Raspberry Grapefruit Bundt Cake

Tis the season of raspberries!

And since I've been on a grapefruit kick, why not balance the sweetness of these fresh raspberries with grapefruit's tartness? 

-Enter Raspberry Grapefruit Bundt Cake- 

This is your basic pound cake recipe, with the addition of fresh squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice and those plump red raspberries. Bake in a bundt pan, tube pan or make a regular 'ole pound cake, enjoy the deliciousness in any form!

This recipe makes a one buttery pound cake. It's ever so moist, with a slightly crisp exterior and large delicate crumbs. 

The grapefruit gives it just a slight hint of tart, which gives it a nice flavor as opposed to regular pound cake (though equally delicious). The red raspberries are thrown in whole when pouring batter into the pan, making for a pretty slice of bundt heaven. 

I though about drizzling the cake with a glaze- I was thinking white chocolate or maybe grapefruit. But the cake was just perfect naked.  :)  

My favorite part about this cake is that it's make-ahead and freezer friendly. Make ahead for company, or make the cake for yourself and freeze what you can't eat. 

To freeze, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and put in a ziploc freezer bag (after its cooled entirely). For best results and the moistest cake, try to freeze chunks, not slices. Freeze the whole cake, half a cake, a quarter of the cake.. unsliced. I'll be honest, I only had a little tiny wedge left to freeze (maybe 1/8 of a cake), as I ate almost the whole cake myself in 2 days. That'll be our secret. 

Raspberry Grapefruit Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pan

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups all purpose flour, plus more to dust pan

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder, plus more for raspberries

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup fresh squeezed grapefruit juice

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 pint fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Have ingredients at room temp. 

1. Cream butter and shortening together using a mixer. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, allowing to incorporate into butter. Then add eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated before adding the next. Stop mixing immediately after egg is mixed in/you see no more yellow from the yolk. 

2. Mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Gradually add the flour to the mixing bowl a little bit at a time, alternating with the milk. Add a bit of flour, mix, add a bit of milk, mix, etc. when you run out of milk, use the grapefruit juice. End with the flour.  Mix in the vanilla. 

3. Toss the raspberries in a bowl with a tsp of baking powder. This will keep them from sinking. Grease and flour your pan of choice. Pour in a layer of batter, and then toss in a handful of raspberries, keeping them away from the edges of the pan. Add another layer of batter, making sure to cover raspberries. Throw another handful of raspberries on top, trying to place in different areas where last raspberries fell. Layer with batter, covering raspberries. Repeat until your out of batter/raspberries. Make sure there are no raspberries visible, they should all be covered with batter. 

4. Bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (only took 1 hour for me but I'm at a higher altitude, lower altitudes will take longer). 

5. Let cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. Enjoy! 

• 
  

Key Lime Bars

The ultimate summertime dessert. 

Lemon bars have always been one of my favorite sweet treats.  I love the tartness, sweetness, and bright yellow color.  They look, feel, and taste like summer.

So why not key lime bars? 

Key limes are more tart and aromatic than your traditional supermarket lime, and a bit sweeter than lemons. These little fruits have been around for thousands of years and have been traced back to the Indo-Malayan region, North Africa, Palestine, and Mediterranean Europe.  Key limes now flourish in the Florida Keys, hence the origination of their name, though they have also been called the Mexican lime and West Indies lime. This is why the Florida Keys allegedly have the best Key Lime Pie! 

I was looking for a quick and easy dessert to bring to a small farm picnic.  I'm part of a group at a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and we participate in a workshare.  In English, we work for 2 hours a week on a farm, and in return receive a bag with farm fresh produce. This is an excellent way for a farm to gain some help without having to pay for workers, and we get the pleasure of getting my hands dirty, learning all about gardening, weeding, and farming in general, AND we get to harvest my own vegetables.  I've been harvesting tons of spinach, swiss chard, kale, mizuna, lolla rossa, misc lettuces, radishes, and turnips.  We're still waiting for the tomatoes, carrots, peppers, and tons of other veggies to be ready. 

