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Banana Coconut Ice Cream

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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!

Gluten Free Trifle

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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 whallopping 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 gluten free amontillado sherry or vanilla

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!

Ghee

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Ghee is a useful type of highly flavored clarified butter. You can use it in French and fusion recipes, substituting 1/4 the amount of ghee for the amount of butter in some sauces, achieving great flavor without all the fat.

To make ghee, put one pound of unsalted butter in a pot, and simmer it on low-medium heat without stirring for about 20 minutes. There will be foam that rises to the top, and then the butter will bubble and boil as the water content evaporate – when the solids at the bottom of the pot start to brown, remove the pot from the heat. The flavor of the browned bits in the bottom of the pan will permeate the butter, giving ghee its distinctive browned-butter taste! Make sure that the solids do not burn, but also make sure that they get browned. You have to walk a fine line, when making ghee.
Strain the ghee through a fine strainer in to a one-pint Mason jar (canning jar that can withstand high heat), being careful not to burn yourself, and let it cool. When this clarified butter is cool, you can store it in the refrigerator. Some recipes say that you can store it without refrigeration, but we always keep it in the refrigerator anyway.

Batter Fried Fish – gluten free!

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One of the most popular postings on the Gf-Zing! website is this method of making batter for frying fish.  It originally comes from Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Cooking book. She uses cornstarch and chickpea flour, which yields a much nicer fried fish than any wheat flour will do. The batter is excellent for hake, cod, scallops etc. Cut larger firm-fleshed fish filets (skinless) in to 2 x 1 inch pieces. The recipe for the batter can be halved.

You marinate the fish in seasoning to flavor it, then dip it in batter, then fry and serve.

Seasoning for 2 pounds fish or scallops (marinate in this mixture for 2 hours):

1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1-2 jalapenos, minced (omit if you don’t like spicy food)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (or 1/4 teaspoon table salt)
pepper
juice of 1/4 lemon

Alternative seasoning:

Sprinkle the fish liberally with a few teaspoons of a spice mixture of your choice, for example (the following makes a lot of extra spice mixture):

1 teaspoon of gluten free cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon of fresh ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon gluten free paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried EACH thyme and oregano
1 Tablespoons gluten free garlic powder
2 Tablespoons kosher or sea salt

The batter:

3/4 cup corn starch
3 Tablespoons chick pea flour (store this in the freezer)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or other seasoning
1 teaspoon coarse salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt)
1 Tablespoon gluten free baking powder
3 Tablespoons peanut oil
2 large eggs
3 Tablespoons cold water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients and stir until smooth. Dip pieces of seasoned hake, cod or whole scallops in the batter and fry in very hot oil (2″ deep) until golden brown. If you use a deep fryer, the result will be superior.

Make sure all your ingredients are gluten free.

Quick Gluten Free Red Enchilada Sauce

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The original recipe included wheat flour, but this recipe is gluten free. This Gf-Zing! recipe produces 2 cups of finished enchilada sauce.

1/2 cup minced onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup gluten free chili powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup tomato puree
1 cup water or stock

Fry the onion and garlic gently in oil until they are wilted. Add the seasonings and stir. Add the tomato and stock and simmer 10 minutes.

Be sure to use all gluten free ingredients, including the spices, canned tomato product and stock. As of December 15, 2005, the McCormick brand states on their website: “When a product that contains gluten is formulated, we take precautions to ensure the source of gluten is declared on our label in the ingredient statement.” This makes the McCormick brand of spices very attractive to the gluten-free community. The DelMonte website makes similar statements about their tomato products. “The list below includes products that, to the best of our knowledge, do not contain wheat, oats, rye or barley/malt ingredients. The list may change or not be complete due to formula changes or new product introductions. Please read the ingredient statement on the label for the most current information.”
Note: it is important to check with the manufacturer and read labels to see if policies or ingredients have changed.

Venetian Christmas Cookie/Neapolitan Three-Colored Cakes

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venetian cake

Three-colored cake - gluten free

One of the greatest gluten-free interests we had was recreating this Christmas cookie. We first encountered it in Better Homes and Gardens magazine in the 1970s. Back then, the recipe called for 10 drops of green food coloring and 8 drops of red (for the different colored layers). Now, in the December issue of Gourmet (2005), the same recipe has appeared under the name of Seven-Layer Cookies, but with 25 drops of each color of food coloring and with chocolate icing on both the top and the bottom. This larger amount of food coloring produces a much more garish cookie. With the bright colors and chocolate icing on top and bottom, it seems like the three-car garage of cookiedom. We prefer the original, smaller amounts of food coloring, and chocolate only on the top. Gf-Zing! presents the recipe here, adapted for gluten free cooking with gf flour and extra almond extract to make up for the flavorless rice flour, and including a link to how to make your own almond paste.

8 ounces gluten free almond paste
3 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups gluten free cookie flour mix
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 drops green food coloring
8 drops red food coloring
12 ounces apricot preserves
4 ounces gluten free semisweet chocolate

You need 3 pans, each 9×13″ to make these cookies, or use the same one over and over.

Grease the three pans, line them with wax paper, and grease the wax paper.

In your food processor, mix the almond paste, sugar, egg yolks, butter, almond extract and salt. Beat for 5 minutes, until the mixture is really smooth. Add the gluten free cookie flour and mix well.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold the dough from the food processor into the egg whites.

