Chocolate Dipped Gluten Free Rice Krispie Treats: Another Christmas Treat!

Sometimes at the last minute we are stuck needing a gift for someone special who, by no fault of their own, we have overlooked in our list-making and gift-buying and general busy-ness. I can't say this has ever happened to me, ahem, but I think this is a great idea for a last-minute treat to take to someone special whom you may not have time to buy a present for. You really can't go wrong: rice krispie treat, chocolate, cute wrappings, it's a home run. I like this idea so much, in fact, that I made up a batch of them to take to some of our Primary children last weekend.They turned out so cute. I made most of them with regular rice krispies, but I also made a batch with some gluten free rice krispies, just to test them you know. My disclaimer here is that everything I know about chocolate I've learned from my neighbor Mary Pugmire. A couple of years ago my daughter had a chocolate birthday party and Mary came and taught the girls how to make chocolate suckers in molds and we had a chocolate fountain and everyone left the party several pounds heavier. But during the party I asked her a ton of questions and here's what I learned.

1. Chocolate will "seize" or turn cakey if you heat it without stirring too much. The best way to remedy this is to first use a chocolate made for melting. The melting discs or bark coating are a good way to go. Most of them are gluten free, but check the label first.

2. Melt the chocolate in a large bowl in the microwave, first for 45 seconds, then stir, 30 more seconds, stir, 30 more seconds, and it may be ready or need one more go round. Then you can begin to dip.

I used sucker sticks and dipped them into the chocolate and then stuck them into the double-batch of already-cooled krispie treats and let that part cool, just like with the Chocolate Dipped Oreo Suckers we did a couple of weeks ago.

I then dipped the treats into the chocolate and used a spoon to spread it where I wanted it. Then I scraped off the excess , sprinkled it with sprinkles, and placed it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. (Don't worry, it was a huge mess so I thought I'd spare you a photo.) Mary taught me that placing chocolate outside on a cold day is a great way to get it to firm up fast. Just make sure there's no loose dogs out to eat your treats.That's it! I wrapped each one in a cellophane treat bag, added a cute tag from TomKat Studios and some ribbon and I was done. Super cute and not too much effort. Just the way I like it!

Happy eating!

Irrestistibly Gluten Free: A Gluten Free Cookbook Giveaway!

Twelve days to go! It's getting to that time of year when most of us either start to stress out royally or either start to slow down because we're all done with our shopping and gifts and menus and errands and decorating and wrapping and getting ready for family to come and I could go on and on. Since I'm feeling for all of you out there who are in either boat and I really believe women don't spend enough time taking time out for themselves, I have another great giveaway just for you.One of my friends, Christina Davis, has written a beautiful gluten free cookbook called Irresistibly Gluten Free that comes complete with gluten free family (think kid-friendly) recipes and a photo for every single one of them, so you know what it will, er, should look like when you're finished. And let me tell you, she's got some winners in here, like corn dogs and hamburger buns and cream of whatever soup and my personal favorite, graham crackers. And, yep, they're all gluten free.You may remember that I met Christina at the Gluten Free Expo back in October. Since then we've had a nice little email chat and here's a little bit about Christina, just so you can appreciate the fact that she is a published author and not completely crazy. She has been cooking gluten free for 15 years after her diagnosis and is the mother to six children, three of which are gluten free, so she basically cooks every meal three times a day for a family of 8. Wow! However, to save her brain cells from overload, she's come up with her own gluten free flour blend that she calls UNflour, which is easily made from gluten free flours you can find at your local grocery store or buy in bulk and keep in an airtight container. Here's the genius part: she spends one Saturday a month making up some mixes for easy recipes she keeps in her pantry and her kids can easily get a mix and cook themselves some grub. Christina says:

I LOVE having my mixes, which I make once a month. I spend a couple
hours making a ton of mixes and a huge mess, but it is then done and
cooking is so much more doable on a daily basis. And I spend less than $2
per mix by buying my flours for the Unflour in bulk.  Lifesaver!

If you are interested in making labels for your own gluten free mixes, click here.

