Storytime & Snacks hosted by WORD and Greenpoint Food Market

I will be baking gluten-free bread along with other Greenpoint Food Market vendors for Storytime & Snacks at the Word bookstore in Greenpoint this Sunday November 15th at 2pm!

The whole family and book lovers young and old are invited to join us for a reading of THE DUCHESS OF WHIMSY with Brooklyn author/illustrator duo of Randall and Peter de Sève. The story revolves around a wild duchess and an Earl with a crush who is dutifully ignored til a chef is ill and they engage in a tumultuous adventure with food, especially grilled cheese! (via Greenpoint Food Market)

Word is located at 126 Franklin Street @ Milton Street.  Word is featured in this week’s first annual NYC Independent Bookstore Week

Come support your local independent bookstore, food vendors, and farms!

 

pumpkin season

October is the official start of my baking season (yes I realize it’s November, but I’ve been too busy baking to blog!).  The kitchen is no longer excessively warm, every fall recipe just begs for cinnamon and nutmeg; and apples, pears, and pumpkins are in abundance at the farmers’ market.  In response to the awesome feedback to my bourbon cream cheese, and coffee liqeur icing on their respective peach and chocolate cupcakes, I decided to explore my options with rum and pumpkin.

I adapted the following recipe from Love and Olive Oil

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Buttercream Rum Icing

Cupcakes:
14 oz. packed pumpkin (canned or cooked yourself)
1/3 cup applesauce
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ginger
1 teaspoon Xanthan gum
1/2 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
4 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla soy milk

Preheat Oven to 350

In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, applesauce, sugar, soymilk, and vanilla. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, and spices. Once combined, fold in the chocolate chips.

Fill liners 2/3 full. Bake for 22 to 24 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

To make frosting, cream butter. Add 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and mix until smooth. Add rum (to taste) and cinnamon, and slowly mix. Continue adding sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between additions. Continue to beat until light and fluffy. If frosting is too thick, add a bit of soymilk to thin it out. If too thin, add more sugar and continue to beat until it is the right consistency.

 

Made to Order

Finally getting my feet wet with the whole made-to-order market last week. I had the pleasure of baking a birthday cake for one of my customers from the first Greenpoint Food Market.  I whipped up my pineapple-zucchini cake at her (husband’s) request with a ginger-walnut cream cheese frosting.  The recipe is posted below, but take note of a few key add-ons:

1) After baking the cake I allowed the layers to cool then removed them from their respective pans, placed them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and put them back in the oven at 350 for another 7 minutes.  This is an incredibly moist cake, the extra 7 minutes will give it more stability to stand up to the frosting.

2) Between the two layers I spread a liberal amount of frosting and then a layer of crushed walnuts.  Again this was for both taste and to help hold the layers together.  I also covered the sides of the cake with crushed walnuts, for decorative and stability purposes.

3) Being that it is Autumn, in lieu of fresh flowers I decorated the cake with thin slices of natural ginger and dried cranberries.

All-in-all it was a success!

Zucchini Pineapple Cake with Walnut Cream Cheese Frosting*

*Recipe is for 1 13”x9” sheet cake, double it for 8” layer cake.

Cake

• 1 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Baking Flour
• 1-¼ cup Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Flaked Coconut
• 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• Freshly Grated Nutmeg, To Taste
• 1 Pinch Ginger
• 3 Tablespoons Apple Sauce
• 2 whole Large Eggs
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 Cups Grated (unpeeled) Zucchini (pat dry between paper towels)
• 1 (20 Oz.) Can Crushed Pineapple In Juice, Drained (reserve for frosting)

Frosting

• 4 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
• 8 Ounces Low-fat Cream Cheese, Softened (can Use Full-fat Cream Cheese)
• 3 Cups Powdered Sugar, Approx.
• ½ teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp Powdered Ginger
• Splash of Pineapple Juice
• ¾ cup Chopped Walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°.

