Whole Grain Beer Bread

Bread making has always been something I tried to avoid since the creation of this blog. Perhaps it has to do with the notion that there is this goal to make gluten free bread not taste like gluten free bread. 

The breads I do make are few and far between, if only that making loaves of bread somehow gives me this obligation to eat slices of bread every day, and I don’t like being committed to eating the same thing day after day. I’ll even cut a muffin recipe in half or less because of this. I’m just not a bread person.

Scratch that. I’m not a bread eating person. I love the baking part. There’s something about churning the dough/batter with a wooden spoon, watching singular ingredients mesh and collide. You pour it into the pan of your choice and place it in the hot oven, and almost immediately the aromas of baking fill your entire homes. Then comes time to take it out, and the batter has become this completely new creation. Still warm, you slice it or pick one up from its individual crevice, and take a bite.
 
It’s warm going all the way down.

As the days are getting shorter and the air is crisper than it was before the recent weather brought the cold from the Atlantic, words like “warm” and “freshly baked” will be essential to those preparing for winter. Whether it is to be part of dinner to absorb the last remnants of stews or to simply have when traveling out of state on a ten-hour drive, bread can be a beautiful thing indeed.

 My favorite to this day is still the grain-free flatbread recipe I made for the GFRR earlier this year, though it was a hybrid “quick bread” due to my off and on weird relationship with baker’s yeast (though oddly enough, bread making with homemade sourdough doesn’t affect me). I did want to make “yeasty” bread, one that I could put into a loaf pan and eat in thick slices without it falling apart in my hand.   

I also want to clarify that, when I say bread making, I do not mean quick bread or flat bread or even cornbread. Those things I’m all into creating a multitude of recipes. I’m talking about yeasty breads, the ones with only three essential ingredients (flour, water, and yeast/leavening agents), the ones you put into loaf pans to huff and fluff and puff and slice for sandwiches or French toast.

I’ve learned a lot about gluten free bread making through trial and error, such as:

1. Grinding your own grains with a coffee grinder gives texture and binding.
2. Even if there isn’t any yeast to the recipe, soak the flour overnight with the liquid you are using. Add the remaining ingredients to the dough right before the baking process.
3. Combine the two, and you get an amazing bread recipe.

Add beer to it, and you get an AMAZing bread recipe. Gluten free beer, that is.

New Grist is my “drinking beer” of choice (this coming from a person who rarely drinks and drinks little), perhaps because Bard’s bitter hops flavor keeps me from drinking it straight from the bottle. Bard’s is solely a cooking beer for me, perfect for bratwurst in a cast iron pan, equally so in caramelizing onions and cabbage. So when this urge to make beer bread was almost too much to handle, I saw bottles of Bard’s in the pantry and thought “why not?”

Beer. It’s for more than just drinking.

Whole Grain Beer Bread (inspired by these two recipes)

200 g Short grain sweet brown rice
200 g Red quinoa
200 g Corn flour (coarsely ground though not polenta grade and not special arepa flour)
120 CGF rolled oats
2 bottles Bard’s Sorghum Beer
60 g Honey (or maple syrup for a herbivore version)
1 tbsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Unrefined apple cider vinegar

Measure out the grains (save the corn flour as it is already ground) and use the coffee grinder to make as fine a flour for each grain as possible.*
Pour the flour into a large bowl and thoroughly mix with the beer (it will be a sticky dough).
Add the honey and let it sit overnight.
Combine the remaining ingredients and preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Pour the dough in a large loaf pan** lined with parchment paper, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it sit for ten or fifteen minutes, and then use the parchment paper to remove the loaf from the pan to place on a cooling rack (after peeling off the parchment paper) to cool for an addition five or ten.
Slice thinly or thickly to your preference, and serve warm.***

Makes 1 large or 2 small loaves.


*This step will be done in small increments. Some grains will be coarser than others, though it does give wonderful texture.
**Due to a miscalculation of measuring out the flour, I ended up doubling the recipe by accident. This easily makes two smallish loaves, and can most certainly be halved to suit your needs.
***This bread does well in the refrigerator. It remains moist and holds well.

Pass the Bread

Almost any gluten-freer will tell you that they first thing they ever tried baking gluten free was bread. Sometimes they bought a gluten free bread mix, while others attempted to make it themselves. And then, if they were desperate, they bought it from the store.

Don’t misunderstand me; commercial gluten free bread has come a long way since then. Gluten free flours were coarser, made to fill the void of this staple food rather than make something substantial. The bread loaves were dense, only edible when toasted. There were times I recall taking a bite and found myself needing a glass of water just to swallow. And let us not forget the creativity in which ingredients were combined. In most cases, we see a higher percentage of starch in place of wholegrain flours, or multiple gums and a higher sugar content to make it moist and palatable (though the use of all three in moderation is perfectly fine). Everywhere I looked, gluten free bread were simply fillers for an otherwise breadless lifestyle as I knew it, with chemically things I couldn't even pronounce.

I didn’t want fillers. I wanted substance. I wanted bread: minimal ingredients for a good slice of deliciousness.

Toasted and ready for dippin'!

I will be honest, however, when I say that gluten free bread is different… you know, besides the gluten free part. Gluten free grains have been used to make bread for thousands of years before gf became a lifestyle, such as the cornbreads of the Americas and injera in North Africa. Gluten free flours milled from buckwheat, rice, hemp, nuts, seeds, and sorghum have been used alongside wheat, barley, and rye for just as long. The reason why gluteny grains were so popular in the first place was the gluten protein that enabled bread to rise, to be sturdy and soft at the same time, and its reaction to yeast.

