Gluten free Archives - Baking With Unicorns

Not baking… but yummy!

February 1, 2014 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

Sorry for my delay in posting anything. It’s been a busy month, despite being on break from school for most of it. I just got back from an interview with the Movement Science Program at Washington University in St Louis. It was great! Two more interviews to go!

On my way to St Louis and back (and ever since to be honest) I was listening to “Cannonball” by Lea Michelle. Overall, it’s a terrible song, but I like her voice. The video (below) is rather boring and unimaginative. I was hoping that she would turn into a cannonball or something interesting like that, but alas, no. She’s in an attic… At least she could have exploded or something, shattering the roof of the attic. Regardless of her video, I enjoy the song’s rhythm and her vocals.

Additionally, I would like to comment on Pink’s Grammy performance last Sunday. I know it’s a week later, and everyone is probably over it, but I’M NOT! I tried to find a good video of it on YouTube, but failed. Look it up yourself if you didn’t see it, or just sit back and take a moment to recall how amazing it was. Sigh…..

Onto the food that I’ve made. I was inspired to make this food after going to an Indian restaurant with my friend. The chana masala was amazing, and their gluten free chickpea roti was DERRRRICIOUS! Just thinking about it makes me hungry! Anyway, I made this a few days ago (but am only getting to posting now), and at that time I was on an “anti-yeast” diet. So nothing fermented (wine was out which made me cry) and no bread. Also no yogurt or cultured foods. No Cheese!!! Randomly, no onions, beets, oranges, garlic, or sugar that wasn’t in other fruits. I was pretty much a vegan who couldn’t even eat bread. TORTURE!! Additionally, I did a lil research and found nothing that really supported this diet as being a useful means of helping joint problems (my doc and I had an exchange of words). I’m off it now, but this recipe comes from that time, which is why it’s not an actual baked good. Baking was too depressing when you can’t eat sugar or butter. Even this recipe had to be modified because of the onion and garlic restriction. If you choose to make this dish, I would suggest adding in the onion and garlic, but it’s quite yummy without as well.

Aloo Gobi
inspired by this!

Ingredients:
1/4 cut olive oil
1 onion (optional)
1 bunch of cilantro, divided into stalks and leaves
2 small jalapenos (This is what I used, but would have preferred serrano)
1 head cauliflower
3 medium red potatoes
5 Roma Tomatoes
Fresh grated ginger
Fresh garlic (optional)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons garam masala

How to make:
1. Chop onion (optional), cauliflower, potatoes, and tomatoes into small cubes. Dice garlic (optional), cilantro (leaves and stems divided), and jalapenos. Keep everything divided into bowls.

2. Heat oil in a large pot. If you’re doing the onions, toss them in now with the cumin seeds and cook until onions become translucent. Or just add the cumin and let is sizzle for ~2 minutes. Next, add in the cilantro stalks, turmeric, tomatoes and jalapenos. Allow to cook in oil for ~1 minute. Then add in ground ginger and garlic. Mix completely. I let it heat up so that it was starting to bubble a little before moving onto the next step.

The Tomato Sauce

3. Add in the cauliflower and potatoes into sauce with ~1/4 cup water. Stir completely, making sure all cauliflower and potato gets covered in the sauce. Then cover the pot with a lid and allow to simmer for ~20 minutes or until the potatoes are easily pierced with fork.

Before Cooking

4. Once cooked through, add in the cilantro leaves and garam masala and mix completely. Remove from heat and allow to sit for at least 10 minutes to let flavors sink in (I found left overs were even more flavorful).

After Cooking

5. Serve with rice and/or lentils. I made a mixture of jasmine rice and french lentils. If you are trying to time things to come out at the same time, when you start heating the oil for the Aloo Gobi, start a large pot of water heating so that it comes to a boil. Use about 8 times as much water as dry rice you intend to cook. Once you put the lid on the Aloo Gobi pot to simmer and cook, throw in your rice into the pot of boiling water. Allow this to boil for the whole time the Aloo Gobi is cooking plus 10 minutes. Then drain rice and BAM! you have rice! (I learned this trick from me mum. No more trying to measure out water and rice perfectly).