We are so excited about the gorgeous lettuces we've been harvesting that we decided to have a farm picnic after we work at the farm. We make a big salad with just-harvested greens, bring a few sides and a few beers, and enjoy the farm! This past week I brought these key lime bars, and they were a hit. Creamy, tart custard on a graham cracker crust, topped with fresh whipped cream. How can you go wrong? I baked them on parchment paper for easy removal from the pan to get pretty bars.

This recipe does make a tart key lime bar. I like tart.  If you desire a less tart, sweeter bar, reduce the amount of lime zest by half, and add an extra 1/4 cup sugar. These are fast and easy to make, but remember they must be refrigerated at least 4 hours after baking, preferably overnight, so allocate enough time for yourself.  Although I consider these a great BBQ/picnic dessert, they should be kept cool, so keep them in a cooler unless you want key lime soup  ;)

Happy picnicking!

Key Lime Bars

This is based on Martha Stewart's recipe

Makes about 16 bars

1 cup finely ground graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup plus 3 tbsp sugar, divided

5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3 large egg yolks

1 1/2 tsp finely grated lime zest

2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice (about 23 limes)

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk 

Parchment paper

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Key limes, thinly sliced, for garnish

1 tsp grated lime zest, for garnish

1. Make the crust. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the parchment paper to line a 8 inch glass baking dish- leave two sides hanging over the dish so you can easily lift the bars out. In a bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, 3 tbsp sugar, and melted butter. Dump this mixture into the baking dish and firmly press the crumbs down until an even layer is formed. Bake for 10 minutes, let cool completely on a wire rack, leaving the oven on.
2. Make the custard filling. Use an electric mixer to whisk the egg yolks and lime zest. Whisk on high until the mixture is very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add the condensed milk in a slow, steady stream, mixing constantly. Raise speed to high and mix until thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed back to low again and add lime juice; mix until just combined.  Spread mixture on top of cooled graham cracker crust. Bake 10 minutes, rotating halfway, until the top is set and barely jiggly. Cool completely on wire rack. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight.
3. Make whipped cream. In a large bowl or electric mixer, whip cream until large peaks just start to form.  Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla and beat just until stiff peaks form. 
4. Get bars ready for serving. Remove bars from refrigerator and use the parchment paper to lift the entire square out of the baking dish. Use a large, sharp knife to cut bars into desired size. Wipe the knife after every single cut you make to achieve pretty, clean bars. Decorate with whipped cream in whatever fashion you desire. I cut the tip off a ziploc bag and used a decorating tip to pipe the whipped cream on top of the bars, sprinkled some lime zest on top, and finished the bars with a thin slice of lime. 
5. Refrigerate.  The bars can be kept for up to 3 days in a airtight container before they are topped with whipped cream. Once topped with whipped cream, they should be eaten the same day. 

A Healthier Honeycake

I've been delving into a bit of Paleo eating habits.  

Paleo is the 'caveman' diet- you eat only what cavemen could've gotten their hands on- nothing processsed.  That means no dairy, flour, rice, corn, legumes, beans, sugar, etc.

I think this diet has some merit in getting people to eat healthier, to be more aware of eating whole versus processed food.  Though I see nothing wrong in eating super-healthy quinoa, brown rice, and forbidden legumes.

However, I think particularly in the baking arena, this diet is a healthier way of eating.

Baking using the paleo principle means no processed sugar, no white flour, and no butter.  In this recipe, honey (while technically not paleo) replaces white sugar. Coconut milk replaces butter. And almond flour replaces while flour.

The almond flour alone works wonders for your health.  It has higher protein and more vitamins than white flour.  Which makes you feel more full.  Which is great news for those of us with no self-control in eating baked goods (surely I'm not speaking of myself here...)  While I could eat close to a dozen mini cupcakes myself, there's no way I could eat that many of these honeycakes.  

They satisfy the sweet tooth, but are so filling you won't be able to eat tons of them.

That's what I need in a baked good. 

I served these honeycakes with a coffee creme-anglais (made with coconut milk, egg whites, and coffee grounds). They are quite good with some tea or coffee on their own as well.

