GF pumpkin muffins (cupcakes)

My neighbor recently knocked and asked to borrow some vanilla - she was baking something with friends. We gave her the vanilla and were pleasantly surprised a little later when she knocked again with the finished treat - pumpkin cupcakes. They were cute and smelled good, and were full of gluten. Chris enjoyed them. I enjoyed looking at them.

But I got the fever.

I went hunting for a pumpkin muffin recipe and made a shopping trip, stopping at Home Rule for a muffin pan and paper liners, then Whole Foods for Libby pumpkin mix (naturally gluten free proclaimed the label) and a few other necessities.

I made the recipe pretty much as directed, reducing the sugar to 1 cup (I was planning on making a frosting), putting in the whole 15 oz can of pumpkin, and omitting the cinnamon/sugar topping. I used Bob's Red Mill GF Flour one-for-one in place of regular flour. Finding I was out of pumpkin pie spice (and so was Whole Foods), I found a handy substitution engine for it on the Land O'Lakes website.

Baking, cooling...testing, icing...the result? Quite yummy I must say. I got an unsolicited and sincere "hey this is good" from Chris. I enjoyed both iced and non iced versions. They are moist and light; delicious without icing or with.


The icing is a simple confectioner's sugar, vanilla, dot of butter, milk deal. Tinker until you have the consistency you want.

Go forth and make these. Enjoy. Repeat!


Recipe here:
http://muffintop.wordpress.com/2006/11/03/pumpkin-muffins/

Pumpkin carving courtesy of Chris.

Made from scratch GF banana bread

I like bananas, but to eat them as they come, I'll admit that they have to be the perfect ripeness: not so green as to be chalky and not so ripe they become adorned with brown spots. Once that happens, I will shy away from bananas in the fruit bowl. And watch them get riper and riper (ah, ickier and ickier).

One day, my husband saw opportunity where I had carefully avoided looking (4 very overripe bananas!) and made me banana bread. I don't know why, but banana bread was never something I ate a lot, or would go out of my way to, even before my diagnosis. Needless to say, after this encounter I was drawn to its charms. See above; how could I not be?

The moistness of the bread is well suited to a GF friendly version, because gluten does not play a central role in its composition anyway. Chris found the recipe at Simply Recipes and substituted Bob's Red Mill all purpose GF flour for the regular flour in the original recipe. I think that when he made it last he had more bananas than were called for and deceased the sugar a but. We also decided that in the future we might try substituting applesauce for some of the butter. For the vanilla we use is from Penzey's.

A disappointing mix

We had a horrendous run-in with a prepackaged GF product from Whole Foods. The mists of time had fogged my memory of just how bad this stuff was and how it should be avoided at all costs. Now I know - and so do you! Below is the rant I sent to the Whole Foods customer service email. We'll see if I get a reply.

365 brand Gluten Free pizza mix

This is a very disappointing product. For starters, the directions are convoluted, overspecific and do not resemble any other pizza crust dough directions I know (GF or otherwise). Why beat the eggs 3 minutes? Why not put the yeast in the lukewarm water with the sugar? I could not discern any benefit from following the directions as written - too many steps. The directions should be modified to should just combine the dry ingredients then mix in the wet.

The dough, once you make it, completely unworkable because it is sticky beyond belief. The directions should at least warn of this, and provide some means or suggestions to handle the dough. It cannot be kneaded or really touched. The only way I could cope with it was to heavily oil my fingers/utensil to move it around - not good.

The result, when baked, hardly resembles pizza dough. At best, it could be said to resemble focaccia. The mix makes a crust which is flavorless and pouffy. At least it does not have a grainy mouthfeel, but that is its only positive factor.

I expected way better, Whole Foods, particularly as the frozen 365 gluten free pizza prepared crusts are fairly decent!

GF cereal option

It must be said that in the past four years I've really become a hot breakfast person. Earlier in life I was much enamored of cereals, but I eventually found that eating eggs in the morning kept me going longer, plus when diagnosed with celiac many of the egg accompaniments (and eggs themselves) are best enjoyed hot: potatoes, grits, GF toast, etc.

However, fast forward to this fall and trying to figure out how to feed myself in the morning whilst caring for a newborn! So I perused the local grocery aisle, looking vainly (at first) for a good GF cereal that was not a ginormous bag of corn flakes! Also, there are a number of wheat free cereals on the market that aren't gluten free...so those aren't an option for me either.

After some lurking and looking, I found this nice little box of Perky's Nutty Rice cereal. As promised, it does stay satisfyingly crisp to the end of the bowl. It reminds me of Rice Krispies, except this is a better, denser, more adult kind of version.

Check it out!

Perky's Nutty Rice cereal

http://www.perkysnaturalfoods.com/nuttycereals.asp