There are many ways to deal with zucchini. You can grill it, put it on kabobs, roll it up with roasted red peppers and goat cheese, make fritters, pickle it, give it to your neighbors and coworkers at the peak point in summer – and of course make zucchini bread. Baseball bat-sized zucchinis are ideal for grating and baking. Leave the littler ones for the grilling and sautéing.

Fall is the time for stocking up and preparing for winter. Zucchini bread freezes well, but make it easy on yourself and make muffins for personal serving sizes. Or add some chocolate and try to decide what makes a cupcake a cupcake and what makes a muffin a muffin?

Here is an old family favorite of summer time, modified to be gluten-free. My mom has been baking this cake every summer for at least twenty years. My copy of the recipe is hand written in large messy handwriting, in abbreviated format – hastily written as I quizzed my mother via long distance phone call from my post-college, garage apartment in Maine – missing a taste of home. Now I make it every summer too.

And you don’t have to tell people there is zucchini in it. Until they say “OMG, they are sooo moist, what is in here??”

Gluten-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup butter/margarine
• ½ cup oil – try coconut oil!
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup buttermilk (you can make “buttermilk” by adding 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to a cup of milk)
• 2 ½ cup gluten-free flour (I used 2 cups of King Arthur’s gluten-free flour mix and ½ cup of sorghum flour, because I have it.)
• 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon all spice
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 cups grated zucchini squeezed in a strainer to remove extra moisture. (about 3-6 inches long if you don’t have a baseball bat sized one)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (or more depending how your day is going)

Directions:

1. Grate zucchini and place in strainer, allowing extra moisture to drain out, squish with a wood spoon (or your hand) to press out more moisture. Let sit while following the rest of the directions.
2. Cream sugar, butter, oil
3. Add eggs, vanilla, buttermilk – mix in until well combined
4. Sift next seven ingredients and combine with wet ingredients
5. Add grated zucchini and stir in by hand to combine.
6. Place muffin wrappers in muffin pan, and fill muffins tins with batter, about a quarter inch from the top. Number of cupcakes will vary depending on size of tins. Makes about 18–24 cupcakes.
7. Sprinkle chips on top, press a few into the batter a bit.
8. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
9. If you prefer to bake a cake, pour batter into greased 9×13 pan and bake for 45 minutes.
10. Using a cake tester, toothpick, or dry spaghetti noodle to test for doneness. Insert in middle (avoid spearing a chocolate chip). If your tester comes out gummy or sticky leave in longer. If it comes out mostly dry then remove from oven.
11. Cool on wire rack. Remove cupcakes from tins for cooling
12. Once cool, eat a few and freeze the rest for later!

The post Recipe: Gluten-Free Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Or even better, used in “High Protein Cookies,” as the title on the recipe says. I fondly call them “Hippie Cookies,” because they contain soy flour and my mom was making these when I was a kid, before using different flours was very common or avoiding gluten was a thing to do. You can call them “Chocolate Chip Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies” if you like and if you feel you have the time to say that before one jumps into your mouth.

The original recipe calls for regular flour, but due to the high moisture and taste factor of the bananas it is an ideal cookie recipe for gluten-free conversion. Add the taste of peanut butter and some spices and you have a complex cookie that satisfies that chocolate chip cookie urge (I get it at least once a week). I also like to think it has a few other redeeming qualities over your average cookie with its walnuts and higher protein flours. This is a very forgiving and open-minded cookie – substitutions work well and won’t give you a lot of attitude. Plus they freeze exceptionally well.

Hippie Cookies – Chocolate Chip Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ sifted flour (I used 1 cup King Arthurs Gluten-free flour, and one ¼ cup sorghum flour, but you can mix this up. Even some bean based flour will be okay, as the banana covers that bean taste right up.)
• ¼ sifted soy flour (I leave this in as a nod to the original recipe but you could use some other type.)
• ¼ plus ⅛ teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup soft butter
• ¼ cup peanut butter (or almond butter, or experiment with another nut!)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup mashed banana (This is about 3 bananas. You can freeze them smashed or freeze them whole, then microwave for 10 -20 seconds, cut off the end and squish out the banana, like a tube of tooth paste.)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ¼ quick oats (I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oats. To make them smaller and more like quick oats you can toss them into the food processor and grind them up a wee bit. Or just go with it. It’ll work just fine the way they are.)
• ¼ cup wheat germ substitute (Obviously don’t use wheat germ if you are avoiding wheat or gluten! I substitute either walnuts finely ground up, or flax seeds or a combination of flax seeds and sesame seeds. Depends on what is in the nut/seed shelf in the refrigerator.)
• At least 1 cup of chopped nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, etc. (I usually do a “generous pour” of the chocolate chips, or mix up chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Or add some nuts. I haven’t tried cranberries or dried cherries but they might go in the next batch.)

