The Baking Beauties » Misc. Sweets/Candy

Gluten Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Jeanine Friesen — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:23:41 +0000

When the weather finally begins to warm up here, and the snow is just beginning to melt, I begin the ritual of checking my rhubarb plant for signs of life. My plant is on it’s 3rd year now, we planted it when we moved here, and each year it grows bigger. This year is looking quite promising so far. I’ve picked from it twice already, and have been giving it some water, since we’ve had a bit of a dry spring in my area of Manitoba. One of the first things I prepare with my freshly picked rhubarb is a Crisp or Crumble. A fresh, warm-from-the-oven Rhubarb Crisp. There isn’t much more that says the beginning of summer than the tart taste of rhubarb baked to saucy deliciousness. The other day I saw that I still had some strawberries in my fridge, it seems I can’t go to the grocery store without picking up a container of strawberries lately, so I decided to treat my family to a warm Gluten Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp for dessert that night. Served with some vanilla ice cream, or a drizzle of heavy cream, this crisp will be devoured quickly. Thankfully, it is also really easy to prepare, perfect for a weeknight indulgence, or an early summer dinner with friends.

Gluten Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Author: Jeanine Friesen

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 cups cut up rhubarb
2 cups cut up strawberries
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup certified gluten-free oats
1/4 cup brown rice flour (can be substituted with your favourite gluten free flour, or almond meal)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, cut into cubes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the rhubarb, strawberries, and vanilla. Pour into an 8 x 8-inch baking pan.
Stir together the oats, brown rice flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the cold butter into the oat/flour mixture, until large crumbs, about the size of a pea, remain.
Sprinkle the crisp topping over the top of the fruit in the baking dish, and spread to create an even layer.
Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the fruit is hot and bubbly.
Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving, the fruit sauce is very hot straight out of the oven. Delicious served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Notes

Place the 8×8-inch baking dish on a larger cookie sheet to bake. That way, if your fruit juice bubbles over while baking, it will not be in the bottom of your oven, and clean up will be made much easier.

What is your favourite way to use rhubarb? I’ve been thinking of trying a rhubarb barbecue sauce – can anyone recommend a fabulous recipe?

Need more rhubarb recipes? Check out the other gluten-free rhubarb recipes on The Baking Beauties HERE.

Gluten-free Bunny Bait ~ An Easy Easter Popcorn Recipe

Jeanine Friesen — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:54:54 +0000

As with each holiday, I try to find ways to make it special for my kids. At Halloween we carve pumpkins as a family, Christmas we do “Elf on a Shelf”, Valentine’s we have a special supper, where the table is nicely decorated and everyone gets to drink from fancy glasses. Although our Easter traditions already consist of making Easter Story Cookies and having an early morning egg hunt, I thought preparing and nibbling on this sweet and salty popcorn would be fun for the kids too. Leave a bowl of Bunny Bait out, and you might just be able to catch a glimpse of that crafty cottontail.

Please visit Mommy Moment to view my guest post and get the full recipe.

Gluten-Free Cream Puffs with a Pomegranate Cheesecake Filling

Jeanine Friesen — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:45:35 +0000

Holiday entertaining is right around the corner, and between now and when it is time to ring in the new year, you will probably be having friends down, attending parties, family gatherings, and the list goes on. The point is, you will be either entertaining or being entertained a lot. When you are eating gluten-free that’s not always a comfortable situation to be in. However, by bringing a tray of these gluten-free cream puffs along, you will know that there will be something gluten-free for you to munch on. No one else will ever know that they are not wheat-based, if you do decide to share.

This dough is fabulous because after you form the cream puffs on the parchment paper, you can bake what you need immediately, and freeze the rest of the dough until you need them. Once the dough has frozen, you simply store it in an air-tight zipper seal bag. When you want some fresh cream puffs, remove as many as you need from the freezer, place on a parchment lined baking sheet and let the dough come to room temperature while your oven preheats before baking it as directed. You can also freeze baked, unfilled cream puffs, and just crisp them up by baking them in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. And with the unlimited variety of sweet or savoury fillings that you can use, you can bring these to each and every function and never serve the save dish twice.

For more tips on working with this gluten-free Choux Paste, please read “Gluten-free Cream Puffs“.