A Healthier Honeycake

Makes 24 mini-cupcakes

Modified from Elana's Pantry Honeycake Recipe

2 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup honey (I used raw organic honey)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (organic, nothing added but apples!)
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Combine almond flour, sea salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.
2. In a separate bowl, combine honey, applesauce, coconut oil, and eggs.
3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry.
4. Grease and flour a 24 count mini-muffin tin.
5. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

Oh heavenly vanilla.  

These cupcakes are so delicate, so moist, so delicious.

I had to see if these were really 'the best' vanilla cupcake, as The Cupcake Project claims them to be.

Umm..  they are pretty perfect.  They rise beautifully, are so soft and moist, with a strong (but not overpowering) vanilla flavor.  I usually find vanilla cupcakes don't really have a 'big' vanilla flavor.  The vanilla seeds in this recipe are really what does it, as well as the whopping 1 tbsp of pure vanilla extract.

I frosted them with a quick vanilla buttercream frosting- I won't post recipe as I just threw in the mixing bowl some heavy cream, butter, confectioners sugar, and a few drops of vanilla.  Whipped it up and voila! 

I usually use more heavy cream than most frosting recipes call for- I like my frosting a little lighter and airier (closer to a whipped cream than a true frosting).

Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

Recipe from the Cupcake Project

Makes 16 cupcakes

1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self rising)

1 vanilla bean

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temp

2 large eggs at room temp

1/3 cup full-fat sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil )or canola oil

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (not imitation vanilla!)

2/3 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper liners in cupcake pans.

In a small bowl, combine the vanilla bean seeds and the sugar.  Use your hands or the back of a spoon to break up the clumps of vanilla seeds and disperse them throughout the sugar.

In your mixing bowl, add the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and vanilla bean sugar.  Mix until combined (on low speed or it will fly everywhere!)  Add the butter, and mix about 3 minutes until combined.  It will be crumbly, not a wet batter at this point.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract.  Slowly add this to the flour mixture and mix until combined.  Slowly add the milk in, letting the dough absorb the milk and mix it in a little at a time.  The batter will be very wet, don't be alarmed- it's supposed to be. 

Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full.  Bake 12-14 minutes, until batter is no longer 'jiggly' and a toothpick comes out clean..  Do not wait for them to turn golden brown (that means they are overcooked).  When done, remove cupcakes from muffin pan and let cool on wire rack.

Frost cupcakes only after they are completely cool.  

Double Mint Chocoholic Cookies

Cookies, cookies, cookies.

This is my first year without family and friends nearby for the holidays.

I don't have any cookie exchanges.

I won't be bringing cookies to work.

You think that'll stop me from baking way too many cookies?!  Heck no it won't.  

The Boyfriend says these taste like thin mints, and he's right.  A thin mint taste with a moist cookie interior.  

Yum.

I baked these as cookies and in a bar form, and I'll be honest, I prefer the cookies.  The cookies turned out absolutely perfect, and while the bars were so good in taste, they are not fun to try to cut into squares.  It just kind of crumbles.  I managed to get a few nice cuts, but mostly we just ate 'brownie crumble.'

To make the cookies more festive I rolled them in red sprinkles. 

Double Mint Chocoholic Cookies

Modified from Cathy Lowe's recipe

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 tbsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp mint extract

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 10 oz package dark chocolate and mint morsels

5 oz semi sweet chocolate chips

Red sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix together the butter, both sugars, vanilla, mint extract, and cocoa.  Add the flour mixture gradually and once combined, add the mint and chocolate chips.  

Roll the dough into 1 inch (or larger if you prefer) balls.  If you are using the red sprinkles, pour a bunch of sprinkles in a bowl and roll each ball of dough in the sprinkles. Place cookie balls on greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes and let cool on a wire rack.

Wensleydale Apple Cranberry Tartlets with Thyme Shortbread Crust and Bourbon Glaze

Be the star of a holiday party- bring these delectable little tartlets.  

They're like little mini-apple pies, made with Wensleydale cheese with cranberries. 

Wensleydale is an English crumbly cheese that is supple and moist with a flavor of wild honey.

Wild Honey!

This Wensleydale has cranberries mixed in- adding just a bit of... tartness... to these tarts! 

An unexpected, but incredible herb-y thyme shortbread crust that balances out the sweetness of the apples. 