Directions

• Sift flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda and spices.
• In the mixer or large bowl beat the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and egg until fluffy.
• Beat in the bananas, then add vanilla and beat until smooth.
• Gradually stir in sifted flour mixture, oats and wheat germ (or substitute!).
• Scrape sides of bowl occasionally and mix until combined well.
• Stir in the optional add-ins.
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Drop by tablespoonful on lightly greased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
• Bake for 15 minutes, depending on oven, until golden.
• Cool on a rack.

Once cool, freeze a bunch for later nibbling. It will be hard to not eat them while they cool, so you might have to go for a run while they cool and fill the house with tasty smells!

The post Recipe: The Banana Graveyard (aka Chocolate Chip Banana Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies) appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Michael Pollan in Omnivore’s Dilemma spends pages talking about the lack of an American food culture and how we’ve lost our connection to the food system. Some people don’t know that a potato grows in the dirt. Walk through that same grocery store and you’ll have no idea what season it is. Writer and life coach Martha Beck asks new clients, “Tell me everything you can remember about the best meal you ever had in your life.” Her goal is to help clients discover (or remember) their preferences, their likes and dislikes.

How would you answer the question about your favorite meal? Do you remember the calories and the breakdown of the nutrients? Do we feel a sense of guilt or shame if it includes a known “bad” food? Do we know why it was our favorite meal? Likely there is something else going on when we think about a favorite meal – other factors played into the experience.

For me, planning for, cooking, and then serving and eating a meal can be almost meditative. Taoist philosophy talks about “doing without doing.” This doesn’t happen with every meal I make, but when it does the food is more satisfying, more memorable, and more nourishing to both mind and body.

Frequently healthy eating is discussed in terms of calories in, calories out; balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats; and if you are a super health geek perhaps words like flavonoids and antioxidants cross your mind. I personally feel very virtuous adding walnuts to my oatmeal, what with their omega-3s and libido enhancing qualities. But just because you eat healthy by the books, doesn’t mean you have a healthy relationship with food.

There is a new disordered eating term I learned about recently – orthorexia – which some use to describe “people who develop an obsession with avoiding foods perceived to be unhealthy.” It seems like a sneaky issue to me. Suddenly when we thought we were doing the right thing we’ve gone overboard. Any time something becomes over controlled we need to examine our behavior. On the other hand the obesity epidemic is nightly news, and it seems like we just can’t get this right. No control and over control might just be two sides of the same coin.

I find at times is that those around me can take my eating habits as a judgment upon theirs. When I’m eating something healthy, it makes others feel self-conscious of their own less than healthy choice. Or conversely I’ll be eating a cookie around someone who has embarked on a new diet and I’ll hear how bad my cookie is for me. Sometimes I want to shout “Can we all just focus on our own plates?”

Perhaps we do need to focus on our own plates, but with a new set of eyes. And a new nose, and new sense of touch and reawakened taste buds. Let’s redefine healthy eating to include a healthy relationship with food – a balanced relationship.

How do we do this? Here are some tips:

Learn to taste

In the movie Hereafter, Matt Damon’s character attends a cooking class where one of the lessons is to identify tastes. While blindfolded your partner feeds you different foods and spices, and the taster has to identify the taste. Is it green, woodsy, like metal, like a spring day? What is the difference between a tomato in winter and one still warm from the vine? Have you forgotten how to taste?

Slow down

This is where a little practice in mindful eating goes a long way. Taste, put fork down. Taste, put fork down. In jiu-jitsu practice one method to keep from using too much energy is to keep your breathing at a slower pace than your opponents. I think about this concept now when eating. Am I already two-thirds of the way through my meal and my dinner mates are only one-third? What’s the hurry? Slow down. Look, experience, feel, smell, taste.

