Gluten Free German Chocolate Cake

I've only made German Chocolate cake once before, but I just used a gluten free mix, and I wasn't that impressed with it. I know that my sister loves to make this for her family because it's surprisingly easy to make it dairy free as well with some simple substitutions.
I was debating which recipe to use for the cake when I noticed that Bette Hagman's recipe was almost identical to the recipe found in the package of Baker's Sweet German Chocolate that I was going to use, except she added the eggs whole instead of separating them, so I used her recipe. I did however use the Baker's method of creating three layers and their recipe for more of the coconut-pecan frosting. It was a big hit at my house.

German Chocolate Cake

2 1/4 cups GF mix
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Egg Replacer
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz Baker's Sweet German Chocolate
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 9" cake pans.
In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients (from flour through salt). Set aside
In a microwavable bowl, combine the chocolate and hot water, and heat on medium power for about a minute, or until chocolate melts. Set aside.
In mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pour in chocolate and vanilla and blend. Add the flour alternately with the buttermilk, in two additions. Beat on low speed until well blended. Spoon into prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, shifting pans around every ten minutes so that each bakes evenly.
Let cool in pans for 15 minutes, then turn onto cooling rack. Frost when cakes are completely cooled.
Coconut-pecan frosting
4 egg yolks
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 7 oz pkg flaked cococut
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

BEAT egg yolks, milk and vanilla in large saucepan with wire whisk until well blended. Add sugar and butter; cook on medium heat 12 min. or until thickened and golden brown, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

ADD coconut and pecans; mix well. Cool to room temperature and of desired spreading consistency.

Once frosting has cooled, spread in thirds over top of each layer of cake. Serve and enjoy!

Flourless Molten Chocolate Cakes

While I really love the other recipe I've posted (and actually prefer it), I'm always being asked by non-celiacs what they can make for celiac friends, without having to buy different flours or xanthan gum. So, I decided I wanted to try out a flourless version of these favorite cakes. My friend Megan, who's a pastry chef, introduced me to TheJoyofBaking.com. I had checked it out before and bookmarked some recipes I thought would be good to try for later (Hummingbird cake, and a Pavolova) and that's where I got this recipe. I didn't deviate at all, so you can find the recipe there, but I'll also type it up here for your convenience. As I was searching for the recipe I wanted to use, I found it funny that one article I was sent to was talking about how flourless cakes are all the rage in restaurants now, and how they're almost passe. I thought that was funny since the inclusion of a flourless torte on a menu makes it so much easier for a celiac. If you can't tell, though, this family doesn't eat out much, preferring to make sure our food is gluten-free.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
6 0z (about 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate pieces (my favorites are Hershey's and Baker's)

3 eggs yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1 Tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. It's best to separate the eggs, and then let them sit for about a half hour until you whip them up. Be sure to put the egg whites into a glass or metal bowl that is clean and grease free. Otherwise, the whites won't whip up. Prepare your ramekins, or cups for baking by generously buttering them and dusting them with granulated sugar. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Combine the butter and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 1 minute. Stir until all of the chocolate melts. Set aside.

Whip the yolks with the sugar in a large bowl. Whip them for a few minutes, until they are pale and fluffy, and drop like ribbons from the beaters. Beat in the vanilla. Slowly fold in the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites until they're frothy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar until the peaks become stiff and glossy. Fold into the chocolate mixture.

Fill your prepared ramekins about 3/4 of the way full. Place baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until cakes a cooked, but are still a bit gooey in the center. Try not to over bake. Pull them out of the oven and let them sit only about a minute or two before removing them from their ramekins onto plates. Serve with whipped cream, powdered sugar, or my favorite, ice cream.
Enjoy!

This batter can be made ahead, but be sure to let it sit out before baking until it becomes room temperature, otherwise, it won't create the molten centers.