I found this Wensleydale with Cranberries at Whole Foods.  

It would be AMAZING on a leftover turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving.  

So as I'm baking these, The Boyfriend keeps asking me when he can have one.

Finally I give him one.  I turn around, turn back around, and it's gone.  GONE.  

He looks at me wide-eyed, like he doesn't know what happened. 

And takes another.   

Wensleydale Apple Cranberry Tartlets with Thyme Shortbread Crust and Bourbon Glaze

The Crust:

1 1/4 cup bread flour

3 tbsp sugar

1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup thyme, leaves only, chopped

1/2 cup butter

2 tbsp ice water

The Tart:

4 Granny Smith Apples, peeled and sliced

2 McIntosh Apples, peeled and sliced

1/4 lb Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries

3 cups sugar

1 cup plus 1 tbsp water

1 stick cinnamon

2 whole cloves

1 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp bourbon

*You'll also need some kind of little tart baking pans. I found mine at either Kitchen Kapers or ACMoore, I can't recall..

Make the Crust:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, vanilla, and thyme. Cut in the old butter using a pastry blender or a knife until dough is crumbly.

2. Sprinkle 1 tbsp cold water over dough.  Quickly form into a ball, adding a few more drops of water if you need more moisture to hold it together. Do as quickly as possible, you don't want to handle the dough to long or the warmth from your hands will melt the butter, resulting in a less flaky crust.

3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, or a day or two.

4. Remove from fridge and roll out to about 1/4' thickness.

5. Cut out approximate shape of your tart pan, and lay dough over top.  Press into pan gently.  Use a rolling pin to roll over the TOP of the tart pan, giving you a nice even crust.

6. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

Make the Tart:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, water, cinnamon stick, and cloves. Bring contents to just a boil.

2. Reduce heat immediately and add all apples.  Cook until tender but not falling apart.  If it looks like the liquid is evaporating to quickly, add a bit of water to keep it moist.

3. Remove the apples, and lay out on parchment paper in one layer to cool off.  Reserve the poaching liquid.

4. Slice the Wensleydale cheese thinly.  Don't worry if it crumbles. 

Assemble:

1. Remove the crust from fridge.  Add a few of the apple slices that did not keep their perfect shape (the unsightly ones).  Top with a few slices (or crumbles) or cheese.  Pour 1 tsp of heavy cream over, letting it sink down (this is how much I used for tarts that were 3 inches across.  If you are making larger tarts, you may need to add a tbsp or two of heavy cream.  The cream shouldn't reach the top of the tart, rather just cover the bottom layers of apples and beginning to seep into the cheese layer).

2. Add the pretty, intact sliced apples on top, fanning them out decoratively.  At the base of the 'fan' add a crumble of cheese with cranberry for contrast in color.

3. Repeat with remaining tarts.

4. Bake in the preheated oven about 10 minutes, until edges of apples begin to darken and shortbread crust begins to turn golden.

5. Cool on a wire rack.

Glaze:

1. When tarts are cool, remove the cinnamon stick and cloves from the reserved poaching liquid. Add the bourbon.  Head the liquid medium high heat, reducing by half.  Liquid will get a bit sticky.

2. Brush the glaze over the tarts immediately. Let dry, and brush another layer over. 

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake

The perfect midafternoon snack- 

coffee and cake!

This Dark Chocolate Coconut cake is not overly sweet or decadent. 

It's sophisticated. 

Deep, dark, and chocolaty. 

The yogurt and coconut add another layer of sweet moistness.

And the glaze adds gives it a sheen chocolate crust.  

The perfect ending to a holiday brunch,

or perhaps a slice during teatime...

this cake will sooth the winter blues away.

You'll note instructions say to bake in a bundt pan.

You'll also notice in the pictures I did not bake mine in a bundt pan. 

A tragedy of moving- lost, forgotten kitchen supplies.

Like Toy Story, only it's my bundt pan and spatulas dancing around my room.

I encourage you to reconnect with your bundt pan though.  

