I had better news!

Fruit

Please see the discussion above about the fruit in this fruit cake.

Spirits/simple syrup

Please see the discussion above about how to make simple syrup, and what spirits you can use to cure this white fruit cake.

slices of white fruit cake with one closeup

Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins | Quick & Easy

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 11, 2020 | Posted In: Breakfast & Brunch, Holidays, Muffins

These moist and tender gluten free pumpkin muffins are made with simple pumpkin puree, plenty of pumpkin pie spice, and a few chocolate chips.

Whole pumpkin chocolate chip muffin on small white plate

What makes these pumpkin muffins special

I love making pumpkin recipes with pumpkin butter, which is just pumpkin puree with added juice and warm pumpkin spices, cooked down to reduce moisture and intensify flavors. But this recipe is different.

To bake with pumpkin butter, you have to have made some (recipe linked below) or bought some, and it takes a bit of time to make. I usually have pumpkin butter in my refrigerator around this time of year, but it feels like a commodity.

Pumpkin butter also has added sugar, even if it’s unrefined pure maple syrup. And sugar is sugar.

This recipe for gluten free pumpkin muffins is made in one bowl, with no advance planning. They’re not particularly high in sugar (3/4 cup in all 12 muffins), and they’re dense but tender and incredibly moist and flavorful.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffin cut in half on small white plate

How to bake with pumpkin puree

I can’t stop myself from baking with pumpkin, both from a can and from a whole roasted pumpkin (who doesn’t love toasted pumpkin seeds?!), but it can be tricky.

Pumpkin puree has quite a lot of moisture, and its pumpkin flavor is not really as intense as you might think. My usual solution is to begin by making a batch of homemade pumpkin butter, and this time of year I always have some in the refrigerator.

But I wanted the ease of simple gluten free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that require no advance prep, and still have bright pumpkin flavor. (I am now giving thanks to my family for enduring batch after batch after batch of this and that pumpkin muffin over the past couple weeks ?)

Quick and Easy Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, Step by Step

These gluten free pumpkin muffins have it all

Ease of preparation (30 minutes start to finish)
Intense pumpkin flavor (the right balance of ingredients + a bit more pumpkin pie spice)
moist and tender muffin lightly sweet muffin that’s perfect for breakfast or a snack.

Check ✔️ check ✔️ check ✔️.

Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins baked in muffin tin

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

In place of the butter, I recommend trying vegan butter. My favorite brands are Melt and Miyoko’s Kitchen. I don’t recommend using Earth Balance buttery sticks, as they have too much moisture and may cause the muffins to rise and then sink.

In place of buttermilk, use half plain nondairy yogurt by volume and half nondairy milk by volume. You can also use those proportions if you can have dairy, but don’t have buttermilk. It works really well.

If you’re dairy-free, make sure your chocolate chips are dairy-free.

Eggs

There are two eggs in this recipe, and that is usually the upper limit for replacing eggs with one “chia egg” each. For each “chia egg,” place 1 tablespoon of ground white chia seeds and 1 tablespoon lukewarm water in a small bowl, mix, and allow to gel.

Pumpkin puree

This recipe is created to be made with canned, single-ingredient pumpkin puree, not pumpkin butter, which is a more concentrated version that is cooked down with sweetener and spices. The extra moisture that pumpkin puree has, compared to pumpkin butter, is needed here.

If you would like to make your own pumpkin puree using a fresh pumpkin, you can click through in the link above and follow the instructions there—but stop short of making pumpkin butter.

Since much canned pumpkin puree is actually made from other types of squash, not actual pumpkins, you can try using another type of squash. Your muffins may end up being less orange in color, and taste a bit different, but the recipe would still work.

A close up of the inside of a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin on a white plate

Gluten Free Cowboy Cookies

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 6, 2020 | Posted In: Christmas, Cookies, Desserts, Holidays

Gluten free cowboy cookies are chewy and hearty, with just the right amount of chocolate chips in a big, generous cookie packed with oats and coconut chips.