Remove 1 1/2 cups of the batter and spread it all over the bottom of one of the three prepared pans. Remove another 1 1/2 cups of batter to a separate bowl, add the green food coloring and spread the green batter in a second pan. To the last remaining batter, add the red coloring. Spread this red batter in the third pan. The batter spread in the pans will be very thin – only a quarter of an inch or so.

Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees for fifteen minutes. The dough will start to pull away from the edges, and start to brown around the edges. The top will be springy to the touch. Remove the pans from the oven and set aside.

Melt the 12 ounces of jam in a pan. Some of the recipes for this cookie call for straining the jam, but this is not necessary. Enjoy the lumps! Turn out the green cake on a flat cookie sheet that is lined with tin foil or some other durable material. Spread half the jam on the green cake. Top with the plain colored cake. Spread the remaining jam on the plain colored cake. Top with the red cake. Put a piece of plastic wrap on the top of the red layer. Put a cookie sheet on top. Place canned goods, or heavy weights, around the cookie sheet to weigh down the cake and glue the layers together. If you have a heavy wooden cutting board, you can use that instead. Set aside in a cool place for several hours or overnight.

Melt the chocolate. If you like bitter chocolate, add an ounce of bitter chocolate to the semisweet chocolate. Remove the cans, cookie sheet and plastic wrap from the top of the cake, and then spread the red cake layer with melted chocolate. Allow to harden (this will take some time – at least 30 minutes). Slice off the edges of the cake and put these scraps on a plate for sampling. Slice the cake into squares, about 1″ on a side, using a sharp knife and a ruler (to mark where to cut). You may have to run hot water over the knife, then dry it with a clean towel, from time to time so that crumbs don’t get onto the chocolate topping.

These can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer, with wax paper between the layers of cookies, and removed as needed. If cut into 1″ squares, over 100 cookies are produced.

Make sure to use all gluten free ingredients.

Serving Venetian cakes
Elegant Gluten Free Cakes

Chipotles in Adobo – homemade

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Many modern American recipes call for Chipotle Chiles in Adobo sauce – a tablespoon or two. Some of the best fusion cooking recipes include this flavoring. Unfortunately for the gluten free community, the canned chipotles readily available in supermarkets often contain wheat flour (weirdly, because there is no wheat flour in original Mexican recipes for this sauce.) Gf-Zing! has developed this good, gluten free recipe for this smoky, extremely spicy sauce, based on a number of recipes including some translated from Mexican websites.

The recipe presented here is a combination of the “best of” recipes for quick-cooking chipotles in adobo (adobados) from around the web. The original recipes can be time-consuming, calling for soaking the chilies in vinegar for four days, reducing large quantities of vinegar by boiling, or they may give instructions for a half pound of chiles! The following recipe will make a modest amount of sauce, enough for a small family. Store it in small containers in the freezer – we use 8 little take-out containers and put a couple of tablespoons of the sauce in each one.

1 ounce dried chipotles (this could be 8-12 peppers)
1/3 cup onion, chopped
5 Tablespoons gluten free cider vinegar
2 cloves garlic, sliced
4 Tablespoons gluten free ketchup
2 Tablespoons chopped roasted green chilies (canned)
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 peppercorn
3 cups water

Soak the chiles in boiling water to cover for one hour, to soften them up. Using the point of a small, sharp knife, make a slit in the side of each chipotle chili and remove the seeds and the hard stem end out of the chili. Be very careful, as you trim the chili peppers, not touch your face with your hands – these chilies are very spicy and the chemicals that cause the spice of the peppers (capsaicinoids) can burn mucous membranes. You may notice that breathing the vapors from the chilies may make you cough as well – so use good ventilation.

Put the chilies and all the other ingredients in a 2 quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook for 1 or 1 1/2 hours until the chilies are soft like overcooked peas. Keep an eye on things so the sauce doesn’t boil down too much. The total quantity of sauce, at the end, will be 2 cups. Put all of the sauce and chiles in the blender and puree completely. You may want to add another 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a pinch of sugar to adjust the flavors.

Store in small containers in the freezer.

If you take an interest in the huge variety of Mexican sauces, and you can read Spanish, try this website.

Make sure that all the ingredients, including spices, are gluten free!

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Ginger Cookies

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Chocolate Chip Cookies - cinnamon and ginger, gluten free
Chocolate Chip Cookies - cinnamon and ginger, gluten free

This is the most requested Gf-Zing! recipe ever! The cookies are crunchy, with a complex flavor and interesting buttery sugar coating.
Mixture A:

Cream together:
1 cup butter or gluten free soybean margarine, or a combination of both
1 ½ cups brown sugar, (For a very crunchy cookie use 1 cup turbinado sugar and ½ cup white sugar )
1 teaspoon GF Vanilla extract

Add, and beat well:
1 large egg


Mixture B:

In another bowl, mix together with a whisk:
1 teaspoon GF ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon GF ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon xantham gum
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups GF cookie flour mix

GF confectioner’s sugar for rolling.

Combine mixture A with mixture B.

Add: 2 cups of top quality GF chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts (you can optionally also add dried cherries or dried cranberries.) Form 1-inch balls, roll in GF confectioner’s sugar, flatten slightly, place on Silpat mat-lined (or parchment paper lined) cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 F. Remove pan from the oven, let rest 5 minutes on pans before removing cookies from the pan.

Make sure that all your ingredients, including spices, are gluten free!