Brands Matter...Especially Gluten Free Ones

I have been making these Gluten Free Lemon Ricotta Cookies for a long time. They are one of my favorites, adapted from Giada deLaurentiis' recipe, and I almost always use Grandpa's Kitchen flour, and Micelli's whole milk ricotta cheese. I'm not sure why, but this time when I made them I chose King Arthur's Gluten Free Flour, and WalMart brand original ricotta cheese. Epic fail. Whatever! There's nothing I hate more than wasting ingredients, but I hate almost as much using the wrong ones! Don't think this is a negative review of King Arthur at all, I actually really like their gluten free products. But for this recipe, I don't know if the flour or the cheese caused the pancake-like cookies and dry flavor. I blame WalMart. They're an easy target. But it got me thinking: how many people out there have tried my recipes and think they are gross because they don't have the same brands that I do? How many people have quit reading because they're tired of hearing how great something is and their roomate told them it tasted like sticks? I hope not many. But I am feeling sensitive to brands lately. I think I'm going to try to make an effort to use the most widely available ingredients to everyone, and then I can sleep at night. So, I confess, I am a brand snob when it comes to my food. Are you a brand snob, too? What brands of gluten free food can you not live without? Leave me a comment, I'd love to know if they are the same as mine. And, as I was looking through the archives to link back to this recipe, I noticed I haven't ever published my version of them. So here it is:

Gluten Free Lemon Ricotta Cookies
adapted from Giada deLaurentiis' original recipe

2 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I like Grandpa's Kitchen...they are light and fluffy when you use it)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick soft butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 15 ounce container of whole milk ricotta (it has to be whole milk or they won't turn out)
zest of 1 lemon
3 tsp lemon juice (about the juice of 1 lemon)

Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
zest of 1 lemon
3 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or a silpat baking mat. In a medium bowl mix together gluten free flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer and beat until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each one. Add ricotta cheese and lemon zest and juice. A little at a time, add flour mixture. Spoon dough onto cookie sheets or use a small scoop. Batter will be thick but moist. Bake 15 minutes, let rest on cookie sheet for 12 minutes before removing. Cool on a wire rack. Spread glaze on top of cookies with back of a spoon and let harden, about 15 minutes.

Happy eating!

Gluten Free Lower-Your-Cholesterol Cookies

My husband turned 40 this year and went in for his 10-year checkup with the doctor. Apparently men can get by without the "yearly" exam most of us women are privileged to have. Amazingly, he's pretty healthy, except one small glitch. He has high "bad" cholesterol. So he came home and told me his doctor told him to change his diet a little bit and he should be just fine. I kind of thought that 8 years ago when he told me he ate out for lunch with buddies from work every day at places like Astro Burger, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Arby's. Duh.

Of course first we turned to the internet to find out what foods are low in cholesterol and if there are any that can actually lower cholesterol. We discovered that soluble fiber (oatmeal, raw fruit, vegetables, and beans) are good for lowering those numbers as well as fish, nuts, and olive oil. My mom's dietician actually told her that olive oil literally pushes the fat out of your arteries. You will probably be seeing quite a few recipes with olive oil coming soon. What does this have to do with a gluten free diet? Not a whole lot, I'm just using my soapbox to complain about having to throw another food issue into my meal planning. Gone are the days of cooking with sour cream (I've started using Fage plain greek yogurt instead) and hamburger. At least until the doctor says it's okay.I decided to pull out my new favorite bible, Ina Garten's Back to Basics cookbook and look for some ideas on cooking with some of these heart-healthy ingredients. I highly recommend it, not only for the recipes, but she has all kinds of tips sprinkled throughout the book about things like setting a table, flower arranging, and what kitchen tools you should have. Ina has a great sense of style and knows how to put flavors together for maximum effect. And the photography is fantastic. I've never seen roast chicken look so good. It's not a health food cookbook by any means, but she makes easy, simple recipes look so delicious that I always turn to it for inspiration. Ina has a recipe for Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies that intrigued me. I happen to love oatmeal cookies and I thought I could make a version of these that had little if any fat and also make them gluten free. If I had had egg beaters in my fridge I may have used those, but I haven't ever baked with them before and I didn't want to fail just in case they're not great for baking. I have issues.