I asked Christina what food she missed the most from her pre-gluten-free days, because I'm one of those people who are always wondering when they're going to come out with a cereal that tastes like real Apple Jacks, and she said she really used to miss Tiny Spicy Chicken or Sweet and Sour Chicken from a Chinese restaurant, but she figured out how to make it and now she eats it all the time. Two thumbs up for ingenuity and creativity, Christina! And actually, let's face it, for not giving up in the face of an obstacle. (Incidentally, her new most-missed food is now Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies. Good one.) Her favorite recipe? In her own words:

My favorite recipe from the cookbook is probably the Rolls and Hamburger
Buns. I had been making GF bread for years before it dawned on me that I
could use the same recipe in a muffin tin and make rolls, or in a tuna can
and make hamburger buns. I use to sit at big family dinners and tell
myself that it really didn't bother me that everyone else was enjoying a
homemade roll with jam. Now that I can enjoy one too it almost brings me
to tears I'm so happy! (I was good at fooling myself in my pre-roll life!)
And to be able to go to a neighbors back yard Bar-B-Q and eat a hamburger
with everyone else makes me feel like I am not the
crazed-lunatic-that-accidentally-got-invited-to-the-party-with-her-lettuce-wrapped-
burger woman that no one wants to make eye contact with! Bliss!

I love it. Tuna cans? Muffin tins? I'm so stealing those ideas. Check back tomorrow to read all about our adventure with the Graham Cracker recipe. So, to win your copy of Christina's beautiful book, simply leave me a comment telling me this: what is your most-missed gluten food? And if you've found a replacement, what is it? Enter until Wednesday, December 15 at 5:00 p.m., when the winner will be announced. If you're impatient like me and just want to buy Christina's book for a present for yourself, click here to purchase from Amazon.

Happy eating!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #10: Chocolate Covered Oreo Pops

For our last installment of Gluten Free Christmas Gifts for this year, I've chosen one of the cutest little treats you can find: Gluten Free Oreo Pops. I saw these on How Does She's blog a while ago and they have a really great tutorial with better pictures than mine, but here's how I did mine gluten free.

First of all, I used Kinnikinnick's Kinni-Toos vanilla sandwich cookies, because I wanted them to be wintery looking with white chocolate. You could use the chocolate ones as well, even with the white chocolate. I also used the same Kroger brand white bark coating as the Gluten Free Chocolate Covered Pretzels and melted it in the microwave just like I did with the pretzels.

Step 1: Carefully (super carefully) remove the tops of the cookies and set aside.

Step 2: Take a sucker stick (available at crafts stores in the cake decorating aisle) and dip into the melted chocolate.

Step 3: Put stick into the open cookie, then replace top. Let sit for a few minutes to set up.

Step 4: Dip the sucker into the chocolate, using a spoon to help coat the whole cookie.Step 5: Lay onto a parchment lined baking sheet and if you want a topping like sprinkles or peppermint pieces or crushed M&Ms or something sprinkle it on now, while the chocolate is wet. If you want to drizzle with another color of chocolate, just let it sit for a while to set and then add the chocolate.Step 6: Wrap the sucker in a 6"x3 1/2" treat bag and tie with cute ribbon and embellishments. These would be so cute given as a bouquet wrapped with more ribbon!The box of cookies cost me $3.29 and I dipped 12 cookies (about half the package). I used half of a $2.50 tray of bark coating, and the sucker sticks were $4.99 for 50, so your homework is to figure out how much each one of these was and leave a comment for me because all of that turkey yesterday slowed my brain way down.

I hope some of these ideas have helped you think of what you could give your own gluten free loved ones this season.

Happy giving!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #9: Just buy a pie plate

This post has me a little nervous. Remember back at the beginning of all of these Christmas posts when I said these were all simple, cheap ideas? Well, this is a great idea but not so much on the cheap aisle. So I apologize, but really, if you have a best friend or a mom or sister that you want to give something to that is a little more on the fancy side, this may be for you. I'm using two of my favorite bakeware items to show you the kind of stuff that really gets the job done, and if I were to get one of these presents, as a baker I would be totally excited.

My first choice for you is to get the Emile Henry pie plate and wrap it up with a Gluten Free Pantry Pie Crust mix. (I think their packaging looks different now, but you get the idea.) Why Emile Henry, you may ask? Because it's the best. Made in France, it completely bakes a flaky pie crust and look at those fluted edges. And you must wash it by hand, and everyone knows that anything you wash by hand has to be better. Cost? $40. It comes in tons of great colors and if Emile is reading, I really love your bakeware and wow, don't you want to send me another one? I digress.

Your second choice is the Le Creuset baking dish, which also comes in a host of colors, is also made in France and also makes things bake up perfectly. I like these oval-shaped ones because they are so versatile. You can do scalloped potatoes, a casserole, chicken breasts, or even brownies in them. These little babies are actually available at most TJMaxx stores for quite a discount this time of year, so check and see if you can find one for your special friend. I think I paid around $15-$18 for this one. I added a Chocolate Cake Mix from Namaste and cute green polka dot ribbon.