WOOT!

A Crispy Holiday!

December 29, 2013 by Baking Unicorn 2 Comments

I just spent the past 9 days in upstate New York with my family for the holidays. It was a lovely time. My aunt and uncle came for 2 nights to celebrate xmas with us and my brothers and sisters, except the oldest brother, were all there with me and my parents. The Muppets were also there. We watched the Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Family Christmas, both classics to my family. One of my favorite songs from Muppet Christmas Carol is “Thankful Heart”, sung by Scrooge (Michael Caine) at the end of the movie. If you don’t know it, enjoy:

So much cooking and baking occurred as well. OOOFTAH!! I’m pretty sure I’m now a blimp. Perhaps I will eat only salads until classes start again…. granted, I put so much cheese on my salads and garnish them with a healthy side of croutons, I doubt this would reduce my blimp-ness any. Sigh. I’m terrible at diets and restricting food unless ordered by a doctor, and even then…. Guess I’ll just have to hit the gym a few extra times.

Despite my inability to restrict my eating, my mother has managed to do quite a good job a cutting out gluten from her diet. Course, this is because she’s allergic to it, but I still find it impressive (clearly this trait was not passed along). I spent most of the time upstate happily figuring out ways to make various desserts gluten free. It’s kinda a great challenge to make a dessert that is gluten free AND tastes at least similar to the gluten-ness version. To my mothers joy (or dismay), I managed to make a pretty darn good Toll House chocolate chip cookie to be free of the gluten and almost indistinguishable from the normal version. But that’s not what is recorded below. Why? Probably because I once again failed to document any of the things that I made upstate, except for this one that I made last night on a whim.

The whim mostly stemmed from my friend, Mik, sending me this AMAZING apron:

I felt it only natural for me to bake something at that moment, so I did! Having had a lot of chocolate floating around in other recipes, I decided to switch it up a bit and make a fruit based dessert that would also go well with the multiple 1/2 gallon tubs of ice cream that were in the freezer. So here it is, my version of apple crisp, modified to make it gluten free.

Apple Crisp Sans Gluten:
Loosely based on This

Ingredients:

6-7 Granny Smith Apples
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups Gluten Free Oats (I used Bob’s Redbarn)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Peel, core and cut apples into thin slices. Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, the nutmeg, the cloves, the lemon zest, and 1/4 cup of sugar to the apples. Toss together until completely mixed up (all slices of apple are covered with spices and sugar).

3. Cream butter and rest of sugar in a small mixing bowl. Add in the oats and cinnamon and combine. The mixture should be fairly crumbly. Place the apples in an 8×8 pan (I used a glass Pyrex dish). Shake the pan/dish a bit to get the apples to “settle in” a bit. Cover the top of the apples with the oat and butter crumble.

4. Pop the pan/dish into the oven for ~30 minutes. I decided it was done when the oats were beginning to brown and an apple, when pierced with a toothpick, was soft but not mushy. Let cool for a ~10 minutes and the serve with your favorite ice cream (or whatever you have left over from the holidays!)

Lighting in mom’s kitchen was weird… But it tasted grrrreat!

A Reenactment… kinda

December 9, 2013 by Baking Unicorn 1 Comment

PHEW! Turkey day is over! Pie have been made. Pies have been eaten. Green Beans have been made (though according to my family, they were “spicy”. LIES! I like to think of them as a pallet cleanser). Green beans have been eaten. Many a bottle of wine, prosecco, and beer have been opened (but not made). Many a bottle of wine, prosecco and beer have been drank (not eaten).
And of course, I documented NONE of it. Of the many things that were baked and cooked and boiled and fried over the Turkey day holiday, I took not a single picture. I did note some recipes, one of which is below!

But let us be perfectly honest, the real reason one celebrates Turkey day is not for the giving of thanks and for having friends and family around you. No no. Admit it. The actual reason that we celebrate Turkey day is because it marks the time of the year when Holiday music becomes acceptable to listen to, on repeat, at full volume. No one can judge you for this because it’s officially the “Holiday Season.” And so of course I did my part in ushering in this season by tapping on the “Christmas!” playlist on my phone and blasting Mariah, J. Simpson, Britney, n*Sync, and several songs from the Broadway Carols album. This music has been playing pretty much nonstop since turkey day. As I type this, I have “winter wonderland” playing in my ears.

