GF-Zing!

Would you like to be a reviewer?  Gf-Zing! would like to know which recipes are your favorites.  Send an email to gfzing@gmail.com to let us know which recipes you rely on, in making your gluten free meals!

Sue Carnase, of the Bronx, New York, made the best cheesecake ever.  It was tested many times in double-blind taste tests and it always came out at the top of the rankings. Here is her recipe, in her own words, with a slight modification that will make the recipe gluten free.

“In a large bowl cream together 1 pound each of cream cheese, softened, and ricotta and one cup sugar and beat in 4 large eggs at room temperatures, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add 1/2 stick (2 ounces) butter melted and cooled, 3 tablespoons each of gluten free flour mix* and cornstarch, and 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 teaspoon fresh lemon rind, beat mixture well until well combined.  Fold in 2 cups sour cream, pour batter in ungreased 9 inch springform pan and bake the cake in the middle of a preheated moderately slow oven (325) for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The cake will be soft in the center.  TURN OFF THE HEAT (DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR.) Let the cake stand in the oven for 2 hours.  Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a rack and chill it loosely covered for at least 4 hours.  Remove the sides of pan and transfer cake to a plate.  You can freeze it at this point.  Remove from the freezer the day before use and refrigerate.

HINTS: Cheesecakes often crack while baking and some rise high and later fall, but these are not matters of concern.  Cheesecakes do not take kindly to sudden changes in temperature.  SO DO NOT OPEN OVEN DOOR DURING THE BAKING.

I find it much easier to cream the cheeses by putting them through the Cuisinart.”

*original recipe called for wheat flour

Further notes from GF-Zing!: The batter will fill most of the pan and during the baking the cake will rise to the very top of the pan or higher.  Do NOT use a smaller pan than called for in the recipe.  Full fat ricotta makes a nice cake.  We use Friendship brand sour cream because its only ingredients are milk, cream and enzymes. We line the bottom of the spring form pan with parchment paper to make transferring the cake to a plate a little easier.

Susie’s Shopping List for Cheesecake:

1 pound cream cheese

1 pound ricotta

Sugar

4 large eggs

Butter

GF Flour

Cornstarch

Vanilla

Sour Cream

1 lemon

This gluten free risotto is delicious, using fresh corn, New England apple-smoked bacon and New England Hard Cider.

4 strips of apple wood smoked bacon, chopped and cooked in a pan or the microwave
5 cups homemade chicken stock (gluten free)
1/4-1/2 cup New England hard apple cider (like a dry white wine)
4 TB olive oil
2 TB butter
2 large shallots, minced
1 small onion, minced
1 1/2 cups Arborio rice
Kernels from 2 ears of fresh corn
2 inch slice of a log of fresh goat cheese (even better, from a log of marinated fresh goat cheese)
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Heat the chicken stock in a glass measure in the microwave until the temperature of hot coffee.

In a large non-stick skillet (12 inches is good), melt the butter with the olive oil. Add the shallots and onions and cook while stirring, until browned slightly.  Add the rice and stir to coat with oil.  Cook until it becomes slightly more opaque.  Deglaze the pan with the cider.  Add the stock about 1/3 cup at a time, stirring all the while over a low heat, for 10 minutes.  When 10 minutes is up, you will still have stock left.

Add the corn and bacon to the rice mixture and continue adding the stock a little bit at a time and stirring, until all the stock is used up (about 10 more minutes).  If the rice is cooked al dente, you are done; if not, add some more stock and cook further.

When the rice is al dente, add the goat cheese and the parmesan cheese and stir to completely mix.  You may add chooped parsley, salt and the pepper to taste at this point.  Serve immediately, with New England Hard Cider to drink.

Make sure that all your ingredients are gluten free!

© Gf-Zing! | Alice DeLuca

We acquired a new microwave oven and have been playing around with it - a new way to save energy resources while cooking.

