Gluten-Free Corn Bread

I love winter comfort foods. My favorite thing to pair with a good soup is corn bread, but I have struggled for years to find a good recipe. Today was cold, so I had soup cooking for dinner. On a whim I decided to give corn bread another whirl. It turned out so incredibly great. I played with an old recipe and it ended up being fantastic. Even my husband thinks so, and he’s quite opinionated when it comes to gluten-free breads. I think we’ll be eating this a lot this winter.

Gluten-Free Corn Bread
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl:
1/2 C. Rice flour
1/2 C. Tapioca flour
1 C. Yellow cornmeal
1/2 tsp Xanthan gum
2 Tbs Sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt

In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 egg white
1 C. plain yogurt
2 Tbsp melted butter (I did pureed beans)
1/4 C. water

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine. Spoon into a greased 8” pan (mine was dirty so I did it in a 9” round pan and that worked well, too) and bake at 400 for 20-25 min. The top should “spring” when you press on it.

Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

This is my new favorite pizza crust. I have finally stopped buying the packaged stuff because I was able to make something on my own that tasted great AND was really, really, easy. It's even the right kind of texture to roll with a rolling pin, which is a huge bonus, in my opinion. I am looking forward to trying calzones with this because I think it would work perfectly. Original recipe found here.

Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

2/3 c. warm water (or milk)
1 tbsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar

Mix above ingredients and set aside while you prepare the rest. In a seperate bowl, combine the following ingredients and mix really well (I do this in my Kitchenaid):

2/3 c. plus 3 tbsp potato starch
3 tbsp sorghum flour
2 tbsp tapioca flour
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
2 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
Rice flour for dusting pan/rolling pin

Add the water/yeast mixture to the mixing bowl and mix well. When the dough is well combined, dust counter or pan with rice flour and roll dough into 12-16 in. circle. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 min. Remove from the oven and top as desired, bake for another 10 min or until toppings are warm/melted.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

The original recipe for these muffins came from For the Love of Cooking. I made a couple of slight changes just to make it gluten-free and they turned out amazing! We all loved these so I didn't waste any time sharing the recipe with you.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp xanathan gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup of vegetable oil (I used pureed white beans)
1/2 cup of  low fat vanilla yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 very ripe bananas
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used mini chips)

Prepare a muffin tin with liners and spray with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix the flours, corn starch, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugars. In another bowl, mix the egg, oil, yogurt, vanilla and mashed bananas. Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Don't over mix. Add the chocolate chips and stir gently. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a rack.

*I also did a pan of mini muffins which cooked in about 17 minutes.
**These are amazing with a little peanut butter spread on top. =)

I made bread!

I am really excited that I have just made my first ever, successful, made-from-scratch gluten-free bread.  I didn't get a picture before we ate half of it, but I'm going to post about it anyway so I don't forget how I did it.  First I would like to say, that I have always been against recipes that call for 7 different flours and 19 total ingredients.  It's just not my thing.  However, after years and years of paying way too much for gluten-free bread (and usually just going without) I decided I needed to bite the bullet and do it. I needed to find a good "from scratch" recipe to help save money, and hopefully it would taste good. Now that it's been tried I'm planning to make several batches of the dry ingredients in ziplocks so that all I have to do is grab the bag and add the wet stuff (because I've always been a lover of "mixes").  I found this recipe on glutenfreemommy.com and tweeked it just a little.  Also, I did mine in the bread machine so if you don't have one, read her post on how to bake it in the oven.  Okay, here we go...


Delicious Gluten-Free Bread


Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl:
1 C. brown rice flour
1/2 C. gf oat flour (can sub with quinoa flour)
3/4 c. millet flour
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1/3 c. corn starch
1/3 c. sweet sorghum flour
1/4 c. flax seed meal
1 tbsp. xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. brown sugar


Mix wet ingredients sparately (my machine calls to put wet in first, then dry on top)
3 eggs
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp molasses
4 tbsp. melted butter
1 1/4 c. hot water


Put wet ingredients into machine, pour dry on top.  Make a small well in dry ingredients and add 1 packet dry active yeast.  Use gluten-free setting on bread machine, this takes about 1 hr 20 min.  It raised great and tastes fabulous!

My New Favorite Banana Bread

People.  I tried the most bizarre thing ever, and it was a total success, so I wanted to share.  A few nights ago a friend at work showed me this blog.  This woman reveals an amazing secret (at least it was news to me...).  Oil can be substituted in baked goods with BEANS!! Yes, beans.  Stay with me, now.  Here's what I did:  I made this recipe and instead of 1/2 c. oil, I used 1/2 cup white beans pureed with water.  She shows you how to do it on her blog.  I opened a can of beans, drained them, filled them back up with water and them tossed it in the magic bullet.  You just switch it out, cup for cup.  You would never guess.  It tasted fabulous, and I felt so much less guilt eating half of it in one day. =)  Imagine the decrease in fat, and all that extra protien and fiber!


Yogurt Banana Bread

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil (or go crazy and use pureed beans/water)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3 ripe bananas)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup gluten-free all purpose flour
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 c. walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan (or use 3 small loaf pans). In a large bowl, beat together sugar and oil. Add eggs, bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda and salt; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes (about 40 minutes for smaller loaf pan) or until toothpick inserted in center comes clean. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely.

Note To Self: Bread-Making Edition

I recently read this article from the “Gluten-Free Goddess” which has totally changed the way I make bread.  About 4 years ago my husband found me this bread machine for Christmas (it’s the exact one she’s talking about. Wasn’t that a thoughtful gift?).  I have spent all this time trying to find a way to make awesome bread in it.  The recipe in the manual is good, but it calls for something like a million ingredients.  I’m not into recipes that call for 17 flours, plus dry milk, egg replacer, blah blah blah.  I like things simple (which makes gluten-free baking especially challenging).  I am in love with Pamela’s Bread Mix.  It’s delicious.  The package says specifically not to use your gluten-free setting, but to use the “basic white” setting.  This has always given me a loaf with great flavor, but it’s super dense and about 3 inches tall.  This got old.  It was only really usable for toast (WAY good toast, though).  When I read the article from the Goddess, it was hard for me to figure out how she rigged hers up, but for me what worked was using the “Super Rapid” setting.  It works fabulous and only takes an hour and 20 minutes!  It makes the cutest, chubbiest, loaf of bread and it’s perfect for sandwiches or whatever else you want to make with it.  I also tried removing the paddle this time after the mix cycle and it was a total success. No more huge whole through the middle of the loaf.  Anyway, just thought I’d share my progress a) so I don’t forget how I did it and b) in case someone else is having a similar problem.  Have a good week!