Tag Archives: Our Adventure In Baking

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Peanut Butter, Oat and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made a terrific new batch of gluten-free cookies yesterday by modifying a box recipe of ‘Betty Crocker Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix’ with my favorite ingredients ~ and the cookies tasted fabulous!

I can never follow a recipe without changing it up a little or a lot, so I added additional ingredients to the box mix and omitted the vanilla it called for, to create my own cookie ingredient combination:

Combine together with the cookie mix:

  • Omit the vanilla the cookie mix calls for
  • 2 Tablespoons of Pure Maple Syrup
  • 1/2 Cup of Butter called for by the cookie mix
  • 2 Eggs ( 2 eggs total – the one called for by the cookie mix, and the extra one I added)
  • 1/4 Cup Sugar
  • 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
  • A handful of extra Chocolate Chips
  • 1 Cup Crunchy Peanut Butter
  • 1 Cup Oat Flour (I pulse rolled oats in the food processor to make my own)
  • 1 Cup Rolled Oats

I mixed everything together very well and used a small cookie scoop to place individual cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  I then pressed down gently with the back of a flat spoon to flatten each cookie a little bit, baking them for 10 minutes in a 350 Degree F oven.

This recipe made 70, 2″ cookies for me, which didn’t spread very much on the baking sheet, and tasted wonderful ~ solid at the surface, and soft in the middle ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Oat Quick Bread

This morning I made a ‘Gluten-Free Oat Quick Bread’ after reviewing a number of recipes, and modifying today’s recipe to such an extent that it didn’t resemble any of them in the end ~ and it tastes delicious! 🙂 I’ve been wanting to create a proper gluten-free sandwich bread, and this recipe I came up with today is the closest I’ve gotten to perfecting one.

While this oat quick bread won’t hold up as a proper sandwich using two slices of bread, it will do perfectly well as an open-faced sandwich eaten with a knife and fork with your choice of toppings.  For toasting, I suggest using a toaster oven instead of a toaster.  The texture and flavor is very hearty, and wonderfully full of ‘oaty goodness,’ and it didn’t pick up the specific flavors of honey and pure maple syrup I used in the recipe which surprised me.

The recipe has no eggs or sugar in it which is also surprising, and doesn’t taste ‘cake-like,’ but just as a nice hearty sandwich bread would.  It’s nicely neutral yet flavorful in taste, and I’m planning to use it for open-faced grilled cheese sandwiches, as well as, for traditional sandwiches like cold turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving.

I cut thick slices from today’s loaf to keep them together as the crust especially can easily break away, but the slice itself holds together well if handled carefully.  I carefully wrapped the individual slices in cling film and put them into a freezer bag for freezing, and enjoyed one slice today with just a spread of butter.  Excessive handling or attempting to make a sandwich with two slices of bread definitely won’t work in this case.  So here’s the recipe I used for today’s oat quick bread:

–  Mix together in a large mixing bowl:

1 and 1/2 cups of rolled oats

1 and 1/2 cups oat flour (I made my own oat flour from pulsing rolled oats in the food processor)

1/2 cup ‘gluten-free 1 to 1 flour’ (this was all I had available for today’s recipe)

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

–  Combine together in a 2 cup measuring cup:

3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used Canola Oil)

3 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 and 1/4 cups milk (I used 1% milk today)

–  Add the liquids to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl, and stir well (if the mixture is too loose add oat flour, if it’s too thick add more milk, until it’s firm enough to spoon out into a buttered loaf pan)

–  I baked mine for 30 minutes at 400 deg F, letting it cool 10 minutes afterwards in the loaf pan before turning it out onto a cooling rack – wait until entirely cool to slice

Here are a few photos of today’s efforts ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

 

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Applesauce, Oat and Cinnamon English Muffin

I modified a recipe this morning that my wife found online at ‘The Big Mans World dot com’ for ‘Microwave English Muffin’ ~ and it was a real treat!  Who would think you could make a believable English Muffin in a microwave in a few minutes, and then toast it?  Check out his amazing recipe and website, and I’ll give you my version, as well.

My ‘Gluten-Free Applesauce, Oat and Cinnamon English Muffin’ was made with what we had on hand:

3 Tablespoons of oat flour

1/2 Teaspoon baking powder

2 Tablespoons of apple sauce

1 Egg

2 Tablespoons of milk

Cinnamon sprinkled liberally

Pinch of salt

I buttered a 5.5″ (interior dimension) flat-bottomed glass microwave bowl, mixed the dry ingredients together, and then added the wet ingredients, stirring well.  I microwaved the batter for 3 minutes in the microwave, watching as the batter firmed up and pulled back from the edge of the glass bowl at 2 minutes.  The English Muffin fell out of the glass bowl easily when tipped over onto a drying rack to cool.

After a few minutes I baked the muffin in a toaster oven for about 3 minutes to give it the look and feel of a baked muffin, prior to slicing it in half once it was cool.  I then toasted the slices in the toaster like a regular English Muffin, and ate it with butter and jam ~ delicious!  I think this English Muffin without the cinnamon, would work out great for cheese sandwiches with a slice of Provolone or Swiss cheese in the frying pan.  Here’s a couple of photos ~ enjoy!