Basic Coconut Macaroons-Cholocolate Dipped

We were quite nervous and anxious for our first dinner party after John's diagnosis. We had no idea if John would be able to eat anything, and didn't want to offend the host. Thankfully, she knew he was celiac and had gone to great lengths to cook his chicken without any flour leaving off the sauce, to dress her own salad with oil and vinegar (no croutons) and even make polenta as the side dish. Then, she made excellent ricotta cream tarts (she set aside cream and berries in a bowl for John) and chocolate dipped macaroons. This was honestly the first time I had even thought about Macaroons as being an easy thing to make gluten free. Especially in its most basic recipe, which I prefer for its excellent chewyness. It's now a recipe that I crave often, and I made on a whim last night.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 14 oz bag of sweetened flake coconut
1 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients together. Drop by spoonful onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I try to smash the lumps down a bit. I like my cookies to be a bit flatter, so they brown better and are chewy throughout. If they're in balls, the centers don't cook so well, and I don't like them as much. The cookies will spread a bit, so keep that in mind. I wondered last night while making them if it would be good to add a tablespoon or two of flour to try to keep that spreading at bay.
Bake in a 350 oven for 10 minutes, turning once during cooking to brown evenly.

I remove the entire sheet of parchment to the cooling rack since the individual cookies are still quite sticky. Once they're dried a bit and are easy to pull off the parchment, I melt some dark chocolate in a shallow bowl. My favorite thing to use it just Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips. Then, I drop the cookie in the bowl, and push the chocolate up around the sides. Then, lift it with a fork or spoon and drop it back on the parchment to cool overnight. They're simple, but they're also elegant.

GF Oreos, Softer Version with Peanut Butter Filling

I'm always changing my recipes, depending on the day and what I want. I've been wanting to adjust the Oreo recipe to make it slightly softer, a bit more cake like. I've also wanted to play around with the butter, and see what combination works the best. And today, I've been in a Reese's kind of mood, and I thought that a peanut butter frosting would make a great center for these cookies. So, here's the newer, softer GF Oreo:

3/4 cup Featherlight flour
1/2 cup GF flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 cup Special Dark cocoa
1 small pkg chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup sugar (I think this could be bumped up, even to a full cup)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine + 2 Tbsp butter
2 eggs

Mix together dry ingredients. Add softened butter and combine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Divide into small, even balls, flatten. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes on parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

Frosting

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat together butters until nice and fluffy. Add sifted powdered sugar, mix on low until combined, then mix on medium speed until light and fluffy.
This makes for a thicker filling for the oreos. It's not super sweet, hence my suggestion to add more sugar to the cookie itself, but it is delicious. It's also a very large batch, so that you have plenty to use to overstuff the cookies. For this filling, I just frosted one cookie, then covered it with a cookie of similar size. As you can see, these cookies are nearly as perfect and round as the others I made, but I kind of like the rough look of these. They're small, only about 1 1/2 to 2 inchs in diameter, I'm just zooming in a lot on the cookie. The pictures almost make them look like whoopie pies, but they're really just like a double-stuffed Oreo.

GF Homemade Chocolate Sandwich Cookies (fake Oreos)

So, it was my love of all things cheesecake that brought me to discover this recipe and start to modify it. I've posted it on my family blog before, but have since changed it, and I plan to tweak it again. These make such an excellent crust for cheesecakes requiring a chocolate cookie crust. I guess it was actually the frosting that got me thinking I could make a good oreo. For my daughter's first birthday, I made a chocolate cake. I wanted white frosting, but I didn't want a buttercream frosting with my chocolate cake, so I devised a plan to make white chocolate frosting by modifying one of my favorite recipes from Nigella Lawson. The frosting was an amazing success and I decided it would be the perfect filling to an oreo cookie. I went online and found a gluten free fake Oreo posted on the blog "Hey, that tastes good". I made them, and liked them, have now adjusted them slightly, and here we are now. I'm posting the recipe I used to make these exact cookies.

1/2 cup GF flour
3/4 cup Featherlight mix
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa, so excellent!)
1/2 t xanthan gum
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 cup sugar
5 T unsalted butter, room temp
5 T butter flavored crisco
1 large egg plus 2 egg whites

Combine dry ingredients in a stand mixer. Add butter and shortening, in pieces, mixing on low until combined. Add eggs one at a time, then mix until incorporated. Drop by SMALL teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet lined with parchment. After you've made uniform balls, press the cookies down flat (this time I was able to use the heel of my hand to push them down, but if the dough is too sticky, I've used the underside of a glass coated continually in powdered sugar) so they will be more like a thin oreo cookie.
It's best to make these small so the chocolate cookie doesn't overwhelm the filling. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. (This temp/time combo makes a really crisp thin cookie, much like the actual oreo, but play around if you want it softer, or chewier, I know I do.)

