Cocoa pancakes (cut with cookie cutter shapes)

Pancakes first time were a little tough, much better in present version adapted for gluten free. 

•  1 1/3 c flour (Bob's Red Mill GF ok; half target brand gf and half cookie blend gf good)
• 4 T sugar (I usually like 2 T any sugar and 2 T maple syrup)
• 1/3 c dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 T buttermilk powder (used to be 1/4 c cornstarch, which is already present in my gf blends)
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t kosher salt

• 1 C milk 
• 3 T oil (or butter, melted)
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 eggs

1. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another. Add wet to dry. Can add choc chips, nuts (I like peanuts and/or walnuts), blueberries, raspberries etc if desired. 

2. Cook 1/4 c of batter per pancake in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Flip when bubbly on top and edges beginning to set.

Transfer to a platter and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, if desired, or eat in whatever shape you like for whatever holiday it happens to be. The original recipe was from the food network and suggested ghost pancakes with white frosting and sprinkes, choc chips etc for decoration. 

GF Peanut Butter Cookies

•  2 C Old Fashioned Oats
• 1 1/2 c All purpose flour (GF)
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t baking soda

• 1 C butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla 
• 1/2 c chocolate chips or berries

1. Combine first 4 ingredients. Cream remaining ingredients except choc chips together in separate bowl, until smooth. Add dry ingredients and chips or berries. 

2. Bake on cookie sheet (not dark) at 350 for 10 minutes.

GF Flour Cookie Blend

  Adapted from "The Everyday Art of Gluten-Free" by Karen Morgan, owner of Blackbird Bakery. It works ok in other things besides cookies, but not the best multi-purpose type flour. Terrible for brownies for example. Ok, not great for waffles although when I made these last few recipes, some of the ingredients are starting to get old so probably better with fresh.  

• 240 g (little over 2 c) glutinous rice flour
• 174 g (little over 1 1/2 c) tapioca starch/flour
  
• 156 g (little over 1 1/4 c) cornstarch
• 150 g (little over 1 1/3 c) sorghum flour
  
• 60 g (1/4 c plus 3 T) freshly ground quick oats (oat flour is much better alternative if you're going to use this with anything that suffers from chunks of oat in it like brownies). 
  
• 1 and 1/2 T guar gum 

Whisk and sift together into a bowl or bag, probably several times to make sure it's uniformly blended. Makes 7.5 cups (793.5 g).

GF Whole-Grain Flour ATK Blend (no gums)

  From "How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook Collection" by ATK. This is Paul's favorite blend, love teff flour and ground flaxseed. 

• 24 oz (5 1/4 c) teff flour
• 8 oz (1 3/4 c) brown rice flour
• 8 oz (2 1/3 c) golden ground flaxseeds
• 5 oz (1 c) glutinous rice flour (also known as sweet white rice flour)

Whisk together well to combine. Can freeze up to 6 months, but really should let it get up to room temperature when using. May need to add guar gum or xantham gum separately for many recipes.

GF Flour ATK All purpose blend (no gums)

 From "How Can it Be Gluten Free Cookbook Collection" by ATK. This is Paul's least favorite blend, not a fan of white rice flour, especially in this quantity, but it is effective as a neutral tasting white flour sub as long as you have plenty of time to let it hydrate. It can taste like sand or rice crispies if you don't let it rest long enough (ATK recommends 30 minutes but I have sometimes had success with as little as 10 minutes with some blends). 

• 24 oz (a little over 5 c) white rice flour
• 7.5 oz (1 2/3 c) brown rice flour
• 7 oz (1 1/3 c) potato starch
• 3 oz (3/4 c) tapioca starch
• 3/4 oz (3 T) nonfat milk powder

Whisk together well to combine. Can freeze up to 6 months, but really should let it get up to room temperature when using. Need to add guar gum or xantham gum separately for many recipes.

GF Flour Biscuit blend

 Adapted from "The Everyday Art of Gluten-Free" by Karen Morgan, owner of Blackbird Bakery. The most versatile of her suggested blends. This is the best one to substitute as a kind of "all purpose" GF flour blend if you don't want to have different blends on hand or if you run out of one. Designed as a blend especially for quick breads, although she does have a separate muffin blend that I haven't tried. 

• 220 g (little less than 2 c) glutinous rice flour
• 126 g (little more than 1 c) cornstarch
• 125 g (1 c) extra-fine brown rice flour
• 108 g (1 c) tapioca starch/flour
• 108 g (1 c) sorghum flour
• 2 T guar gum 

Whisk and sift together into a bowl or bag, probably several times to make sure it's uniformly blended. Makes 6 cups (705 g).

Sauteed Apples

 This works especially well as a filling for Aebleskiver or a topping for ice cream. Could probably be a pie filling. 

• 3 T butter
• 9 small tart apples (about 3 cups? We used Haralson), peeled, cored and diced into bites
• 2 t cornstarch
• 1/4 c brown sugar (we ran out and I used half of this as monkfruit sweetener which was good)
• 1 t cinnamon
• dash nutmeg and cloves
• raisins, optional

1. Melt butter in a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat; add apples and cook until almost tender, 6-7 minutes. 

2. Add cornstarch (you can add water too if you want it to be soupier, depending on what it's used for). Stir in brown sugar and spices. Simmer for 2 minutes, Serve warm.