gluten-free eats

Nature's Bakery Fig Bar: Raspberry: I mostly gave these a try because they had ingredients I could eat. I was pleasantly surprised by how soft and tender the cookie part is, though I can't say it has a flavor beyond being pleasantly whole grain. The filling is sweet and crunchy with fig seeds, and I could really taste the raspberries. Could I taste the figs? Maybe, in that they were toning the raspberry flavor down in an earthy kind of way.

This is called a bar, but really it's a Fig Newtonesque cookie, two per package, with six packages in a box. I found them at Target in the granola/protein/snack bar aisle, but they're too sweet for me to be anything but a dessert. They're also marked "low sodium" (70 mg for two cookies), but they always make me very thirsty, so idk.

In addition to Raspberry, they come in Blueberry and Pomegranate. If you're in the market for a GF Fig Newton analogue, you might give these a try. Though for whatever reason they don't have one that's just fig.

Certified GF, vegan, kosher, non-GMO. Made in a dedicated peanut and tree nut free facility.

Current Ingredients: Brown Rice Flour, Brown Rice Syrup, Fig Paste, Raspberry Jam (Naturally Milled Sugar, Cane Sugar, Glycerin, Rice Starch, Raspberries, Apple Powder, Natural Flavor, Pectin, Citric Acid, Locust Bean Gum), Canola Oil, Cane Sugar, Gluten Free Five Grain Flour (Amaranth, Quinoa, Millet, Sorghum, Teff), Date Paste, Whole Grain Oats, Glycerin, Flaxseed, Leavening (Monocalcium Phosphate, Baking Soda), Sea Salt, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid.

This pumpkin bread from Snixy Kitchen bakes up into a lovely brown loaf with warm spices and a tender, moist crumb.

I got serious and bought a metal 9 x 5 inch loaf pan for this one, since glass conducts heat differently and can dry out the crust of a quick bread, which did seem to be the case for the last pumpkin bread I made. I used Libby's canned pumpkin again and followed the recipe exactly—except I used apple cider in place of the milk component, and I again left out the cinnamon for reasons—and I was very happy with the results. In the metal pan, the outside of the loaf turned a deep brown (next time I might give it an aluminum foil tent near the end of the cooking time), but didn't get tough. I cooked it 65 minutes, let it cool on a rack for 20 minutes, and then removed it from the pan to cool completely.

Compared to the Pumpkin Bread with Maple Glaze from The Bojon Gourmet that I brought you last month (and baked in a glass pan, which might have contributed to some of the textural differences):

• both are gum-free, nut-free, soy-free, and dairy-free
• both use oat flour, sweet rice flour, and tapioca starch, then teff flour (Snixy) or millet flour (Bojon)
• both offer some substitutions, including for the oat flour, but both rely on the sweet rice flour and eggs
• slightly different spice mixes, Snixy has cloves instead of allspice, and no turmeric
• a slice of the Snixy is softer than the Bojon, which is more dense and easier to pick up
• Snixy did not bake up as impressively tall
• Snixy makes a darker, browner loaf, while Bojon is lighter and oranger

Both are easy to make, bake up well, store nicely in the fridge (and freezer!), are undetectably gluten free, and have good flavor and texture, but I think the Snixy might be my new favorite due to its almost squishy softness and gingerbread vibes. The Snixy recipe doesn't have an accompanying glaze, so I made one with powdered sugar, orange juice, and a splash of vanilla. Next time I might do something more like Bojon's maple glaze (with maybe less maple syrup), which, since it has (vegan) butter in it, is thicker, sets better, and has a more appealing look when poured over the loaf.

Anyway, I'm thrilled that after years of going without pumpkin bread I now have two really great recipes for it. AMAAPB (Ask Me Anything About Pumpkin Bread).

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Madeleine Cookies: These tender little cakes are moist without being greasy and dense without being heavy. Plump and light with that distinct madeleine shape, including the bump on the back, these are as good as any madeleine I've ever had from a package. They're also dairy free, but still taste buttery and rich. There is a slightly starchy aftertaste/mouthfeel, but it's barely enough to mention. I'll buy these again.

Individually wrapped. Labeled gluten free, but not certified GF. Made in France.

Current Ingredients: egg, sunflower oil, sugar, rice flour, water, potato starch, glycerin, dried glucose syrup, corn flour, glucose syrup, guar gum, rice starch, rapeseed lecithin, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), sea salt, natural flavors, xanthan gum, mixed tocopherols (to preserve).

May contain almond, hazelnut.

Miyoko's European Style Plant Milk Butter, Salted: I'm really happy with this! It spreads nicely straight out of the refrigerator, melts easily on toasted bread, and tasted appropriate on the fake bagel I put it on, with no coconut flavor. It does, however, have a slightly funky smell which is particularly noticeable if you melt a significant amount for cooking or baking. This is because it's cultured, like a cheese. I can't say I like the smell, but I do like the results as it successfully replicates some of the tanginess of dairy.

This can be used as a 1:1 replacement for dairy butter in baking, and so I gave that a spin as well, with these chewy chocolate chip cookies from My Gluten-Free Kitchen. They were indeed chewy and baked up nicely, though they didn't brown as much as I expected. (I used Bob's 1-to-1 Baking Flour, and, as the recipes warns, it was good but not great. Kind of gritty, even with a 24 hour chillin' in the fridge. But the cookies were still pretty damned good so I made them again with America's Test Kitchen flour blend (yes it contains milk powder my life is complicated) and that solved the grittiness problem, but I think my fiddling with the butter/cream cheese ratio in order to use up all the fake cream cheese caused them to spread more than the first batch. They were still excellent, but thinner and more crispy. I will continue to experiment with this as I am nothing but dedicated to finding the perfect chocolate chip cookie.)

Back to Miyoko's butter, I also used it in some vegan chocolate cream cheese frosting, but I didn't let it warm up enough on the counter so it was kind of in shards in there rather than fully blended into the mix. My bad. The next time I made regular vegan cream cheese frosting and I thought I let the butter warm up more, but I had the same problem. So I just let the mixer run and eventually everything became fluffy and smooth, and it worked out great. The butter itself is kind of an uneasy lard color, but not so much that it makes a white frosting look off. I'm going to try it in a buttercream next.

This product is very easy to find in my area and also comes in unsalted. I buy it at my local Kroger analogue, but I've also seen it at Target and Trader Joe's, and of course all the fancy grocery stores carry it. It's one of those slabs of butter, a wide, flat rectangle, and must be refrigerated. When I ate dairy butter I always kept the stick I was using on the counter so this is something new for me. I'm also a bit wary of how long this plant butter will last before it...goes bad? Anyone have intelligence on this? I know it has an expiration date on it but fake dairy products always last longer than those numbers do.

I'll definitely keep buying this, and I'm excited to finally try some of those recipes I've been hoarding that call for butter, vegan or otherwise. Dinner rolls! Scones!! PIE CRUST????

Current Ingredients: Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Cultured Cashew Milk (Filtered Water, Organic Cashews, Cultures), Filtered Water, Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Sunflower Lecithin, Sea Salt.

These barely sweet muffins have hearty ingredients but a wonderfully tender crumb. Adapted from Amanda's Drozdz's Easy Flourless Muffins, Bars & Cookies.

Ingredients:

121 grams oat flour
21 grams ground flaxseed
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3 large eggs
200 grams unsweetened applesauce (177 ml)
96 grams almond butter
85 grams honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
115 grams finely grated carrot
76 grams golden raisins
58 grams chopped pecans

( recipe )

Questions? Ask 'em!