gluten-free eats

These Crispy Waffles from Snixy Kitchen cook up with golden brown, with crisp outsides and chewy insides.

They take a little bit of extra effort as you have to whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and then fold them into the batter, but my stand mixer made short work of the task. A hand mixer would also work if you're up to holding on to it for that long. But I have never made waffles that turned out this light and crispy, not even back in the gluten and dairy days, so it's definitely worth it.

The recipe calls for whole milk and butter, but I used Trader Joe's unsweetened almond/cashew/macadamia milk and avocado oil, and had great results. The waffles taste perfectly wonderful without any toppings at all, lightly sweet and eggy, like a fortune cookie or a funnel cake, but they'd be delicious with fresh fruit or a dab of maple butter. Despite the oat flour, which you can't really taste, these are mostly starch and do leave a bit of a starchy aftertaste, so some toppings might help counter that.

I doubled the order because four waffles is not enough waffles, and I like to have some in the freezer. They warm up great in the toaster oven/toaster/oven and can easily be eaten out of hand if you're on the go or eating in front of your computer. As I am at this very moment.

I've made Loopy Whisk's focaccia twice now and it has become my go-to focaccia bread. It has a crisp crust on all sides and a tender and chewy middle with an open crumb. I shove some sliced Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives in the top and they stay soft and don't dry out or burn in the oven and give the bread a nice salty/briny/greasy element.

I make it exactly as written and it looks just like the pictures. It instantly became my preferred method to make focaccia. Before I was routinely making Bakerita's focaccia bread in an 9 x 9 inch metal pan, and it was very good, but difficult to get out and the bottom never got crispy. Though it always crisped up nicely when rewarmed in the oven, so that's 100% down to the cooking method. There's nothing stopping me from making that recipe in a sheet pan except that it has rice flour in it, and I'm trying to cut back on my rice intake. The other focaccia bread that I've shared here before is Snixy Kitchen's focaccia, which did get crispy all the way around when I cooked in a 8 x 8 glass pan as it practically boiled in the oil, but it has to rise twice, and that really drags out the process.

Loopy Whisk's focaccia is rice-free and only rises once, in the pan. I put it in a quarter sheet pan lined with parchment paper, as recommended. I put that sheet pan on top of a heavy duty sheet pan that preheats along with the oven, and this helps give the bottom crust some extra heat and intensify the crunch. The dough expands to fill the sheet pan as it rises, then it shrinks away from the sides as it cooks, giving it a nice crust along the edge (unlike when made in a cake pan) and it literally slides right out of the pan.

All three of these focaccia breads taste great and, thanks to the psyllium husk, are very satisfying to chew. They're also easier to make than a loaf of bread, so if you've never made gluten-free bread before, but want to give it a try, this is a nice, low-stakes place to start. It helps a lot to have a stand mixer, and I do, but if you've got the verve, you can mix the dough by hand.

All three of these breads freeze well, too. I just wrap them in foil and stick them in a ziplock bag. Then when I want bread for dinner, I take out a portion and let it defrost on the counter before popping it in the oven to warm up. To reinvigorate the crisp of the crust, unwrap it first so it gets nice and toasty.

These Pumpkin Pie Bars from Snixy Kitchen serve up pumpkin pie realness without having to make a pie crust!

You have two options for the crust, graham cracker crumb or shortbread. I went with the shortbread and it was flaky and buttery, with exciting hits of kosher salt. I didn't want to have to clean my stand mixer, so I used a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour instead, which might have given it a bit more of a pastry vibe. It made a wonderful contrast to the silky smooth pumpkin custard.

Snixy gives some advice for how to make these dairy free, and I used Miyoko's salted plant milk butter in the crust and Country Crock's plant cream in the custard. Both worked really well, though if you're using a salted vegan butter and you're sensitive to salt, you might want to cut down on the kosher salt in the crust.

You can cook these in an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 inch pan lined with parchment paper. I used a metal 9 x 9 pan, which I think was the right choice. The crust would have been a lot thicker in the smaller pan, and it was already pretty thick in the 9 x 9, more like a lemon bar crust than a pie crust. You parbake the crust, press it down to compact it, then pour the pumpkin custard over the top and put it back in the oven.

I baked the bars 40 minutes, then let them sit in the pan on the counter until completely cooled. After that I moved the pan to the fridge, but didn't cover it with plastic wrap because I didn't want any condensation to drip down onto the custard. I did, however, store them in the fridge that didn't have the turkey roast covered in raw garlic in it. *taps temple*

Now, I really value Snixy's recipes, but she doesn't tell you how TO GET THESE OUT OF THE PAN: I gently wiggled the parchment paper at the corners where the bars were touching the pan until they released, then, with help so that all four sides of the parchment paper were being lifted at the same time, swung them out of the pan and onto a cutting board. The custard didn't even wrinkle. I cut them while cold, using a sharp chef's knife, then plated them and let them warm to room temperature for service.

24 hours after making them, the crust was crisp and flaky and delicious. 24 hours after that, the crust had softened considerably, having absorbed moisture from the custard. It was still tasty, but no longer provided an exciting contrast to the softness of the custard as the whole thing was pretty soft. So you can easily make these a day ahead, but probably no more than that.