Here’s the thing, though: you don’t need gluten for a good piece of bread, as the participants of this month’s Gluten Free Ratio Rally will tell you. It takes effort, yes, and definitely experimenting with different flour combinations and additional ingredients, but it is possible to enjoy gluten free bread with wholesome ingredients made at home.

For my entry, I had this idea to make a grain free loaf with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. I used the ratio of five parts flour to three parts water and tried Jim Lahey’s no-knead method for a hearty loaf. And I got a hearty loaf all right. A few hundred more and I could have made quite an eco-friendly brick wall that would intoxicate many a bird or squirrel.

So I strayed away from my first idea and thought what went wrong. Clearly it was missing something, and I definitely needed to use a certain amount of yeast for a certain amount of time. Two bread flops later, I found what had been missing (eggs) and realized something about yeast.

Yeast and I have a finicky relationship. I love how it is alive before the baking process, how it completely changes a loaf of bread and the almost tinny taste it provides. It is a beautiful ingredient, both for baked goods and brewing. But as I said before, sometimes we just don’t get along.

Savory French Toast

So I hope the GFRR can forgive me for making a hybrid, as I used eggs and leavening agents synonymous to quick bread making, though it does not contain fat or dairy in the dough. And you know what? My entry is quite an amazing flatbread, and I will happily tell you why.

This bread is highly adaptable. I’ve toasted it, dipped it in chili, eaten it straight from the refrigerator, and made savory French toast. It is the perfect component for an open or closed face sandwich, and ever so tasty with a smear of soft cheese or nut butter and honey. Have it for any meal or just when you want a quick snack on the go. But believe me when I tell you, this is a great bread to have on hand.

And it didn’t need gluten (or yeast) to be delicious.

No-knead Sun Dried Tomato and Basil Flatbread

200 g Garbanzo bean flour
200 g Quinoa flour*
95 g Blanched almond flour
2 tsp. Sea salt
480 ml Lukewarm to hot water (a little on the hotter side)
2 Large eggs (about 125 g), lightly beaten
2 tsp. Baking soda
10 ml Unrefined apple cider vinegar
85 g Sun dried tomatoes
5 g Dried basil
1/2 tsp. Rosemary powder
Olive oil, for greasing the pan

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours and salt with the water and let it sit on the counter until lukewarm.
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
Stir in the eggs and the leavening agents and leave the dough to rise for ten to fifteen minutes (this dough will look and act much like a thick batter).
Fold in the tomatoes and spices, and then pour into a 12 x 16 cookie sheet coated in olive oil (if you’re worried about sticking, line it with parchment paper and use the olive oil as flavor), and cook for 25 to 30 minutes until browned.
Let it cool for fifteen minutes, and then slice into 16 squares for your enjoyment.
For later use, place in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator or freezer.

Makes 16 slices, or 8 – 16 servings.

*I ground whole grain quinoa in a spice grinder and had a medium-coarse "polenta" consistency (hence the slightly hotter than lukewarm water). But finely ground quinoa flour would work just as deliciously.

Karen of Cooking Gluten Free was our generous host for this month’s challenge. What I love most about her (and her awesome site) is this very true statement in her About Page: "Through all the years that I have been a part of the gluten free world, I am continually impressed with the giving nature of every person that has started a business to help the gluten intolerant." She personifies her “gluten free, giving back” philosophy, as I believe all of the GFRR participants strive to do with their blogs, businesses, cookbooks, and recipes.

So thank you, Karen, for paying it forward.

Here are the beautiful bread entries from this month’s challenge (all of which look AMAZING):

Adina | Gluten Free Travelette  Seedy Sandwich Bread
Angela | Angela’s Kitchen  Our Family’s Basic Gluten Free Dairy Free Bread
Aunt Mae (aka ~Mrs. R) | Honey From Flinty Rocks  Chia Millet Bread
Brooke | B & the boy!  Buckwheat-Oat Bread
Charissa | Zest Bakery  Cherry Pecan Pot Bread, Gluten Free 
Claire | This Gluten-Free Life  German Vollkornbrot (Seeded Bread)
Erin | The Sensitive Epicure English Sandwich Bread (gluten-free & egg-free)  
Jenn | Jenn Cuisine  Gluten Free Boule
Jonathan | The Canary Files Gluten-Free, Vegan Mediterranean Soda Bread
*Karen | Cooking Gluten Free!  Gluten Free Sandwich Bread/Gluten Free Naan
Meaghan | The Wicked Good Vegan  Vegan Gluten-Free Bread
Meg | Gluten-Free Boulangerie  Ciabatta (gluten-free, egg-free/vegan)
Monika | Chew on This!  amaranth skillet flatbreads, amaranth mini pita rounds
Morri | Meals with Morri No Knead Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Flatbread (yeast free/grain free)
Pete & Kelli | No Gluten, No Problem  Gluten-Free Challah
Rachel | The Crispy Cook  Gluten Free Chickpea Sandwich Bread
TR | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies  Gluten Free White Bread
Tara | A Baking Life  Gluten-Free Sandwich Bread & Boule

Calling All Bagels!

When I first became gluten free, I essentially focused on eating “whole grain” foods such as rice, potatoes, corn, and quinoa. I bought a block of brown rice bread to make toast, both the toaster and French kind, and swore by rice crackers to anyone who would listen. As far as I was concerned, that was all I needed.