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake

This recipe is from Grace Parisi for Food and Wine Magazine

CAKE:

 7 oz bag sweetened shredded coconut (about 2 cups)

1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 large egg white

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

scant 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 sticks (6 oz) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

3 large eggs

3 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

2 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups plain nonfat yogurt

GLAZE:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Make the sweet coconut/yogurt filling. In a small bowl, combine the chopped coconut, egg white, and condensed milk.  Using your hands, form this mixture into an 18' long rope, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes, until slightly firm.

2. Make the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and butter and flour an 8-cup bundt pan.  In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate, large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy, and add the eggs one at a time.  Once combined, add in the melted chocolate and the vanilla.  Finally, add the flour mixture and the yogurt in batches- add a bit of flour, mix, add a bit of yogurt, mix, flour, mix, yogurt, mix, etc until all of the flour mixture and yogurt is gone and batter is smooth. 

3.  Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.  Remove the coconut rope from the fridge, unwrap, and place on top of the batter, following the circle of the pan.  Let the rope sink into the batter a bit (give it a few pokes to help it sink in) until the rope is beneath the surface and fully covered by about an inch of batter.  

4. Bake for one hour, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack in pan for 10 minutes, and invert to cool completely.

5. Make the Glaze. Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar.  Once dissolved, remove from heat and immediately whisk in cocoa powder and vanilla.  Let cool.  Do not attempt to pour the hot glaze on a hot cake.  That has disaster written all over it!

6. Once cake is cooled, and the glaze is cooled to lukewarm, brush the glaze over the cake.  Let this layer dry slightly (about 5-10 minutes).  Brush another layer on, let dry, brush, etc until glaze is gone.  Refrigerate the cake- the glaze will set and harden.  

Pumpkin Pie In-A-Flash

Not everyone has time to be baking for hours! 

This pumpkin pie recipe is fast, easy, and delicious.  

To be perfectly honest, I had leftover empanada dough I used as the crust, but I've written the recipe using store-bought crust.  

I used sweetened condensed milk, but have heard of people replacing that with eggnog.  Sounds pretty interesting, I might have to try that! If you do, let me know how that works out. 

Pumpkin Brownies- Gluten Free!

A little bit of pumpkin, a little bit of chocolate....

Don't mind if I do.

A good (and easy) way to celebrate fall.

Chocolate Cookies AND Banana Maple Creme Muffins

Have a box of apple cake mix lying around and in the mood for chocolate cookies?  Cursing yourself for not buying some chocolate cookie mix for a quick chocolaty cookie snack?  

Or perhaps you have a ripe banana you'd rather bake in a sweet treat than eat it on it's own?

You're in luck. I brought these to an open house last night for Partylite candles, who also has a food line by Two Sister's Gourmet.  I've made this mix before as apple cake, and it's good, but I wanted to show how versatile the mix is.  So I made gooey chocolate cookies- they're soft, rich, and gooey, and so chocolaty!

And the banana muffins were moist, the maple creme adding a little sweetness, and the apple cake mix adding some cinnamon and spices. 

They were a hit. 

On a side note- I told The Boyfriend I made cookies, and he's like 'You gotta stop makin' cookies all the time babe.' (We try not to eat so many sweets). Told him don't worry, they're just for the open house.  

Later that night, with cookies leftover, I text him if he wants me to bring some home, and he says 'HELLS YEAH I DO.'   Guess he liked them.

They were at hit at the party too, and recipes were requested.  So here they are!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies

Experiment: Protein Cookies.

The boyfriend is on a real big  'get strong' kick.  

He's already big and strong, but he wants to be even bigger. And stronger.

He says to me, 'I want to make protein cookies. Here's a recipe I found.'

I say, 'Cool, we'll make protein cookies.  We'll make several, experiment a little.'

And so I was in the kitchen cooking and experimenting.  He was napping.  

LOL, okay, okay... he did help.  He's a great dishwasher and a great taste tester too!

These are the first cookies we made.

Since I was pretty timid and unsure about what was going to happen when baking with protein powder, I followed this recipe EXACTLY.  These cookies have ground flaxseed meal, oats, and chocolate protein powder, among other things.

They taste like stale bread with a faint hint of chocolate.  Hmph. 

Moving on, I loosely followed a recipe using pureed chickpeas as a base for the cookie.  