For 1.5-2 pounds of chicken wings, mix the following sauce in a large bowl:

1/4 cup gluten free orange marmalade

1 tablespoon honey

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 cup gluten free soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1/2 of a lime)

black pepper

Remove the wing tips from the wings, and cut each wing in to two pieces at the joint. Mix the sauce with the chicken wings.  Place the wings and sauce in a glass pie plate (in a single layer) and cover loosely with plastic wrap.  Microwave for 10 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and microwave for 5-10 more minutes, until cooked through.  Preheat a broiler and broil the wings for 4-5 minutes to crisp up the skin.

If your microwave has an automatic sensor, follow the instructions for cooking chicken parts, remove the plastic wrap half way through the cooking time.  When the wings are done, broil as above.

Use all gluten-free ingredients!

These gluten free “meatballs” from Gf-Zing! have the texture of gnocchi.  The cream-based curry sauce is delicious with sweet potato fries.

Mix the following with your hands:

1 block (1 pound) firm tofu

1 egg

1 cup minced scallion (both the white and green)

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

2 tablespoons potato starch (katakuriko)

6-8 tablespoons sweet brown rice flour - this is like mochiko or sweet rice flour (also called glutinous rice flour even though it does not contain gluten) - it is made from sweet brown rice

1 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon curry powder (make your own using Rebecca Reilly’s recipe from Gluten Free Baking)

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all these ingredients and as you mix you will notice that the liquid is taken up by the flours.  Add sweet brown rice flour as needed to reach a consistency where “meatballs” can be formed.  Make walnut sized balls.

Fry the balls in 1 tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat until they are golden. Remove the balls to a plate.  To the oil remaining in the pan, add

2 tablespoons curry powder and fry briefly.  Add

1 1/2 cups of New England hard cider (this is like white wine - it is not sweet).

Reduce the wine to 1/3 cup.  Add the tofu balls back to the pan and add

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups chicken stock

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.  The sauce will thicken as the balls absorb the stock.  Check from time to time and stir.

When cooked, serve with sweet potato fries.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!.

Serve these awesome baked fries with any dish that has a curry sauce.

For every 2 pounds of sweet potatoes, place the following in a large bowl:

2 teaspoons of Kosher salt (or 1 teaspoon of table salt)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)

1/4 cup olive oil

Cut peeled sweet potato in to french fry size - make 1/2 inch slices crosswise, then cut each slice in to 1/2 inch slices.  Mix these fries with the oil and spices to distribute evenly.  Place the spiced fries on a foil lined baking sheet in a single layer.  Do not use a silpat mat because the baking temperature exceeds the tolerance of silpat.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.  Bake the fries on the top shelf for 15 minutes, stir, then bake an additional 5 minutes.  Do not worry if some fries are slightly blackened.  The flavor will be awesome.

Serve with any dish that has a rich curry sauce, or as an accompaniment to meat dishes.

It is easy to keep fresh ginger available at all times.  Get some really nice looking fresh ginger, peel it, cut it in chunks, and put the chunks in a nice jar that can be closed tightly.  Pour in some vodka to cover the ginger completely.  This ginger will keep for a very long time and you can take it out of the vodka as needed, chop it up and use it in curries or stir-fries.

Try this excellent curry - you won’t be sorry!

Fry one onion, chopped, in 2 Tablespoons of oil until browned.  Add 2 lamb shanks and brown them as well. De-glaze the pan with 1 cup of New England Hard Cider.

In to a pressure cooker, put:

1 can of coconut milk

2 Tablespoons of gluten free thai red curry paste

1 stalk of lemon grass, the white part at the root end only, chopped

2 Tablespoons of fresh ginger, chopped

Add the lamb shank mixture to the coconut milk mixture. Close the pressure cooker and bring up the pressure.  Pressure cook for 10 minutes, then let the pressure drop on its own.  Lamb shanks take a long time to cook. This pressure-cooking step will give the lamb a head start, ensuring that eventually the lamb gets nice and tender.

Carefully transfer the hot lamb shanks in their curry sauce in to a casserole that has a lid.  To this mixture, add

1 Cornish Game Hen

1 mango, peeled seeded and cut in to chunks (an under-ripe mango is perfect for this purpose.)

Braise the dish, covered, in a 350 degree oven for 2 hours, until the lamb is tender.  Skim off any fat that has accumulated.  Season with salt if needed.