Grow some herbs

The easiest way to become more connected to your food is to grow some herbs. The smell of fresh herbs will fill your soul, which goes a long way to filling your belly. I personally have a love affair with fresh basil, with cilantro as its mistress. Pinch off a few leaves and roll them through your fingers. The color and fresh flavor make the simplest of meals appear gourmet. Inhale a deep breath of fresh herbs. Think about the roots, the soil, the sun, and the water that supported and created this plant. And by breathing this plants scent, you too are connected to this earth, to this full-cycle system.

Eat something weird

Not only are we a global economy these days, we are a global food system. We have access now to foods we didn’t even know the names of ten to fifteen years ago. But it doesn’t have to be a food from another country. There are the lesser known fruits and vegetables grown locally. Try a purple potato, a funny looking squash, a different green leafy thing. Ask at the farmers market how to cook it.

So, go to the farmer’s market

This spring make a commitment to go at least once a month throughout the growing season. Let the colors, textures, and smells invade your mind. Notice how the offerings change from week to week. Experiment creating a meal solely from your farmer’s market finds. Go in open minded and see what looks good. Farmer’s market meals don’t need to be fussy or complicated. You’ll discover that food at its freshest will have its own taste and pleasure packaged up in its own skin. Fresh herbs, a little salt and pepper, some olive oil and the heat of a grill are all that’s needed to complement the fresh flavors.

Redefine comfort foods

What is comfort food? It’s warm, non-fussy, solid, fulfilling, and frequently reminds us of a good time in our past. But sometimes comfort foods come from a less happy place, or we feel worse after we eat it. Discovering for your self how and why this happens is key to solving this dilemma. Perhaps you mistook an emotional craving for a food craving and so naturally the food doesn’t solve the feeling. Now’s the time for some introspection. Did that ice cream sandwich remind me of late summer evenings on the back porch? Or was I trying to substitute it for a hug or an apology or missed conversation with someone? Sometimes our body mistakes that hollow feeling from a mismanaged emotion for a physical food desire.

Food isn’t love (and yet)

As I tell my chubby cat, “Food isn’t love” – while she sits at the bowl meowing and I try to distract her with some petting. Perhaps there is another angle here. Too draconian an approach and we cut food out of a healthy balance with events and people in our lives. What if instead we acknowledged food is a part of our history and a part of our future and acknowledged its place?

My grandmother’s pie crust is a part of my family history and has been passed down to me. We remember her every Thanksgiving when we dish up the apple pie. We’re not thinking about the fat in the pie crust or the healthy aspect of the apples. It is not a health food. But does the pleasure I derive from the accomplishment of a flaky pie crust and sharing with family outweigh the negatives of fat in the crust? In this instance, isn’t that apple pie an act of love? Perhaps it is healthier to integrate food into our whole lives – balanced lives – rather than singling it out for its negative qualities.

Conclusion

When our relationship with food is in balance with other aspects of our lives, perhaps that is when we can reach “doing without doing” with food. When we are in tune with what pleases our palate, when we provide ourselves the time to cook or chop or shop, when we respect food preparation as something that deserves some time (just like sleep) then perhaps it will be easier to establish and maintain a healthy relationship with food. How is your relationship with food? Is it out of control or over controlled or just about right?

The post For the Love of Pie: 7 Steps Toward Reconnecting With Your Food appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When I first started I was in physical therapy for a running injury. My pelvis was tilted back and to one side, giving me a false short leg. I couldn’t bridge and turn to the left side to save my life. My core was weak. I was overweight. I looked older than I was. I was trying to get back in shape and was training to do a triathlon in the summer, and thought learning some self-defense skills would be helpful when training alone on the trails.

2006 proved to be a challenging year. Not only was I in physical therapy, but I was in mental therapy, too. Turns out I wasn’t going to just learn physical self-defense techniques and walk away at the end of an eight week course. Turns out I was actually on a journey we’ll call “In Defense of Self” – a defense of health and fitness, of spirit, of happiness, an integration of mind and body. A self that needed to be recovered, found, dusted off and put back together.

Definition: Self-Defense

1. Defense of oneself when physically attacked
2. Defense of what belongs to oneself

Perhaps the second definition should be listed first. You need to know what belongs to you – your space, your body, and your mental or emotional status in order to be able to defend it. You need to believe in your self-worth in order to defend yourself. You need to know it is not okay for others to take from you – whether it’s something physical like your wallet, or something more intangible like your motivation and dreams.

