Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Coconut Milk

The richest, creamiest vegan ice cream I've ever made.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Baby.

It is sultry and steamy here. And, Babycakes, I am not cooking. I am not even boiling water for my habitual ritual of afternoon tea. I am sitting in front of a petite blue desk-top fan. Eating ice cream. Homemade ice cream, to be exact. With nary a trace of dairy or gluten. And apparently, it is the best homemade ice cream I have ever made (so says my ever willing, taste-testing husband).

The inspiration came via one of our favorite Los Angeles restaurants- Akasha, in Culver City. At Akasha you can always find a lovely gluten-free choice on the menu- as well as something vegan, which by default, is dairy-free. A sigh-of-relief option for those of us saddled not only with celiac disease, but a dairy intolerance as well. (As a side note, I have found it harder to dine out dairy-free than gluten-free-- chefs love their butter, cream, and cheese. And because they pre-prepare so many items on the menu, it is often impossible to find a dairy-free choice.) One of the gluten-free dessert choices at Akasha is vegan peanut butter ice cream. It. Is. Simply. Divine.

So I decided to try my hand at re-creating it.

Here's what I came up with.

You're welcome.

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 ...

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

  

Warm from the oven buckwheat chocolate chip cookies.

I know what you're thinking. Not another cookie recipe. Please. I've had it with melty chocolate chips and crunchy, chewy sweetness. Where are the rutabaga recipes, dagnabbit? And what about beets? Or parsnips? I've got a hankering for kale the size of Wyoming. I yearn for jicama. Cook me up some kohlrabi, already. Sorry, Darling. Not today. You'll have to be patient.

There are cookies to bake.

And these are gluten-free.

And wheat-free.

And dairy-free.

And vegan.

But I'll be honest.

Baking egg-free, butter-free, gluten-free cookies (that actually taste tempting) can be tough. So if you- or an angel you love- are allergic to one- or several- of the top food allergens, or consciously living GF/CF for ASD reasons, just know I'm in the weird and rocky boat with you.

Which is why I keep experimenting and tweaking recipes.

And if the butter-eating glutenous In Crowd doesn't get it, I say, You know what, Cheese Breath? Just go eat your Twinkies, will ya?

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Crunchy outside, chewy inside, 
gluten-free vegan chocolate cookies.

Double Chocolate Yum

(and some gluten-free baking advice) 

I have a new cookie recipe to share today. A cocoa infused cookie studded with semi-sweet chocolate chips. A cookie that tastes like a brownie- if a brownie was slightly crispy and crunchy on the outside, and chewy soft on the inside. You could say, it's a brownie with a cookie texture.

Chocolate cookies that remind me of brownies. Vegan and egg-free.

Karina's Gluten-Free Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - A Vegan and Dairy-Free Recipe

Recipe originally published April 2011 by Karina Allrich.

I used a mild organic cocoa in these chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The cookie's flavor is subtle, like cocoa, with lovely bittersweet bites of dark chocolate chips. The men in the house like these babies straight from the freezer, ice cold.

Ingredients:

Whisk together:

1/2 cup GF buckwheat flour or certified gluten-free oat flour

1/2 cup sorghum (jowar) flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour!)

1/3 cup organic cocoa

2 teaspoons xanthan gum

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup organic cane sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

Add in:

1/2 cup organic coconut oil or Spectrum Organic Shortening

1 tablespoon bourbon vanilla extract

1/2 cup vanilla rice milk, coconut milk, or almond milk- more as needed

As you beat the dough pay close attention to the consistency. Add more rice milk a tablespoon at a time, and beat to combine, until you achieve a smooth but sturdy cookie dough. I added two more tablespoons of rice milk to my dough.

Add in:

1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper or an Exopat liner.

Stir in the chocolate chips as best you can (the dough is stiff).

Roll a golf ball sized wad of dough between your palms, and place the ball on the lined baking sheet about two inches apart. Repeat this process to make 18-24 balls. Use your palm to press down on the dough and flatten slightly- not too much- unless you like your cookies thin. Press a few extra chocolate chips into the tops of the cookies, if you like.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 15 minutes until the cookies are set. They will still be slightly soft in the center. If you bake two pans at once, rotate the pans half way through baking.

Remove the pans from the oven, and allow the cookies to cool and "set" for a few minutes; then use a thin spatula to move the cookies to a wire rack. The cookies will get crisper as they cool.

Cook time: 15 min

Yield: 18-24 cookies

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you. 

Karina's Notes on Baking:

In this recipe- use eggs, if you prefer.