Serve with Jasmine rice topped with plenty of fresh chopped cilantro, and fresh ground sea salt.

Note: If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can cook everything except the game hen and mango for 1-1 1/2 hours and then add the game hen and mango and bake for an additional hour and a half.

Hot cocoa mix from GfZing! is easy to make at home.  Here’s how to make an instant cocoa mix that will spice up your breakfast. Make sure that each individual component of the mixture is gluten free - the cocoa, the spices etc.

In a jar that holds 750 ml, place:

• 3/4 cup sugar (or the equivalent sweetening amount of a gluten free sugar substitute)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional to add spiciness - you can grind up one dried cayenne pepper and add that)
• 1/4 cup finely ground skinned almonds (optional - this adds a gritty texture)
• 3.2 ounces of nonfat powdered dry milk (the amount to make one quart)

Shake this mixture up until it is completely homogeneous.

Use 3-4 Tablespoons of the mixture with 1 mug of hot water to make your cocoa.

You can make a fine blueberry pie using dark maple syrup as a sweetener instead of granulated sugar.  This pie is refreshingly fruity and not as sweet as the more common sugar-sweetened pie.

Here are the general rules:

for 5-6 cups of Maine wild blueberries, add the following in a large bowl:

1 cup of pure maple syrup

2 Tablespoons of cornstarch

3 Tablespoons of flavorless tapioca starch (Authentic Foods offers a tapioca starch) or 1/4 cup instant granulated tapioca.  If you use instant granulated tapioca, let the whole mixture sit for 15 minutes before constructing the pie.

1/8 teaspoon salt

3-4 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to offset the maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Use a 2-crust recipe for pie crust, and use a 9 or 10 inch glass pie dish. If you use a larger pie dish, the pie will have less depth, and if you use a smaller pie dish then the pie will be more “heaped up.”  Line the pie dish with 1 piece of crust pastry, fill with the blueberry mixture, top with the second crust. Sprinkle the top crust with 1/4 cup of granulated sugar.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 1 hour.  If the blueberries are frozen, the pie may need a few extra minutes.  Cool the pie on a rack before cutting.

Use all gluten-free ingredients!

This is a tasty dish to serve in the fall using your locally grown peppers, cayenne peppers, leeks, and garlic, along with your fabulous imported flageolet beans.  This is a bean stew which would go well with chicken, pork or just plain bread and a salad.

1 leek, cleaned and sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
3 small green or long italian peppers, deseeded and cut into strips
1 dried cayenne pepper, chopped finely
2 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 tsp smoked spanish paprika
4 small tomatoes, chopped coarsely
1 pound flageolet beans, soaked and pressure cooked until done (pressure cook about 12 minutes after the pressure is up - use plenty of water), then drain
3 cups homemade chicken stock
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 to 1 teaspoon salt

Clean the leek and slice it thinly. In a 12″ non-stick pan, heat the oil for 30 seconds then add the sliced leek. Stir and fry for 2-3 minutes until beginning to soften then add the green peppers and the cayenne pepper. Stir and fry for 3 - 4 minutes,  then add the garlic and the smoked paprika. Cook for another minute over medium heat. Add the tomatoes and the chicken broth,  stirring all the while. Cook the this sauce for another 2 minutes then add the drained flageolet and cook for another 3-4 minutes until heated through. Season to taste with sugar, salt and pepper. Adjust the seasoning as needed.

The quality of this dish is entirely dependent on the quality of the chicken stock you use, so it is best to make your own.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

For this dessert, you need fresh local strawberries, high quality white chocolate (gluten free) in a bar form, and gluten free orange liqueur.

Find a bowl that will hold 3 cups exactly when filled to the top with water.  This will be serving dish.  Set it aside.

Melt a 4-ounce bar of gluten free white chocolate over hot water.  Take it off the heat, add 1 Tablespoon sugar, 1 Tablespoon gluten free orange liqueur, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and 1 ounce of cream cheese.  Beat well until mixed.

In a different bowl beat 1/2 cup of heavy cream until stiff.  Fold in the white chocolate mixure.