Transitioning to the gluten free lifestyle in 2008 was the perfect time to be gluten free. Cookbooks and baking mixes and labeling were showing up everywhere and in abundance. I started to do research, buying mixes and cookbooks, and became interested in food like I never was in my BGF days. While I was rather obsessed in a less than healthy way about what I considered to be healthy food and eating, I never thought how much I would change simply because I took wheat/gluten out of my diet.

When I was finally diagnosed with hypothyroidism in April of last year, I felt it was the perfect opportunity to unveil my idea for Meals with Morri. The blog itself had been sitting dormant for almost a year, and I still had no idea what my focus what going to be (aside from the gluten free lifestyle, of course). After the diagnosis, however, I became enthralled with how to live a happier and healthier life, and for some reason it was extremely food-oriented. It took another year before I started really looking into understanding how diet and other lifestyle choices affected a person with hypothyroidism, and how I could help the world by providing recipes, storytelling, and current events (the third being a relatively new concept on this blog). Meals with Morri has been viewed by people from all over the world, and I am so humbled to see how far it has come in a year. And although I consider myself still a novice with big dreams, I will never forget where it all started.

It all started with bagels.

Bagels were the epitome of my childhood. There were nights where Mama Dazz and I couldn’t sleep and we’d have late-night bagel parties in the kitchen. When I attended Catholic school and sang in the choir, we went to Einstein’s Bagels after the one Sunday a month I was required to sing for a sermon. (I always got lox on an "everything" bagel. Best. Combination. EVER.) Whenever we went on vacation and had to drive somewhere, like Virginia Beach, New York, or North Carolina, I ordered a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich as, you guessed it, a bagel.

Bagels were my favorite baked good, and I loved it with cream cheese, jam, peanut butter, honey, butter, etc. When I became gluten free, I was not impressed with the options I had, so I did the most logical thing I could think of: I made them myself.

My 2010 Bagel success.

My “I have no idea on the fundamentals of gluten free baking so I’m going to wing it” experience with bagels were simple enough: gf baking mix + gf bagel recipe = gf bagels. But then I started playing around with flours and gums, mainly rice flour, glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum, and I liked the results much better. For some reason, though, I stopped trying to perfect bagels even before Meals with Morri was a sparkle in my eye.

Soon after, the Gluten Free Ratio Rally rekindled my desire for a delicious bagel.

What I love the most about this movement is the joint effort of showing the world that, if you have a ratio for a recipe, you can use just about anything to make it. Whatever the types of flours, liquids, sweeteners, or binders you use, having a ratio makes it possible. Measuring ingredients by weight is fundamental for this process, even for those not living the gluten free lifestyle. Cake flour does not have the same properties as whole-wheat flour, so we should not assume garbanzo bean flour is the same as buckwheat flour. True, many flours can be and are interchangeable, but having a scale makes it significantly easier to experiment with different ingredients and flour combinations. What the GFRR has done is bring a lot of passionate people from all over cyber space, many with additional dietary restrictions to consider, and turn a ratio into a recipe that can be enjoyed by many who have to work around the same allergies, intolerances, and health issues. It is a movement to show how empowering it is to embrace your so-called dietary/health “restrictions”.

If you have a ratio, i.e. a foundation for a recipe, you can make/do anything.

When the spaces for the 2012 months needed to be filled, I enthusiastically exclaimed that April would be all about bagels and that I’d love to host the process. Despite my getting sick for the majority of the month, I made many batches of bagels. After all, I was hosting. With Udi’s making a bagel that looked and acted like one (never ate one personally, but I’ve heard positive reviews), I felt there was this expectation to making The Perfect Bagel, especially since I was hosting. And despite my learning that I should keep it simple before dressing up the recipe, I went ahead and dressed it up anyway.

I had in mind to create a sweet potato bagel, but I started getting frustrated with the trials. That, and we were running out of sweet potatoes.

The first thing you must realize when making bagels is: do not use the entire yeast packet. Bruce Ezzell’s bagels called for 3 g of yeast to his 1.9:1 flour:water ratio (or 2.25:1 sponge:flour ratio if you prefer), and for some reason I was surprised how yeasty and “spongey” the dough was when I put seven times the amount of yeast in it. It tasted sour and I had to add over 100 g of additional flour to compensate.

The second trial, in addition to correcting the yeast amount, focused on changing how I used the sweet potato. For the first trial, I used it as part of the flour ratio, which probably made the dough wetter than it should have been. So I used it as the “liquid”, making it dry and having to balance that issue with additional liquid, going from too dry to too wet in seconds. Instead of putting in flour, however, I put in whole CGF rolled oats. I still wasn’t content with the bagels, but the oats did something to the flavor and the texture that reminded me of a hearty bagel.

To be honest, the sweet potato bagel was not my first bagel idea. My original idea was to make a blueberry bagel, but not in the traditional sense. With my CGF oats, both whole and powdered, my mad scientist tendencies were flaring up and I was inspired to try out my blueberry idea. So what did I do? I bought freeze-dried blueberries, powdered the dickens out of them, and incorporated that blueberry flavor (and purplish color) throughout the entire bagel.

As hostess, I stuck with Ezzell’s ratio as best as I could, though I think I would have liked the recipe better made with other binders like egg. But I followed the directions and used the ratio that was given to me, even making it vegan-friendly. I halved the recipe due to the overabundance of bagels on the kitchen counter, and it will make a week’s worth of bagels you can eat for breakfast each morning with a smear of nut butter or cream cheese.