Texture is a big deal in gluten-free baking. It's no secret that giving gluten the boot also means giving texture, stretch, and structure the old heave-ho, right along with it. First timers bite into gluten-free goodies and pause. They chew. Their eyes widen and dart to the side as they search for a word to describe exactly what it is they are chewing. The word most often used to describe something gluten-free? Gummy. Or worse. Hockey pucks. Cardboard. Dirt. Attributes one does not necessarily associate with um, pleasure. With nourishment. With flavor.

Which is why I am here.

It was nearly ten eleven twelve thirteen years ago (December 2001) when I broke up with the abusive protein known as gluten.

Our love affair had been a passionate, tumultuous ride. Thrilling and deliciously seductive. From twirling garlic laden Italian pasta to rustic bread baking, we had nurtured a decades long love affair. Four and a half decades, in fact. And I'm not embarrassed to admit, I was deep into it. Head over heels. And dizzy in denial. Until symptoms could no longer be ignored.

And it turned out I felt better without gluten. Not just better. Transformed. 

So I bought a gluten-free cookbook and started baking (and no offense to the wonderful woman who was- literally- a gluten-free pioneer and wrote several best selling gluten-free cookbooks, but). I determined- quite quickly- that white rice flour and starches do not a gourmet treat make.

Truth is, ten years ago, baking gluten-free meant using rice flour and starches, or just plain cornstarch (this was Julia Child's advice). We didn't have the higher protein, whole grain gluten-free choices we have today. Oh, they were there, lurking. Buckwheat flour and almond meal have long, delicious traditions in the old country (I loved the cookbook Fabulous and Flourless). But packaged blends and gluten-free mixes favored cheaper rice flour and starches (and even today, most g-free mixes rely on this old school stand-by, with predictably gummy results). So the cardboard moniker stuck.

And me?

My hopes for baking without gluten deflated like a sad little souffle.

Until Bob's Red Mill brought us whole grain gluten-free grains. Grains with protein and fiber. Grains with nutrition. Grains with flavor. And yes- texture! Milled with artisan care in a gluten-free facility. And no, this is not a sponsored endorsement. This is personal.

By now you should know I'm not the kind of blogger who can be seduced by a coupon offer. Or a free t-shirt. I've been doing this awhile, Darling.

I have an opinion. An informed opinion. Based on thirteen-plus years of gluten-free baking (which ought to be worth more than a coupon or a  five dollar sample).

So I tell it like it is.

Readers sometimes ask me for recipe substitutions. These can be grouped into a handful of popular themes: 

1. I use too many different flours- they want to use one (or a baking mix).
2. I use buckwheat flour- they wouldn't touch buckwheat flour like they wouldn't wear Crocs.
3. I use sorghum flour- they can't find sorghum flour (for that, I am truly, sympathetically sorry!).
4. I use almond meal or coconut flour (fabulous protein and fiber)- and they are allergic (once again, profoundly sorry!).

So they sub. They use rice flour and starches in my recipes. And return to tell me the texture is gummy. Or as dense as cardboard.

Exactly.

Flour choices matter.

And so does execution.

So I thought I'd address this today, and offer some quick, short advice on gluten-free baking- and substitutions.

Truth? Gluten-free baking is more of an art than a science.

What this means- there is no one perfect, exact, preset formula for a gluten-free recipe. And you don't need a scale to measure things in grams.

Why?

Without stretchy gluten, flours can be finicky, and far less forgiving.

There is weather, Bubela. You know, humidity. And winter heat dryness. And there is how you store your flours (in the cold fridge- or in the cupboard next to the stove?). Dampish flours need less liquid added. And some g-free flours are super thirsty (coconut flour grabs on to fat and liquid like a parched and greedy camel).

With gluten-free baking, the relationship of dry ingredients to wet is crucial. Even two tablespoons more/or less liquid can make the difference between a gummy center, and a fluffy crumb.  

Here's what I do- I add my liquid to the whisked dry ingredients slowly, a little at a time, and beat until it comes to the right consistency. Don't dump all the liquid in at once. Sometimes you need a tablespoon less liquid. Sometimes, a few tablespoons more.

Then there is temperature. The temperature of the ingredients themselves (ice cold eggs?). The ambient temperature of your kitchen (is it drafty and damp, or hot and humid, or do you use air conditioning?). And then, perhaps the most influential of all, there is the temperature of your oven-- which, surprisingly, can actually vary. Not only for those of us using cheap stoves in rental apartments, but also in your shiny newly installed appliance-- it may not be calibrated correctly. This is a big issue for many a reader, by the way). Which is why I recommend using an oven thermometer, and checking your 'preheat' temperature. Temperature influences baking time, big time. 