Put enough strawberries (or other berries) in the serving bowl to cover the bottom of the bowl.  Spoon the whipped cream/white chocolate mixture on top.  Smooth the top and chill the dessert for 3 hourss or overnight.  This will serve 3-4 people.

You can triple the mixture, make a crumb crust in a spring-form pan, and triple the amount of berries, put the berries on the crust, add the cream mixture, chill, then cut the dessert like a cake (since it has a crust.)

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

Inspired by a wonderful Mujaddara from a Lebanese restaurant in Troy, New York, we set out to find out how to make the dish at home.  Luckily, we found a good recipe in the interesting Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead, by Habeeb Salloum (published by the University of Regina, 2005).  The secret to this terrific dish for lentil lovers is the enormous quantity of fried onions.  We have found that adding a cup of turnip gratin to the finished dish makes it even better!

Here is the revised recipe:

Wash one cup of regular lentils (the inexpensive kind found in any grocery store), and put them in a pan with 5 cups of water.  Bring to a boil, cover and cook over medium heat of 15 minutes, then add 1/4 cup white rice , cover and cook another 20 minutes until both the lentils and the rice are cooked.

Melt 2 Tablespoons of ghee (or butter), but ghee is better, in a frying pan and fry 3 thinly sliced big spanish onions for 10 minutes, stirring, until they are golden brown. (The original recipe called for an alarming 6 Tablespoons of butter for this process.)  Do not use vidalia or sweet onions for this - they do not break down or brown in the same way as spanish onions.

Stir the fried onions in to the cooked lentils, then add 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, and 1/4 teaspoon hot New Mexico chili powder.  If you have an extra cup of turnip gratin, add that as well.

Stir everything well, and serve hot with yogurt (add a clove of grated garlic to make a sauce) and salad.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

The first turnips of the spring have arrived, courtesy of a local CSA.  We have learned to love the strong umami of white hakurei turnip prepared with cream and seasonings.  In many recently issued cookbooks there is a complete dearth of recipes for turnip, but if you turn to the older books, notably the 1961 New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne, or the stellar 1979  From Market to Kitchen Cookbook by Perla Meyers, you will find many recipes for this neglected vegetable.  The well-cooked turnip will take you on a time-travel journey back to the days when real vegetables, packed with flavor, made people grateful for every meal.

An excellent recipe for a gratin of white turnip appeared in Gourmet magazine 2007 but that recipe called for a whole cup of heavy cream and a matching cup of grated parmesan.  It was hard on the arteries and on the wallet, and required both top of the stove and oven baking. So, we have modified it slightly for recession and health reasons.  Serve the turnips with a small steak, and a salad.  You will want to obtain more fresh spring turnips, once you try them this way.

Melt 1 Tablespoon butter in a non-stick 12 inch skillet (make sure you have a top to fit the pan.)

Wash one bunch of white hakurei turnips well, top and tail them, and slice them in 1/4 inch slices.  Save the turnip greens for another recipe. You don’t need to peel the turnips.  Layer the slices in the pan.  Sprinkle the sliced turnips with 1 teaspoon dry thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper, and 1/8- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Cook for 3 minutes over medium heat, then pour 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup gluten-free chicken stock over the top.  Cover and cook the turnips over medium heat for 20 minutes.  The turnips will be completely cooked through, but there will be considerable liquid left in the pan.  Remove the cover and cook to reduce the liquid.  When most of the liquid has reduced (about 5-10 minutes), and the sauce is thickened, grate finely 1/2 cup of fresh parmesan cheese evenly over the top.  Watch closely as the cheese melts and make sure that the liquid does not entirely cook away.

Serve the turnips hot.  The recipe is supposed to serve 6, but maybe realistically it would only serve 4, once they discover that they love turnips!

If you should happen to have a cup or so of the finished dish left over, by all means add it to a lentil dish like Mujaddara.

Make sure all your ingredients, including the spices, are gluten-free.

We are all excited that the first food share has arrived from a local CSA - a local community agriculture program.  The first share of the year included beautiful red lettuce, spinach, radishes, white turnips, and bok choy.

