Tag Archives: Gluten free

Chia Chippers

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I couldn’t resist coming up with one more recipe for the chia seed contest. And since I love to bake, I created these fabulous chocolate chip oatmeal peanut butter cookies with chia seeds. Made with so many things I love. I cut down on the sugar and used honey to help soften the chia seeds.
You remember that chia seeds are the newest superfood, right? Packed with Omega-3′s and fiber and designed to expand in our stomachs to make strange looking pets.

Chia Chipper

No, that’s not right. No green plant matter will grow out of your nose and ears. Chia just expands in our stomachs to keep us full longer. This means you will only want to eat 6 of these at a time instead of ten.

So far, I have run them by Karen and Hal,two trusted neighbors; my mail carrier,Cindy; a six-year-old buddy named Isaac; Mark, Isaac’s dad; and of course, my hubby Ken.
Zoe-the-dog really wanted to help with the taste tests, but I forgot to make one without the chocolate, so no-go. But the others were all very enthusiastic. See what you think:

big as the tip of a pencil


Chia Chippers

This is an original recipe from my kitchen. It makes about 2 ½ dozen cookies.
The cookies are gluten-free without using any specialty ingredients, so are affordable for most.

Ingredients for Chia Chippers
1 egg
½ cup butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup peanut butter
2 TBS chia seeds
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
2 ½ cups quick oats
1 ¼ cups chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place the egg, butter, honey and brown sugar into a large bowl and mix until well blended.
Add the peanut butter, chia seeds and vanilla and continue to stir.
Mix in the baking soda and oats and stir until blended.
Stir in the chocolate chips.

Drop by tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Then gently pat down the dough with a fork or spatula.

Bake 8 – 9 minutes or until lightly browned.
If you like your cookies crisp leave in oven another minute or two.

Let me know what you think!
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Protein Packed Pancakes

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For so long I have had to give up pancakes because they are too full of carbs. Not any more. Protein packed pancakes use three sources of protein. And I love pancakes, so this was a wonderful discovery.

blueberry jam topping


These looked like normal pancakes, but didn’t raise my blood sugar or make me feel like taking a nap after eating them. And there’s an easy conversion to be gluten free for those who need it.

whisk batter

pour onto hot griddle

golden brown

a plate of yum

This recipe is so simple I had to make it twice the same morning to be sure it wasn’t a fluke. The original recipe used only the white of the egg along with cottage cheese. And it didn’t include baking powder, so I changed those things right away. I do believe in using egg yolks as they provide unique nutrients, at least according to Dr. Oz. The ricotta cheese swap was easy because it is so much smoother than cottage cheese. I wanted my cakes to raise a bit, so the baking powder stepped in to lend a hand.

And of course, I doubled the vanilla from the original and added a generous portion of cinnamon. One of my baking rules is: “Always double the vanilla and triple the cinnamon.” There are few exceptions to this.

1 batch would feed a hungry adult or two kids

Ingredients for 1 batch of Protein Packed Pancakes
2 eggs
1/4 cup ricotta cheese (you can also use cottage cheese, but I like the smooth texture of ricotta.)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (about 1/4)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 TBS whole wheat flour (or ground flaxseed meal for gluten free)

Whisk them into a bowl in the order given and cook as normal in a hot skillet.

We loved them with sugar free applesauce. I put the extras in a baggie in the fridge and we warmed them up in the toaster a few days later. They were also delicious with my blueberry jam. (No it’s not sugar free, but it was a wonderful treat!)

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Chocolate Custard Cheesecake – crustless

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I’ve been in Nana heaven for more than a week, traveling with my entire family.

Liam, Maddy in back. Sophia, Oliver and Clare with Nana Clare


We finished the week with a frenetic weekend traveling back to our home in Ames. Our little family now has 13 humans and three dogs. With temps reaching into the upper 90′s and children and dogs dashing in and out, it was challenging to keep the house comfy. But we are now a family that lives in four different states and time together is precious – even when it’s hot.
When the week started, we wanted to celebrate one of our son’s birthdays with his favorite dessert – Cowboy Cake.

http://www.nanaclareskitchen.com/2011/12/27/cowboy-cake/

chocolate custard cheesecake


This is an old fashioned “dump” cake with a few flavorful additions.
But over the past year, our other son has become gluten intolerant. I had planned to make an almond torte for him, but I couldn’t find my recipe. Then I decided just to swap out the regular flour for the almond flour in the Cowboy Cake recipe. Brilliant right? I thought so too until smoke started pouring out of the oven after 25 minutes. I opened the door and pulled out this gelatinous mess!

smokey mess


potential?


