Review: Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust

Well it’s a different Good Friday this year…pandemic, everyone is to self isolate and home quarantine, so we decided to make homemade gluten free pizza!

I had a package of Bob’s Red Mill in the pantry. I followed the directions as per the bag. Simple ingredients needed: warm water, eggs and oil. It was easy to mix. * I did add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning to the dough just for added flavour. This is what it looked like just before covering to let rise:

After the 20 minutes (I left mine longer). As I was busy cooking bacon, chopping mushrooms; …prepping to top the pizza!

This is what it looked like after letting it rest:

I took my time with spreading out the dough and heavily greased my hands with butter. I decided to place a sheet of parchment paper over top of my pizza stone. I sprinkled corn meal over the paper.

I found the dough easily spread out over the stone/paper. I tried hard to make a thin crust.

I did not follow the recommendation to bake the crust for 7-9 minutes before putting on sauce and toppings.

I immediately just put sauce and toppings on. I preheated the oven to 425F. I baked for 25minutes and it came out lovely.

It’s a nice crust!

Easy to make!

The crust does have a very yeast flavour – so I do find adding a seasoning (such as Italian seasoning) to the dough helps.

But it is nice to make a homemade pizza every once in a while.

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Gluten Free Orange Almond Cake

So when I’m feeling a bit stressed or anxious, I like to bake. It’s very relaxing.

Thankfully, everyone is posting lots of great ideas (recipes) to try. A lovely gluten free bakery in Toronto – The Almond Butterfly ( https://www.almondbutterfly.com/) posted and shared a recipe for everyone to try!

Hopefully I do it justice – and my family is in luck during this pandemic as we have all the ingredients.

Ingredients

2 medium size oranges

6 eggs

250g white sugar (1 cup)

275g almond flour (2 cups and just under 1/2 cup)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1) Place whole oranges with peel in a medium saucepan. Cover with water & bring to a boil. Reduce to a medium to low heat for 1 hour.

Then drain and let cool completely.

2) preheat oven to 350. Line pan with parchment paper.

3) remove seeds from oranges. Cut into quarters.

Put into blender. Blend until smooth uniform consistency.

4) In a large bowl, add eggs and sugar. Whisk until sugar dissolves into eggs. * If you don’t whisk enough it will leave a weird texture*

5) Add orange purée and whisk again.

6) add almond flour, baking powder and mix until all combined. * Do not over mix

7) Pour into pan

8) Bake 1 hour or until nicely browned on top and springs back when pressed

I didn’t take a picture of the cooked top – here is a pic of my flipped cake

It was (the top) spongey and a uniform brown when I took it out of the oven.

Highly recommend to serve with ice cream.

Enjoy!

Easy Gluten Free dinner biscuits

I’ve been seeing online and especially on Facebook lots of “easy peasy” simple based bread recipes – but all for gluten based breads.

I was curious, if this one I had found could easily transfer for gluten free!? And it does!! Even our young daughter enjoyed them.

This quick, simple recipe makes 5 biscuits

Ingredients

1 cup Gluten Free Flour (I used PC Gluten Free All Purpose)

1 teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 cup Milk

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1) Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine all ingredients. It will be very sticky.

I ended up using my hands at the end to mould the biscuits into balls

2) Place biscuits in buttered pan

3) cook for 15 minutes. I then broiled for a couple minutes to brown the tops.

They are perfect to be eaten immediately out of oven!

Enjoy with butter!

Hope you enjoy these as much as my family does!

Gluten free whipped shortbread

Thanks to all purpose gluten free flours – no one will know this recipe is gluten free! Trust me!

This recipe is a family favourite and simple to whip together!

Ingredients

1/2 cup soften butter

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 cup all purpose gluten free flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1tsp vanilla

1) Beat butter & icing sugar sugar until very smooth.

2) Add flour and cornstarch. Beat until light and fluffy.

3)Add vanilla.

4) Drop by teaspoon on to cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

5) Bake at 325 until edges are light brown.

These are melt in your mouth, pieces of heaven!

You are welcome!

Review: Epicure Shepherds Pie

Shepherds pie is one of my favourites. But in a busy household, it rarely gets made. It’s talked about often; something that should be made. But isn’t. So when I saw Epicure selling a seasoning package – I thought I would try.

While it did take time (About 45 minutes) – not as long as if I made it from scratch!

first I put the seasoning pack into 1 1/4 cup water; set aside.

While the package recommends microwaving potatoes, I diced mine up and boiled them for 15 minutes.

While they were cooking I browned 1 lb of lean ground beef. I stirred in the reserved seasoning mixture, brought to a boil, reduced heat and simmered for 2 minutes.

Then I added in frozen corn.

While that was heating, I mashed the potatoes.

I stirred in 1/2 cup of milk with 1/4 cup of butter, while mashing the potatoes.

While the package said to just top meat mixture with potatoes and serve, I was going to make “Traditional” shepherds pie

I pulled out my casserole dish. Filled it with the meat mixture and topped with the mashed potatoes. Put in a preheated oven at 350. I then set it to broil to crisp up the potatoes.

Served hot to the family it was a hit

Review: Epicure Pad Thai

Since I enjoyed the Greek Dressing Mix I decided to try the Pad Thai. Ofcourse, the night I decide to make it, I have no chicken or shrimp or peppers. Instead I substituted calamari and spiralled up some garden fresh zucchini. Guess what?!

It was delicious!

It was super simple too!!

Make up the Epicure Pad Thai seasoning pack and set aside.

I spiralled up some fresh zucchini and set aside.