For this salad, we chose to use what was in the cupboard to approximate a recipe from the Hamersley’s cookbook - Bistro Cooking at Home.  This is a great spring meal after a hard day’s work.  It makes you realize how a few simple things are all that are needed for a truly fine meal!

Make a whole red lettuce ready for a salad dressing (clean and tear the salad).  Fry a couple of slices of gluten-free bacon until crispy, then drain the fat and reserve the bacon. Toast up some regular wheat bread for the wheatavores, and a couple of slices of Glutino bread for the celiacs.  Set out some butter, the bacon pieces, and a couple of glasses of Riserva Ducale Chianti, 2005.

Next, make the dressing:

Mix: 1 teaspoon gluten-free Dijon mustard

1/2 a medium shallot, chopped fine

1/2 a clove of garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

salt

fresh pepper

1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/2 a Tablespoon sherry wine vinegar (that’s 1 1/2 teaspoons)

1 Tablespoon reserved bacon fat

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Dress the lettuce, then fry 4 eggs, over easy, in the remaining bacon fat.  Season them with salt and pepper.  Serve the dressed salad with fried eggs, bacon pieces, toast and butter on the side, and a glass of chianti!

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten-free!

It’s time for the Memorial Day barbecue, and with 6 extra-ripe bananas on the countertop, our minds wandered - what to do, should we make 4 loaves of gluten free banana bread?  No, and although deep-fried banana fritters were sounding pretty good what ended up seeming much better was homemade ice cream.

This recipe is refreshing, and not high in fat.  The bananas have a slight tartness, and the dulce de leche’s deep brown color covers up the color of the overripe bananas, making an attractive finished ice cream.  There are no egg yolks or heavy cream in this ice cream, but the texture is creamy.  The major ingredient is banana.

Make the following mixture (use a potato masher to mix), and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours:

3 cups 1% milk

1 cup coconut milk

2/3 cup sugar

6 very overripe bananas, too mushy for anything but banana bread

13.4 ounce can of gluten free Dulce de Leche (or you can make your own)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

The mixture will be brown, like caramel.  After the mixture has chilled, freeze it in an ice cream maker according to the directions.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

It’s spring and the temptation to purchase strawberries is renewed again.  Unfortunately, “strawberry disappointment” follows, when the first strawberries to arrive in the supermarket, while red, are not flavorful!  Time to make trifle, but how to do this in an interesting and gluten-free way?

We searched the internet for gluten free trifle recipes, and found the most interesting recipe, not quite gluten-free and way too complicated, at this address: Teafactory.  Even though this recipe is “simplified” it is still too complex for ordinary humans like us, and it includes puff pastry which is not gluten free, and 2 custards.  So, we have modified it to a delicious, easy and gluten-free dessert.

At the request of a fan, we have added the measurements for volume, rather than weight, for the dry ingredients, but we strongly recommend using the weights.  GF flours can be ground finely or coarse, and that changes the volume tremendously.  When we measured the ingredients with tablespoons, we used Koda Farms mochiko, and finely ground cornmeal and garbanzo bean flour from the natural foods store nearby.

Included in the original recipe is a Cardamom Biscuit which is gluten free and a very close textural approximation of an English digestive biscuit, but with a whalloping cardamom punch.  This is an excellent cookie in its own right.

You need to make 4 layers:  The strawberries, the cookies, the custard, the whipped cream.  Use a scale to measure the ingredients.

Berry Jelly:

Make a compote by mixing the following ingredients and simmering them for 20 minutes:

250 grams of strawberries, cut in quarters

40 grams of sugar (3 TB or slightly more)

1 teaspoon amontillado sherry

1 teaspoon lemon juice

(the original recipe includes rose water which we omitted)

When it has cooked for 20 minutes, add 1 envelope of plain gelatin (no flavor) which has been softened in cold water.  Do not add the gelatin directly to the strawberries without first softening the powder in water or the gelatin will form globs of glue in a strawberry soup - not what you want.  Cool to room temperature then distribute amongst 8 dishes that hold about 1 cup each. Refrigerate these 8 dishes until the strawberry layer has firmed up. (If you do not add the gelatin, the strawberry liquid would soak through the biscuits which are the next layer.)