Will I try again? Definitely. Will I compare the difference between the “traditional” bagel versus the ones made with eggs and oil? Oh, yes.

For now, I give you my recipe for this month’s GFRR, and it was such an honor to host it.

Blueberry Oat Bagels

For the sponge: to be made 4 to 12 hours before baking, but any longer will result in a very yeasty (and admittedly sour) bagel.

100 g Quinoa flour
100 g Garbanzo bean flour
50 g Flaxseed meal
250 ml Warm water
3 g Dry active yeast

Combine the ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer and mix with a spoon till the ingredients are combined.
Set aside at room temperature for at least 4 hours. (To get the blooming process going, I put the bowl on the stovetop in the back while the oven was preheated on the warm setting for an hour or so.)

To make the bagels:

100 g CGF oat flour
93 g CGF rolled oats
1 1/2 – 2 tsp. Sea salt
18 g Maple syrup
30 g Freeze-dried blueberries, powdered

Baking soda (1/2 tbsp. for every 2 liters or 1/2 gallon of water)

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
Add the salt, maple syrup, blueberry powder, oat flour, and oats to the sponger, and attach dough hooks to your mixer and mix at low speed for a few minutes until thoroughly combined. (This can also be done by hand.)
Once the dough is mixed, remove it to your counter and cover with a cloth to let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
While the dough is resting, place a wide, fairly deep pot filled with water on the stove to heat (measure the water so you know how much baking soda to use).
Once the water comes to a simmer add the baking soda.
Divide the dough into 6 - 7 pieces, and round each piece and set aside to rest for a few more minutes, covered.
To shape take each ball of dough, flatten out slightly using the palm of the hand, making a disc approximately 3.5 inches wide.
Make a hole in each using your thumb and place back on the counter, covered, to rise.
After 10 minutes flip each bagel over so the bottom is now facing up. (When this side begins to get slightly puffy and rounded it is time to boil.)
While the bagels are in their final rise bring your water to a simmer, then add the baking soda.
Drop the bagels 3 – 4 at a time into the simmering water (depending on how large your pot is).
They bagels will drop to the bottom and slowly begin to rise. (When this happens, flip the bagels, either with a spatula or flattened spoon, and let them simmer for another minute.)
Remove from the water using a skimmer or large spoon, and place them on a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 6 – 7 bagels.

So, who else participated in this month’s GFRR? Continue on to find out!

Brooke | B & the boy    Peanut Butter & Jelly Bagels
Jenn | Jenn Cuisine     Sun-dried Tomato Parmesan Bagels
Mary Fran | FrannyCakes     Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
Adina | Gluten Free Travelette     Garlic Egg Bagels
Heather | Discovering the Extraordinary     Gluten-Free Bagels, with variations
gretchen | kumquat     Cinnamon Raisin Teff Bagels
Jean Layton | GF Doctor Recipes Gluten-Free     Sourdough Bagels
Meaghan | The Wicked Good Vegan     Vegan Gluten-Free Bagels
Meg | Gluten-Free Boulangerie     Classic Poppyseed Bagels (Vegan/Food Allergy-Safe)
*Morri (Me!) | Meals with Morri     Blueberry Oat Bagels
TR | No One Likes Crumbley Cookies     Classic Gluten-Free Bagels
Angela | Angela's Kitchen     Gluten Free Bagels with variations
Caleigh | Gluten Free[k]     Orange and Caraway Bagels
Caneel | Mama Me Gluten Free     Just Plain Bagels
Pete and Kelli | No Gluten, No Problem     Faux Pumpernickel Bagels

Baking Brownies for Springtime

I can’t believe it has almost been a year since Meals with Morri made its debut. Only, instead of pancakes, I have the pleasure to join a number of amazing gluten free bloggers in this month’s Gluten Free Ratio Rally… 

… making brownies.

So much can happen over the course of twelve months, and I am always surprised how time quickly passed me by. Twelve months of recipes, life experiences, mistakes, laughter, sorrow, and change. Twelve months of coming into myself, and still learning something new every day.

And I couldn’t have done it without you all.

Spring is such a fascinating season, and a perfect time to reflect the past year. You think about all the things that stressed you out and left you in a tizzy, most of which don’t exist anymore. You look at all the experiences you had and the lessons you learned, some of them less than pleasant and a pain in the butt to deal with, and then you realize that you survived it. You made it to now, and that’s quite an achievement.

Like my very first post, I have found myself sleep-deprived because of hunger, eating an apple with almond butter and an AB & J socca pancake at two-thirty in the morning because my stomach won’t settle for less. So there I was, half asleep and staring blankly into the skillet, watching the bubbles pop on the surface of the huge pancake I made before I put it under the broiler to escape flipping my monstrous creation. I think of the dreams I woke up from, dreams of pouring muffin batter into a non-greased tin before realizing my mistake, of my camera lens chipping, of talking to an old friend like the conflict with their family never happened. Even without sleeping more than four to five hours at a time, even with the week of sniffles and coughing and delirious tendencies, I still went to work and exercised (when I felt I could), two things I know will bring me crashing sooner rather than later.

Springtime brings change and perspective just as bluntly as it brings pollen and allergies. It brings you finicky weather and it brings you a new season of plants to garden, harvest, and eat. Most importantly, at least I think so anyway, it shows you just how bountiful this new year is going to be for you.

For my Grandpa B, that means chickens.

