Sweets that will make you forget you are Celiac!

Now I never considered myself to be a baker. I would occasionally schluff out the homemade chocolate cupcakes or a good chocolate chip cookie, normally though I would just head to the store and buy a mix, which only needed very little of my attention to create. I always admired my friend Leah, who is a baking machine. I don't know anyone else of my age that gets up at 7:30 in the morning a couple days before Christmas to spend the whole day baking for parties. Now that is pure dedication to the baking world. Well now times have changed and I am forced into testing out my baking skills. I use Leah as my inspiration and think if she can do it, so can I! Gluten free baking mixes are basically non-existent in Europe, so I am forced to either follow a homemade recipe or create my own. I have been drinking a lot of tea and coffee over here, so I thought how much I would enjoy an excellent tasting biscotti. Well that led me to my first concoction. I pulled some ideas from other recipes, but highly limited with my ingredients over here, I had to use some creativeness. I was laughing to myself as I created these at 10 o'clock at night waiting for my boyfriend to get back from a hockey game. I had different bags of GF flours strewn about my tiny Italian kitchen and I was literally covered in every GF flour you could think of. At that moment I thought to myself, jeez how easy do non Celiac’s have it, they only have to use a single flour to bake with, whereas I am over here up to my knees in flours half of America probably can't pronounce! But at least our GF baking experiences are literally unforgettable in many ways! In the end the biscotti actually turned out fantastic!

Gluten Free almond chocolate biscotti
-adapted from The Gluten Free Guide to Italy

~1 1/2 cups brown rice flour
~1/2 cup potato starch
~1/4 cup tapioca flour
~1 cup sugar
~1 tsp. baking powder GF
~1 tsp. xantham gum
~3 eggs
~1/2-1 teaspoon almond extract ( depends on how almondy you like them)
*You can also use fresh slivers of almonds and then just a couple drops of almond extract
~1 teas vanilla extract GF
~3 tsp. orange juice, not concentrate

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Once ingredients are mixed roll into a rectangle shape or log shape on baking pan. Bake at 375 for 20min. Remove from oven and allow to slightly cool, about 10 minutes. Then slice the log into ½-1 inch pieces. Turn and lay pieces on their side. Place pan back into oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees for another 20-25 minutes. Biscotti should be hard in center and slightly brown.

Chocolate Coating
~1 GF chocolate bar, preferably 70% dark chocolate
~1-3 tablespoons milk

Heat a very small pot over low heat. Break chocolate into smaller pieces and place in pot. Continue to stir the chocolate as it melts, adding in tiny amounts of milk once the chocolate is almost melted. Continue stirring until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is almost boiling. However, do not boil mixture as it will burn. If mixture appears too thick, add more milk. Remove from heat and immediately dip half of one end of the biscotti into melted chocolate. Repeat with all biscotti. Allow chocolate to dry before eating.

About a week after my successful biscotti creation, I decided I wanted to make a batch of muffins that hopefully didn't taste like cardboard. After some tweaking and creativity, I came up with this recipe.

Gluten Free Coconut Raspberry Muffins

~1 cup brown rice flour
~1/3 cup coconut flour
~2/3 cup potato starch
~1/3 cup tapioca flour
~1 tbs. baking powder GF
~1 tsp. baking soda GF
~1 and 1/2-2 cups frozen raspberries
~1/2 cup milk
~1/2 cup oil (I have no idea what oil I used, but I am pretty sure the translation is canola oil)
~2 large eggs
~1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract GF

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine all solids, i.e. flours, into a mixing bowl. Mix together and then add raspberries. Stir raspberries evenly throughout mixture. Combine milk and oil in a separate bowl. Beat in eggs and vanilla to the liquid mixture. Then combine liquid mixture to flour mixture, stir until all ingredients is combined. If batter appears to be sticky and thick, add a touch (1/8-1/4 cup) more oil and milk until batter becomes smoother and less dense. You want batter to hold some consistency, but not so thick you have trouble stirring it. Then spoon batter into muffin cups placed in a muffin tin. Fill cups 2/3 full. Then sprinkle a little sugar over the top of each muffin. Bake 17-22 minutes or until tops start to brown. I like to stick a toothpick in each muffin to make sure that no gooey batter presents itself on the toothpick once it is removed from the muffin. If batter does not stick to toothpick, the muffins are done. Allow to cool and then enjoy!!