Apple Turnovers

I made gluten free Apple Turnovers for breakfast yesterday and initially thought they were a big flop.  I was munching away on mine thinking how yummy it was but nobody else said a word.  Then about an hour later everybody started clamoring about how "good they were" and "could I make more."  I guess everybody was too busy stuffing their mouths to compliment me initially.  :-)

These were pretty easy to make considering this was my first try at pie crust (gluten free or otherwise).  I used the pie crust recipe from Cooking for Isaiah but there are plenty of good recipes on the internet too.  Either way you will need about two pounds of dough to make 10 small turnovers.  I made the dough Sunday night and rolled it out Monday.  After rolling out the dough (about 1/4" thick) I cut it into 5" squares.  In each square I placed 1/8 cup of pie filling.  (I can my own but you can purchase it in the store as well.)  Then I painted the edges with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tsp of water).  Once I painted the edges, I folded the turnover closed and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  I repeated this process until I used up all the dough.  Then I painted the tops of all the turnovers with egg wash and sprinkled with sugar.  I baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for 22 minutes.  Then I let them cool on wire racks.

I baked these the night before I wanted them.  Then I got up the next morning and stuck them back in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.  While they warmed up I mixed up a vanilla glaze to drizzle over them.  Here's the recipe I use for vanilla glaze:
2/3 cup Powdered Sugar
1-2 Tbsp Warm Water
1/4 tsp Vanilla
Enjoy!

Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour

Mixing flour is not one of my favorite chores.  Recently I was contemplating this trying to figure out why.  I think the reason is two-fold.  First and foremost, I don't receive any immediate yummy results from this.  Second, it is messy - very messy!  I don't like glitter because it spreads everywhere, flour does the same thing especially when working with large quantities of it.  Anyhow, I bit the bullet and mixed up twelve (12!) pounds of flour today.

Unlike New York, there is no bulk foods store here where you can purchase large quantities of potato starch, tapioca flour, and white rice flour.  However, when we are near Lincoln I stop in to the Natural Foods store and they sell 2 pounds of white rice flour for $2.22.  The biggest quantities of the potato starch and tapioca flour are the 24 ounce bags of Bob's Red Mill flour but I'll take what I can get.

Wondering what twelve pounds of gluten free all-purpose flour looks like?

If you're wondering what recipe we use, it's the Silvana's Kitchen Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour.  I've had the best results with this flour combination.  In most cases you can substitute this flour cup for cup in any gluten-full recipe.

 

Gluten Free Baked Ravioli

I confess I do not make homemade ravioli.  The idea itself sounds great but it's just a project I have not tackled yet.  So, last weekend I bought some Conte's gluten free ravioli from our local grocery store and some Schar breadcrumbs.  Normally when baking ravioli I make my own breadcrumbs from pulverized corn flakes with Italian seasoning but this time I thought I'd try something different.  The results were amazing!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup Schar breadcrumbs
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 bag Conte gluten free ravioli

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Mix breadcrumbs and Italian seasoning in a shallow bowl or on a plate.  Whisk together egg and milk in a bowl.  Dip ravioli in egg and milk mixture coating all sides.  Dredge ravioli through the breadcrumbs being sure to coat the entire ravioli.  Place coated ravioli on the baking sheet.  Repeat until all ravioli's are breaded.

Bake for twelve minutes, flipping the ravioli half way through baking time.

Enjoy!

Baked Ravioli

French Toast Muffins

I found a recipe for French Toast Breakfast Muffins at a site called Key Ingredient the other day.  The recipe of course was gluten full but I thought it might work with a few tweaks.  Keep reading if you want the gluten free recipe, if not click on the link above and you can see the gluten full recipe.  As with every recipe that I convert to gluten free I doubled the baking powder but after combining everything I had a very dry muffin batter.  So, I increased the milk by a 1/4 cup and we had muffin batter!  The muffins were delicious, light and fluffy and they tasted just like french toast!

Here's the gluten free recipe:
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose gluten free flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter melted
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Topping
1/4 cup butter melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl sift together all dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients and stir until combined.  Scoop by 1/4 cup into muffin tins.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until they turn golden on the edges.

For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Place melted butter in another small bowl.  Dip the warm muffins in melted butter, then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar.

French Toast Muffin

Granola

Granola has always been a bit of a struggle in our house.  My husband likes it a certain way (although I'm not quite sure I've figured out what that way is) and the kids all argue over what type of fruit to put in it.  A couple of weeks ago I had an epiphany.  Why put fruit in it at all?  The fruit can easily be added when we eat the granola.  Sometimes I wonder how simple ideas like this can take ten plus years to figure out!

So, while searching for breakfast ideas I stumbled on a Crunchy Homemade Granola from Spoonful by Disney.  As with most recipes I changed it to accommodate our gluten free house and our specific tastes.  Here's the recipe I came up with:

4 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped walnuts (sometimes I put these in, sometimes I leave them out)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup water

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  In a large bowl, stir together the oats, walnuts, sunflower seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the oil, honey, and water.  Stir the mixture until the dry ingredients are well coated, then spread it evenly on a cookie sheet.
Bake the granola 40 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring every 10 minutes to keep the mixture from sticking.  Let it cool completely then store in an air tight container.

This recipes feeds the five of us for at least two breakfasts.  I serve with bowls of bananas, blueberries, dried cranberries, and dried cherries for toppings.  I also offer both vanilla yogurt and milk to put over the granola.The best part?  Everybody likes it!