Carrot cake for everyone!

I'm increasingly asked the question, "Can you make ______________ gluten free?" My answer, without even thinking about it, is most often "Yes!" You can make just about anything gluten free, although, some things with more success than others. So, when my friend Alistair asked me about making gluten free carrot cake, my answer was, "Sure, of course you can!" Cake is one of the easiest things to make gluten free and have it come out tasting as good (if not better) than the gluten kind. So, there was no hesitation for me to answer him. The truth was I hadn't really bothered to make a gluten free version yet. Why? Well, my family is not overly fond of carrot cake. As carrot cake usually contains things like raisins or pineapple and nuts, my husband and kids tend to turn their nose up at it. My husband does not like any kind of baked goods with raisins or other fruit in it. The actual carrot in the cake is not the problem it is all the other "stuff." Personally, I like carrot cake, partially because it is usually accompanied by yummy cream cheese frosting, but don't really want to be the only one eating it. I did, however, like the idea of coming up a good gluten free version. After all, it is my Mother-in-law's favorite kind of cake.

Carrot cake is a bit like chili in the sense that everybody has their own idea what it should contain; pineapple vs raisins, nuts or coconut, there are many variations to choose from. I spent a good time just checking out recipes that were already out there, both gluten free and gluten versions. I then set out to try a number of test versions. Alistair humbly offered to be one of the tasters, so I started out with three different "testers," made in muffin form.

These came out well and I gave a number to Alistair to try for himself and to share. The differences were as follows:

Muffin #1 (with chopped pecan top) - made with raisins and pecans, and a simplified all-purpose flour recipe for people that don't have my book or are not usually gluten free (Alistair included).

Muffin #2 (with coconut) - made with pineapple and pecans, using Lisa's cake flour recipe (from my book, link here).

Muffin #3 (with whole pecan) - a lower fat vegan version, with pineapple, raisins and pecans, and made with coconut sugar (to see if substitutes would work).

The general consensus was that they were all good, except the vegan version was too moist, which had more to do with the fact that it was low fat, than it being vegan. I had already reduced fat even in the "regular" versions by quite a bit from most recipes that I had seen. The oil content was anywhere between 2/3 cup to 1 1/2 cups of oil, which seemed excessive to me. I kept it at 1/2 cup for the regular version, which is what I normally use for my cakes. The "low fat" version had only 1/4 cup.

With some good results with the muffins I wanted to try to make some full versions as well. So, I also made it in a bundt cake form as well as a traditional cake form. Every time doing just a little twist to see how much people could play with the recipe.

Bundt cake with yogurt icing.

The layer cake version (see picture at the top of the blog), I made just a bit sweeter and wanted to improve on the texture of the low fat. I made the mistake of trying to make a lower fat frosting, which came out more like thick icing. Not really the same for those of us who are buttercream/cream cheese frosting fans. So, I scraped off the icing and just dusted with powdered sugar. That seemed just right if you were going low fat anyway!

"Aloha" version (with pineapple, coconut, and ground nuts)

So in the end I realized the BEST carrot cake would be the one that you could personalize. So, without further ado here is the recipe:


Lisa's Carrot Cake:

2 cups Lisa's gluten free cake flour (or gluten free all-purpose flour mix containing xanthan gum)*
1 cup brown sugar (you can add up to 1/4 cup more if you like it sweeter)
2 cups grated carrots
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Ener-G egg replacer, dry (add 1/2 tsp more of baking powder if you don't have this)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or mix your own version of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, ect..)
2 eggs (or if using egg replacer, use the equivalent of 3 eggs)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup oil**
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts, or coconut
1/2 cup raisins, or one 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple drained

Preheat oven to 350° F. Mix the dry ingredients together including the carrots, nuts, raisins and/or pineapple. Then add the eggs, applesauce, oil and vanilla. Stir until all the ingredients are moistened and well combined. Place into greased (and floured, if desired) 9 x 13 cake pan, 2 round cake pans, a bundt pan or muffin tins. Bake time with vary depending on the type of pan using. It will be about 40-45 minutes in the rectangle pan, 30-35 minutes in the round pans, 45-50 minutes in the bundt pan and 20-25 minutes in muffin tins. Remove from heat when toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool completely on wire rack before frosting or dusting with powdered sugar.

