Gluten Free Brown Butter Brownies

I’m no stranger to a batch of brownies. Quite often a cheap box of brownie mix and some vanilla ice cream make their way into the grocery cart when firefighters go shopping for their daily supplies. Even at home I have made some decent gluten free brownies from scratch. Not to mention, there are a couple good GF brownie mixes available as well. I have to tell you, the recipe I’m about to give you puts all other brownies to shame, even the non gluten free ones. As an added bonus, these brownies are super simple to make. Up until a couple of years ago, I had no idea what browned butter was. Now that I have tried it, I’ve used brown butter in several recipes. For those of you who don’t know what is so special about brown butter, allow me to fill you in. When you take butter and heat it in a saucepan over medium heat, it begins to melt and foam up. After 4-5 minutes, the butter begins to darken in color and “brown.” When the butter browns, it takes on a very nutty, earthy flavor that tastes great when used with chocolate.
Gluten Free Brown Butter Brownies
^{from Bon Appetit, modified to be gluten free}
10 Tbs unsalted butter (1-1/4 sticks)
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbs GF flour mix
1/2-1 cup walnut piecesStart by pre heating your oven to 325 degrees F. Next, line an 8inch by 8inch pan with tin foil. Lightly coat the foil with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt together, set aside.Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.I wanted to show the transformation of the butter here. After the butter melts it is still golden yellow and it begins to foam up.After, 4-5 minutes you will see the butter getting darker and “browning.” Make sure you stir the butter occasionally so it doesn’t burn. Once the butter reaches a deep brown color, remove from the heat.Next, add the sugar, cocoa powder, salt mix. Add in the vanilla and 2 tsps of water as well. Stir the mixture well. The mix will be a little grainy at this point. Let it cool down for about 5 minutes before adding the eggs, one at a time.After the eggs are mixed in, the batter will become smooth and shiny. Add in the gf flour and beat vigorously for about 60-70 strokes.Stir in the walnuts.Pour the batter into your prepared pan and throw it in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs on it. Cool the brownies in the pan on a rack. After they are cooled, you should be able to lift the brownies out of the pan by carefully lifting the tin foil on the sides of the pan.Now you have a whole pile of ooey gooey delicious gluten free brownies. Like I said before, these are the best brownies I’ve ever had.They even go great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!!!

Gluten Free Banana Cake with Cream Caramel

How in the world does time get away from me so fast? I really didn’t mean to have nearly a month pass me by before my next post. For those of you still with me, I have a tasty little cake for you. This is a banana layer cake with banana cream caramel and roasted pecans. What I really like about this cake are two subtle ingredients that I never would have thought to add; dark rum and lime juice. Both the rum and lime juice are sprinkled on each layer of cake giving this cake a great accent flavor. OK, here we go.
Gluten Free Banana Cake with Cream Caramel
from Bon Appetit, modified to be gluten free
Cake:
2-1/2 cups of GF flour mix
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 cups sugar (divided)
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1-1/2 sticks, room temp)
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 Tbs buttermilk
2 small ripe bananas (cut into 1/4 inch cubes)
Banana Cream Caramel:
1-1/2 cups brown sugar
1 small ripe banana (cut into 1 inch pieces)
3 Tbs unsalted butter (room temp)
3-3/4 cups chilled whipping cream (divided)
4-1/2 tsp fresh lime juice (divided)
4-1/2 tsp dark rum (divided)
Pecans:
2 cups pecan halves
3 Tbs unsalted butter (melted)
1-1/4 tsp fine sea salt Let’s begin by making the cream caramel. Combine the brown sugar, banana, and butter in a food processor; blend until smooth. Add 1-1/2 cups of heavy cream and blend again until combined. Transfer to a heavy medium saucepan.Whisk over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil. Attach a candy thermometer to the pan and cook, without stirring or mixing, until the temperature reaches 218 degrees F. Pour the caramel into a medium bowl. Cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally.In a separate bowl, whisk 2-1/4 cups of cream just until it begins to form soft mounds. Fold the whipped cream into the room temperature caramel.This is what your banana cream caramel should look like. Chill the cream caramel in the refrigerator until it is firm enough to spread, about 3 hours.Let’s move on to the cake. First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour two 9 inch diameter cake pans. Next, sift together the gf flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar together. Beat in 2 eggs. Next, alternate adding the buttermilk and dry ingredients (gf flour)  into the butter, sugar, egg mix until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, beat the remaining 4 eggs together with 1-1/2 cups of sugar until the mixture is thick and pale, about 4 minutes. Fold the egg/sugar mixture into the cake batter. Finally, fold in the bananas. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pans on a backing rack for 15 minutes.After the cake has cooled in the pans, invert them on to a backing rack and cool to room temperature. While the cake is cooling, turn your oven to 325 degrees F and make the toasted pecans. Toss the pecans and melted butter in a medium bowl until well coated. Add the sea salt and toss. Spread the pecans evenly on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, until fragrant and slightly darker in color, stirring occasionally.  Cool pecans completely.Let’s put this thing together. Start by slicing both cake rounds in half horizontally so you end up with 4 cake layers. Place one layer, cut side up, on a platter. Drizzle 1-1/2 tsp of lime juice and 1-1/2 tsp of rum over the cake. Next, spread 1 to 1-1/2 cups of cream caramel over the layer. Place the second layer, cut side down, on top of the first layer. Repeat the drizzle of 1-1/2 tsp each of lime juice and rum. Spread on the cream caramel. Repeat for the third layer, cut side up. The fourth layer goes cut side down and is just covered with the cream caramel, no rum or lime juice. To finish things off, I spread the remaining cream caramel around the outside of the cake as well. Top with toasted pecans and you are in business. Now, this cake should be refrigerated to keep everything firm before cutting into it. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of patience. I cut into this cake immediately and the layers wanted to slide around a little bit. Be careful if you don’t have the willpower to refrigerate this cake until it is firm. The flavors in this cake all work together beautifully. Enjoy!!!