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Peanut Butter, Brown Rice Flour, Oats and Chocolate Chip Cookies

As a resourceful baker, I decided to make up a batch of ‘Gluten-Free Peanut Butter, Brown Rice Flour, Oats and Chocolate Chip Cookies’ this morning using what we had on hand in the pantry, and loved the result! 🙂

I rarely follow recipes very closely, adding this and that into the mix to experiment and engage my baking creativity, so today I just decided to go rogue and make something up from scratch – here’s the ingredient list I used, just combine together:

  • 2 eggs
  • 2/3 cup of light brown sugar
  • 1 and 1/4 cups of white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1 and 1/3 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 2 cups of smooth peanut butter
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of brown rice flour (ground myself in a coffee grinder, but I recommend a commercially processed product for a finer consistency)
  • 1 cup of oat flour (pulsed myself in a food processor, which works perfectly well for me)
  • 1 cup of rolled oats
  • Approximately 1/3 bag of chocolate chips (enough for 2 chocolate chips per cookie)
  • A pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup of water (the dough was very stiff, so I added water to moisten it)

I used a 1″ cookie scoop to portion out the dough, added 2 chocolate chips and gently pressed down on each cookie, and then baked the cookies for 11 minutes at 350 degrees.  This batch made 83 delicious 2″ cookies ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Honey Oat Quick Bread

I made a recipe for ‘Honey Oat Quick Bread’ the other day, that my wife found for me online at ‘Hungry Hobby dot net,’ called ‘One Bowl Honey Oat Bread (With 1 Minute Video)’ ~ which was delicious with just a spread of butter! 🙂

This was a straightforward recipe and easy to make, resulting in a dense banana bread type consistency with a hearty honey and oat flavor.  I’ve frozen the slices individually to enjoy for breakfast ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Peanut Butter, Oats and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I made a batch of delicious ‘Peanut Butter, Oats and Chocolate Chip Cookies’ based on a recipe my wife found on ‘Averie Cooks dot com’ called ‘The Best Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.’

Since the recipe didn’t make a large batch of cookie dough, I added to the recipe as usual, and mixed in a half cup of rolled oats and about a quarter bag of chocolate chips into the dough.  After chilling the dough in the refrigerator overnight, I used a small cookie scoop to make 37, 2″ cookies – pressing down gently with my thumb in two directions to flatten them somewhat before baking for 8 minutes.

These cookies are the best ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

 

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Pineapple Coffee Cake

I’ve posted this delicious treat before, but this time my wife made it with ‘King Arthur Flour’s Gluten Free Measure For Measure Flour’ and it came out perfectly!  Here’s the original post details:

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Here’s a favorite coffee cake recipe my wife found online at ‘Bunnys Warm Oven dot net’ and made yesterday called, ‘Pineapple Coffee Cake’ ~ and it was delicious! 🙂 It was scrumptious and everything you’d want in a coffee cake, plus the flavor of pineapple throughout.

Ours used very well drained pineapple tidbits, and it worked out perfectly.  Here’s a few photos for you ~ enjoy!

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Here’s the gallery of delicious results ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Almond Cream Cheese Shortbread Bars

I’ve posted the traditional recipe for this delicious treat before, but this time my wife made it using ‘King Arthur Flour’s Gluten Free Measure For Measure Flour’ which worked perfectly! 🙂 Here are the details from my original post:

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A new favorite recipe of ours is one called ‘Almond Cream Cheese Shortbread Bars’ that my wife made from a site called ‘Averiecooks dot com’ ~ and it’s certainly a hit in our house!  These are delicious treats, and now that she’s made them a few times, here are her changes from the posted recipe:

– Monitor the cheesecake filling closely as it bakes, and cover it with aluminum foil after a while to avoid browning on top.
– After the crust has baked for 12-15 minutes and before the cream cheese filling goes on top, spread the shortbread crust with a thin layer of seedless raspberry jam.  About 2 teaspoonfuls should do it.
– My wife used her usual frosting instead of the one called for in the recipe, and it’s made with powdered sugar, skim milk and 1 teaspoon of almond extract.  Sprinkle flaked or slivered almonds over the wet frosting.
– Cover with aluminum foil and let set over night in the fridge before cutting into slices.  Freeze the leftover slices. Yields 12 slices – enjoy!
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Here’s the finished results ~ absolutely wonderful!  Enjoy! ☼ 🙂
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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Gluten-Free Banana Oatmeal Muffins

I’ve found that cutting wheat out of my diet still leaves plenty of tasty options to try, and I recently tried a recipe my wife found for me on ‘Gluten Free on a Shoestring dot com’ called ‘Banana Oatmeal Muffins’ that were excellent!

While I’ve taken on more and more of the baking process for my own treats, I’m fortunate that my wife – as the expert baker – keeps me organized and on track so the results turn out well! 🙂

These muffins are hearty and filling, and combine the two main flavors of bananas and oats.  The chocolate chips are the finishing touch that make these muffins taste like dessert ~ enjoy!

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Our Adventures In Baking ~ Old Fashioned 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

I made a recipe today called ‘Old Fashioned 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies’ that my wife found for me at ‘Bare Feet in the Kitchen dot com’ – and they’re delicious!  As always, I can’t resist experimenting with recipes – so the other day when I first made this recipe I used only ‘crunchy’ peanut butter – but the chunks of peanuts made the fork pattern difficult to create nicely.  One permanent change to the recipe I’ve made though, is to only use 3/4 cup of sugar, as I don’t need my cookies to be so sweet.

So today, I made the recipe using only smooth peanut butter as the recipe called for, but played with the pattern instead.  After initially rolling the cookie dough in my hands into about 1.5″ balls, I then rolled them in sugar before creating the pattern.  Initially, I used a potato masher to create a heavier pattern in the cookie dough, before switching to the traditional fork pattern.  For the fork pattern, I put the fork into the sugar first, and the moisture on the fork from the cookie dough allowed the sugar to first stick to the fork, before making the patterns.

Today my smooth peanut butter cookie efforts yielded 25, 2.5″ cookies, whereas the other day the chunky peanut butter batch yielded 22, 3″ cookies, as I needed to make larger dough balls to hold the crunchy peanut butter cookie dough together.  Either way, they’re delicious peanut butter cookies ~ the darker images below are representative of the true peanut butter color of the cookies ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