Cookie layer: (this has been altered to eliminate some refrigerating and freezing steps)

Use a scale to weigh out the ingredients - this really makes a difference!

70g unsalted butter (softened) - about 5 Tb

45g white sugar - about 3 Tb + 1 tsp

25g ground almonds - about  3 Tb + 1 tsp

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

35g glutinous rice flour (also called mochiko) - about 4 Tb + 1 tsp

25g cornmeal - about 3 Tb + 1 tsp if finely ground

20g chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour - about 2 Tb + 2 tsp

1 tsp freshly ground cardamom (skin the pods, and grind 1 teaspoon of seeds in a mortar and pestle)

1/2 tsp powdered vanilla from Authentic Foods

1 egg yolk

1. Cream the butter & sugar.
2. Add all the dry ingredients & mix well.
3. Add the egg yolk and mix until a dough forms.  Make the dough in to a disk shape.
   
4. The original recipe calls for chilling the dough for one hour here, but we just proceeded since the air is cold in winter.
   
5. Get 2 pieces of waxed paper about the size of a cookie sheet.  Put 1/8 cup of white rice flour on the bottom piece, put the disk of dough on the flour and turn it over to coat both sides with rice flour.  Put the second sheet of waxed paper on top. Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick and cut cookies in a size that will fit in the dishes that have the strawberry mixture in the bottom.  Re-roll the dough as necessary to make 16 cookies (17 if you want to taste one.)
   
6. preheat the oven to 300F
7. Transfer the cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool on the pan, then remove them gently and put one cookie on top of the strawberry mixture in each dish.  You will have 8 cookies left for the next layer.
   

Custard layer:

Mix 1 cup 2% milk, 3/4 cup light cream, 1 teaspoon amontillado sherry and one small (3 oz.) package of gluten free instant vanilla pudding.  Beat with a whisk until thick.  Divide amongst the 8 dishes on top of the cookie layer.  Add another cookie on top of this custard.

Whipped cream:

Whip one cup of heavy whipping cream with some sugar to sweeten. Add vanilla or sherry to flavor this whipped cream and distribute on top of the last cookie layer.

Candied nuts (can be omitted):

Taste some pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds to see if their flavor will be an asset to the dish.

In a pan that can be heated relatively hot, put 2 Tb of pumpkin seeds and 2 Tb of sunflower seeds with 2 Tb of sugar.  Heat the nuts over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar melts and the nuts brown slightly.  Transfer to a plate immediately and cool completely.  Garnish the top of the whipped cream with these nuts if you want an extra crunch texture.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free!

At long last - we had really good gluten free cinnamon rolls.  Here is how you make them.  Make the dough for dinner rolls described at the Book of Yum website ,  omitting all flavorings except the salt (don’t use rosemary, sun-dried tomatoes, or any of those sorts of things) to make a plain dinner roll dough:

http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/adeenas-gluten-free-rosemary-teff-dinner-roll-recipe-1478.html

Then proceed as follows:

Make a mixture of 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and set aside (you may need more of this mixture depending on how much you put in each roll.)  Get out some yellow raisins and set aside.

Put a paper muffin liner in to each part of a 12-cup muffin pan and 6 more cups from another pan (total of 18).

Put about 1/2 cup rice flour on a large piece of wax or parchment paper.  Take about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the mixed plain roll dough and plop it onto the rice flour.  The rice flour should be nice and thick on the paper to keep the dough from sticking.

Pat the dough into a rectangle about 7 inches wide by 4 inches tall, and a little less than a 1/2 inch thick.  These are rough measurements.  Dot the surface with butter (6 small bits of butter, totalling about 1 Tablespoon.)  Sprinkle the surface (the whole surface of the rectangle) with a few tablespoons of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture, and sprinkle with 8-10 raisins, distributing evenly.  Very gently, roll the rectangle up like a jelly roll (from the 7 inch side), so that in the end you have a 7 inch long roll.  Slice the roll in to 3 equal length sections.  Put each section in to a paper-lined muffin cup so that the cut side is facing up.  The top of the roll should show some sugar filling. Proceed the same way until you have used up all the dough.  As you work, rearrange the remaining rice flour on the paper to provide a nice cushion for the dough.