As always, you can fix anything with ribbon! And I found the cute gnome and heart ornaments at IKEA in a pack of 8 for around $3.

Happy giving!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #8: French Macarons

Sometimes we just simply don't have the time to handcraft a gift for someone. Every once in a while I find myself thinking of someone and when I'm out and about I'll pick up their favorite treat or something they might enjoy and when I give it to them, I find they usually don't care that I didn't make it! Not that they don't appreciate my handmade treats, but sometimes it really is the thought that counts. Now, if I were on blog-preparation mode full time, I would have attended a class or at least read a tutorial on how to make these French Macarons, but as it is, these are some of my favorite gluten free cookies to purchase and eat immediately. I'm serious. It's a sickness. Everyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for lemon-flavored treats, and this case is no exception. If you've never eaten one before, French Macarons are different from the other Coconut Macaroons, which are made from shredded coconut and condensed milk and are chewy and very dense.These cookies are made from almond flour, egg whites, and confectionary and white sugars, which makes them like a meringue, crunchy on the outside and chewy once you bite into them and then of course the filling makes them completely sinful. I could go on and on.

There is a little local bakery near me called The Sweet Tooth Fairy that has but one gluten free offering: The French Macaron. They come in all sorts of flavor combinations and you never know what they will have on the shelf from day to day. But, if you're particular like me and you can be patient for a day or two, you can special order a dozen in whatever flavor you like. If you don't live in Utah, perhaps there's a bakery near you that makes a gluten free cookie you could substitute for this one.This bakery also happens to make a really cute mini version of the macarons, about half the size of a normal one. I think the mini ones look cuter in this gift bag (of course by Martha from Michael's) and they also fit perfectly in this little gift box (ahem, I have a problem with diversification...also a Martha product from Michael's. And please ignore the fact that the cookies are stacked crookedly inside. Photo perfection, I tell ya.). I love that it comes with pre-made sticker tags that you just put right on the box. So easy. These mini cookies are $1.25 apiece, and the larger ones are $2.50 apiece, so the cost is based on how many cookies you cram into your container.

Happy giving!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #7: Little Loaves of Carrot Cake

One of my favorite gluten free treats of all time are the Carrot Cake Muffins that I made to taste almost like Mimi's Carrot Cake Muffins. So last year, I gave all the neighbors in my circle little loaves of the Carrot Cake in those little aluminum pans and I wrapped them in wax paper with some baking twine. Totally cute. This year I came across some of these:

That's right. Cute give-away-able mini loaf pans, that look cute whether or not you wrap them. So I decided to show how to make these little treats with or without a little bit of wrapping.

First, mix up a batch of Carrot Cake batter. Wrap each loaf pan with some foil and place on a cookie sheet. There are small holes in the bottom of the pans for ventilation, so you don't want the runny batter to drip out. Bake about 40 minutes for three little loaves. Test with a knife inserted into the center to make sure they are baked through. Let cool.

Then, I took one of those cellophane treat bags and just put the little loaf inside it and taped up the open end like a present. So much easier than wrapping the whole thing in plastic wrap.

Next, you have two choices. Actually, three or four, but two for now. One, simply wrap the loaf with cute ribbon (this was about 47 inches of ribbon) with a bow and add a tag saying to and from. Or, take a piece of tissue paper in a festive color, and wrap it butcher-style, like this:

And there you have it. A perfectly respectable neighbor gift. The price on these will be a little hard for me to estimate, because the ingredients are a little pricey. The loaf pans were $4.49 for 3, the cake mix was $6.99, and the nuts, coconut, zucchini, carrot, raisins and pineapple added about $6 to the whole batch. So I'm guessing each loaf cost about $7 with ribbon and tissue paper. Give or take a dollar.

Happy giving!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #6: Chocolate Covered Gluten Free Pretzels

Most of the time when I think of making a Christmas treat, I think about how I have to get out the recipe book, mix 100 ingredients, bake it up, all while figuring out how to tint the treat red or green. However, this year, along with practicing my frugal lifestyle (which I shall report on soon...good news: it works!) I'm also practicing the mantra of, "It doesn't always have to be exactly like that." As a traditional thinker, sometimes it's hard for me to let go of certain notions of what is right and wrong concerning, well, pretty much everything. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a right and a wrong way to cook pretty much everything. But recently I've gotten a new perspective on such things like, crepes count for dinner fare, there's nothing wrong with ALL vegetables for a meal here and there, and a piece of toast with Nutella on it counts as breakfast. I've also learned that you can pretty much cover Christmas presents for an 11 year old and a 14 year old at the thrift store, a 99 cent calendar is the perfect present for my "little professor," and there's absolutely no reason you can't wear a skinny belt over a sweater around your natural waist... every day of the week. Phew. After that huge wind-up, my next idea for a gluten free Christmas gift is Chocolate Covered Gluten Free Pretzels.