Cowboy cookies arranged overlapping on white cake plate

The cowboy cookies origin story

I’m no cowboy, and frankly I was always kind of neutral about Laura Bush, but these are some seriously good cookies. I don’t think she “invented” cowboy cookies. Clearly, Tipper Gore didn’t stand a chance with her gingersnap cookies.

I love snappy, spicy gingersnaps, but if I’m entering a contest I’m not showing up with that. Even just visually, a cookie with mix-ins beats a straight-up cutout cookie with no frosting, no nothing, any day of the week.

Let’s ignore that, as recently as election year 2000, Family Circle Magazine held a cookie bake-off between the presidential candidates’ wives, Tipper Gore and Laura Bush. That certain wifely stereotype, like that’s all that they’re good for, has thankfully been upended (right?).

I’m just in it for the cookies anyway. My gluten free cowboy cookies are chewy and hearty (oats!), with just the right amount of chocolate chips in a big, generous gluten free chocolate chip cookie.

Raw cowboy cookies on white paper on tray

A nubby, hearty cookie

My version of gluten free cowboy cookies, seen in these photos and the how-to video, don’t spread much, if at all, during baking. I cut back on the butter called for in the original recipe (or at least Laura Bush’s version of it).

I wanted a thick cookie that was crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. So shape them before baking in the manner in which you’d like them to turn out after baking.

This is not the type of cookie you’re going to eat when it’s gooey, as it has a crisp outside when it cools. After baking and before they’re cool, the cookies will be fragile. After they’re mostly cool, their crisp and nubby texture outside makes them very stable.

Closeup image of baked cowboy cookies on baking tray

What the raw cookie dough is like

This cookie dough doesn’t happen to be especially sticky, even though the cookies are chewy inside. Often, the chewiest cookies begin with the stickiest cookie dough.

These cookies are made in one bowl, using what’s called the “reverse cream” method, where the wet ingredients are mixed into the dry. This way we don’t add much air to the cookie dough, which preserves the hearty, chewy flavor.

There’s enough butter and eggs to moisten all of the dry ingredients, but you may find that some of the most dry ingredients seem to resist combining. Just keep pressing the underside of the bowl of the spoon or spatula you are using for mixing into the wet ingredients so they absorb the flour.

Mix the dough with a spoon for as long as you can before switching to using clean, dry hands to knead the dough together. If you touch the dough with your hands too soon, too many wet ingredients will stick to your fingers.

I don’t recommend using a handheld mixer, since beaters will aerate the dough too much. But you can use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and make quick work of making the dough.

Stack of cowboy cookies with one on its side

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

In place of the butter in this recipe, I recommend trying Melt or Miyoko’s Kitchen brand vegan butter. I don’t recommend Earth Balance buttery sticks, as they contain too much moisture and your cookies will spread too much and potentially burn before they’re nicely browned.

If you’re dairy-free, be careful about your chocolate chips. There are plenty of gluten free varieties of semi sweet chocolate chips. You could use any other sort of chip you like for a different flavor profile.

Eggs

There are two eggs in this recipe. Try replacing each of them with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel).

Oats

Purity protocol gluten free oats are, indeed, safely gluten free. If you can’t find those sort of oats, or you simply won’t eat them, you can try using beaten rice in their place (for more detail on oat substitutions in baking <—click over).

Coconut chips

If you think you don’t care for coconut, you might not be familiar with the good type of coconut (just an idea). are you thinking of the bagged, shredded sweetened coconut?

If you’ve never tried the wide, flat coconut flakes that are sometimes called coconut chips, I submit that you’re selling coconut short. If you want to replace it here, though, maybe try an equal amount, by weight, of chopped nuts.

The coconut chips are adding flavor and texture, but not really entering into the chemical reaction in any meaningful way. So experiment away!

Cowboy cookies baked on white paper on tray

Gluten Free Cream of Chicken Soup | Potato and Mushroom Varieties

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 4, 2020 | Posted In: Basics, D.I.Y. Fridays, Dinner, Soup

Learn to master the simple roux base to make homemade gluten free cream of chicken soup, and bring back all of those old favorite recipes your family loves. Potato and mushroom varieties, too!