I did venture onto iTunes to look for some new music. I recalled that I enjoyed a holiday tune by one of “The Voice” finalists last year, so I went searching for him. Chris Mann is his name, and he has a holiday album. I have yet to buy it, but have listened to most of the songs and find them quite enjoyable. BUT I also found he has a new non-holiday album. I stumbled upon “Unless You Mean it (Remix)” and when it’s not Brit Brit singing about her only wish this year, it’s Chris Mann telling me what I can and cannot say. It’s one of those songs that I will blast in the car and sing at the top of my lungs (and don’t judge me for that. All y’all know you do the exact same thing with your favorite songs.)

OH! and speaking of Brit Brit, she has a new album out. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! I kinda love it. And by kinda, I mean I DO! But by now, you should know that she can do no wrong in my world. NONE!
And Leona Lewis has a pretty fantastic Christmas album out called “Christmas, With Love” I’m hoping that whatever her next album is, it has the stylings of “one more sleep.” LOVE HER!
But enough of my music loving. Let’s move onto the foods!
Now, I admit that this is not a “baked good” exactly. But it was baked in the oven! And it was baked with an ingredient that will be needed for another baking expedition that, if all goes right, will be baked tomorrow. Or Tuesday? Eventually! Anyway, I made these on Thanksgiving Eve, and really enjoyed them. There is a recipe for them, somewhere in my mom’s house. So, sadly I cannot properly credit whoever this recipe comes from, but if you recognize this as your recipe, then lemme know! And thank you for it! T’was delicious!!!!

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash!
adapted from a recipe by someone awesome!

Ingredients:
2-3 Acorn Squash
1/2 cut quinoa (I used red quinoa this time)
1 small red onion
1 granny smith apple
1 navel orange (original recipe used cranberries)
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (or more. live your life.)
Olive oil
Salt + Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet (I think I technically used a jelly roll pan?) with parchment paper.

2. Wash squash and cut in half. Remove seeds and the extra stringy bits (if you’re feeling thrifty, then you can clean the seeds of the stringy stuff and bake them with some olive oil and seasonings. YUM!). Drizzle a touch of olive oil on cut face of squash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then spread/rub in the oil/salt/pepper onto entire cut face of squash. Place cut side down onto parchment and place in oven. Let bake for 40-50 minutes. (You’ll notice in my pictures, there’s a pumpkin. That’s cuz I’ll be using the pumpkin in a later recipe!)

3. While the squash is baking, rinse quinoa and then place in saucepan with 1 cup of water, a drop or 3 of olive oil, and salt and pepper. Bring water to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Allow to cook for ~15 minutes. Remove from heat!

4. While the quinoa is doing its simmering thing, chop up the onion and toss into a pan with some olive oil, sauteing until slightly browned. While sauteing, chop up the apple into lil bits. Once the onions are brown-ish, toss in the apple bits and saute for another 7-9 minutes, until apples are soft. The quinoa should be done by now! Place quinoa in a bowl with the apples and onions and mix them together!

5. Peel orange! I tried my best to remove the pith from the orange, so I took a knife to it and scraped the outside, like I was shaving it. Worked pretty well. Then chop up orange into lil bits and add to the quinoa. Throw in some salt and pepper if you wish, and perhaps some red pepper flakes (I did this cuz I like things to burn and make me cry when I eat them. I understand that some people don’t like this sensation. weirdos).

6. Check your squash! They should be easily pierced with a fork. If they are at that stage, then they’re ready for stuffing. Turn squash over and keep on parchment. To the quinoa, add in the cheddar cheese and mix that all up. Then fill the squash with the quinoa mixture. Place squash back in the oven and bake for another 15 or so minutes (or, in my case, whenever you remember that you have put something in the oven and that maybe you should take it out…).