For my household, that means a new compost heap. (Thank you, guys. I love it.)

For my job at the community center, that means awesome “Where the Wild Things Are” themed trips during Spring Break.

For my blog, that means posting recipes, insights, and facts about living a healthy gluten free (among other things) life, loving myself, working around having a thyroid condition, and looking towards sustainable development to help the world community.

And finally, for this post, that means brownies.

I learned something this time around, and it has finally sank in: simple is hard to do. I wanted to do some pretty crazy ingredient combinations and themes for this month’s GFRR, ranging from nut butter marble and vegan bite-sized brownies to strawberry shortcake and piña colada blondies. Really though, the fact you participate at all is something of a feat. Many (if not all) of the participants will congratulate you on a job well done, cheering on the sidelines as I do for them.

In the end, I decided on making a brownie inspired by all that I learned in my Mesoamerican anthropology class. I was particularly fascinated by the cuisine and the plants and animals that were domesticated. But what really got me excited for this month's GFRR was because of the Aztec’s most revered chocolate drink, the Xocolātl.

The result was a fudgy cake-like brownie. It was moist and sweet and just spicy enough to make them “strangely addicting”, as Mama Dazz called them.

Thus, the Oaxacan (WAH-HAWK-CAN) brownie (I named for the Zapotec/Mixtec state found in southern Mexico. It was ruled by the Aztec for a few decades until the arrival of the Spanish.) was created.

Trial 2: Essentially a fudge recipe with an identity crisis

Now, I want to let you know where I goofed up these delectable desserts. 

As I looked at my original recipe and compared it with the ratio while typing this post, I realized why my brownies turned out the way they did. For inspiration, I looked at another person's recipe that called for sweet potato, so naturally she didn’t use the amount of sugar as is usually called for.

That, and I think being sleep deprived played a crucial role in this too.

But just so you know, while I still stand by my brownies, I am glad I made both of them again using 250 g of honey/maple syrup. Another thing you must consider is the creaming method with the eggs and the sugar you choose, because the fat in mine were particularly testy when I didn't. That, and putting cold applesauce on the butters coagulated the fat content and turned my first batch into an epic flop of all Flopdom.

So, if you have walked away and learned anything from making brownies, I sincerely hope it's the creaming method and the importance of bringing ingredients to the right temperature before using.

The ratio is similar to what was offered to the GFRR: 2 parts chocolate, 3 parts butter, 3 parts eggs, 6 parts sugar, and 2 parts flour.

Trial 3: Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a Winner!

Oaxacan Brownies

57 g Unsweetened chocolate
32 g Unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
113 g Butter
165 g Honey
85 g Unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
2 Large eggs, room temperature
62 g Quinoa flour
1/4 tsp. Chipotle powder
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
Stevia, optional
Cocoa nibs, as garnish

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Melt the chocolate and butter together on very low heat, and then set aside to cool.
Mix the eggs with the honey and applesauce until well blended and add to the melted chocolate.
Sift the flour and cayenne and fold in the chocolate mixture.
Pour the batter into a greased 8x8” (or smaller for a thick and dense cake-like brownie) oven-safe pan, and bake for 35 - 40 minutes until done.

Makes 1 batch, or 8 squares.

As you can see, the brownies were cakey and rich, with a moist crumb that the applesauce helped to provide. On the other hand, the blondies were like gooey snickerdoodles of epic blonde brownie proportions. The mesquite played beautifully with the cacao butter and maple syrup.

The modified recipe for the MCB's still needs a little tweaking, a little too wet for my preference, but the taste is out of this world yummy. 

And just to be different, I baked it in a pie pan.

Photo of 1st Blondie batch with updated recipe below

Mesquite Cacao Blondies

85 g Unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
113 g Cacao butter
165 g Maple syrup
2 Large eggs, room temperature
31 g Mesquite flour
31 g Garbanzo bean flour
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Bourbon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.
Melt the cacao butter and maple syrup together in a double broiler on medium heat, and then set aside to cool.
Mix the eggs with the applesauce and vanilla until well blended and add to the melted cacao butter.
Sift the flour and salt and fold in the wet ingredients.
Pour the batter into a greased 9” pie pan, and bake for 45 minutes until done.

Makes 1 batch, or 8 slices.

I think it's time you head on over and see what the other GFRR participants made, don't you think? Trust me when I say that you won't be disappointed in the least! Our host for brownies was the great Mary Fran of FrannyCakes, a woman who keeps it real with amazing recipes, uses food for healing, and makes my mouth water from the photos she takes for all of us who love good-for-you food.

Oh yes, hear her (us) roar.

