Look at the size of those muffins.

Having to cut wheat of your diet is really obnoxious. On one hand I do feel better and my blood sugar is at a constant level, on the hand I am having to learn how to bake again. This is very frustrating as I used to be able to whip up delightful baked goods without thinking about it. Now I have to research and test and hope and most of the time just fail.

I bought two gluten free cookbooks. They are clearly for beginners, which is what I am all of a sudden. Neither of them focuses on healthy cooking, just delicious cooking. I am all for that, and GF breads cannot be made just whilly nilly, as it turns out. However, I cannot be consuming giant sugar filled muffins if I want to fit into my pants!

I have had some triumphs: I can make pizza dough (hooray), rolls, cupcakes, muffins and hopefully soon: sandwich bread. I know you can buy these things, but honestly, they suck. They're dry and really expensive. They go bad quickly and they come in the smallest sizes. Five dollars for what is basically 2/3 of a loaf of bread, that's dry before you get it. Blah. I'd rather go without.

I made some pumpkin muffins today, based on a recipe in one of my cookbooks. As I was looking at the recipe I was shocked. It makes 12 muffins with like 1 1/2 cups of flours! I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but GFs go a lot farther, you need less of them to make the same amount of a wheat flour recipe. The recipe also had 2 cups of sugar in it! TWO! oof, they must be the sweetest muffins ever! I halved the sugar and they were plenty sweet, I think two cups would be over kill. Then the author goes onto say that these muffins are a 'snack'. Phhhhhffft! Snacks are not sugar- fat laden carb balls!

Now I don't know if I have the smallest muffin tin known to man, or other people are on purpose buying giant muffin tins, but whenever a recipe says it makes 12 muffins, I usually find that I can make 18 with that amount of batter. Who are these people and where are they buying their muffin tins?

I say to those of you who have to be gluten free - rise up! Make better for you baked goods. Just because something is GF doesn't mean it has to be bad! It also doesn't mean that it has to be super bad for you. We can have balance too! Force your gluten free prowess on others and make them tell you your GF products are delightful, without saying 'for a gluten free product'.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins
makes 18 muffins
4 WWPP

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oat flour**
1 cup rice flour*
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup unbleached sugar
2 Tbs molasses
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

Topping:
1/2 tsp cinnamon in a tea steeper

Method:
Heat oven to 350, and prep muffin tins with liners. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Stir well. Whisk together all the wet ingredients in a different bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix well by hand, being careful to not over mix. Fill muffin cups 1/2-2/3 full and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar in your tea steeper over the tops of the muffins. Bake for 20 minutes or until just done. Remove from oven and cool on rack.



* a quick note about rice flours. If you want finely ground, non-gritty rice flour you must buy it from an Asian grocery store. The Thai brands are the best, they are very finely ground, more finely ground than any American product. I know it's not local, but you need a quality product for this. They aren't gritty at all. The brand with the elephant on the front is the best.

**Also a note about oat flour. If you want a more ... stone filled whole wheat like texture feel free to follow directions from the internet about using your blender to make oat flour. I found this to be gritty and horrible, though quick. I'm going to call that the quick and dirty method. If you want a finely ground flour that feels like whole wheat flour use a mill. I have one for my stand mixer, truly an investment for any cook who cares about the quality of their oat flour.

The most comforting of foods.

When I was a child my mother used to do what all frugal moms do. She made bread pudding. She said that it was you did when you had old milk, old bread and lots of eggs.

I loved those bread puddings, it is still one of my favorite desserts. The crusty top and the soft middle. The plump raisins soaking in the syrup that always forms at the bottom of the pan. There is no greater comfort food. Except for mac and cheese. It's a close call.

One of the reasons my mom's bread pudding was so good was she made it in a big bowl. No, wait that's two reasons! It's in a bowl so you get a nice moist middle (there's nothing worse than dry bread pudding) and then it's in a big bowl, so there's lots of it! It never lasted in our house, with three kids and two adults that pudding never made it past day two.

I have a friend who makes a good savory bread pudding, and that's also quite tasty. I don't make bread pudding like my mom, though mine's real good. She has a standard method, and I think she's lying about the proportions she actually uses. She claims that it's one slice bread, one cup milk and one egg. This can't be true, because I've seen her bread pudding and I think she does what I do.