* Or you can use 1 cup sorghum flour, 1/2 cup rice flour (brown or white), 1/2 cup cup potato starch and 3/4 tsp xanthan gum.

** If wanting to reduce the oil further, you can cut the oil in half to 1/4, but do not add more applesauce. If not moist enough add a bit of liquid (water, milk, almond milk) a tablespoon at a time till all ingredients are just moistened or if too moist add up to 2 Tablespoons more of flour.

For cream cheese frosting:

4 oz. softened cream cheese (regular or low fat)
1/4 cup butter softened
1 - 2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
3 - 4 cups powdered sugar

For a twist on the cream cheese part:

Increase butter to 1/3 cup and add about 2 Tablespoons Fage yogurt.

For a vegan version:

Replace butter with coconut oil and cream cheese with Tofutti non-hydrogenated "cream cheese" substitute. You may wish to add a teaspoon or two of lemon zest in addition to the juice to boost the flavor.

So, that is it! Personalize it make it your own! I just tried a version this morning made with an interesting flour mix, added some "greens" in with the carrots and left out the raisins, pineapple and nuts in favor of chocolate chips!

Carrots and greens, chocolate chip "breakfast" muffins

Happiness IS a bright and shining thing!

On Valentines and Graham Crackers

I remember a time when making Valentines were fun. This was way back, of course, when my oldest son (now 19) was young. We would make homemade Valentines for his class, complete with a little treat or homemade cookie. The teachers would get a special one with a larger cookie, and maybe a little candy. We might do a little decorating at home. I might even be ambitious enough to make fudge...

Not so today. I usually chinse (you can find chinsy in the Urban Dictionary) out and just get store bought Valentines, put a candy "Kiss" on them and send them into class. Yes, the teacher gets the teacher one from the box (usually the bigger one), and two candy kisses instead of one! I then hope that Grandma sends some candy so I don't have to make anything at home and call it a day. No, my husband doesn't usually do anything for Valentines as for many years now he would be out of town at a trade show and figured that was a good enough "out." I do remember a lovely engraved bracelet he gave me one Valentine's Day, but that was back before we had children. He will be in town this year, it will be interesting to see if he remembers...

Anyway, as you can see Valentines is not on my list of important "holidays" anymore. With my youngest in 6th grade, I hope this is the LAST Valentine's Day I will have to worry about getting Valentines for school. I am pretty much over that.

So, what says "Happy Valentine's Day" more than graham crackers! Okay, they don't say anything about Valentine's Day at all. Still, graham crackers are a great cookie/cracker. They are often overlooked except to play a role in Smores. But, they are only the "supporting" (pun intended) role in the the production, outmatched by the marshmallows and chocolate. Of course, if you have little ones around, graham crackers take on a different meaning as they are often a sweet snack of choice to give out when your first choice of carrots sticks is met with them being thrown across the kitchen. To be honest, I usually just skipped the sticks and would go straight for the crackers. Saved a bit of clean up time and a having to give a lecture on how much more healthy the carrot sticks would be for them (Just kidding, they wouldn't have been allow to throw food!). Currently, my kids don't really go much for graham crackers, unless they are a part of a Smores or as a base to spread Nutella on. They love Nutella. But, now we are back to the graham crackers in a supporting role.

My friend Liz though, does have little ones and had asked me quite awhile ago now for a gluten free recipe. Early into my daughter's diagnosis of Celiac, I had tried out a recipe for "graham crackers" I found using Teff flour. The end result was pretty good, but not excellent enough for me to want to make it on a regular basis. Liz gently reminded me after I got my recipe book out (link: here) that I had promised to get her a recipe. So, in my usual research fashion, I set out to see what recipes were out there and create one that I thought will work the best. So, here it is.