For the Cream Puffs

Yields 20 servings

Ingredients:

2/3 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
Pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 large eggs, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the white rice flour, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan, bring the water and butter to a boil. Once they have reached a boil, pour all of the dry ingredients in at once, and stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated, and the mixture looks similar to play dough.
Place hot dough into a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for a minute or two to cool the dough down a bit. With the mixer on medium speed, add one egg at a time. Beat dough until the egg is completely incorporated before adding the next one. Repeat until all 4 eggs have been added.
Mix on medium-high speed for 1 minute, until the dough is smooth.
Spoon the dough (about a 2 tablespoons per cream puff) onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2-inches between cream puffs.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, open the door, and pierce each cream puff with a sharp knife. This will help any steam trapped inside them to escape, giving a nice crisp cream puff. Leave the cream puffs in the oven, with the door open a few inches, until the oven has cooled completely.
Once cream puffs have completely cooled, fill them with a sweet or savoury filling. They are best served the same day, but can be stored in an air tight container. To crisp unfilled cream puffs again, place in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes.

Note: The Choux Paste can be frozen to use later. Spoon the dough onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and place in the freezer. Once they are frozen, store in a zipper seal freezer bag. To bake, place frozen dough onto parchment lined baking pan, and let come to room temperature before baking (about 15 minutes). Bake the same way you would if you were baking immediately.

Pomegranate Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients:

1 cup pomegranate juice
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioners’ (icing) sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup confectioners’ (icing) sugar
2 Tbsp dry vanilla pudding mix

Directions:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer the pomegranate juice until only 2 tablespoons remain, making a pomegranate syrup. Allow to cool.
Beat the softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar together until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Beat in the cooled pomegranate syrup.
In a narrow, deep mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the whipped cream and 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar until soft peaks form. Add the dry pudding mix and continue to beat until the whipped cream stiffens.
Fold half of the whipped cream mixture into cream cheese mixture. Continue with the remaining whipped cream.

To serve, cut cooled Cream Puffs in half, scoop 2 tablespoons of the cream cheese filling into the puff and replace the top. Top with melted dark chocolate and a few fresh pomegranate arils.

This recipe was also featured in the beautiful Holiday Edition of EatInEatOut Magazine! You can download the entire free magazine HERE (you’ll find this recipes on pages 82-83).

Featured in the Holiday Issue of “EatInEatOut Magazine”

Jeanine Friesen — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:27:59 +0000

I am extremely thrilled to be included in the latest issue of EatInEatOut Magazine, their Holiday Issue, no less. You can browse through the 130 pages of beautiful pictures, recipes, and reviews anytime you want, and it’s FREE!

On page 82 of this beautiful magazine, you will find my recipe for Gluten-free Cream Puffs with Pomegranate Cheesecake Filling. Drizzled with melted dark chocolate before serving – ah, I tell you – amazing! And perfect for the holidays too! Be sure to download and save the magazine for the recipe.

Click HERE to go directly to page 82-83 for the recipe for these beautiful gluten-free cream puffs.

Gluten-free Cream Puffs

Jeanine Friesen — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 12:22:34 +0000

I will admit it now…I never mastered making cream puffs before I baked gluten-free. I always had trouble with them not rising properly, or with them staying soggy in the middle. My Grandma was really good at making them though, and she’d whip up a batch if they were coming over for supper, filled with pudding or whipped cream.

These cream puffs are awesome though. Totally crisp, with a beautiful hollow in the middle. The trick, I believe, is in making the “Choux Paste”, which is the dough that can be used to make Cream Puffs, Éclairs, or Crullers. You have to be sure to fully incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet before adding the eggs. Add the eggs slowly, adding one at a time and making sure that it is fully mixed in before adding the next.

Yields 12 servings

Ingredients:

2/3 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
Pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 large eggs, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the white rice flour, sweet rice flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan, bring the water and butter to a boil. Once they have reached a boil, pour all of the dry ingredients in at once, and stir with a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are completely incorporated, and the mixture looks similar to play dough.
Place hot dough into a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for a minute or two to cool the dough down a bit. With the mixer on medium speed, add one egg at a time. Beat dough until the egg is completely incorporated before adding the next one. Repeat until all 4 eggs have been added.
Mix on medium-high speed for 1 minute, until the dough is smooth.
Spoon the dough (about a 1/4 cup per cream puff) onto prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2-inches between cream puffs.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, open the door, and pierce each cream puff with a sharp knife. This will help any steam trapped inside them to escape, giving a nice crisp cream puff. Leave the cream puffs in the oven, with the door open a few inches, until the oven has cooled completely.
Once cream puffs have completely cooled, fill them with a sweet or savory filling. They are best served the same day, but can be stored in an air tight container. To crisp unfilled cream puffs again, place in a 400 degree F oven for 10 minutes.

Note: The Choux Paste can be frozen to use later. Spoon the dough onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and place in the freezer. Once they are frozen, store in a zipper seal freezer bag. To bake, place frozen dough onto parchment lined baking pan, and let come to room temperature before baking (about 15 minutes). Bake the same way you would if you were baking immediately.