Cream of chicken soup in a glass jar with parsley pieces on top and a clean spoon on a cloth

Progresso and Pacific Foods make gluten free cream of condensed soups, but they’re not always available, are expensive, and of course they’re not as good as what you can make at home. With this homemade recipe, you can use exactly the herbs and spices you like.

Let me show you how to make your own homemade gluten free cream of mushroom, gluten free cream of potato and gluten free cream of chicken soup, and you decide if it’s worth a few minutes of your time—at least some of the time!

What makes them condensed soups?

Cream of condensed soups are made with a roux, which is just a mixture of butter and flour used to thicken sauces. A condensed soup has less moisture, and concentrated flavors.

All of the ingredients are thickened and reduced (moisture removed by cooking). They are great starting points for all types of recipes, and can be thinned with milk or chicken or vegetable stock to make a hearty meal, quickly.

It’s important that you use my basic gum-free gluten free flour blend, which is a very simple mixture of superfine white rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour (linked below). With a gum-containing gluten free flour blend, you will have one gummy mess on your hands—and in your pots and your utensils.

Fingers holding spoon with closeup on spoonful of cream of chicken soup

How to cook the chicken for cream of chicken soup

The cream of chicken soup calls for cooked cubed chicken. But you can make it without adding in the chicken at the end and it still tastes amazing.

You can also use shredded rotisserie chicken if you can find a safe, gluten free variety, and your family likes the flavor. The way I cook plain chicken breasts, they have a more neutral flavor that doesn’t compete with the herbs and spices added to the soup.

My favorite method for cooking plain skinless boneless chicken breasts

Place the raw breasts in a lined or greased casserole dish. Drizzle them lightly with olive oil, sprinkle lightly with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cover completely with parchment paper placed directly on top of it, covering the chicken completely.

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Place the dish in the hot oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest portion of each breast reads at least 165°F. Allow to rest outside the oven, still covered, for 10 minutes before dicing.

Gluten Free Cream of Chicken, Mushroom & Potato Soups

How the mushroom and potato varieties are different

Don’t be intimidated by the list of ingredients, as it’s mostly the same for each of the 3 varieties. I wanted you to have all of the recipes in one place, so I listed them together. But once you master the basic roux-based technique, you’ll be able to bring back all of those old favorite recipes your family loves.

The simplest variety cream of soup is the cream of mushroom soup, as the mushrooms cook down very quickly in the beginning of the process right along with the shallots. Plus, they add really nice depth of flavor.

If you’re thinking about making a classic gluten free green bean casserole, cream of mushroom is a must. The cream of potato soup is a bit extra creamy because of the diced potatoes that simmer in the soup as it reduces and thickens.

Overhead image of spoonful of cream of chicken soup in black spoon over pan

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

The only dairy in the main recipe for gluten free cream of chicken soup, plus the other varieties, is butter to saute the shallots, and evaporated milk to enrich the sauce. They’re both pretty easily replaced if you have the right nondairy substitutes.

To replace the butter, I think you’d be successful using nearly any nondairy butter substitute, even Earth Balance buttery sticks. Since Earth Balance sticks have more moisture, you should allow the roux to cook lower and slower, so it doesn’t burn but the moisture cooks off.

To replace the evaporated milk, Carnation makes a nondairy cooking milk in a small carton that is reduced down to a similar moisture content. If you use a “regular” nondairy milk, use something unsweetened and neutral-tasting, like almond milk.

If your milk isn’t reduced-moisture, either reduce it separately in a saucepan, stirring constantly over medium-low heat, or add more milk and cook longer. Either way, you’ll have to cook off that extra moisture or your soup will be too thin.

Some readers have reported successfully replacing the evaporated milk with a mixture of half canned coconut milk and half “regular” nondairy milk. I think “light” coconut milk in the can might work, too—but really you’re just paying for thick coconut milk and water so I never buy the light kind.

