This morning for breakfast, I made these little yeast muffins. I downsized this batch for the blog, but originally it made twelve instead of six. That still wasn’t enough. I had to make a few pancakes before they were completely satisfied.

These are light and fluffy. We filled them with butter, honey, and raspberry jam.

I found these are easiest made with the bread-maker. However, you can make it without the bread-maker.

If you make it with the bread-maker, it will be done an hour and a half later.

Dry ingredients

¼ cup rice flour

1/3 cup gluten free oat flour (or rice flour)

¼ cup potato starch

¼ cup cornstarch

3 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon xanthan gum

1 tablespoon yeast

WET INGREDIENTS

½ cup milk

¼ cup warm water

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 large egg

Oven temperature: 350

WITH BREAD-MAKER

Mix the wet ingredients together in the bread maker pan.

Mix all dry ingredients except for the yeast together in a separate bowl.

Dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Don’t stir.

Make a little ‘island’ on top of the dry ingredients where you can put the yeast.

Place the yeast on the island.

Put the dough into the bread-maker and set the bread-maker time to be done with the kneading cycle only as soon as you wake up in the morning. Start the bread-maker.

In the morning, take the mix out of the bread-maker and spoon it into wax paper cupcake holders inside of a cupcake pan. Place in the oven and cook for half an hour, until brown on top and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

WITHOUT BREAD MAKER

Mix the wet ingredients together in the bread maker pan.

Mix all dry ingredients (including yeast) together in a separate bowl.

Dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir together. Let sit for an hour, stirring every fifteen minutes. Then let sit for another half hour, not stirring at all.

Spoon the mix into wax paper cupcake holders inside of a cupcake pan. Cook for half an hour, until brown on top and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

I love what my bread-maker can do for me.

I mean, it may be lacking in many places, but it still does the job.

When it feels like it, that is.

The bread-maker I use is about ten years old. And, poor thing, its age is starting to show. The problems started a few months ago when I plugged in the bread maker only to have it start beeping in a panicked way. Then the numbers went backwards.

This problem can be fixed, I found, by turning the bread-maker on and off several times. If this doesn’t work, a good hard bang on the lid will bring its attitude under control.

Then the problems continued. A couple weeks ago, the first digit went out. Basically, when the bread-maker had two hours and fifty five minutes left, it only said fifty five minutes. Very confusing.

Then the second digit went out. Now I only have a five to tell me that there were two hours and fifty-five minutes left. When I want to set a time for the bread to cook, I have to rely on my counting skills.

“Four hours and ten minutes, four hours and twenty minutes, four hours and thirty minutes…”

And after a long day, my counting skills aren’t always great.

So then I have to start over, turning off my grumbling bread-maker and turning it back on again.

And therefore, here’s another recipe made with the reliable old bread-maker.

And it’s good.

CINNAMON RAISIN YEAST BREAD

Wet Ingredients:

3 large eggs

½ cup oil

1 cup milk

½ cup water

Dry Ingredients:

2 ½ cups rice flour or gluten free oat flour

1 cup potato starch

¾ cup sugar

2 tablespoons yeast

3 1/2  teaspoons xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup currants or raisins

Filling Ingredients

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup sugar

½ cup currants or raisins

½ cup (1 stick) butter, grated

Combine all the wet ingredients into the bread-maker pan and stir with a rubber spatula. Set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients into a clean metal bowl. Hand-whisk until blended. Pour into the wet ingredients and stir with the rubber spatula. The ingredients do not have to be very well incorporated because the bread-maker will stir them thoroughly.

Place in the bread-maker. Select the ‘basic’ cycle. Press ‘start’, and let the bread-maker run until the kneading cycle is over. Then remove the bread from the bread-maker.

Place wax paper on the counter and sprinkle cornstarch over this.

Grease a bread pan, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and mix together the Filling Ingredients.

Roll the bread out with a rolling pin, making sure it is no wider than your bread pan.

Sprinkle the rolled-out bread with the filling ingredients.

Roll the bread up.

Flip the greased bread pan over and push it down on top of the bread. Turn the bread and bread-pan over, using the wax paper.

Peel the wax paper off and place the bread in the oven. Place a pan beneath it in case some of the butter melts off.

Cook for forty-five minutes to an hour, until firm in the middle and brown on top. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.