Set the rolls aside to rise until doubled - this takes about 1/2 hour to 1 hour on a warm radiator.  Bake to rolls at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Allow to cool briefly, then slather each one with some of the following mixture.

2 Tablespoons softened butter

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

enough fresh orange juice to make a nice frosting

A reader has asked for advice on gluten free baking without tapioca flour. She says:
I’m just learning to bake GF for my daughter.  She does not like the taste of tapioca flour.  After baking a rejected bread, we lined up all the flours & tasted them to see which one was objectionable.  What do you recommend to replace tapioca?  Would potato starch, corn starch or arrowroot be closest, or a mixture of one of them and sweet rice flour?

Gf-Zing has the following advice:

We think the best option would be to obtain a book of recipes for
gluten free baking without tapioca.  Our favorite is Great Gluten-Free
Baking by Louise Blair, published by Hamlyn in Great Britain in 2007.
This lovely book has some excellent recipes (don’t miss the Victoria
Sandwich Cake on page 124.) This book relies on a simple combination
of rice flour and cornstarch.  The book is available in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Gluten-Free-Baking-Louise-Blair/dp/0600615839

Likewise, Healthy Gluten-Free Cooking by Darina Allen and Rosemary
Kenney, published by Stewart, Habori and Chang has a few excellent
baking recipes that do not include tapioca.  The book does not have as
many recipes that exclude tapioca, but it is a great cookbook.This
book is also available in the U.S.
http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Gluten-free-Cooking-Recipes-Lovers/dp/1584794240

Best wishes for gluten-free holidays!

You can make this vanilla cake with a chocolate icing, or you can include some lemon ingredients in the batter and make a lemon icing. The recipe is for 2 9-inch round cake pans, or the equivalent volume in square cake pans. To figure out the size, remember that the area of a circle is pi (3.14) times the radius squared, and you have to account for the depth also, since this is about volume…

Don’t use bottled lemon juice - use fresh juice - it tastes better.

1 1/2 cups white rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups white sugar

2/3 cup gluten-free mayonnaise

2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract

1 cup milk (for the lemon cake use part buttermilk)

This is really easy to mix up - put the first six dry ingredients in a bowl, and stir well.

In another bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until light and lemony colored. Beat in the mayonnaise and vanilla. Next, mix in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk, until all is mixed up well.

Grease the 9-inch round pans with butter, line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper, and dust the insides of the greased pans with rice flour or mochiko flour. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until a skewer tests clean. Let the cake cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges with a knife and turn out the cakes on racks to cool.

To stack the cake for icing, put the first layer on the plate top side down, frost the flat bottom side, then put the next layer on with the flat side down. This will put the flat sides together and they will not slide around as much.

To make a lemon cake, add the following and make adjustments:

Add the grated rind of one lemon and 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice from one fresh lemon, and substitute for the milk 1/2 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

To make a lemon cream cheese frosting, melt 11 ounces of fine gluten free white chocolate (don’t use chips - they don’t melt well) in the top of a double boiler, allow to cool to room temperature. Mix in 12 ounces of cream cheese, and 12 Tablespoons of unsalted butter. Beat well until really smooth. Mix in 2 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Use one cup of the icing between the layers, and use the rest to coat the top and sides of the layer cake.

For a chocolate frosted birthday cake, use the vanilla cake as the base. Then use the following icing from the Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa Show, adapted for gluten free cooking:

6 ounces gluten free semisweet chocolate

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon of gluten-free pasteurized egg product, such as Eggbeaters, but check on gluten free status

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon gluten free instant coffee powder dissolved in 2 teaspoons of hot water

Melt chocolate in top of double-boiler and set aside to cool to room temperature.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, mix in the egg product and the vanilla. Gradually beat in the confectioner’s sugar and the coffee mixture by hand. Do not overbeat. This is a soft icing - spread it on the cake and then refrigerate the cake immediately.