Basic Gluten Free Pizza Dough

By Nicole Hunn | Published: November 3, 2020 | Posted In: Basics, Breads, Pizza, Popular

A basic recipe for gluten free pizza dough is one of the single most important staples to have in your kitchen. It’s super simple to make, freezes well, and defrosts easily.

Pizza night = a night off!

It’s so easy to make this basic gluten free pizza crust that the day you make it for dinner, it’ll feel like a night off. I promise. I first started Friday night pizza nights in my house when my oldest child started full-day kindergarten.

All daughter could talk about was that they served pizza in the school cafeteria every single Friday. The kids lined up forever to buy it—and you know it most likely wasn’t very good. But they got it every Friday!

By the end of the week, I’m usually worn out from a week of work and the last thing I want to do fuss with a multi-step meal. Gluten free pizza is about all I can manage!

Why is this the basic gluten free pizza?

For so many years, this was my tried and true pizza crust recipe—until I wrote Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread. When I wrote that book, I thought I had turned the page from recipes like this basic crust forever.

This recipe, and others like my gluten free sandwich bread and Japanese milk bread use only an all purpose gluten free flour blend instead of the “bread flour” blend with whey protein isolate in it from the book.

If you’re curious about the newer pizza recipes, the Thick Crust Gluten Free Pizza from the book is reprinted right here on the blog. You can find out how to make our gluten free bread flour on the flour blends page.

But this recipe has slowly worked its way back into our regular Friday night rotation, and I’m finding that in some ways my family and I actually prefer it to the newer recipes. Let me explain…

What’s in gluten free bread flour?

The gluten free bread flour blend from Gluten Free on a Shoestring Bakes Bread is a combination of an all purpose gluten free flour blend like Better Batter, whey protein isolate plus Expandex modified tapioca starch (affiliate link).

Whey protein isolate is simply a milk protein powder that is nearly 100% protein and is often used for bodybuilding and low carb recipes these days. I’ve found that it behaves a lot like gluten in baking.

However, whey protein isolate tends to make raw dough very soft. Together with Expandex modified tapioca starch, it allows for the creation of gluten free bread recipes that look, feel and taste more like conventional yeast bread.

The gluten free bread flour and the recipes in GFOAS Bakes Bread is so important to me and valuable to readers. But I understand that its reach is limited.

If you can purchase whey protein isolate and Expandex, and tolerate dairy you can and should use the gluten free bread flour. There is no perfect nondairy substitute for whey protein isolate.

Whey protein isolate in gluten free bread flour

The whey protein is essential to the gluten free bread flour since milk protein (casein) is the protein that behaves most like wheat gluten in baking applications. Chemically ?, they’re very similar. ?

But that means that I can’t provide viable suggestions for a dairy-free version of those recipes. Baking with whey protein does cause the dough to relax quite a bit.

Expandex modified tapioca starch is amazing when you’re trying to create the “chew” of conventional, gluten-containing bread. The combination of whey protein isolate and Expandex, plus our all purpose gluten free flour, creates gluten free bread flour.

In the bread book, I recommend a few dairy-free substitutes for whey protein isolate (pea protein isolate and rice protein isolate). None of them is a perfect substitute. Plus, each requires that you use 150% of the liquid the original recipe calls for, which nearly defeats the purpose of using protein powder.

Modified tapioca starch in bread flour

Expandex, a chemically (not genetically) modified tapioca starch, has only one substitute: Ultratex 3. It’s another version of a similar modified tapioca starch that appears to be 3 times as strong as Expandex.

In this basic gluten free pizza recipe, I’ve discovered that I really like replacing some of the flour blend with a bit of Expandex. Expandex makes the dough easier to handle when raw and chewier when baked.

Expandex it even helps you get those blisters in the parbaked crust that you see in these photos. Plus, the leftover slices actually taste great right out of the refrigerator, like leftover pizza properly should!

If you’d like to use Ultratex 3 in place of Expandex, try using 12 grams of Ultratex 3 (instead of 36 grams of Expandex). Then, increase the all purpose gluten free flour by 24 grams to make up the difference.