7. EAT!

p.s. HI CECILY!!!! I didn’t realize you read this 😀

Of Lemons and Cornmeal

November 17, 2013 by Baking Unicorn Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving is approaching far faster than I would like. Mostly this means that I am supposed to be finishing up those pesky applications for graduate school, however clearly I’m typing this post rather than working on my applications. I’m the worst!
But it’s FALL! I love this weather. I love being able to wear hoodies and scarves while not freezing my bum off as I walk to the subway stop. I also love the crunching of the leaves (and of course the pretty colors that the leaves turn). As I was walking to work today, I saw these roses and was a bit surprised by them being in full bloom in the middle of November, but then again, I know nothing about plants, so maybe this is totally normal?

But back to Thanksgiving. I was musing over possible dessert recipes for this years festivities. Lots of thoughts of caramel, apples, cheese and pumpkin have been floating around my somewhat crowded head. Nothing has been set in stone yet, and probably wont be until I am in the kitchen in central NY. This particular recipe popped into my head because corn is a “festive” ingredient, right? And I love lemon. So why not throw them together into a delicious cake? I’ve made this recipe before, perhaps a year or so ago, and wanted to revisit it. I changed a couple things from how I made it last time, and I think there’s a minor but noticeable improvement.

First, I changed how I made my almond flour. Last time I used my food processor to chop up the almonds into small enough bits to be an acceptable “flour” however I was scared I would turn the almonds into almond butter if I blended too long, so the “flour” was rather coarse. This time, I blended the almonds with the sugar, hoping that the sugar would help keep the almond bits separated and less prone to becoming butter. The result was finer almond bits and no butter! Second, I added more lemon zest, both to the cake and to the syrup. Each part received zest from 1 1/2 lemons, making the whole cake super lemony, but not tart!

If I make this again and have the patience to do so, I think I’ll use a coffee mill to make the almonds, sugar and cornmeal all SUPER fine. I like the somewhat grainy texture of the cake as it turned out this time, but I’m curious to see if making the dry ingredients super fine will make a smoother cake. Also, note that this recipe is GLUTEN FREE!!!!!

Almond Flour Progression

Cornmeal Lemon Cake
modified from a recipe I took a picture of at Equinox… no clue what the book is. SORRY!

Ingredients
Cake:
10 oz raw almonds
8 oz white sugar
6 oz cornmeal
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
3 eggs
zest of 1 1/2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon baking powder

Syrup:
zest of 1 1/2 lemons
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8″ round pan with parchment. Set aside.

2. Place almonds and sugar into a food processor. Pulse for ~40 seconds. Take a look and see if more pulsing is needed. Again, the sugar should help prevent the almonds from becoming butter, so don’t worry about that too much. If you want to try to get the almonds to be finer, go ahead and pulse longer. When satisfied, sift the mixture. undoubtedly, some almond bits will not fit through. Put cornmeal and the almond bits that are too large into food processor and blend some more. Sift again. If some almond bits are still too large and you have the patience to do this again, return some of the cornmeal/almond/sugar mix that did sift through to the food processor with the too-large almond bits. Pulse and re-sift.

3. Cream butter and ~1 cup of the cornmeal/almond/sugar mixture together in a large bowl. Add the eggs and beat together. Add the rest of the almond mixture, lemon juice, lemon zest, and baking powder. Combine until completely incorporated. Transfer better to prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean).

4. Allow cake to cool in pan for at least 30 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. While cooling on the rack, prepare the syrup. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a light boil over a low heat. Stir constantly with wire whisk for ~7 minutes or until mixture has thickened to a runny syrup consistency. Remove from heat and set aside.

5. Poke holes in the top of the cake! I used a toothpick cuz it was handy, but a fork would work and probably would have been faster than a toothpick. Pour syrup over cake, allowing it to soak into the holes you just poked. I used almost all the syrup, but probably had a couple tablespoons left in the pan. Make sure you get around the edge of the cake as this is the most well done area and soaking it in syrup will soften it up a bit.

6. Serve either immediately or allow to cool completely. Either way, it tastes pretty damn good!!