Brownies

Who doesn't want one of these?

Before I was able to readily purchase gluten-free brownie mixes, I was HUNGRY for an ooey-gooey brownie. I also tend to be a bit picky about the flours I use. Yes, I'm sure all-organic diets have their positive sides, but in order to hit a target market, much of the gluten-free food is also all organic and/or vegan, and made of some pretty strange stuff - like stuff that one wouldn't have found 5 years ago in a typical South Dakota grocery store.

SO. I researched flour mixes for gluten-free baking and came up with a recipe that I've been tweaking ever since. Today I hit the jackpot with a rich, sweet, ooey-gooey brownie. Hopefully they last before my company comes tomorrow!

Gluten-Free Brownies:
1/2 C. oil
1/2 C. butter (or margarine, if you must)
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla (or just vanilla to taste)

2 C. sugar
3/4 C. white rice flour
1/2 C. cocoa (or more if you want)
2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 bag white chocolate chips

Mix together wet ingredients, then mix dry ingredients separately. Combine and add white chips (or nuts or whatever you like in your brownies).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 35 minutes.

Eat and enjoy...Maybe mix it with ice-cream?

The first time I did this, I only needed to bake the recipe for 15 minutes. I have not successfully baked them for just that amount of time though, and have good reason to believe that the oven I was using was not working quite up to snuff...

Revisiting Bob

In the past, I've found Bob's Red Mill products to be lacking in the flavor (particularly sugar and fat) department...but I had a mix, and needed a safe potluck option. So I mixed the Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix together, and baked it as a cookie bar.

I almost didn't bake it, as Mom always taught me that the cookie will taste like the dough...This dough had a very strong bean flour flavor, and I was scared. I made a quick chocolate frosting (1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1/2 stick of butter and about 2 tsp. Cardamom) hoping to cover some of the bean flavor.

I pulled the bars out of the oven, frosted them, and walked out the door (did I mention that I was also running a little late?) and presented my un-tasted experiment to the potluck. It ended up not being bad. It was still very crumbly (I'm glad I didn't make cookies), and the frosting was great. I probably will stick with my Domata flour for now, but this would definitely be an OK substitute for a graham cracker crust if necessary.

And sorry, no pictures...I finished off the last one last night :)

Chex!

Chex has recently overhauled their box design to show that they are Gluten-Free.  I've been a big Chex fan for a long time, and particularly enjoy the Cinnamon Chex. Check it out next time you are at the store :)

Camp!

I went to camp this week. I want to send a shout out to the CSBC camp staff for being incredibly careful and knowledgable with my allergies. I took a loaf of GF bread (Udi's), a box of cereal, pretzels (I kept those in my cabin for munching), minute rice and some GF pasta (tinkyada) along, and was able to substitute those for anything I wasn't able to eat.

...and I had a blast :)