I quickly sautéed up some frozen calamari while boiling up some broad rice noodles. I like to slightly undercook the rice noodles as I then throw them into my frying pan.

As the rice noodles are draining, heat up the frying pan with a tablespoon of sesame seed oil. Then drop in the zucchini noodles. Sauté them up a bit before adding the rice noodles.

Then pour in sauce.

Add 2 beaten eggs and stir-fry.

Just before serving add the juice of 1 lime. Top with the calamari and chopped nuts (if desired)

This is a family hit! Even without all the traditional ingredients!!

** if you really want to bring this recipe to the next level and have on hand- cook up some calamari & shrimp with fresh chopped garlic & butter. Then add to the pad Thai before serving! Such another flavour fusion

Sour Cream Peach Pie

I grew up eating traditional peach pie. Similar to a basic apple pie recipe. Then I meet my future husband and all he talks about is his love for peach pie. So I do what every new girlfriend would do. Bake a pie.

But my pie was not like his moms….. where was my cream filling?!?!

My pie was not what he was envisioning …so I had to learn how to make it.

The creamy filling compliments the peaches and has become a regular staple come peach season. Enjoy!

Ingredients

9inch unbaked gluten free pie shell

3/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup gluten free flour

1/2 tsp almond extract

4cups peaches, peeled and cut

1/4 cup brown sugar

1) Get your crust and pie shell ready. Set aside.

2) To start, it’s best to put peaches in hot water to help them peel easier.

Let them sit in the water while making the cream. Trust me! They will peel so nicely.

3) combine sour cream, sugar, flour and almond extract. Stir until smooth.

4) Alternate layers of peaches and cream mixture in pie shell ending with cream mixture.

5) Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 20minutes then reduce to 350 degrees.

Bake until filling is thick and bubbly about 35minutes.

6) Sprinkle with the brown sugar and broil until gold brown. *beware it can burn quickly. Keep an eye on it*

Cool before cutting

Enjoy!!

Pear Salad

Pear salad …..so amazing. It’s more a summer salad. But as we near the end of winter, we need some reminder of warm summer nights.

If you have never tried this version of pear salad — you must! You won’t be sorry!! And if you want to show off to friends and family – make this salad the next time they are over!

The red wine vinegar and Dijon mustard help give the dressing the right amount of zing, while the goat cheese brings the settle balance to the sweetness of the Bartlett pear.

Ingredients

Spring salad mix

2 Bartlett pears (Dice up 1pear per person)

125g Soft unripened goat’s milk cheese – crumbled

2/3 cup olive oil

6 tablespoons red wine vinegar

3 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 cloves diced garlic

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cracked pepper (or more to taste/preference)

200g crushed pecans

1/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1) In a frypan over medium heat, stir 1/4 cup of sugar with the pecans. Continue to stir gently until sugar melts and caramelizes. Be patient. Don’t turn up the heat or it will burn. Trust me.

Carefully cool on parchment paper.

2) In a 1 cup glass measuring cup blend the oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper. Let it sit for atleast an hour. Ideally, the longer it rests, the better the dressing flavours blend together. I try to make it the morning of the day I want to enjoy.

This dressing recipe makes enough for 4+ servings. The dressing is even flavour wise better the following day.

3) I layer lettuce, goat cheese, diced pear and candies pecans.

Layer 1:

Layer 2:

Drizzle the salad dressing over top and serve promptly. Enjoy!!

Review: The Wheatless Gourmet Gluten Free Puff Pastry Sheets

I was so excited when I saw this product!! Finally Gluten Free Puff pastry?!?! Eeek

So I bought some at our local gluten free specialty bakery. They warned me on purchased, it took some time to get use to when baking but I ignored any warnings – I was sold at gluten free puff pastry.

First reality check is the lovely puff pastry pictures are only suggestions – it’s a frozen log that takes waaaaay longer than the 20 minutes suggested to thaw. I found closer to 40 minutes.

Once ready, set up your area. I put down my parchment, with a sprinkling of Gluten Free Flour. I gently rollout out a square. I hardly modified how it came due to this being the first time.

Ahead of time, I fixed up 2 apples. Threw them in a fry pan with some unsalted butter, a couple of Tablespoons of ground cinnamon, a splash of orange juice, a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and a few heaping tablespoons of brown sugar.

I stirred and let them lightly cook for about 15 minutes.

Set aside.

About a tablespoon or so of room temperature cream cheese as a base, on the pastry then put the cooled apple topping on top. Fold over.

I found I was able to make 3 large apple turnovers with one box.

I did use an egg wash to seal the ends and sprinkled sugar on top before placing into a preheated 350F oven.

Cooked for about 40minutes.

Oh. My. God. It tastes light and just like I remember gluten puff pastry to taste like. Delicious.

A nice alternative to making pastry from scratch! It will take getting use to and will be considered a treat but a nice option to have!

**this review was not sponsored**

Gluten-Free Mushroom Pepper Chicken Linguine

Leftover gluten free linguine, chicken, ……not sure what to have for dinner. Do I make something new or try to use up the leftovers?!

Let’s see what I can put together with our leftovers….

Ingredients

1clove garlic. Diced

1/2 an onion. Diced.

Cup of sliced mushrooms

1 pepper. sliced.

1/2 cup butter.

3/4 cup vegetable broth

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper.

Diced chicken

1) Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a heated fry pan set on medium heat. Add garlic and onion. Sauté for 4 minutes.

2) Add peppers. Add 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir. Sauté for another 4 minutes.

3) Add the rest of the butter to pan. Add mushrooms. Sauté for 5 min.

4) Add in diced chicken and broth. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve. Enjoy!