I was right the first time

Forget what I said before, those cookies were amazing. Once they cooled, they were far better than the wheat version I made. Flavor was fantastic, and texture was perfect. They would have been reall good with nuts added...
One trick I did not mention, because I didn't think it was important: The 1/2 cup butter I happened to melt on the stove, because I was in a hurry, and in the meantime I forgot it was there on the stove, so it ended up as browned butter. Perhaps this was part of the deliciousness?

So, stick to the flour mixture I originally used or tweak it as you'd like:
1 cup millet, 1/2 cup oat, 1/2 cup garbanzo. Oh, and I forgot, I used 3 different kind of chocolate chips. Did I mention that already?

COOKIES!

I tried this recipe today. It was good as far as texture and presentation goes, but I maybe used too much millet flour for my taste. Perhaps next time I will try 1/2 each: millet, potato flour (NOT starch), tapioca, oat or garbanzo. Flax meal may be good in there in place of tapioca...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup softened butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour blend

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips (for dairy free, Enjoy Life makes a nice chocolate chip. Meijers or many health food stores carry this. They are mini-chips)

Mix all these ingredients up in a bowl. Spread into a greased 8x8 baking pan, bake 350 degrees until done--maybe 20 or 30 minutes?

They're great, but flour blend needs perfecting. I bet Bob's Redmill All Purpose Gluten Free Baking Mix would be good here. With the flour right, these could be just like any yummy cookie bar.

Pancakes (wheat free)

Pancakes are really easy to make, and they have been a nice change of pace from the ordinary.  As I've made them for guests, their responses have been that these pancakes are lighter and the texture is refreshing.  These are not mushy and thick when you chew them.  Now my husband is anti-wheat free, as he likes traditional pancakes with loads of cheap syrup (I've tried to convert him, to no avail).  So these may be great, or you may hate em'.  If you want a softer pancake, use all oat flour.  I recommend Bob's Redmill oat flour because currently I am using Arrowhead Mills and the results are more moist, in a bad, mushy way.  Bob's is worth the extra money.   

Here's the recipe:

1 cup flour blend (use 3 of any kind, really.  I like to use flax meal for part, then maybe one starch and another that is hearty)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix those dry ingredients in a bowl.  Then mix in the following:

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 cup milk, any kind, they all work fine.  We use rice milk a lot.

2 Tablespoons oil

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

That's your batter. Don't be afraid to use a whisk to mix it all up.  Its okay to "get out the lumps", and I don't recall ever really having lumps in my batter to deal with.  When you first pour the batter into the skillet, its good with some sesame seeds sprinkled on the top wet side.  If you like all that fru-fru extra fun, that is.

Wheat-Free Pie Crust

This is a great crust taking just minutes to assemble, and healthier than shortening based pie crust.

Mix together with a fork in a medium bowl:

1 1/2 cups flour: pick three flours you like; I like tapioca, millet and sorghum together for this

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Then whisk together in separate small bowl:

1/2 cup canola oil

3 tablespoons milk (rice or cow)

With fork mix the two together well, then pat into a non-greased pie plate like you would a crumb crust. Super tasty!

P.S. You can also use this for the top crust--just sprinkle it evenly on top the filling and bake as normal.

P.S.S. If you need a solo baked crust, do it at 450 degrees for 10-15 mins. till golden.

Muffins

This blog is for anyone out there who is frustratingly allergic to wheat, intolerant of wheat, gluten intolerant, and maybe a few other things. No wheat? No problem!

Actually, it is a big problem. It is hard and makes you want to cry sometimes. And it makes for a very hungry girl whose cravings can be obscene. Moments like these can turn a bright woman into a ravaging monster who needs to be fed carbs NOW!!!

I want to share recipes that have turned out well as I have been on this journey for a couple years now. My four year old daughter has sensitivities to wheat and dairy. For about a year I thought i did too, which is when I was that desperate monster.

My recipes will be adaptations of ones I comes across online, in magazines and in cookbooks. They may include oat flour, which can effect those with the gluten sensitivity. I believe oats aren't so much the problem (they don't contain gluten as far as I know, but make sure to research this yourself) but they are usually processed on the same equipment, so gluten gets in there. So where I use oat, you can change it.

Today I altered a recipe for Coffee Cake Muffins and it turned out gooood! So here's our first recipe, and just in case I get caught for almost-plagiarizing, the original recipe is in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but I've changed it quite a bit.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups flour mixture (use at least 3 different flours; I used 1/3c. each millet, tapioca, and garbanzo, and 1/2c. oat flour)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar plus enough rice milk to make 1 cup)

1/8 cup applesauce

1/8 cup canola oil

1 egg

So basically mix all the dry ingredients in one big bowl, whisk all the wet ingredients in another bowl, then mix the wet into the dry with a whisk. Pour into greased muffin cups--mini muffins are tasty because then you put the topping on and there's less muffin to more topping and it makes a nice crunch.

Crumb Topping:

1 Tablespoon each: millet flour, tapioca flour, oat or garbanzo flour

3 generous packed Tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tablespoons butter or margarine, for dairy free desires

3 Tablespoons chopped hazelnuts

Mix together good. First I used a pastry cutter to mix, but then I realized it needed to be mixed better in order to get the butter into all of the flour so I used my fingers. Otherwise there's dry portions of flour in your crumb topping and it doesn't bake well. Once I forgot the sugar in this mixture, so it was like salty flour on top of my coffee cake and it wasn't so good.

Now put a bit of this topping on each muffin, then bake till your muffins are done--dark golden is good. It probably took 15-20 minutes, but I wasn't paying attention. I forgot about them so they came out dark golden but they were yummy this way.

My muffins did not turn out dry. Now, with wheat free baking sometimes your baked goods never bake. You can bake them forever, but the batter stays wet and mushy and doesn't turn solid. Wheat free baking is truly a science, one I don't have alot of patience for. I like this recipe because it baked nicely and I didn't need any additions of xanthan gum or guar gum, or any other stabilizers. The experience is much simpler. I mean, you already have to have a million different flours to replace your wheat with, who wants to also have to buy other weird things? Plus it gets costly. I have found if you can still use eggs (baking without them is a bitch) and you use several different flours, sometimes the alternative baked good is fantastic. And if you have to replace dairy, rice milk (milder in taste than soy, also easier on your digestion) and margarine are the same as butter and milk. They don't change the baking at all, as long as you are using high fat margarine. Shortening is another good replacement for butter. Then reason I bring this up is gluten and wheat intolerances often go hand-in-hand with dairy issues.

Good luck on your journey!