Three Lemon Bars

Want to know something? Don’t we all want to know something?

Well, we only want to know something if we think we want to know something. Some things are best left unknown. And in other cases we believe we know everything and don’t want to hear anything else.

But this is getting too deep for me. Do you want to know something?

Here it is.

Baking is a spectator sport.

Why?

Layer 1: The Crust

Usually I have at least one sister breathing down my neck, watching ever move.

Why do they watch?

I’m interesting.

No, that probably isn’t the reason.

They want to learn from me?

Nope. They don’t respect me one bit.

They watch…Because they are hungry. Because they are hoping for some food. Because they are hoping for mercy. A tiny chocolate chip would be enough.

Do I give them mercy?

Nope.

I used to have a sign on the refrigerator. It was a magnet with a verse about special friendship on it. Attached to the magnet I had a piece of paper with gigantic black letters:

NO SNITCHING! SNITCHING IS A CRIME!

Baking is a dangerous sport. You need to have proper control. I would advise that you get a special friendship no snitching sign for your refrigerator.

Layer 2: The Cream Cheese Layer

Usually, I have Feo and Podrido watching me from their chairs. Our cats, sitting on our patted kitchen chairs, are also hoping for mercy.

The names?

If you are Spanish, you are probably wondering why we would name our cats “ugly” and “rotten”?

Well, because it’s the honest truth. Feo isn’t exactly the prettiest cat, and as a kitten Podrido was fairly rotten. My little sisters have a weird fascination with doing Rosetta Stone Spanish, then pronouncing it awfully in poorly constructed sentences. They go around saying things like “Dos muchachos es uno feo y telefono y una bicicleta.”

Which, if you know even the tiniest bit of Spanish (which my sisters don’t), you get a combination of telephones, bicycles, and two ugly little kids.

Which is annoying sometimes (the Spanish, not the ugly kids).

Adding the Lemon Layer

And so I bake with Ugly, Rotten, and my sisters watching me.

Does it add to the food?

Well, probably not.

Most likely, it takes away. When I’m not looking.

Finished Lemon Bars

LEMON BARS

These are gluten-free cheesecake-delicious-yumminess lemon bars.

These have a mild lemon flavor. They are not at all zingy.

An adaption from Bette Hagman’s three-layer lemon bars.

NOTE: T’o grate the lemon rind, I wash one fresh lemon, then grate just the rind off. We have a four-sided cheese grater with each side having a different ‘fineness’ setting. I grate it on the smallest setting to thus get the finest grate possible.

LAYER ONE: THE CRUST

1 cup cornstarch or potato starch

1 cup rice flour

½ cup sliced almonds

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

½ cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

2 teaspoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks butter, melted

Grease a 9 by 13 inch glass baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all the ‘crust’ ingredients in a small metal bowl. Then, flouring your hands with cornstarch, spread the crust out on the glass baking pan. Set aside.

LAYER TWO: THE CHEESECAKE

2 8-oz packages of cream cheese

½ cup sugar

3 eggs

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and the sugar. Add the three eggs one at a time, beating after each one.

Pour the cream cheese layer onto the crust and spread it out evenly. Clean the bowl out.

Put the crust in the oven and cook for twenty minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your lemon layer.

LAYER THREE: THE LEMON

3 eggs

1 ¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon rice flour

In the bowl you used for the cheesecake layer (now clean) beat the eggs and the sugar together with your electric mixer. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until well combined.

When the cheesecake and crust layers are done pre-cooking, add the lemon layer. Cook for another thirty minutes until the top is a medium brown color and is fairly firm. Cool for twenty minutes, then slice and put on a plate in the refrigerator.

Serve cold.

And so she wanted cobbler. She wouldn’t leave me alone.

What could I say?

She cut the apples last night, mixing them with lemon juice while everyone watched (my sisters like to hang around watching when they have nothing better to do). I made the dry ingredients, to be ready to mix with wet ingredients tomorrow. If you are going to make cobbler for breakfast, you have to get up an hour earlier than everyone else, and so I wanted to make it as quick as possible.

Next morning?

Well, let’s just say my helper was absent. In bed. Even though I was up thirty minutes later than the cobbler should have been started, she was still conked out hard.
I stuck the cobbler in the oven and left it to cook.