Oh, wait! First, we need to talk about shortening. Shortening is a touchy subject with people. Why? It involves FAT. In this case, saturated fat. You know, the bad kind. So, fat has become a "hush, hush" word. There are some people not wanting to use any solid fats, only liquid oils (unsaturated fats), and some shunning the category of fats all together. For those of us that still use some solid forms, there is the argument over which one is better; butter vs vegan butters, vs coconut oils, vs margerine, vs tub varieties (with plant steroids, olive oil or other add in's). There is much to say on this subject. Just go Google it and you will find a myriad of articles and opinions. Most people are in one camp or the other. Either the butter camp or margarine (now usually made without trans fats, typically that means palm oils)/vegan "butters"/coconut oil camp. Personally, I will say I am firmly in the butter camp. Why? Without going into too much chemistry and detail (I like to do detail), mostly because it has been used for centuries, and contains two ingredients: cream and salt. I like that. It is a natural form of fat and can be processed by your body. I am not arguing here that it is GOOD for you to eat it in mass quantities, but rather than use, let's say a vegan butter that contains 11 ingredients including soy products and flavor, I would rather stick with the butter. Yes, there is coconut oil and I have used it, but it can sometime lend a bit of a coconut flavor and it doesn't always give me the texture I am looking for. So, there you go. Like I said I am firmly in the butter camp. So much so, that I have taken to making my own lately. This way I can pick the organic cream of choice and with a little kosher salt, some mixing.... voila! BUTTER!

Homemade butter

As far as this recipe goes, I did try it with both butter and coconut oil (if you are vegan). Both came out great, though I prefer the flavor of the butter version better (shouldn't be a surprise by now). So, go ahead and use whichever form of shortening you prefer, but it needs to be solid. It will not come out the same with oils. If you are completely against solid shortening you can play with using oil, but I didn't see any recipe out there that used it for this, and one that specifically said it would not work well. If you are against fats entirely, well, I can't help you there. 
 
So, NOW, here is the recipe for gluten free graham crackers:

Lisa's Gluten Free Graham Crackers 

2 cps Lisa's all purpose gluten free flour mix (or mix of choice)
1/4 cp almond or teff flour (if you don't have this you can use 1/8 cp more all purpose)
1-2 tbsp ground flax seed (optional - I didn't use it in my test versions)
1/2 cp packed brown sugar or coconut sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda 
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (unless the all purpose flour you are using has it in the ingredients)
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup shortening of choice
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp cold water
1 tsp vanilla

Combine the dry ingredients together. Cut the shortening into dry ingredients until fully incorporated. Add liquid ingredients, mix well and form into a ball. If the dough seems too dry, add more water a little at a time (about a teaspoon) till the desired consistency is reached. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. Preheat oven to 350° F and lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. Take dough out of refrigerator and let warm for 5 min or so before rolling. Roll dough between two pieces of plastic wrap, till desired thickness (the thinner, the crispier the crackers will be). Transfer carefully to cookie sheet. Using a pizza wheel or knife, cut into squares or 2 x 3 sections. You can run "score" the middle of each piece (not all the way through) and then prick lightly with a fork. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. If cookies bake together, re-cut while warm and then transfer to cooling rack. 

The end cracker should look a bit like this.

Like I said I tried two different shortenings and rolled each to a little different thickness. Keep in mind I was not going for pretty here. Just to see how well things would work.

Besides the slight taste difference, the coconut oil version was a bit darker. The thicker rolled version was more like a soft spice cookie. We liked it thinner and crispy. 

So, I wanted to bake up a second batch that was cut nicer, but ended up burning it! 

I blame the Olympics and trying to help my daughter make Lego "letters" for a project she is working on. Oh well, they still taste great even if they aren't as pretty. I know I'm supposed to wrap them with a bow to make them look beautiful and appetizing. Too lazy and my daughter had the camera commandeered. 

So, go ahead and make some up for Valentine's Day, cut them into heart shapes using a heart shaped cookie cutter, if you want. Just don't burn them like I did.



Alright, I couldn't resist, knowing that everything looks better tied up in a pretty bow...

Happy Valentine's Day!