The fun thing about these is that there is no recipe, and you can top them with whatever you feel like using that particular day. You can even use nothing and just give them plain and your peeps will love it. Here's how to do it:

Purchase some gluten free pretzels from Glutino. This small bag was $1.79 at my local grocery store. I also picked up some "bark coating" or melting chocolate, this Kroger brand was gluten free and it was only $2.50 on sale. I used half of the chocolate for one bag of small pretzels. Someone who's good at math would tell me how much that is for one cup of pretzels, but it's not going to be me. It's not much, is what I'm trying to say. I used white chocolate because I wanted them to look wintery, but you could use milk chocolate as well. And I've tried these with chocolate chips and the chocolate just really seizes up a lot more with the chips. A bark coating or the melting discs are really your best bet.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a large bowl for 1 minute, and stir, then for 30 more seconds and stir, then 30 more and stir. It should be about melted after that, but if not, add 30 more seconds. Drop the pretzels in and use a large spoon to spoon some chocolate over and cover it. Then use a fork to fish it out and drip a little of the chocolate off so you don't have a huge puddle around it. Scrape against the side of the bowl and put onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Take a break after a row of pretzels and add a topping while it's still wet if you want to. If you want to drizzle with chocolate, wait until they dry a little, then melt some more chocolate, place into a ziploc bag, snip off the corner, and drizzle away.

Then, when they're dry, simply package them up in cute little ways and people will think you are the most thoughtful gluten free friend ever. Really, this whole series has been about taking something delicious and just prettying it up with some lipstick and rouge to make it festive. There's lots of great places to look for wrapping ideas out there, like Martha, Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Living. But here's what I did:

I found these cute little cones at IKEA for some ridiculously cheap price and added some red tissue paper and put the little pretzels inside.

I also found these cute tree boxes at Michael's in the Martha section and they are a fast and easy way to package these little yummys up.

Happy giving!

Gluten Free Christmas Gifts #5: Homemade Granola in a Paper Cone

I have another favorite blog that I like to run through for ideas sometimes. It's called Real Mom Kitchen and I tried some of their Pumpkin Granola the other day. Mmm, mmm good. It's a mixture of oats (I used gluten-free oats just to be safe), cranberries, pumpkin puree, pumpkin seeds, and maple syrup. It was a good time. This recipe makes quite a bit of granola, so I had a brainstorm. A Christmas-gifting kind of brainstorm. This recipe makes about four cups of granole, so I took some over to my friend JoLayna, who introduced me to the site, to say thanks, and I made one of these super easy little scrapbook paper cones to put it in.
First, you take a piece of 12"x12" scrapbook paper and twirl it into a cone. Tape it together down at the bottom of the cone and in the middle, to keep it together. Snip the top so that it's an even circle all the way around. Then snip about six slits down around the top of the cone.

Put about a cup of the granola into a ziploc bag and form it into a cone shape before you zip it up. I have it open inside the cone here so you can tell that it's granola in there. Then fold down all the tabs you made with your snips and make an "X" of tape across the top to hold it together. Attach a cute nametag from Hobby Lobby and you're ready to make someone's day! Granola is a little expensive to make, and this particular granola was a little more expensive because the pumpkin seeds are not cheap. Even with that though, a gift like this still comes in at under $4. Now this recipe might not seem Christmasy enough for some of you. A little too much harvest on the palate? Here's another great recipe for granola from the site Amateur Gourmet that he found in the pages of a cookbook called, "Baked." I might have to try it next...It's a very basic recipe that sounds good for every season. And, I'm here to tell you, all you have to do is give something a clever name and it will seem like whatever you want it to be. Like, Christmas Cranberry Granola or Christmas Tree-Hugger Chow would do.

What I love about this idea is that you could fill these little cones with just about anything you have on hand that's gluten free, like candy, gluten free pretzels (I have a great idea coming for those next week), Kinnikinnick oreos (a great idea for those, as well), chocolate covered nuts, pistachios, mini chocolate bars, whatever your loved one's favorite treat is. And you can get such a varied look with the different papers nowadays: grown-up looking ones, kid's favorites, vintage, whatever you love you can create here. I should have figured out a way to get some ribbon in there! Darn. There's always next week. Tune in on Monday for more great ideas!

Happy giving!