Then I went back to bed and played Angry Birds.

If you haven’t heard of Angry Birds, then you must live on an uninhabited island in the Pacific.

Either that, or you haven’t heard of Angry Birds because you never heard of wasting your time. The two are related.

When the cobbler was done, I took out the camera.

“Oh NO!” Everyone wailed.

They don’t like pictures?

Not when it delays their breakfast.

When it comes to cobbler, there just isn’t such thing as waiting patiently.

So I didn’t take many pictures. Just enough to get a few shots of the untouched cobbler.

Then they dug in before I could stop them.

I took pictures while it disappeared. Then I figured I better get some before they ate it all.

Admit it. You want some too.

This isn’t just Apple Cobbler. You can make it with any different kinds of fruit. When you put your apples in the pan, make sure to sprinkle on some cinnamon to overpower the lemon juice. You can make this recipe with peaches, apples, or blueberries. To keep sliced apples or peaches from browning overnight, sprinkle with lemon juice and refrigerate. When you put your apples in the pan, make sure to sprinkle on some cinnamon to overpower the lemon juice. If you are using frozen blueberries, drain them first.

Dry Ingredients:

1 ½ cups oat flour (or rice flour)

1 ½ cups cornstarch (or potato starch)

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon (if making apple cobbler)

¼ cup white sugar

wet ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup olive oil (or melted butter)

fruit

Eight cups sliced apples, peaches, or whole blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 13 inch glass baking pan.

Place your fruit in the pan.

Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine your wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until blended. Pour the mix over the fruit and stick it in the oven for one hour, until golden brown on top.

Reason number one: It looks like chocolate drizzle. And I like chocolate drizzle. If you think it looks like chocolate drizzle too, go ahead and give it a taste. You’re in for a surprise!

You love surprises, right?

Reason number two: It does taste good. It may not taste like chocolate drizzle, but it tastes good. Especially on oatmeal. And in gingersnap cookies. And in granola.

Oh, and I love granola. For two reasons.

Reason number one: It’s yummy.

Reason number two: It’s yummy.

My granola recipes are simple. For two reasons.

Reason number one: I might just be a bit simple myself.

Reason number two: Simplicity is easy (don’t pay attention to the circular reasoning there). Everyone likes to have things simple.

There ya go. There’s a couple reasons for making molasses granola. Six reasons in all. You might want to double check and make sure I counted that right.

So here’s a recipe for you…Oh, and yes, I will eventually post oat free granola and grain free granola. But I’m on a quest for the perfect gluten-free doughnut right now.

You’d prefer a doughnut over granola, right?

You’d prefer it because of two reasons.

Never mind.

Simple Molasses Granola

Molasses Granola About to Be Cooked

Ingredients

1 cup pecans

1 cup sliced almonds

½ cup currants (or raisins)

¾ cup (1 large) apple, finely chopped

5 cups whole GF oats

2 eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon cloves

¼ cup black-strap molasses

½ cup honey OR brown sugar-filled

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a large baking sheet (with edges, NOT a cookie sheet) with butter and set aside.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and spread out on the baking sheet in two batches. Cook for ten minutes, then stir around on pan so that bottom doesn’t burn. Cook for another five-ten minutes until lightly brown but not burnt.

Let the granola cool for another fifteen minutes, then place in a container/jar on your counter.

Soft and fluffy Gluten Free Pancakes

I made these for breakfast this morning. They are probably some of the best gluten-free pancakes and waffles I’ve had. Definitely blog worthy. These are nice and fluffy with plenty of rise and a perfect consistency.

DRY INGREDIENTS

A Gluten Free Waffle in the waffle-maker

¼ cup rice flour

1/3 cup GF oat flour (you can replace with rice flour if you don’t have this)

¼ cup potato starch

¼ cup cornstarch

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

WET INGREDIENTS

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 large egg

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the milk, butter, and egg. Whisk the dry ingredients into the milk mixture until JUST BLENDED. Don’t over-mix. A few small lumps are just fine.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat and grease with butter while the pancake mix sets for ten minutes. After the skillet is heated, spoon about three tablespoons of batter onto the skillet for each pancake. Cook until there are bubbles around the edges of the pancakes and the pancakes have risen quite a bit. Flip and cook until brown on the other side, about four minutes each pancake. Serve warm with your desired toppings.