Gluten Free Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from Ina Garten's Back to Basics cookbook

1 1/3 cups pecans
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups Grandpa's Kitchen or King Arthur Gluten Free flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp kosher salt
3 cups gluten free oats (Auguson Farms)
1 1/2 cups raisins, regular or golden

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes until toasted. Cool, chop coarsely.
In electric mixer, beat applesauce, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat until combined. Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt into a bowl. Slowly add to the sugar mixture until well combined. Add oats, pecans, and raisins and mix till combined.
Using a mini-ice-cream-scoop (2T) drop mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand. (Don't skip this step...the cookies will stay in their scooped shape if you don't.) Bake 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer to a baking rack and cool completely. Store in an airtight container.Needless to say, as with all of my recipes, I ate more of these than Jeff did. He didn't say he didn't like them, I think he just forgot they were there for him. They were really good when they were fresh out of the oven, and they were also really good for breakfast. Yes, I did eat cookies for breakfast, but I figured they have so many healthy things in them that it wouldn't hurt! I think my cholesterol will be lower than his when he gets it checked next. What do you think?

Happy eating!

A Chocolate Chip Cookie Trick

I love making Brian's Toll House Cookie Recipe with my Grandpa's Kitchen flour when I'm in the mood for a cookie. The other day I was talking to my friend Anna who can just make up a recipe from thin air and a can of beans about them and telling her she needed to buy a scoop to make cookies with so they all turn out the same size and it is way faster. She went "pfft" and said to roll the dough into little balls between your hands because it makes a little crust on the outside and the cookies are soft and tender on the inside when you bake them that way. Of course I poo-poohed the idea when we were on the phone (I am, after all, an expert baker.) but secretly I was intrigued, so I tried it. Guess what? She's right. And I hate it when she's right. So try this method next time you're making chocolate chip gluten free cookies. It works. Grumble.

Happy eating!

Gluten Free Graham Cracker Gingerbread Pirates: Irresistibly Gluten Free

Have you entered to win a copy of Irresistibly Gluten Free yet? If not, hurry and enter here. There are so many great recipes inside this cover you won't want to miss out on a chance to get one for yourself.

I really, really have missed graham crackers since I've been gluten free. When I was pregnant I would eat them all the time when I didn't feel good and after delivery it was the only thing that ever sounded good to me. So when I saw that Christina had a recipe for graham crackers in her cookbook, I knew I'd have to try them out.

I bought my little boys this book for Christmas called "The Gingerbread Pirates," by Kristin Kladstrup, and it has been just about the most fun we've had this year, reading it together. I highly recommend it, especially if you have a child who knows what a pirate is and what Santa is. Anyway, my son was always asking if we could make gingerbread pirates with a toothpick for a peg leg, so I figured we could kill two pirates with one cannon...aargh, I'm good.

First off, you'll have to buy Christina's book if you want to get the recipe. Don't worry, there's way more good stuff in there than just this recipe, so just go do it. Secondly, make sure your butter isn't too soft or you'll end up with a puddle of cookies melted together on the sheet. Not that I would know or anything. We rolled out the dough and cut gingerbread men, and then I just cut a little captain hat for the captain that looked like this:and then just pressed it on the guy's little head.

When they are done, some of them spread a little bit, so if you want to you can cut them like this to make the edges a little crisper. I also made some rectangles and cut them with a pizza cutter while they were cooling, just to make them look extra professional. It ended up being a good thing, because we used those scraps to make, you guessed it, a cutlass. We had a great time frosting them with a ziploc baggie and some cream cheese frosting and generally making a mess. You'll notice some of the crew have frosting eye patches even. Ah, Christmas and kids and cookies, you really can't go wrong. No wonder Santa is always waiting for some when he visits.Christina will be hosting a gingerbread house contest on Facebook soon, and she's asking people to use this recipe! When you enter you can now add a pirate captain with a cutlass, since you know how to now. You can thank me later.

Happy eating!