gluten-free brownies

Well I haven't done the ABC baking challenge this year for a couple of reasons: 1. I wasn't crazy about the recipes that were featured and 2. I kept forgetting to bake something in time for the posting. But that all changed when I saw this brownie recipe. 

I haven't really dabbled with gluten-free mostly because I'm grateful not to have to. Gluten-free recipes are becoming more popular because you probably know someone who is allergic to gluten, or you're just trying to be more health-conscious. Regardless, I was intrigued that this recipe was dairy and gluten free. No flour or butter?! This is craziness. Craziness that I needed to experience first-hand.

And you know what? I'd make these again. Now that's a huge compliment to these little babies. I'm pretty particular when it comes to homemade brownies and these were right up there. Not my absolute favorite recipe because, let's be honest, I'll always be partial to flour and butter but because the almond meal just can't be smooth like flour, so there's a slight nubby texture that takes a bit getting used to. The chocolate flavor is wonderfully intense and the chocolate chips add a lovely moist richness that brings these brownies to the fudge-y category. Which, as we all know, is not a bad category for a brownie to be in. 

I have a coworker who is allergic to gluten and is usually never able to have any of my baked goods because I practically trail flour as I walk by her. I was dying to give these to her so that I could get her opinion on how they fared with other gluten-free baked goods. She loved them and said they weren't dry and they reminded her of regular brownies, which excited her (and me) the most. Success!

Have you tried any recipes for gluten-free baked goods?

eclairs!

I love eclairs. Year ago I made them completely from scratch and practically ate all of them by myself (hence the reason it's been years since I made them again). So when the ABC challenge was to make eclairs with chocolate pastry cream I was instantly excited. 

I've only ever made vanilla pastry cream, and as I read through the recipe I was secretly chiding myself for never making chocolate pastry cream before. I mean, I have a serious love for chocolate, so this should've been a no-brainer. 

I followed the recipe exactly, although I made my eclairs a bit smaller so I got 20 eclairs rather than just 12. The pate a choux dough recipe was different than what I'm used to, but it was fine. I don't think I'd use again though because it was a bit dry (although that could be because I made them small). 

Overall, the chocolate pastry cream was divine on it's own, but once the chocolate ganache was on top all the flavors became one, like a blur. Therefore, I still prefer a vanilla pastry cream over a chocolate pastry cream; I just love that combination of vanilla with dark chocolate.

I didn't really tweak any of the recipes because I wanted to try making it exactly as directed. Here are the links for the chocolate pastry cream and for the pate a choux dough (which will also make cream puffs!).

And as a side note, my husband and I took a minication up to Vermont and just happened to be staying near the King Arthur Flour store and bakery. I thought this was an appropriate picture since this year the ABC Challengers have been baking exclusively from King Arthur Flour. 

it's all almonds

I was intrigued with this month's ABC Baking Challenge because I was expecting this tart to be a typical fruit tart with a chilled custard/pastry cream for the filling. So when I read through the recipe and realized I was baking the filling, I was intrigued. 

If you don't like almonds, then this isn't the dessert for you because it is almondy! Thankfully I happen to love almonds and was so happy with the outcome. Texturally speaking, it has all my favorite elements: each bite contains a wonderfully crisp shortbread crust, the filling that is slightly chewy and crunchy from the almonds paired with a brittle topping... it's just heavenly! 

Since it was my first time making it, I didn't really tweak the recipe (which I often do if I'm comfortable with a recipe) but I did add some seedless raspberry jam to the cooked crust, before adding the filling. I've done this before with other fruit tarts that I've made in the past, and it adds a nice tanginess to the sweet almond flavor.

Focaccia = 0, Flatbread = 1

I'm a little behind on posting my July's ABC baking challenge results because I was away on vacation. But here it is, a roasted vegetable focaccia bread that truly was a challenge for me. Yeast-based foods tend to scare me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat them but making a homemade loaf of bread is a whole other matter. I've also been hit or miss with focaccia bread... a few times it came out perfectly and then other times it came out crispy... like this time.

This recipe came from the King Arthur Flour site, as are all the ABC recipes this year. Previously I've made focaccia bread using this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens so I was a little surprised by The King Arthur Flour recipe because it seemed so much more complicated. It also involved powdered milk, which is not a pantry staple for me and was something I had to seek out. And as many of you know, I keep my pantry well stocked so this was a bit frustrating to buy a whole bag of powdered milk for only 2 tablespoons!

The other issue I have with yeast is it takes hours to develop, whereas baking soda can give you a quick-bread in minutes. Patience and time are a struggle for me and this recipe required me to give a lot of my time. If I had been home all day it would've been fine for me to punch down the bread, let it rise, punch it down again, let it rise again, and then spread it out and let it rise yet again. But I wasn't. In fact, I was at the beach and I had a lovely time. And I don't regret one minute that this "focaccia" bread turned into more of a flatbread and we didn't eat it until 8pm! See? No patience. No regrets. It still tasted lovely.

I really followed the King Arthur Flour recipe, so I won't post the entire recipe here. Although I did do a slightly different topping with caramelized onions, roasted zucchini and parmesan cheese. Before I went to the beach, I caramelized 3 medium-sized onions with a dash of seasoned olive oil (similar to these). When I came back from the beach, I roasted 3 smallish zucchini's with more of the seasoned olive oil, salt and pepper. Immediately after the bread came out of the oven, I generously covered the top with shredded parmesan cheese. The combination of caramelized onions, roasted zucchini and parmesan cheese worked so well together that it turned this failed focaccia into a flatbread win.

Are there any recipes or food groups that are a challenge for you to cook/bake?