As I continued to sign-up for eight-week session after eight-week session of self-defense, it became something to hold on to. I learned to escape all the headlock holds, wrist grabs, and throat grabs. How to block a punch, how to clinch, how to fall and get back up again. I started to figure out how to move my body. I figured out I had a body. And my body wasn’t the enemy. Having spent so much time with sports injuries, chronic sinusitis, and endometriosis, I had dissatisfaction in and distrust of my body. It did me no good and did nothing but let me down and cause me pain.

But something crazy happened. I reclaimed my body as a partner. These hands, these arms, this bridge, this twist, and I could toss someone off of me. I could control my limbs, my core, and the space around me. It was possible – I could have physical say over what could happen. My body was no longer the enemy, no longer a constant source of disappointment, but a reliable partner.

Physical Training vs. Mental Training

The physical body and physical training of self-defense techniques are only part of the equation. The mental aspect is perhaps even more difficult to train. I’d propose that physical training is in fact significantly easier. Lift this weight 10-20 times, with sets sets, twice a week and you will see a difference. But change a thought pattern you’ve relied on for 15, 20 years, or more? That is a significant challenge.

Jiu-jitsu taught me to feel or, rather, to connect the mind and body. To balance my strengths and weaknesses, to see when strength in one context became weakness in another context. I apologized for the first two (okay five) years of jiu-jitsu to my partner – first out loud, then to myself, and then just with my actions. Holding back there, letting up there, feeling their pain, or discomfort. Identifying with their pain, discomfort, their ego, their trying to hang onto themselves in a bad position. Recognizing my own symptoms of pre-panic in others.

I’ve had to practice focusing on my game, to be what feels to me a little selfish, to go for attacks and dominant positions, and to trust the other person to take care of their own mental and emotional status. They are here to train and fight and don’t need me to take care of them. In fact, it takes away from their training and does them a disservice. They, too, need to practice not escaping to a safe mental place when stuck in a tough situation, but to stay in the room both emotionally and mentally and to tough it out. They too need opportunity to manage their ego.

These mental aspects can be trained and you need to seek out the tools that work for you. I’ve been working on this aspect the past six months or so. I got two smart bits of advice that really helped me make progress.

• First – Do a Self Check: Do a self-check before entering a situation, whether it be a sparring match or a difficult conversation at work. What is my mental and emotional status? What am I feeling? What in essence am I bringing into the room, the match, or the conversation? When I leave the room, the match, or the conversation, I should be leaving with those same things. I don’t need to take anything from the other person with me; I don’t need to take their frustration (its theirs, not mine), their personal angst, or their workload. My wise friend Mark says “Don’t be greedy with other people’s problems.” This bit of advice has helped me immensely to defend my Self and not let it be consumed by others. Not that others ever ask for me to do that, it’s just a bad habit that needs to be broken.
• Second – Protect Your Energy: The second bit of advice was from my acupuncturist. Essentially, I needed to protect my chi, protect my energy. I did this by imagining a protective shell around my core before slapping hands for a match, or before a difficult conversation. They are them; I am me.

Stop Being Too Nice

This being “too nice” aspect has other ramifications for self-defense. Too often women are taught to be nice, to not offend, to not potentially hurt others feelings. This can cause issues that can actually put you in danger. In a parking lot, or when someone comes to your door, you might ignore intuition or let someone get closer than you should, because you are being too nice. It is hard work to undo this lifetime of training. I have finally learned I don’t have to open the door just because someone knocks on it.

This is similar to the weak no. Controlling people look for the weak no. They push the limit to override your decision. This is an aspect of self-defense that is completely mental and but can be trained with practice just like physical self-defense. This is well covered in The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker and should complement physical self-defense training. I’m still learning the strong unconditional no and to not apologize for it.

Believe Your Self-Worth

A key to self-defense is belief in your self-worth. Self-worth is different from self-confidence. I can have boatloads of confidence in my abilities, my brains, or other attributes. Self-worth is different. It’s deeply internal and hard to see, it’s an internal nugget, whereas self-confidence radiates outwards. Self-worth says you are worth defending.

When we teach self-defense to teenage girls, it always brings a lump to my throat to talk about self-worth. To tell them they matter for more than their looks or who they date or how perfect they are in school, but for what they as individuals have to offer the world. It’s a precious commodity that can easily slip away. Self-worth says you are worth defending – in more than one way, from more than just physical danger.

