Karina's Nirvana Layer Bars: Chocolate Coconut Bliss

Divine Gluten-Free Layer Bars

This dessert is a family favorite- my chocolate-coconut layer bar recipe. Simple to make. Sweet and gooey and bliss inducing. And most important? You can offer them at any gathering without a gluten-free apology. (Would that be, Don't ask, don't tell?)

Bummed about the dairy in it? My son Alex has created his own casein-free version using condensed coconut milk. See our Dairy-Free Nirvana Bars recipe here.


Chill before serving, if you like, for a snappy, cold burst of sweetness.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp-Crumble

Warm from the oven strawberry rhubarb crumble.

We've been blessed with fecund weather here in Southern California. Love is in the air. House finches are singing. Mourning doves coo. Roses are unfolding their velvet petals. Trees are budding creamy white, violet-blue, and pink.

In other words, picnic perfect. So I've been craving crisp and crumble desserts. The easiest of baked fresh fruit sweets... lovely for springtime picnic, or summer backyard get-together. A perfect ending to a grill-side supper on the deck, al fresco.

Although I have featured a strawberry rhubarb crisp in the past (kissed with a hint of balsamic vinegar) I decided to play around with an alternative topping to the classic pairing of tart rhubarb and sweet ripe strawberries. And I grabbed a secret ingredient from my pantry.

Can you guess what it is?

The secret ingredient in this old fashioned crumble dessert is an ingredient your grandmother probably never heard of.

Quinoa flakes. Gluten-free quinoa cereal flakes add a distinct, delicate flavor to this fruit crumble's sweet and nutty topping. The texture is light and lovely- and far less chewy than oats.

We thought it was spectacular.

And as a bonus? This gluten-free dessert is xanthan gum free.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Crunchy Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Crunchy almond butter cookies.

A Good Cookie Is No Small Thing...

Our latest variation on a theme- crunchy almond butter chocolate chip cookies. Why another gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, you ask? There are so many reasons, Darling. In fact, where do I begin? 

First. The obvious. The duh. 

One can, in fact, never have too many gluten-free cookie recipes. Especially in our polite don't want to make a fuss look-but-don't-taste universe, when one has to live gluten and dairy free, shunning wheat flour, cream and butter, declining pink birthday party cupcakes and adorable custard tarts and snowy cream cheese on toasted Everything Bagels and examining every ingredient label ad infinitum. 

How do we survive in a culture that promotes our poison everywhere we turn? We keep a stiff upper lip. We cultivate a cool and breezy neo-zen detachment. We learn to ignore hunger pangs and cravings. We learn (sometimes the hard way) that taking a risk (eating out in any kitchen that is not our own) is not worth the price our body will (all too often) pay. We tie on a perky pink chocolate apron and flirt with our inner domestic goddess. We bake our own cupcakes and cookies. We tweak our tried and true recipes and play with variations on a theme, nudging an ingredient or new flavor combo into the spotlight. Just because it's fun. 

And in our special, special gluten-free universe? 

Every tasty cookie that is safe to eat is a treasure. A gift. A little morsel from heaven. 

So when we have a new favorite nut butter- crunchy almond butter- we start to wonder...

Would it would make a good cookie? 

We just knew it would.

A nutty non-peanut non-legume treat. And we knew we had to add dark chocolate. 

Duh part deux. 

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Tender, delicious gluten-free soda bread.

Irish Soda Bread Love

For bakers using wheat, Irish soda bread is one of the easiest no-fuss breads to throw together. The gluten in the wheat works its magic to bind the quick-rising dough without yeast. But if gluten is no longer in the equation, creating a tender loaf of Irish soda bread is a tad more complicated. Gluten-free quick breads can be crumbly and dry. Especially if you use the old school white rice flour and starch combo.

Lucky for us, we have several newer alternative flours to choose from. Millet, sorghum, buckwheat, coconut, brown rice, and quinoa flours have better taste, more protein, and a superior texture than the old school stand-by white rice flour.

What do I have against white rice flour? It might simply boil down to personal taste. After baking gluten-free for awhile, one develops personal preferences. I don't like the cooked rice taste, or texture, that rice flour imparts. Ditto for bean flour which tastes vaguely metallic. (And I don't care how much protein and how few carbs a raw bean has, okay?)

So I experiment and tweak my recipes. I try a new flour combination and entertain intuition. I start thinking about how a recipe crumbles a bit, so I add some honey because honey is a humectant. And Hello! The bread bakes up tender and moist (agave does the same thing, by the way).

This whole process of gluten-free baking is a process.

And as an artist, I cultivate a deep affection for process. So even though I have a perfectly acceptable gluten-free Irish Soda Bread recipe on the blog, and a nifty new school Gypsy Soda Bread recipe, I felt the need to try again this week and experiment with a new formula. And I came up with a slightly sweet and tender loaf that is rice-free and vegan. No eggs. No milk. And guess what? 

It's better than better. It's scrumptious.

My husband declared it his favorite gluten-free bread to date (as he chowed down on a wedge of this soda bread grilled in a dab of olive oil). So why do I tweak recipes? Why do I make it complicated? Why add a touch of honey when I already use sugar? Why do I add millet when I have sorghum?

This is why.

Because there's always room for improvement in gluten-free baking. Recipes aren't precious. They're not written in stone like a commandment. A recipe is more like a poem. Set to music. And the music?

Jazz, baby.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

Fresh baked lemon-blueberry muffins, Darling.

Sunshine + Lemon

With all the snow the Winter of 2015 has wrought (wreaked?), I thought I'd reprise this sunny lemon recipe for storm-weary spirits.

From the archives: Caught in the clutches of an Arctic Vortex, what's a Gluten-Free Goddess to do? Why, bake, of course. (The calorie-stingy- but oh-so-delicious!- detox soup recipe will still be there tomorrow, in all it's green and virtuous glory. Don't you worry.) When the icy winds howl like Banshees on the headlands and the snow flies sideways in stinging barbs as sharp as an art/music/film/literary critic's those-who-can't-do-criticize sarcasm, I lock the windows and doors, Darling, and hunker down in our humble winter rental, praying to the Power Gods that the electricity will hold (our sole source of warmth and comfort- how I miss a fireplace! And a wood stove- so much more soulful and dependable, in a self reliant sort of way). I pull on layers of L. L. Bean waffle cotton and plaid and crank up the oven.

Baking lemon-blueberry muffins, then, accomplishes two things.

It warms us twice.

Body and soul.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Irish Soda Bread Buns

Gluten-Free Goddess Irish-inspired soda bread bun rolls.

To all you brave and plucky souls weathering this record breaking Winter... hold on. Spring is poised to sprout. I just know it. Despite the frigid fingers of wind that unwrap your scarf and creep-sneak down your spine. Despite the tawny, snow beaten grass that twists between wind blown twigs and scattered patches of silvered ice to the edge of the winter weary woods. Despite the wild and wooly roar of March's lion--- you can feel it. Right?

Green is coming.

Happy (almost- it's coming- hold on) Spring!

And here is an Irish soda bread inspired bun recipe to celebrate.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...