Gluten Free Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken

Thank you to everyone who responded in regards to what I should post next. By a narrow margin, buttermilk oven fried chicken won out. I’ll post the banana layer cake soon.
Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken
^{from Cooking Light, modified to be gluten free}
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 whole chicken cut into 6 pieces (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks)
1/2 cup gf flour mix
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp red chile flakes or cayenne pepper
You could easily add any spices you want to the flour mix to customize the flavor for you and your family.
Place the chicken pieces and the buttermilk in a gallon size Ziploc bag. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or more.Place the flour and spices in another gallon Ziploc bag. Pull the chicken pieces from the buttermilk. Allow excess buttermilk to drip off and then toss the chicken pieces in the flour/season mix one at a time until well coated. Discard the buttermilk. Place the chicken on a parchment lined baking sheet. Finally give each piece of chicken a light coating of cooking spray, like Pam. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Bake chicken for 30-35 minutes or until done. Turn the chicken once after about 20 minutes.
Serve the oven fried chicken with your favorite side dishes. Check out other dinner ideas over at The Gluten Free Homemaker. Enjoy!!!

What’s Next?

I have a few recipes on standby waiting for their grand appearance on my blog. I just thought I would give anyone out there who cares a chance to tell me what they would like to see next. Here are your choices:
1. Brown Butter Brownies (quite possibly the best brownies I’ve ever made)
2. Meatballs (as in spaghetti and meatballs)
3. Pork Chili Verde (a Mexican chili/soup/stew meal)
4. Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken
5. Banana Bread
6. Chicken and Rice Casserole
7. Banana Layer Cake with Cream Carmel and Toasted Pecans
So, if you would like to tell me what to post next, just leave me a comment with your choice. If there is something not on the list you would like me to make and post, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. If you just don’t care what I post, I’ll pick something myself. Take care, Brian

Gluten Free Fish Tacos

Alright, after yesterday’s post I’ll assume that all of you now have a pile of fresh corn tortillas waiting to be eaten. So, what can you do with these tortillas besides fill them with cheese and make quesadillas? Well, I made Mahi-Mahi fish tacos with them last night and they were pretty tasty. I recently received a cookbook called Mod Mex by chef Scott Linquist. (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of Mod Mex from Andrews McMeel Publishing to review for my blog.) Mod Mex is short for Modern Mexican. This cook book claims to be a modern twist on Mexican cuisine. The Mahi-Mahi tacos stood out as something I needed to make and I was not disappointed. In addition to fresh corn tortillas, the recipe calls for a chipotle aioli sauce and a citrus-cucumber relish. The relish was good but I think the chipotle aioli sent these tacos over the top. The aioli sauce has the perfect blend of sweet, sour, and smoky chipotle goodness. Here we go.
Baja Style Grilled Mahi-Mahi Tacos
from Mod Mex serves 3-4
1 Pound Mahi-Mahi fish fillets cut into 2 inch wide by 3 inch long strips
Fresh corn tortillas
Chipotle Aioli
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 Tbs chipotle in adobo (chopped)
1 Tbs green onion (scallions-chopped)
1/2 Tbs honey
1 tsp fresh lime juice