Self-worth says –

• You are worth eating healthy
• You are worth the time it takes to put on your running shoes
• You are worth the time it takes to seek out health care
• You are worth taking a moment to breathe deeply
• You are worth having your ideas heard and your opinion considered
• You are worth not losing yourself to someone else

I get asked, “Have you had to use what you’ve learned in your training?” I used to say no, not since I’ve learned it but I could have used it in the past. Now I have a new answer. “Yes, every day, every day I use what I’ve learned in self-defense – in defense of self.”

My goal now is for other women, the women who need it most, to find an open door to the beautiful game of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I’m not worried about the field hockey players, the rugby players, the has-been high school jocks who find their way into the dojo. They’ll do just fine. I want the ones who aren’t quite sure who they are or why they are there, but have an inkling that somehow it matters they have taken that step to walk in the door and onto the mat. That somehow they matter and that is worth defending.

The post In Defense of Self: The Real Mental Value of Self-Defense Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

With butternut squash soup as the first defined item on the meal plan, I knew there had to be a bread item to accompany it. With the temperature rapidly dropping, perhaps you too are searching for something bread-y to pair with your soup, stews, or salads. I think I have found the answer.

I feel like going gluten-free has freed me up to experiment even more with my cooking, to investigate the science of it, and go with the basic concepts to create new things. I enjoy reading recipes and will sometimes combine a few different ones, depending on what ingredients I have on hand, but I still always want it to succeed. Perhaps because gluten-free baking is fairly new to me, I’ve decide to really treat it as experimenting, and being okay with the potential for failures. Besides when the frozen gluten-free bread available in stores is so awful, how bad can my worst failures really be?

So, I decided I’d take a known success and modify it even more – trying to attain a concept I had in my brain and a taste I had in mind. I would make cheddar and chive scones – a savory scone, a mealtime scone. I knew I had the basics from the Holiday Scones recipe, but I would need to modify for the flavors and for using a different mix of flours.

On our New Year’s Eve cooking extravaganza I stuck fairly close to the portions in the Holiday Scone recipe. I used all Pamela’s flour mix this time, upped the xanthan gum to one teaspoon, left out the sugar, substituted shredded cheddar cheese for the cranberries, chopped fresh chives for the orange rind, milk for the orange juice and baked away! They came out quite lovely!

Now, the butternut squash soup was so good, and the weather so cold today, I decided to make the soup again for dinner and to freeze some for lunches…and wouldn’t that lunch be so much better with a savory scone accompaniment? But I decided to experiment a little more. I don’t always have milk on hand, and I don’t always have sour cream on hand. I needed to know if I could mix it up a bit.

I decided to substitute the milk and sour cream with 2% greek yogurt, upped the cheese to a “rounded” half cup (mostly because I shredded too much), and upped the chives to just under a quarter cup. I began mixing and decided it was still slightly too dry to pull the dough together, so I added two tablespoons of soy milk. And it totally worked!

I have a feeling I’ll be spending some time working through different scone combinations – dried cherry and goat cheese perhaps? Dill and havarti? Lemon and blueberry? What combinations do you think will be tasty? What will satisfy your bread-y craving?

Gluten-free Cheddar and Chive Scones – for when your soup needs a friend!

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose gluten free flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• ½ rounded cup of shredded cheddar (I used sharp Vermont white cheddar)
• ¼ cup chopped chives
• ½ cup 2% Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons soy milk

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium bowl mix flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. With pastry blender or knives used in scissors fashion cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In a small bowl mix together Greek yogurt, cheddar cheese, chives and soy milk. Add to dry ingredients and combine until just blended.

Using a spoon, scoop up dough to form about a 3″ scone, and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet, patting the dough to about a half inch thick.

Bake scones 10-12 minutes until golden. Serve scones warm or cool on wire rack.

This recipe makes 9-10 scones. Scones can be frozen and reheated in the toaster oven.

The post Recipe: Gluten Free Cheddar & Chive Scones – A Partner for Soup & Salad appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

In the eighth grade I decided to make my friends plates of Christmas cookies. Being the overachiever I am, just one type of cookie would not do. Neither would two, or three. My list of Christmas cookies was at least twelve cookies long. My sister can probably tell you which cookies I made that year, as I wouldn’t let her eat ANY of them. I’ve been trying to make it up to her ever since. Dessert on Christmas night with my family is a plethora of cookies – an extravaganza, if you will, of cookies.