How to judge the right consistency?

Intuition and experience helps. But in general, cake and cupcake batters are slightly thicker than wheat based cake batters. You're not looking for velvety thin ribbons of batter like the old days. I find the best gluten-free cake batters tip toward a muffin batter consistency.

Bread dough and pizza dough is more like muffin batter. 

G-free cookie dough is stiff and sturdy and a bit sticky. Roll it into balls with wet or oiled hands.

For baking substitution help (because of course, I know how hard it is to bake gluten-free with allergies- you know I love you, my multi-allergic sisters and brothers, I'm one of you!) please use my post on Baking Substitutions and Help as a guide to subbing problematic ingredients in my recipes.

And for vegans, and non-vegans, I have found my recipes perform well with eggs and without, using an egg substitute. For a powdered egg sub I use Ener-G Egg Replacer- if you use a different one, you may need to adjust starches/liquids. Many readers report good luck using flax seed gel; I have limited expertise with flax, but I do think it adds a nice touch to gluten-free baking. And yes, for dairy and non-dairy, I find it's an easy one-to-one sub. (I must be dairy-free, so I write up recipes that way, but if you prefer using butter and milk in my vegan recipes- that will work just fine; my husband and sons have tried them both ways, with success). 

For detailed info on gluten-free flour choices and how to make your own g-free flour blends that don't suck, see my Gluten-Free Baking Tips post.

Finally- to repeat it--- experience counts.

Even our failures bring us one step closer to better results. They teach us. Baking gluten-free is a process. It is not a finite, closed experiment. It is more like jazz than strophic form. Learning an intuitive sense of improvisation is worth the effort.

So, go bake some cookies with whole grain flours and share them with someone you love, okay?

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

Quinoa chocolate chip cookies. A gluten-free favorite.

Have I Got a Faux for You

My last cookie post stirred up a veritable stew of feelings. From oat-loving high fives and boogie till the cows come home oatmeal cookie bliss, to very sad, That's okay, I'll sit this one out in the corner moping. Because oatmeal? It's not for everyone. Apparently, oats can be unkind to sensitive celiac tummies. So while many celiacs celebrate the availability of certified gluten-free oats (thank you, Bob's Red Mill!), just as many shun this humble cereal grain for the sake of symptoms or safety.

Avena sativa? Not welcome in many a gluten-free kitchen.

Some believe the trouble starts with its globulin or legume-like protein called avenalin. Some think it's the soluble fiber factor. Others believe that the prolemine in oats called avenin triggers a celiac-like response. The debate rages on. And I'm no scientist, I'm sorry to tell you, so I'll sit this one out. But.

The truth is, Babycakes, you don't want to be around moi after I've eaten too many oats- gluten-free certified or not. Although I tested negative for oat allergy, if I over indulge with my Homemade Gluten-Free Granola or those aforementioned oatmeal cookies, yours truly produces enough, um, wind in my nether regions to keep Wyoming powered for a week.

It ain't pretty, is all I'm saying.

So of course I had to play around with the oatmeal cookie recipe. I couldn't leave my oat-shunning peeps out in the cold without a chewy golden cookie of their own. I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I stirred up some quinoa flakes, quinoa flour, sorghum flour, organic brown sugar, and olive oil and vegan chocolate chips and guess what?

I think you know what.

In fact (shhh- don't tell those lucky oatmeal cookie folks), this cookie is even better than its oatmeal cousin. It is, I swear, my new favorite cookie. I am Patsy Cline Crazy about it.

Quinoa flakes rock.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Fabulous pumpkin cookies, gluten-free + delicious.

My restless spirit has been wandering far and wide and away from dreams of butternut chili and baked rice casseroles toward the tempting, sweeter things in life. As in cookies. Like the character Ana Pascal confesses in one of my favorite movies, Stranger Than Fiction, I decided that if I was going to help make the world a better place this week, I'd do it with cookies.

So today's post, Dear Reader, is brief and sweet. Just like the treat I baked this weekend when I began with the idea of a pumpkin cookie. I craved something different than my Pumpkin Pecan Cookies and my nutmeg icing drizzled Pumpkin Quinoa Cookies. I craved dark chocolate. And peanut butter. So I threw them in the bowl with pumpkin and coconut flour and, well.

There was a happy ending to the story.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

How do I say this? These new chocolate chip cookies are the best.