I set it on the counter and quickly whipped up another cake with the correct flour this time, feeling very frustrated that I had wasted about $10.00 worth of almond flour. I say quickly, because I was trying NOT to heat up the kitchen too much.

My ten year old granddaughter, Maddy had helped me make the first cake and as the burned goopey mess was cooling she got a spoon and tasted the result.
“Nana, this tastes like hot fudge sauce,” she said.
“I’m just going to throw it all out,” I pouted.
In her quiet way, she kept encouraging me. “With all these cookbooks, why don’t you look in one to see if there’s anything you can do?”

eggs, ricotta cheese and sour cream


“You’re right,” I said and grabbed my gluten free cookbook. There I found a recipe for an almond cake that used only almond flour – and four eggs. It hit me then. My cowboy cake uses no eggs, so the cake had no binders because almond flour is really just ground up almonds and not a flour.
I grabbed my mixer and cracked in four eggs and added ricotta cheese and sour cream. Then I poured the syrupy mess back into the mixer. Turns out, only the sides of the pan were burned – along with the bottom of the oven.
After pouring it all into a clean cake pan, I baked it for another 30 minutes.
Result? A rich chocolatey dessert that looked like a brownie, but was soft like a cheesecake or custard. No crust, but it was delicious. After it got the thumbs up from Maddy – and a few others, we took it to a family party where it was devoured – by those who need gluten free and those who don’t.
Here are the steps – without the smoke in the middle.

nice creamy batter

baked results

taste test

she likes it

second bite

Ingredients
4 eggs
8 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
2 1/2 cups almond flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened baking chocolate
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp vinegar
¾ cup canola oil
2 cups cold coffee
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease a 9 x 13″ cake pan
Beat the eggs, ricotta cheese and sour cream until smooth.
Whisk the dry ingredients together.
Add the oil, vinegar and vanilla to the egg mixture.
Add the flour mixture in three batches alternating with the cold coffee.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Bake 35 – 45 minutes or until done.
This will be soft like a cheesecake, but should be set and firm.

Flourless Peanut Butter-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Cookies

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My sister Katie passed along this peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe more than 30 years ago. This was way before any of us had heard of “gluten-free” which is cooking without flour and a few other grains. We thought it was magic that you could whip up a batch of chewy cookies or a flavorful cake without the aid of flour. Katie has six children (all grown) and she was always conscientious about nutrition. So when she passed along a recipe, I knew it would be fabulous. The recipe card has several “scratch and taste” marks on it; yes, it’s been well tested.

c is for cookie


My son Jake is gluten intolerant and he and his wife made a quick visit home this week. They both work long hours and have little time for baking, so I stirred up a batch as a welcome home treat. I made a double batch to share with some friends they were helping move. The recipe below is for a single batch, which makes about 5 dozen treats.

Jake

The best part of this is that I didn’t have to make a run to the store for special gluten-free baking mixes, or specialty flours that cost $13.00 per pound. On one of his visits I was determined to make him some bread and the ingredients for three special flours and xanthium gum (whatever that is!) was going to cost over $50. For one loaf of bread! I settled for a prepackaged bread mix, which was still pricey and produced only so-so results.
Gluten free can be very expensive. But not these peanut butter oatmeal cookies.

stack of treats


These are wonderfully chewy, but if you like them more on the crisp side, just leave them in the oven for an extra minute or two.
I had a bag of chocolate chunks, so I tossed those in for good measure, but I made one pan without chocolate – just in case they encounter a person who doesn’t eat chocolate. (Until recently I didn’t think there were such folks, but now I know differently.)

Also, Zoe-the-dog loves these cookies and she can’t have chocolate, so I saved a few just for her.

chunks


Note on oats: I used regular rolled oats because my son isn’t as sensitive as some folks with gluten issues. If you have full blown celiac disease, you’ll want to use the oats that are processed in a gluten-free environment. But you know that, right?

a stiff dough

cookie in sunlight

yum


Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
4-5 cups oats – any
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups chocolate chunks – or chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
No need to grease pans.
Beat the eggs, butter, sugar and peanut butter together until smooth.
Add soda and vanilla and blend well.
Add oats and beat just until blended.
Batter will be heavy.
Stir in chocolate chunks.
Bake 10 – 12 minutes.

Note: If your home is very humid, you may need all five cups of oats. If it’s very dry where you live, start with four cups.
Put one cookie on a pan and bake it to see if you need more oats.
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