Citrus-Cucumber Relish
1/2 of a cucumber (peeled, seeded, and cut into thin strips)
1-1/2 Roma tomatoes (cut into thin strips)
1/2 of a red onion (cut into thin strips)
1/2 cup of shredded green cabbage
2 Tbs of cilantro (finely chopped)
1/2 of a serrano chile (seeded and cut into thin strips)
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 Tbs fresh grapefruit juice
1-1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp kosher salt
For the chipotle aioli, simply combine all the ingredients together in a small bowl.Stir up the aioli and refrigerate. You should make this at least 30 minutes ahead of time to let the flavors meld together.For the citrus-cucumber relish, combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir the relish and refrigerate. Again, this should be made at least 30 minutes early to allow the flavors to meld.Next, portion out your fish and grill for 3-4 minutes per side or until it is cooked all the way through. This is a great excuse to do some February barbecuing. All that is left to do now is put it all together. Spread the aioli on the tortilla, put a piece of grilled fish on, and cover with relish. These tacos are great with a little sliced avocado and fresh lime juice squeezed over the top. Enjoy!!!

Gluten Free Corn Tortillas

NEWS FLASH!!!! You can make corn tortillas at home and……..wait for it……they’re gluten free! I know, this isn’t really breaking news. When you have to make all kinds of gluten free food from scratch why on Earth would you want to make corn tortillas? Especially when you can buy them for cheap anywhere. Well, like most things made from scratch, they just taste better. Besides, they are soooo simple to make and you may just impress someone with your ability to whip out piping hot fresh tortillas. You really only need one special tool; a prensa de tortilla, if you habla Español. That would be a tortilla press if you speak English. You can find them for about $15-$20 online or in a kitchen store. You will also need Masa which is a finely ground corn flour. Another name for it is masa harina, not to be confused with corn meal. Let’s get to it.
Corn Tortillas
2-1/2 cups Masa flour (I used Maseca brand)
1-1/2 cups warm water
1/2 Tbs kosher salt
In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the masa, water, and salt. Mix on medium speed until the dough forms a cohesive, but not sticky, semi-firm dough (about 2 minutes.)
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and even up to 5 days.
Cut a quart size Ziploc bag in half to line your tortilla press so the dough doesn’t stick. Place one half of the bag on the bottom of the press and use the other half to place on top of the ball of dough before you press it. Roll about 1-1/2 Tbs of dough into a ball and press into a tortilla. You can roll the dough into balls in advance, just cover loosely with plastic wrap or a damp towel to keep the dough from drying out.
Check you out, you just pressed your own fresh tortilla.
Place your tortilla on hot griddle for 2-3 minutes per side. Do not oil the griddle. The tortillas should get a little brown on each side but still be soft and pliable.
This recipe makes about 10-12 four inch diameter tortillas. You could easily double the recipe if you need more than that. All you need now is something tasty to roll up inside your fresh, hot, homemade goodness. I’ll be back soon to help you out with that. Enjoy!!!

Gluten Free Donut Review

Full disclosure here, I received a package of gluten free cinnamon apple donuts to review from Kinnikinnick. Yes, I received some donuts to review but my wife did most of the quality control testing. I did manage to get half of a donut before they disappeared. My wife has been a fan of Kinnikinnick donuts for a while now. These new cinnamon apple donuts are every bit as good as their other ones. The cinnamon apple donuts are basically a cake style donuts with a sweet glaze on top. Like most gluten free donuts they are a little more dense than a traditional non gf donut. However, the flavor is great and they are delicious by themselves or with a good cup of coffee. You should check these out while you can. The cinnamon apple donuts are only available through the end of February. Enjoy!!!