For Gluten Free Restaurants in America, you can go to:

http://www.glutenfreeregistry.com/

They have a very nice program with Gluten Free businesses listed! 

HOWEVER, you may want to read reviews next to the restaurant name before you go there. Some restaurants say they are gluten free and hardly know what gluten-free is! There are reviews and ratings for most of these businesses. If you go to one of the restaurants listed, please post a rating and review. You would be helping gluten-intolerant people who go there after you!  

Also, check on what the restaurant serves. It may be just a particular gluten free dish, like pizza. Some restaurants have gluten-free menus. If you order from a restaurant where the people say it is gluten-free but don’t seem to know what they are talking about, be sure to tell them to cook it on a SEPARATE GRILL. Some people just don’t understand how important it is that there is no cross-contamination.

More tips on traveling gluten free

Another yummy breakfast granola recipe. When eating this, we like to add some fresh, uncooked fruits: Blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries. Fresh ones are best.

Ingredients

1 cup pecans

1 cup sliced almonds

½ cup currants (or raisins)

¾ cup (1 large) apple, finely chopped

½ cup finely chopped fresh strawberries or raspberries

5 cups whole GF oats

2 eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon cloves

½ cup honey OR brown sugar-filled

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a large baking sheet (with edges, NOT a cookie sheet) with butter and set aside.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and spread out on the baking sheet in two batches. Cook for ten minutes, then stir around on pan so that bottom doesn’t burn. Cook for another five-ten minutes until lightly brown but not burnt.

Let the granola cool for another fifteen minutes, then place in a container/jar on your counter.

Delicious Gluten-Free Chocolate Roll

Chocolate Rolls are delicious. If you like chocolate, this is a great recipe for you!

Note:

You can make an “ice cream” chocolate roll, a “whipped cream” chocolate roll, or a “frosting” chocolate roll. I usually make it with frosting, but any of the three will work. It is best not to put too much filling in the chocolate roll; because it can overpower the chocolate cake taste.

Ingredients:

5 eggs, separated

1 cup white sugar

¼ cup dark dutch cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 cup cornstarch

1/8 cup rice flour

Powdered sugar

1 cup frosting (see Mom’s Cream Cheese Frosting if you need a recipe)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet (with edges) with wax paper. The wax paper must be VERY WELL GREASED with butter and sprinkled with cornstarch.

Separate the eggs. In a large bowl, beat the whites until stiff.

In another bowl, combine the sugar, coca, and flours.

In a third bowl, beat the egg yolks until well blended. Fold in the flour mixture and stir in the vanilla extract.

Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the beaten egg whites. Evenly spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Cook for about 25 minutes on a middle or upper rack in your oven. It is extremely important that you do not burn the bottom of the roll! When you remove it from the oven, the chocolate roll should feel soft and spongy to the touch, but not undercooked.

Turn the cake over onto a towel sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. Peel off the parchment paper and roll the cake up inside the towel. Let the cake cool completely, inside of the towl.

Unroll the cake when completely cooled and spread with whipped cream, ice cream, or frosting (your choice). Roll it up when it is evenly spread with topping.

Refrigerate for fifteen minutes, then leave on the counter until served. If you are not going to eat it within four hours of making it, then leave it in the refrigerator until you eat it. If you leave it in the refrigerator, it will dry out to some degree.

Gluten-Free Granola for Breakfast

This makes a nice, flavorful granola. We eat it for breakfast and for snacks. I have several other flavor variations which I will post.

To those who don’t have gluten-free oats: SOLUTION! I’ll post “Grain-Free Granola” as soon as possible.

ingredients

Gluten-Free granola in a large canister

1 cup pecans

1 cup sliced almonds

½ cup currants (or raisins)

¾ cup (1 large) apple, finely chopped

½ cup walnuts

4 cups whole GF oats

2 eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon cloves

½ cup honey OR brown sugar-filled

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a large baking sheet (with edges, NOT a cookie sheet) with butter and set aside.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and spread out on the baking sheet in two batches. Cook for ten minutes, then stir around on pan so that bottom doesn’t burn. Cook for another five-ten minutes until lightly brown but not burnt.

Let the granola cool for another fifteen minutes, then place in a container/jar on your counter.