Filling:
1 cup plus 2 T unsalted butter, room temp
2 cup powdered sugar, sifted (really, you should do it)
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted

Melt chips 1 min on high in microwave, mix until totally melted and smooth. Let sit. Beat butter until smooth. Add sifted powdered sugar. Once the butter and sugar and light and fluffy, add vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix well. Using a plastic bag with a half inch opening, pipe a generous teaspoonful of filling on one side, then top with a similar sized cookie and push together to even out the filling. This is a big amount of frosting, because they really taste great with a lot of filling. You can halve it if you'd like less. The cookies aren't very sweet, so putting them with a lot of filling makes for a great sweetness. This makes about 30 sandwich cookies.
Enjoy!

Molten Chocolate Cakes

So, recipes don't always work the way you expect them to, or even the same way each time you make them. That can be the beauty of this recipe in particular. Although I feel that it's often hard to get a consistent product, they taste good however they're cooked.
This weekend I felt like everything I made seemed to fall a bit short of my expectations. But that happens, especially since I tend to have ridiculously high expectations. I thought of not posting this recipe because of that, but this blog is about reality when baking gluten-free. When I make them again and they work better, I'll post a different picture, but this is how they turned out this time and they were still good, and everyone enjoyed them, even though there was only one celiac eating them.
It's the dense chocolate cakes that work the best with rice flour blends. I also have a recipe for these with no flour, but have used this one more consistently because of its simplicity.

4 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp GF flour

Melt the butter and chocolate in microwave safe bowl for a minute on high. Stir so that all the chocolate melts. Then mix in the powdered sugar with a wire whisk. When all of this is incorporated add the eggs and yolks. Again, whisk until all the eggs are combined. Add vanilla and flour and mix well again. Divide evenly among four greased ramekins (3/4 cup size) and bake in 425 degree oven for 12-14 minutes. Let sit for about 1 minute after removing from the oven, then run a knife around the edge of each ramekin, and turn onto a serving plate. Makes 8 servings of 1/2 a cake.

The cooking time is something that you have to watch, and tailor to your own liking. My oven rack was a little too high today, and so the tops were burning. I took them out early, but didn't want them too gooey, so in lieu of removing them from the ramekins immediately, I let them sit, and then they got too cooked, so I didn't get the lovely gooey chocolate lava I was hoping for.
As you can see, they were pretty well cooked through, but they did still taste gooey and good, just not the sort of hot fudge coming from the center I love to have. As you see in the above image, we love to serve these with ice cream. These are really rich, and, unless you're a purist, really need something to cut that. While they're good with cream, they're excellent with ice cream. Here we paired them with a great chocolate peanut butter ice cream we get from a local dairy.

Better than Anything Cake

In Utah, you'll find interesting names for things. While anything good is typically compared with sex, that's a taboo word among most Mormons. I used to find this a bit silly, but do find now with young children that it causes too many questions to give a favorite dessert such a name. I honestly think that desserts should have descriptive names, but "chocolate cake infused with caramel topped with whipped cream and toffee bits" seems a bit long. So, I liked Melissa's choice of names for this cake last night, calling it "Better than Anything". While I'm sure I can think of a few things better than this cake, last night it totally hit the spot. And to think, just a year ago I thought good gluten-free cakes were impossible. I must thank the ladies at eattingglutenfree.com for their excellent chocolate cake recipe that I have used as a base for so many of my favorites.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

1 ¾ c. GF flour
½ tsp. xanthan gum
2 c. sugar
¾ c. cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
½ c. oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 c. boiling water


Preheat oven to 350°. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Beat eggs well. Add sour cream, oil, and vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients. Slowly add boiling water, and mix well. Batter will be extremely thin. Pour into a greased and featherlight floured pan. (*You can use any type of GF flour to flour your pan- I just like the featherlight. Or you can just spray the pan with Pam.)

Bake a 9x13 pan for 35-40 min. Bake a 13x18 pan for 17-20 minutes.
I did use a touch less sugar in the base cake. Then immediately after taking it out of the oven and using a big wooden spoon, poke holes throughout the cake. Promptly fill those holes with some sort of caramel ice cream topping. I used Smucker's and it appears to be gluten-free. Then, let it cool. Directly before serving, I whipped up a pint of heavy cream with about a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon or two of vanilla. Once whipped I spread this over the cake and covered it with heath bar toffee bits.