Since Ultratex seems to be more available outside the U.S. than Expandex, I’ve located a few online resources for Ultratex 3 in various countries. For details, please see our GF Resources page.

Can I make this pizza dough ahead of time?

One of my favorite things about pizza night is the ease of it. I never recommend freezing raw yeast dough, since it can kill the yeast if the temperature drops too low.

But there are two ways to make this dough ahead of time—and make your life so easy:

Make the raw dough up to 3 days ahead of time

The whole recipe for the pizza dough can be made up to 3 days ahead of time and stored in a tightly-sealed container in the refrigerator. It’s best to work with the dough cold, so you’ll shape it right out of the refrigerator.

Be careful not to allow the dough to dry out in the refrigerator, as it will do if your container is not well-sealed. I always use 2 liter plastic Cambro buckets for storing dough, since the seal is perfect. If your dough dries out, it won’t rise.

Freeze the parbaked crust

If you’d prefer to have a half-baked crust on hand, dinner can be as easy as a premade, packaged frozen pizza crust. Just follow the recipe instructions through step 3 below.

After the crust has been parbaked for about 7 minutes in a 400°F oven, allow it to cool completely. Once the crust has cooled completely, wrap it very tightly. I like Glad Press n Seal freezer for this sort of thing.

Place the parbaked crust in the freezer for up to a month. Even better than Press n Seal is a food sealer that removes all trapped air from the container, since trapped air is what causes freezer burn.

Ingredients and substitutions

This recipe is naturally egg-free, which isn’t something you can often say about most gluten free bread recipes, which tend to rely upon eggs for structure.

Dairy

The crust recipe itself is already dairy-free, so no worries there. For a dairy-free shredded cheese to use as a topping, I really like Daiya brand.

Olive oil

A good-quality extra virgin olive oil really helps give this pizza dough really nice flavor. You can replace it with a neutral oil, like grapeseed, but you’ll miss the richness of the olive oil.

Expandex modified tapioca starch

For a complete discussion of how Expandex adds value to this recipe, please scroll up a bit. If you don’t have or don’t want to use Expandex, you can use 2 3/4 cups all purpose gluten free flour and make up the remaining 1/4 cup of flour with regular tapioca starch/flour.

Tapioca starch will help a bit to make the recipe chewier, although not as much as if you used Expandex. There is no need to add more water to your dough if you aren’t using modified tapioca starch.

If you’d like to see some of the many ways you can use pizza dough, check out my gluten free pizza dough web story.

Archives for November 2020

How sweet is this sweet potato casserole?

And oh, that crumble topping…

How to prepare the sweet potatoes

Can the sweet potatoes be made ahead of time?

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Eggs

Oats

What’s apple butter, and why are we baking with it?

What’s that white drizzle on top?

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Eggs

Apple butter

What to expect during the rising time

Tips on getting yeast bread to rise

When is it done rising?

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Eggs

Instant yeast

Gluten Free Brioche Bread

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Why we make fun of fruit cake/why this recipe is no joke

The best fruit for fruit cake

How to cure your fruit cake (optional)

What spirits to use

How to make a simple syrup to use instead

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Eggs

Fruit

Spirits/simple syrup

What makes these pumpkin muffins special

How to bake with pumpkin puree

These gluten free pumpkin muffins have it all

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Eggs

Pumpkin puree

The cowboy cookies origin story

A nubby, hearty cookie

What the raw cookie dough is like

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Eggs

Oats

Coconut chips

What makes them condensed soups?

How to cook the chicken for cream of chicken soup

My favorite method for cooking plain skinless boneless chicken breasts

How the mushroom and potato varieties are different

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Pizza night = a night off!

Why is this the basic gluten free pizza?

What’s in gluten free bread flour?

Whey protein isolate in gluten free bread flour

Modified tapioca starch in bread flour

Can I make this pizza dough ahead of time?

Make the raw dough up to 3 days ahead of time

Freeze the parbaked crust

Ingredients and substitutions

Dairy

Olive oil

Expandex modified tapioca starch

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