This Christmas, however, represents a special challenge as I have given up both gluten and corn. You may think, “Corn? You’re not making cornbread cookies are you?” No, but unless you are a careful label reader, you may not realize powdered sugar and baking powder both contain cornstarch, unless you intentionally seek out products that use tapioca or potato starch. Last year I began to infiltrate the family baking with corn-free products, giving my mother and sister corn-free powdered sugar and baking powder. Surely they would want to bake Tori-safe cookies right? Well, this year having given up gluten as well, that might be too much to ask for, at least until I have some proven recipes to share.

And so, my holiday baking experiment began:

Experiment #1: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I began with the old family recipe from Great Aunt Jane – perhaps the original tollhouse cookie recipe. I used Bob’s Red Millgluten-free all-purpose flour mix the first time around with a little xanthan gum added. They looked like Great Aunt Jane’s cookies, almost the same fluffy soft texture, but there was a slight bean taste to them. Not too surprising as Bob’s flour mix has both fava and garbanzo bean flours as part of the mix.

Experiment #2: Polvorones

Might as well jump right into a challenge. Another family favorite, I knew the bean taste would not fly with a simple cookie that was essentially flour, butter, vanilla, and sugar. This time I gave Pamela’s gluten-free baking flour mix a try. No bean flours in this mix and the almond flour in the mix would work well, as some variants of this cookie do contain nuts. Alas, the cookie is supposed to be a ball shaped and they did not retain their shape when baked. But, they tasted good. I baked the whole batch, dusted them with my corn-free powdered sugar and figured it was better than nothing.

Experiment #3: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Take 2

Since the Pamela’s flour had a lighter taste, I decided to give the chocolate chip cookies a try again. This time it was a near total disaster, so flat and spread out, they even dripped through the cooling rack. I had to laugh. I now have cookie crumbs to sprinkle on my vanilla ice-cream. The rest of the batter I threw in a baking pan, to see if it could be rescued as a bar cookie. They taste pretty good, but probably too soft. A little freezing might be the answer there.

Experiment #4: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Take 3

It was time for a little research. Out came Cook’s Best Recipe book, and while they don’t cover gluten-free, they do cover the science behind the best recipes. It appears I needed to reduce the moisture in the cookie. I cut the water (the original tollhouse recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of water), and removed one egg white, and decided to try half Bob’s flour and half Pamela’s flour. A little better results, but still flat and crispy, but at least they retained their shape on the cooling rack. But I was onto something, and I realized I hadn’t added any extra xanthan gum (Bob’s mix doesn’t contain any while Pamela’s does). Xanthan gum is key to providing a little more structure to the cookie, to replace the missing gluten.

Experiment #5: Cranberry Orange Scones

With this knowledge gained, I decided to move onto scones. I used the two flour mixes, added a little xanthan gum, and followed the cardinal rule of scone making – DO NOT OVER MIX. I decided to bake three as a trial run, figuring if they spread out too thin I’d throw the dough in a tart pan and try to salvage it that way. I was prepared for another failure, or near miss. In they went to the hot oven. Halfway through the baking time I peered in. They seemed to be holding up. Could this really be? They smelled good and looked good. I began jumping up and down in the kitchen as time passed and they held their shape. Out of the oven they came, little piles of perfection. But will they taste good?

YES!!!!!

Only question, how will they hold up? How will they taste tomorrow? Will it be wrong if I eat them all myself? Too bad the Internet hasn’t figured out scratch and sniff. Victory was mine! I had not been defeated! I’ve been making these scones for years, and they have been a part of my holiday season as both gifts and breakfast. I had to call my mother.

Experiment #6: Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies

Spirits lifted, and feeling like an invincible baking goddess, I decided to give cookies one more try. This time I wouldn’t forget the xanthan gum. I stuck with leaving out one egg white and continued with a mixture of the two flour mixes. I mixed up a batch, tasted the batter, and put the first batch in. In the end? They looked like normal cookies! Tasted pretty good too! Next time I’ll probably leave the second egg white in and see what happens. I’ll keep working at the chocolate chip cookies too.

And so, based on my experiments, I share with you my two successful holiday cookie recipes. Through this process, I feel like the keys to gluten-free baking have been handed to me. Now I only need to decide where to drive to next!

Holiday Scones

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup of Pamela’s gluten-free baking and pancake mix
• ½ cup of Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
• ¼ cup sour cream
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 2 teaspoons grated orange peel

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease large cookie sheet. Mix cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and ¼ cup sugar. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in dried cranberries, sour cream, orange juice, and orange peel just until ingredients are blended.