To prepare cake, combine flour, sugar, coconut, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum and spices in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Combine apple sauce, eggs, and vanilla; stir well. Stir egg mixture, grated zucchini, and pineapple into flour mixture.  Add in a little splash of the pineapple juice for good measure. Spoon batter into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs and cake is pulling away from sides of pan. Cool completely on a wire rack. To prepare frosting, combine butter and cream cheese in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar, xanthan gum, ginger and vanilla just until smooth. Add a splash of pineapple juice and stir in chopped walnuts. Spread frosting over top of cake. You can garnish with chopped walnuts, cranberries, or ginger etc.

mini fetish

People prefer the mini version of anything.  Mini Coopers, mini people (TLC will not stop showing World’s Smallest Children), mini quiche etc.  So for yesterday’s Greenpoint Food Market I decided to capitalize on the mini fetish.  Maybe it’s that one thinks they’re consuming less calories, or maybe it’s just that satisfaction of disregarding utensils (you know forks just get in the way) and popping that bite size dessert in your mouth.  Regardless, I’m definitely devoting more baking time to mini goodies.

For this go-around I made black and white cookies, mini chocolate cupcakes with mocha liqueur frosting, and mini lemon raspberry muffins.  Learning my lesson from the first GFM I made sample-size versions of everything (including mini black ‘n whites) so I wasn’t  constantly cutting up the larger versions.  All-in-all though the market was much smaller than the launch a few weeks ago, I met some amazing people and got the word out about my gluten-free goodies..

Thank you to all the lovely friends and patrons that came out to support this DIY venture!

GFM Redux!

My first round at the Greenpoint Food Market was such a success! 

You Can’t Eat Bread!? featured: peach cupcakes with bourbon creamcheese icing (definitely the best-seller), zucchnini & pineapple cake with walnut cream icing, fig & plum cake,and salted white chocolate oatmeal cookies.   

Word got out quickly that gluten-free goodies were at the market and I soon had Brooklynites coming in requesting my baked goods! I was so flattered and excited to be able to make fellow gluten-free market patrons happy.  I was equally happy to have such a good response from patrons without a gluten intolerance.

Much to my delight, my friends, ever the supportive group, stopped by to sample my wares and peruse the other amazing vendors at the GFM.

So…here goes round 2!  This Saturday I will again be serving up gluten-free goodies at the GFM from 12-6pm at the Church of Messiah located at 129 Russell St. between Nassau & Driggs.

Teaser: I’m on a chocolate kick right now…so you can at least expect to see chocolate cupcakes with a mocha liqueur icing and….Black & White cookies!!!

Greenpoint Food Market Launch!

Greenpoint Food Market

I am so excited to be taking part in the Greenpoint Food Market (GFM)!

The launch is this Saturday from 12-6pm.

Place: Lutheran Church of Messiah 129 Russell Street btwn Nassau & Driggs

To quote Joann Kim, the creater of this fantastic market, the: “GFM hopes to be a support system for explorative amateur chefs and gourmands wishing to share their goods with the community and maybe even make a buck or two along the way. GFM is all about community involvement and gastronomical gratification, bringing folks together through food appreciation.”

I will be selling gluten-free baked goods, peach cupcakes and zucchini & pineapple cake are on the menu as well as a few other items.  Please come to peruse the local vendors, enjoy live music, and view food-based artwork.

you can’t eat bread!?

It’s probably the most often heard phrase when you tell someone you’re gluten-free. 

Friend (horrified look on their face): “Wait…so…you can’t eat bread!?”

You (patient,  yet strained): “I can’t eat anything with gluten in it, so all regular bread, pasta, pizza, and baked goods.”

Friend: …silence…more horror….

Then you rush into the litany of what you can eat.  Quinoa! Rice! Corn!  Which to most does not seem as exciting or delicious as an honest to-goodness piece of sourdough toast or slice of chocolate cake.  But you know what?  It absolutely can be. 

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2006 I was determined not to live the rest of my life only remembering how amazing that perfect peanut butter cookie tasted.  So I started reading gluten-free blogs, researching alternative baking options, and most of all, getting myself covered in gluten-free flour while experimenting in my kitchen.  As a result, I have a pretty firm cache of recipes tucked under my belt, and a lot of positive feedback from fellow celiacs who have sampled my gluten-free delectables.

So, welcome to my gluten-free blog!  I will be posting recipes, NYC based gluten-free events, relevant blogs, websites and media.