You won't find a pic, they went in the trash immediately.

And then..........

Drumroll pleeeeaseee....

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cookies! 

They are pretty much your standard peanut butter cookie, but with the added health benefits of added protein powder, quinoa flour, and less sugar! And they're delish! 

They seem to taste less peanut-buttery than a regular PB cookie, and just a bit denser due to the oats and protein powder, but they're so good!

The best part?  While I can normally eat about 10 cookies in one sitting, these are so filling that I can only eat 2 or 3, and they satisfy my cookie craving/ sweet tooth with so much less sugar. 

The boyfriend did a loose nutritional analysis of this recipe.  I was so stinkin' excited when he was adding up numbers, just knowing there wouldn't be much sugar and there would be TONS of protein.  

Turns out there's not really 'TONS' of protein.  The recipe is good and healthier, but I'll be modifying it to cut down the fat and add MORE PROTEIN, such as substituting the butter with 1/4 cup oil to cut down on fat, skipping the mini chocolate chips, and adding more protein powder. 

1 cookie:  115 calories, 7.25 grams of fat, 7 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies

Gluten-free mama?

No problem.  Whip her up these sugar cookies quick.  You can't even tell they're gluten-free!  

They are light sugar cookies that melt in your mouth.

I don't usually use boxed cake mixes, but these are really great for a quick gluten free treat, and you don't have to buy 16 gluten free flours to make it!

I wish I had a fun cookie cutter, or bright sprinkles to use.

But I didn't.

The beauty of these cookies is you need so few ingredients.  I'll be keeping a box of this mix in my house for a quick gluten-free dessert anytime.

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies

Recipe adapted from Betty Crocker

1 box gluten-free Betty Crocker yellow cake mix 

    (found with other cake mixes, NOT in gluten-free aisle)

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.  
3. Add the egg and water, mixing just until incorporated.
4. Gradually beat in the boxed flour mix.
5. Roll dough into small balls and place on ungreased baking sheet 2 inches apart (give them room, they will expand!)
6. Gently flatten the dough balls a bit with the bottom of a glass.
7. Bake 9-11 minutes. or until just beginning to turn a golden color.  Underbake, don't overbake!
8. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes. These cookies are delicate due to being gluten-free.
9. Carefully remove to a wire rack, and cool completely. 

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Ohh how I love fruit bars!  I look at it as a guilt-free way of eating pie.

You know that moment when you're pretty full, and Auntie Mae is presenting dessert- a pie oozing with blueberries and happiness, topped with a dollop of whipped cream sweetness, the sun shining in the background, birds singing songs of smiles and pie.. and you think 'oh I really shouldn't..'

But it would be a whole thing if you didn't take a slice. Auntie Mae shoves a plate at you, her fingers calloused from making the pie crust by hand, her face sunburnt from picking the blueberries just this morning, and you just have to eat it (and who are you kidding, you know you want it)

.. and it's a whole event with the plate of the pie and the fork and the sitting-down-so-you-can-eat-the-pie and the pass-the-napkins because I drooled blueberry pie on my new white pants..

Hellooo fruit bars... aka the same ingredients as pie- bars.  Just pick up a bar and keep it moving.  It's not even dessert really.  There's no fork needed.  Heck, you don't even need a plate!   Perfect for picnics and BBQ's.

These blueberry bars get gobbled up quick.  If you think you made enough, make more. Trust me.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes
Makes 24 good sized bars

1 1/2 cups white suger
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cpld unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into pieces
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups fresh blueberries
3 tsp cornstarch
Zest and juice of one lemon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup of the sugar, 3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add the lemon zest. Blend in the egg and butter with a fork or pastry cutter (I used a food processor) The dough will be crumbly.  
3. Pour half of the dough into the prepared pan. Pat down to make the crust for the bars.
4. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries.  Sprinkle the blueberry mixture over the crust, and crumble remaining dough over top of the blueberry layer.
5. Bake in preheated oven 45 minutes, or until top is just slightly brown.
6. Cool in pan on a wire rack.  Let cool completely before attempting to cut (the bars will fall apart if you try to cut when still warm).
7. Store in airtight container in fridge.