Drop onto cookie sheet and slightly flatten. Or roll out and cut into shapes (half inch thickness). Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake scones 10-12 minutes until golden. Serve warm or cool on wire rack. Makes about 1 dozen.

Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 egg plus one egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup Pamela’s gluten-free baking and pancake mix
• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour mix
• ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ⅔ cup cocoa powder (Hershey’s or Ghiradellas)
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream together butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Combine flour, xanthan gum, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Add to creamed mixture and combine. Stir in Peanut Butter Chips.

Drop by teaspoonsful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Cool 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet to wire cooling rack.

Makes about 5 dozen 2 ½-inch cookies.

The post Recipe: Tori’s Grand Cookie Experiment – Gluten-Free Holiday Cookies appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I admit it. I have a weakness for the Pumpkin Loaf at Starbucks. The leaves change color, the angle of the sun changes, the air is crisp, and before you know it goblins make way for turkeys. And my taste buds demand pumpkin bread. I am a firm believer in maintaining a connection with the seasons through the foods I eat.

Alas, this year it was not to be. My love affair with Pumpkin Loaf came to a dramatic end when the need for a gluten- free diet made it demands known.

I decided to call upon all resources, knowledge and experiences.  Having given up corn years ago due to a food allergy, I was already familiar with label reading, organic grocery stores, and swapping out ingredients. As a reformed carb junkie with a weakness for baked goods, I knew an absence of baked goods was not going to be the answer to going gluten-free.

Our taste buds are so used to the taste and texture of wheat-based baked goods. I figured some of this could be overcome with the moisture and deep flavors of quick breads. Before going completely gluten- free last month, I had begun experimenting this summer with some family recipes. Having had success with chocolate zucchini cake and high protein hippie cookies (oatmeal banana peanut butter chocolate chip), I figured pumpkin bread, with its high moisture content and layer of spice, had a high percentage chance of success.

While still new to the gluten-free baking scene I have so far stuck with gluten- free flour mixes that typically combine 3 or so types of flours. I intend to branch out for holiday cookie baking season, as some of the more delicate flavors might not stand up to some of the bean flour taste found in the combination mixes. There is a great article on Living Without that talks about the flavors and textures of different types of flours. Another key element you’ll want to learn about is xanthan gum. This helps add back in the elasticity that gluten provides to bake goods.

When it comes to gluten-free baking, Google is your friend. There are numerous blogs, such as the Gluten Free Goddess that can give you a running start on your baking efforts.

Baking your own gluten-free baked goods does take time – and an initial investment in flours and xanthan gum. To be more inspired to make the time to bake, I consider it an investment in my health and buying more quality per day. It takes creativity and a sense of adventure, and a willingness to experiment.

I find that when giving up or eliminating a specific food type it helps to see it as an opportunity to expand your experiences. Frame it in your mind as adding a whole class of new foods – new flours, new grains, room for more veggies, not as giving up wheat-based bread. You might be surprised as you discover new foods you overlooked previously due to the convenience and availability of foods with gluten. After I gave up corn I discovered fantastic fruit sodas without corn syrup, and tasty veggie chips and bean chips to replace corn chips. I now regularly bring these to family gatherings – by request! I imagine the same could happen with going gluten-free.

Who says I can’t have a pumpkin muffin and eat it too?

Pumpkin Streusel Bread

Here is the original recipe – I modified the ingredients to make this gluten-free.

• Topping:
• ¼ cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons chilled butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Bread:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour gluten-free flour mix, such as Bob’s Red Mill
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup raisins or substitute dried cranberries or dried cherries
• 1 ½ teaspoons xantham gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• ½ cup plain low-fat yogurt
• ½ cup honey
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• Cooking spray

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare topping, combine first 4 ingredients until crumbly. Set the mixture aside.

To prepare bread, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 8 ingredients (flour through nutmeg) in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture. Combine the pumpkin and next 5 ingredients (pumpkin through eggs) in a bowl; add to flour mixture. Stir just until moist. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

This recipe also makes great muffins for individual servings. Gluten-free baked goods can get sticky. If you won’t be eating all of it in a day or two, consider freezing individual servings for a quick breakfast or snack. They taste great partially defrosted!

The post Recipe: Go Gluten-Free & Still Eat Your Holiday Pumpkin Bread appeared first on Breaking Muscle.