Adina from Gluten Free Travelette made Chocolate Brownie Pie with Orange Zest
Angela from Angela's Kitchen made Gluten & Dairy Free Cream Egg Brownies
Brooke from B & the boy! made Triple Chocolate Brownies
Caitlin from {Gluten Free} Nom Nom Nom made Peppermint Brownie Bars
Caleigh from Gluten Free[k] made White chocolate and marshmallow brownies
Caneel from Mama Me Gluten Free made Triple chocolate brownies
Charissa Luke from Zest Bakery made Slutty gluten-free brownies
Claire from My Gluten Free Home made PB&J Brownie Whoopee Pies
Claire from This Gluten-Free Life made St. Patty's Day Marshmallow Swirl Brownies
Erin from The Sensitive Epicure made Mexican Cocoa Brownies with an Almond & Pepitas Crust
gretchen from kumquat made salted caramel brownies
Heather from Discovering the Extraordinary made Nutmeg Blondies
Irvin from Eat the Love made Blueberry Citrus Marble Brownies
Jean from Gluten-Free Doctor Recipes made Blue Ribbon Brownies
Jenn from Jenn Cuisine made Grain free brownies with no-bake ricotta cheesecake cream
Jonathan from The Canary Files made Vegan Marbled Banana Walnut Brownies
Karen from Cooking Gluten Free! made GF Chewy Crackled Top Brownies with Raspberry Puree
Mary Fran from FrannyCakes made Gluten-Free Hazelnut (Nutella) Brownies
Morri (Me!) from Meals with Morri made Oaxacan Brownies & Mesquite Cacao Blondies
Mrs. R from Honey From Flinty Rocks made Black Bean S'More Brownies
Pete and Kelli from No Gluten, No Problem made Caramel Mexican Chocolate Mesquite Brownies
Rachel from The Crispy Cook made Co-Co Nut-Nut Blondies
Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl made Gluten-Free Brownies
Tara from A Baking Life  made Chocolate Flourless (Mint) Brownies
TR from No One Likes Crumbley Cookies made Gluten Free Berry Fudge Brownies

From Weird to Wonderful

Last week was, for lack of a better word or possibly the best word to describe it, weird. As in, The Twilight Zone weird. Or Weird Al weird. Or falling down the rabbit hole weird. I’m sure you get it. It was weird, and it wasn't the kosher kind.

Stress and uncertainty can do a lot of things to a person, particularly when you aren’t quite sure what it is you are stressed or uncertain about. While I was sick it felt like I was eating all the time. I felt better by Thursday, and rock climbed three days in a row. At the same time I was playing around with various supplements to enhance my health. Some days it worked while on other days... not so much. My hormones and emotions were playing Ping-Pong in the very back of my consciousness, coloring my perception of reality. Again, there were days where I was aware and bright eyed. But on most days, I didn’t like it at all.

From the weirdness came a beacon of light, though. This was the week the boyfriend was up from Harrisonburg to talk with students at GMU for the job fair. We talked about us, about hypothetical and/or future hard decisions, and we walked from it hand in hand, a better couple and better friends as the result. This may have been the underlying stress I didn’t know I had, because after our many heart-to-heart conversations, I’ve been sleeping a full night’s rest without waking up, and I’m not randomly hungry or mindlessly munching.

It was the domino effect, and it poured into the other aspects of my life. I became motivated to continue working on my resume and taking it seriously. With my sleeping well, I wasn’t as hungry and had the energy to run longer (view updated fitness regimen here). I am managing my time more efficiently, and thus have time to write a post or two… maybe three.

Starting this week, I’m managing recipes and posting a lot more regularly than I have been doing. I want to do at least one every other day, but I’d like to have around twenty posts a month. So be on the look out for more recipes, philosophizing, random pictures of food, adventures, health updates, and restaurant reviews.

My blog is changing, hopefully for the better, because I have been neglecting it terribly. I loved how much I learned my first month blogging, and recently I’ve been treating writing like it was a chore instead of a pastime. If I want to be the change I want to see in the world, I have to make the effort to develop and nurture such a feat.

I’m back from the Rabbit Hole, dear readers, with a new recipe for you.

As you may know, most of my breakfasts have consisted of breakfast bakes for a couple of months now. Some of them have been solely made with buckwheat flour or garbanzo bean flour, while others have had additional flours like coconut, CGF oats, or flaxseed meal. I like to keep the base around 275 to 350 calories, and incorporate fruits, veggies, and spreads for a higher nutritional content for an extra 100 to 200 calories. Calories don’t matter that much to me anymore, and I can happily say my breakfasts keep me going until 11:00, an impressive 4 – 5 hour stretch.

Recently I made a carrot cake breakfast bake and, loving it so much, decided to make a batch of muffins with a few modified adjustments and some added ingredients to make them cake-like and moist. The base is essentially two breakfast bakes combined to make 8 – 9 muffins, so if you eat four or six (yes, they’re that yummy) in a sitting, don’t worry about it. They hold well and don’t crumble on you, perfect for eating right out of your hand. Eat them with a smear of honey or stevia-sweetened cream cheese, almond butter, or simply them as is in all of their glorious muffin-ness.

Eat well, my friends, and enjoy. 

Carrot “Bran” Muffins

60 g Buckwheat flour
28 g Coconut flour
16 g Flaxseed meal
120 ml Carrot juice
120 ml Filtered water
10 ml Unfiltered apple cider vinegar
15 ml Coconut oil, room temperature
2 Eggs
60 g Unsweetened applesauce
80 g Thompson (or Sultana) raisins
2 medium Carrots, finely grated
45 g Unsalted pistachio meats, finely chopped (by hand or with a food processor)
1/2 – 1 scant tsp. Sea salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Bourbon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1/4 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Cloves
1/4 tsp. Ginger powder
Stevia, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the ingredients (sans the coconut oil, the grated carrot, raisins, and pistachio).
Fold in the remaining ingredients and let the batter sit at room temperature for fifteen minutes.
Pour the batter into greased muffin tins (I used a 3 oz ice cream scoop like this one to keep it even), and place in the oven to bake for thirty minutes.
When set, remove from the muffin tins to the cooling rack (I didn’t wait that long to take a bite).
Serve slightly above room temperature or chilled.

Makes 8 – 9 muffins.

