Recipes from the cooking class...

I am giving a gluten free cooking class for the ladies in my church this evening.  (Hello, ladies!)  I meant to make handouts with recipes, tips, and such, but what with being pregnant and trying to make two Easter dresses and two ties to match by Sunday, the handouts sort of flew out the window...
So, since most of the recipes are here on my blog, I am just going to link to them and a few other fun, simple recipes that I've got floating around here.

Pizza Crust:  This recipe is extremely versatile!  I have even converted it to cinnamon rolls.  (I need to get that recipe up.)  If you haven't visited Karina's site, Gluten Free Goddess, you should!  She has loads of excellent tips for all things gluten free.

Her pizza crust is the first I found that actually worked for us.
Here is my post on her crust.

Gluten Free Bread:  When we began this journey six years ago, I just gave up on any type of yeast breads/rolls, ect.  I could manage the quick breads but had alot of previous baking knowledge that was actually making it harder to bake gf--it's a whole different chemistry, folks!  We focused on all the good things we could eat and let it go at that.  Ironically, going gluten free expanded our diet.  We eat a much more varied diet than we ever would have had we not had this experience.  I am really grateful for that.
Even 6 years has made a big impact on the availability of quality gluten free products and RECIPES.  It is a lot easier now than it was when we began. 
This is my go-to bread recipe.  I have yet to mess it up, in spite of substitutions, which are typically a cause of failed baking attempts in GF baking.
Here is my review post on it.

Black on Black Cake:  This recipe comes from another of my favorite gluten free bloggers, Elana.  Elana has MS and she and one of her sons are also Celiac.  She is mostly Paleo in diet and uses mainly almond flour in her baking.  I have yet to meet a recipe of hers I have not liked.  Her chocolate chip cookies are fabulous.  But this cake....Elana's version is actually Black and White, which is very pretty.  We don't eat white chocolate, however, so the Black on Black Cake was born.  Dark chocolate chips for the white chocolate chips are my only substitution.  Elana's recipes are typically simple with few ingredients.  Love that.


A couple of easy recipes:

GF Rice Chex Treats

Skillet Corn Bread

A few other tips:

GF on a Budget

Gluten, Dairy and Egg Free Pizza Crust--FINALLY!

I have had pizza only a teeny tiny handful of times since going gluten free as a family--gluten free pizzas are expensive!  Add to that no dairy or eggs, and...well...the crusts don't taste too great...or they don't hold up to toppings very well....
The one time I enjoyed GF pizza was at Picazzo's in Tempe, AZ.  They've got some great stuff, folks.  However, the cost was a bit much for our budget--20 smackers for a medium-sized pizza!  (After being GF for two years, with no pizza whatever, it was well worth it just that once!)  So if you're ever in Arizona, check them out for some seriously great pizza!
But, if you're not planning a scorching summer trip to AZ any time soon, try Karina's (aka Gluten Free Goddess) pizza crust!  It is amazingly good! 

I followed her recipe with the exception of eggs; there, I used Ener-G's Egg Replacer.  They turned out extremely well and the kids had such fun putting them together!

Crust dough after rise

Pizza after baking

Karina has a lot of great recipes, and many are dairy and egg free or can easily be made so.  She has the distinction of being the first gluten free blog I ever visited.  

{gluten, dairy, and egg free} blackberry hazelnut cake balls

Elana over at Elana's Pantry has been making various kinds of these tantalizing chocolate bites.  We had a huge extended family gathering where I knew there would be all sorts of yummy treats that my daughter can't eat, including cake balls.  The fam was serving everything from muffins to meatballs, various kinds of popcorn to jalepeno poppers (which I graciously offered to deseed and proceeded to POP a seed in my eye, OUCH!)  I made glazed meatballs, banana muffins, cookie bars, trail mix popcorn, and these cake balls.  No complaints and no deprivation.

blackberry hazelnut cake balls~~

I used Elana's chocolate cake recipe, subsituting Ener-G egg replacer for the eggs.

After the cake cooled, I crumbled it and added about 1/3 c. blackberry jam (I like Polaner's).

Next, I formed them into balls.  Elana used 1/2 c. jam so if yours are not staying together, add a bit more jam.

I then melted about 1/2 c. Enjoy Life chocolate chips and dipped them, rolling them in chopped hazelnuts while the chocolate was still soft. 

This made about 30 cake balls.  These turned out really well. They also keep well in the freezer.  Elana's always got something great going--check out her site in my sidebar!

German Chocolate Cake--vegan, gf/cf, egg free, and sugar free [whew!]

Letting go of eggs really messed with my head--at least where gf baking is concerned.  I am not as adventurous as I once was because mistakes can be costly.  It's a whole 'nother ball game since eggs can have so many different functions in baking.  Let's see, were the eggs used as a binder?  emulsifier?  other?  Sometimes it takes quite a bit of trial and error to figure it out.  (Like the time I tried to make our favorite gf brownie mix with egg replacer instead of the real thing; it completely seperated while baking--liquid (mainly oil) on top and a brownie-hard-tack on bottom.)  But I digress...
We had a birthday party recently and I made this chocolate cake from Ali at The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen with frostings from Elana's German Chocolate Cake.  Elana's cake looks really good too, but alas it has eggs (like 10 of them!) so no-can-do.  No matter, the cake was a hit with the entire clan, (most of which are not gluten free) regardless of the egg status.  When asked how I made a healthy cake taste so good, (were they infering that healthy can't taste good?) I replied, "It's the prunes."  No, really.  LOL.  {wink}  I don't think they believed me...