gluten-free eats

This Honey Cornbread from Minimalist Baker is very easy to put together and bakes up tender, fluffy, and sweet. The honey flavor really comes through, so be sure to use one you like. It was nice next to some chili, but it was also fantastic under some strawberries as a dessert.

I used Trader Joe's unsweetened almond/cashew/macadamia milk, avocado oil, Bob's Red Mill medium grind cornmeal, and Minimalist Baker's GF flour mix, which is something you can just throw together yourself. I used math and made just enough for this recipe.

I got two posts on focaccia bread coming at you. This is the first, written a while ago, back when this was the focaccia I was making all the time. I have a new favorite recipe, though, so stay tuned for that.

Bakerita's vegan focaccia bread is very similar to Snixy Kitchen's vegan focaccia bread, which I've written about here before, link goes to my post. Both are delicious, but I prefer the Bakerita one as it makes slightly more bread and takes half as long.

Snixy's version takes longer due to the double rise and it has a chewier crust because you blast it at 425°F for the first twenty minutes before reducing the heat to 350°F. Bakerita only has you rise the bread once, in the pan, so it cuts down on the mess, and the wait, and it has a more delicate outer crust. Because it rises twice, Snixy's version retains the finger holes you poke into the top for maximum verisimilitude. Bakerita also has you poke dimples into it, but they mostly swell shut in the oven.

Snixy gives you exact measurements for brown rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, and potato starch. Bakerita lets you wing it with the flours and starches of your choice as long as they add up to the right amounts, but Bakerita also has a gluten-free flour blend that's super easy to mix up and works wonderfully in this recipe. You just use 110g brown rice flour, 110g sorghum flour, 40g potato starch, and 40g tapioca starch. Both recipes use yeast and psyllium husk for rise and chew, though Snixy helps the leavening along with a small amount of baking powder.

But I don't see any reason why you can't play with the blend of flours in the Snixy bread, or let the Bakerita bread rise twice. These breads are so similar I'm sure what works for one will work for the other.

Also, I did try out the parchment sling I mentioned in my other post, but it causes the bread to pull away from the sides of the pan and foils me from getting nice, crispy edge pieces, so instead I just cut a piece to fit on the bottom and, in addition to oiling the pan, I pour a thin stream of oil around the edges of the dough, oiling it where it meets the pan. This does make the Bakerita focaccia soft and tender underneath, though, rather than the crisp crust of the Snixy.

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.