The Best Oven-Baked Chicken You'll Ever Make

There are days where I come up with a recipe I like and really want to share it with the world. But two situations sometimes occur: firstly, Life with a capital “L” leads me in a profusion of directions and blogging is the last thing I think about; and secondly, the most common of the two, I don’t have much of a Story behind it.

You see, I’m not partial to simply posting the recipe without a little introduction about it at least. Cooking is linked to just about everything in my life. Food is a basic need after all. We need nourishment to thrive, to survive, and to simply enjoy the process of being nourished. 

Believe me when I say recipes are plentiful in this household, hurriedly written on notepads or loose paper, jotted down in pencil or ink (and sometimes a Sharpie permanent marker). I am always changing the recipe based on the ingredients I do or do not have, removing one in place for another, adding more to reach the consistency I desire, etc. There are a few I thought I’d posted already or had lost in my attempts to organize my life, and there are many that I truly enjoyed and wished to post but didn’t have my camera at the time and thus no photos to provide.

If there aren’t any photos to post or stories to tell, a recipe will not be published. It’s that plain and simple.

“Why is that?” you wonder. Well, I’ll tell you. I’m not a computer. I’m not a cooking robot who wants to keep it formal and prim. I want to show you how my photography skills and storytelling are steadily improving. I want to open a little window for you to see what goes on in my life and inside my head. I’m a real person, one who succeeds and fails, laughs and cries, learns as she goes, and loves to share her passions with others.

In short, I want perspective… for you and for me.

I want to meet people who are like-minded (or not), who have stories of their own that are related to mine. I want you to comment, to provide constructive criticism and encouraging words to others as well as myself, and to do so lovingly and with respect. I want you share your lives and your recipes with me and those who visit this site, because what you have to say may be the most important thing for someone to hear.

If you really think about it, the Gluten Free movement is rather amazing. Actually, any form of movement, whether it’s for a kind of dietary lifestyle, an ethical standard of living, a political and/religious principle, or a love for all things Sci-Fi, there are people all over the world who you can talk to, become friends with, give and receive advice, and spread the word. This can be just as negative as it is positive; still though, the movement spreads and spreads. Gluten free eating is significantly easier to accomplish these days with pre-made CGF products, restaurants and grocery stores that cater to those with food allergies, and most certainly blogs (ahem). There are people out there who truly care about the health of their family, their community, and the world. That’s why I do the GFRR every month (at least, I try). I want to show you just how marvelous and freeing any form of “restrictions” are. 

I made grain-free popovers, people. That feat alone showed me just how far I could go with a little effort and persistence. And it doesn’t stop there. There are recipes I’ve yet to try, and many of them I know are likely harder to successfully create than others (the following being the simplest recipe anyone can do), but they are all doable. Remember, someone before you made it delicious, and someone after you will also. So keep at it and keep moving forward. You’ll get there.

As I said, this recipe is easy-peasy. But... it isn’t really a recipe. It’s a method. Actually, it’s a perfect-every-time-you-do-it method. The recipe itself is up to you. It is one we have almost once a week, just like chili is. All you need is chicken (with skin and bones, if you please), some aluminum foil, a paper towel, a rather large deep-dish pan (depending on how many you want to feed), a silicon brush (optional, but I recommend it) and a hot oven.

For those who say they burn water or look to the microwave to make food edible, I promise this is a recipe you can do. Just follow the directions, be patient, and have fun. You are going to make the best oven-baked chicken you have ever tasted.

Let’s start with the oven, shall we? Preheat to 425ºF, and be sure that the shelf is in the very center of the oven. While you wait, line the deep pan with one or two sheets of aluminum foil. Lay the chicken pieces flat on the foil. In order to get a crispy skin, dab the skin dry with the paper towel. 

At this point, you can spice it up any way that sparks your fancy. I typically do sea salt and cracked pepper, but I grew up with Old Bay (gluten free, by the way) on my oven-baked chicken and heartily recommend it. In this case, I used chili powder in addition to the former two. No oil is required or encouraged (more on that later).

  

When the oven is ready, place the dish on the center shelf and bake for at least 45 minutes until checking. At this time, a pool of chicken fat will line the bottom of the pan, and I use the drippings to coat the skin with the silicon brush for epic crispiness. By one hour it should be done, but my family is partial to the meat being removed from the bone easily with a fork, so we bake it longer (around 15 to 30 minutes).

The result is a crispy skin, moist interior, and fall-off-the-bone and melt-in-your-mouth chicken. Next time I want to mix in honey with drippings and coat the chicken.

Now, I’d love to hear from you! How do you prepare oven-baked chicken (you know, aside from that fact it was baked in the oven)? What seasonings have you tried, enjoyed, and disliked? What methods have worked to get the skin especially crispy, or the meat particularly moist and falling off the bone?

Turkey Day Round-Up

Thanksgiving. A holiday focused on food, family, food, getting together, food, telling stories, food, and more food. I mentioned the food, right? 

My Leftovers Day Plate

Good.

I only had class on Monday this week, so much of my time was spent cleaning, cooking, and nervously awaiting the arrival of our other guests. We were eight around the table: Mama Dazz, the Burt-man, Grandpa B, Grandma D, Uncle Rich, myself, and the boyfriend’s father and brother. He came later in the evening, back from his five-day excursion in Mexico.  The energy at the table was enormous, and food was plentiful and beyond delicious. It wasn’t completely Morri friendly, and being grain-free and sweetener free made it slightly more difficult (I indulged with a sliver of pie), but the food that I could and did eat did not leave me wanting. Plus, it was my first Thanksgiving back from Sweden, so I was just tickled pink to be there.