The subject of cookies is a favorite topic on Gluten-Free Goddess, and for good reason. I've written about cookies before- in posts too numerous to count.

So why are these different?

Why are these chocolate chip cookies blog worthy?

Because they are golden and gently crisp on the outside, and soft and chewy within. Like the cookie you remember- that gorgeous, sweet caramel bite of homemade love. Warm from the oven these taste remarkable like the classic Toll House cookie recipe I baked a thousand times.

I credit the new flours and fat I used.

Gone is the brown rice flour. Gone is shortening. I've nixed the tapioca starch. And the result is a truly wonderful, soft dough that tastes closer to a real Toll House cookie than any other gluten-free chocolate chip cookies (though delicious!) I've baked.


READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies

 

Espresso laced chocolate chip cookies- gluten-free + vegan.

You knew it was only a matter of time before I'd post another cookie recipe. I love baking cookies- it's painfully obvious. (What the bleep else are you going to do in the desert, stuck out in the middle of sand and pinon with no neighbors to speak of- if you don't count the coyotes and stink bugs, that is?)

That's right. You start thinking about gluten-free flours and raw agave nectar and semi-sweet chocolate chips. You conjure cookie dough in your mind's eye- a richly flavored hearty dough made with buckwheat, millet and quinoa flours. You add a generous dusting of cinnamon. Some strong and hot espresso. Bourbon vanilla.

You taste the dough on your fingers.

This is gonna work, you say out loud. So you write it all down on a slip of paper. You slide a baking sheet into the waiting oven. The kitchen starts to smell like the bakery in Stranger Than Fiction. Warm and spicy and sweet all at once. (What, you don't have Smellavision?)

Your husband walks through the pink stained wooden door. He smiles.

Here, you say, breaking apart a tender, melting biscuit and lifting it to his lips.

Have a cookie.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Chocolate Chip Cookies and Vanilla Blondies

Vanilla blondie? Or chocolate chip cookie Bar? You decide.

First- thank you all for your kind and compassionate wishes for a speedy recovery from emergency hip surgery. Such fabulous readers you are- every one of you. As our Italian friend, Sandra, once said to us- in her dead gorgeous Tuscan accent-  

I love you too much!

I feel human again. Yesterday (day nine post-surgery) this sticky, prickly goddess got to sit inside the shower (they make these nifty portable shower seats now) and- Aphrodite-blessed relief!- indulge in twenty sexy minutes of hot steamy bliss. Hawaiian shampoo. Rainbath lather. Leg shaving!

One lesson a broken hip teaches you? It's the little things in life that count. The simple luxury of taking a shower shoots to gold star status- the genuine, beyond spectacular highlight of the day. Pulling on a soft clean shirt? Heaven. Sitting upright, freshly shampooed and moisturized with Eternity lotion? Divine. Twirling pasta in olive oil and garlic- in bed- next to your husband? It doesn't get any better than this.

And then there are chocolate chip cookies (that are egg-free and dairy-free- earning them treasured vegan status). They also happen to be gluten-free, wheat-free, bean-free, soy-free and nut-free. Perfect for all those cute-as-a-button multi-allergic tykes out there. Not to mention, gluten-free vegan goddesses.

Last night Steve helped me make these as cookie bars, in the style of my old tried and true favorite chocolate chip cookie bar recipe- and, Babycakes, they were a damn good match. I named them Vanilla Brownies. My trick was a small cheat. A dab of butter flavor extract. I don't usually turn to artificial flavors (in fact, this is a first for me), but when you are allergic to most natural flavors and buckets of other foods and your taste buds crave a buttery sweet treat, this decidedly un-foodie goddess figures--- Why the Hades not? But if it horrifies you to use it, Darling Reader- and just the very thought of it keeps you up at night worrying about the integrity of the cookie universe- leave it out. It's one quarter of a teaspoon. Sub it with vanilla. Do your thing. 

It's all good.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...

Vegan Coconut Bars

Chocolate and coconut vegan heaven.

Make it a Coconut Chocolate Treat

Sometimes you just need a treat. A recipe with coconut and chocolate. After all, you've been so good. You've been munching fresh veggies and brown rice. You've been slurping healing soup with cabbage and drinking green tea. You've been diligent checking labels for gluten, casein, and soy. So it's time for something sweet. Something moist and chewy and perfect with a cup of tea.

Egg-free baking is tricky. And at high altitude, even trickier. Truth be told, I've tossed a dozen egg-free experiments into the trash this summer. But these little vegan gems?

These were keepers.

READ MORE and get the recipe ...