I recently made a pumpkin bread pudding and it was ... amazing. I've tried chocolate, and that's not so hot. I suppose you could put whatever you want in it, but apart from the pumpkin one, I always stick to the basics. The classic bread pudding has white bread, or whole wheat, whatever, milk, eggs, sugar, raisins and cinnamon in it. Perhaps a bit of vanilla. I like to make a simple syrup and add rum to it to serve with the pudding.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

4 slices of good white bread
3 large farm fresh organic eggs
2 C. organic milk
1/2 C. buttermilk
1/2 C. organic sugar
1 Tbs. TJ's pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. vanilla
3.5 oz organic canned pumpkin
1/2 C Raisins
1 C. hard apple cider
1 C. Sugar

Method:

Cube bread into 1 inch cubes. In a oven proof bowl mix milk, buttermilk, sugar, eggs spices, vanilla and pumpkin. Mix in raisins and bread until soaked through. Bake 350 for 12 minutes. Stir up the pudding and bake another 12 minutes. Stir and then bake until done, about 20 minutes.

In a small pot mix the hard cider and sugar together. Heat until it boils and let boil for about a minute. Cool.

To serve pour a little syrup over the bread pudding. Serve warm.

Pumpkin, it's a fall thing.

I'm on a pumpkin kick. It's widely avaliable in fall, and it makes great food. Through the years I have made pumpkin breads, cookies and cakes. These are all well and good, but I'm looking to branch out.

I have seen the so called pumpkin bisque in the stores to purchase, and even sampled some, and they are good. I decided though, that they don't have to be nearly so bad for you.

I started out with a mild failure. My husband, upon sampling my creation look at me and said it was grainy. He then proceeded to tell me that I was lacking in the amount of cream I used.

The next morning I strained the soup and it did help, he was right it was grainy. I thought this weird, and it brings me to something that I should have realized a while ago. My food processor is not new. I've had it for over ten years. The same blade for all those years, it is probably time to get a new blade. I'm not going to buy a whole new processor, they may look more chic, but they don't really look much different and they cost $200. Not only that I do have a large guilty feeling of getting rid of a perfectly good item, just because it's not in style. Manufacturing these machines isn't the most earth healthy thing. Pitching on into the trash isn't the green thing to do. I know I could take it down to the Goodwill and feel better about myself, but I still feel like it's just tossing crap because it's 'old'.

Well so the blade doesn't puree things anymore, just finely chops. I have found that my blender (with easily replaceable parts) also does a fine job with soups. Blenders are good things to have around. You can get universal new blades for a few bucks, new o rings come in multi-packs and cost around three bucks! My sister in law recently got her first blender, and this prompted a discussion in the family.

How many speeds do you need on that blender? I say two: on and off. I don't ever use the slower speeds, which is good because my blender has two speeds. If you say "oh the splattering that happens" you are overfilling your blender. Start with half of what you think should go in there, just a little, blend it up and then add more while the blender is running. I have also found, that for safety, a kitchen towel thrown over the lid of the blender and held down keeps all splatter at bay.

This is a recipe that seems to have unnecessary steps. Don't doubt me, you need to do them all.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. butter
1/2 roasted sugar pumpkin
1 large sweet onion
2 honey crisp apples
2 tsp Organic Better Than Bullion Chicken base
6 C. water
2 tsp. TJ's pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. garham masala
pepper and a pinch of salt (maybe 1/2 tsp)
1 C. organic non-homogenized 1/2 & 1/2
1/3 C. buttermilk
Creme Fraiche
several slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
honey chevre (if you can't find it to buy take a bit of honey and mix it into your goat chevre)

Method:

Cut your pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and roast for about 20-30 minutes at 450.

In a large soup pot melt the butter, roughly dice the onions and apple. Add these to the pot and cook for about 12 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the pumpkin, roughly chopped and the water along with the chicken base and some pepper. Cover and simmer for 12-20 minutes. In a food processor or blender puree a bit of the soup. In a separate bowl, run the puree through a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth, pressing the mixture into the sides of the strainer. Discard anything left over from the mixture. Continue this way until you have pureed and strained all of the soup. Wash the original pot and return the soup to it.

Over the lowest heat possible, add the spices and test the flavor. If needed add up to 1/2 tsp salt. In a bowl mix together the half and half, buttermilk, and a few spoonfuls of creme fraiche. Cook the bacon until crisp, pat dry and crumble.

Put a few spoons of the hot soup into the cream mixture, and stir quickly, repeat until you have added 1 C. of hot soup to the cream, tempering it. Then add the cream to the soup. Do not boil or simmer! Once you have added the cream to the soup, you cannot ever heat it quickly, you will ruin the soup. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle a bit of bacon and chevre onto the top. Serve with salad and french bread.