First and foremost, the Turkey, a bird named after the country the English believed it originated (The Turks called it the Hindu, I think, though the bird comes from Northern America). We typically buy the all-natural Trader Joe’s turkey each year, which came with its own brine. Only, upon further inspection, I realized that the brine wasn’t Morri friendly because of the sugar, so we ended up getting the smaller and yes, more expensive Kosher bird. 

Regardless, it was totally worth the extra few bucks, because not only did it taste amazing but it occurred to us that maybe the bird was raised and fed differently due to its, uh, Kosher-ness. It wasn’t some hulking, too-big-for-its-own-legs, obese thing. It was smaller, with some of the feathers in the skin, and juicier than I remember turkey ever being. Next year, I’m going to look in buying a Morri friendly bird online and see where that goes.

As I was going grain-free, I decided not to make a gluten free stuffing which, until I got sick earlier this month, I was making it with a spoon bread base. Instead of putting it in the bird it was baked like a huge bread pudding and a whole onion was put in its place. The onion was my “stuffing”.

There were two kinds of greens, my Uncle Rich’s infamous collard greens, cooked with salted fatback, water, pepper flakes, and salt and pepper, and I made green beans with a delish twist, and whose recipe will be posted shortly.

Like many Thanksgiving dinners around the United States, our menu was rather heavy on the carbohydrates, but I think we did rather well in bringing color and balance to the table. Instead of mashed potatoes, we went with “small” sweet potatoes, baked at 400 ºF for 1.5 to 2 hours. The result is a caramelized and sticky exterior with a gooey middle that melts in your mouth. 

We had two sauces, turkey gravy and cranberry sauce, both homemade, grain-free, and definitely not out of a can. I'm doing my best not to brag too inanely, but our cranberry sauce was beyond amazing, and I wish I had written down the recipe (we used this one for inspiration). Mama Dazz started off with two bags of fresh cranberries, used two cups of orange juice instead of water to cook them, and finished it off with fresh orange pieces and walnuts. Before adding sugar to the whole thing she poured a bit into two ramekins, one for me and one for Grandma D, who has diabetes. I personally liked it unsweetened, but she used a sweetener for hers.

Except for the turkey and Uncle Rich’s collards, I was surprised that most of the things I put on my plate (and made) were vegan. Then again, since everything was mixed into a tasty jamboree of flavors, I guess it wasn’t so vegan after all. Oh well…

As for drinks, I made two kinds of ice tea, Irish Breakfast (caffeinated) and Green Rooibos (non-caffeinated), and poured them into wine bottles for a change of pace. We also had chilled white wines, a 2010 Da Vinci Chianti Big Sergey brought (along with pink roses), and sparkling apple cider. 

Mama Dazz's Apple-Quince Pie (Not GF)

Mama Dazz's Sorghum Pecan Pie (Not GF)

Dessert was a Thanksgiving feast in its own right, with four (count 'em, four) different pies, vanilla ice cream, homemade unsweetened whipped cream, and lots of coffee. Mama Dazz made Grandma D her own special single-serving berry pie as one, but she also made pecan pie and an apple-quince pie for the gluten eating crowd. I made a gluten-free pumpkin pie with a dairy free filling, using the second half of the pie crust recipe I made for last month’s Gluten Free Ratio Rally.

Grandma D's Three Berry Pie

My GF Pumpkin Pie!

It was weird having pie, with its not-so-much grain-free crust and honey sweetened filling, not to mention eating more than one fruit serving a day (the cranberry sauce was my second serving). After we picked him up from the airport, I ate a tiny sliver of my pie while he ate a reheated plate of amazing deliciousness. I felt loopy and slightly intoxicated after that, and my stomach didn’t know what to make of it. It wasn’t a bad feeling, though I did feel off. I think having a grain-free/sweetener free/limited fruit servings diet for a while may help, but it may end up becoming a long-term thing. FiveLac has been helpful; I just don’t want to take 3 – 6 packets every day for the rest of my life. And as long as I have garbanzo bean flour, I'm golden.

All in all, this Thanksgiving gave me a lot to be thankful for; you know, besides being thankful for the family I have. For my birthday I have this idea that, for every year after my birthday that’s the number of hours I give to doing community service (i.e., I’m twenty-two, so this year I do at minimum twenty-two hours). I am thankful that my lifestyle enables me to do that. I am thankful for the world I live in, for the people in it, and for the life I lead. I am thankful for every experience, every lesson, every mistake, and every success. I am thankful for my education, for my job, and for my bright today and the tomorrows that follow.

I am thankful for this year’s harvest, whatever that may be.

I end this post with a Happy Day After Thanksgiving to you all. May you have food in your cupboards and pantries all year long, a roof over your heads and a fireplace to keep you warm and dry, and finally, an open heart that grows with each passing day.

Dijon Green Beans with Almonds and Mushrooms (adapted from this recipe)

1 lb 8 oz French-cut green beans, preferably frozen
10 oz Baby Bella mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 oz Almond slivers
1 oz Coconut oil
5 Garlic cloves, left whole
1/2 tsp. Sea salt
1/2 tsp. Cracked pepper
Dash nutmeg
2 oz Dijon mustard

Put a large pot over medium heat and add the coconut oil.
Sautee the mushrooms, almond slivers, and the garlic cloves until thoroughly cooked and browned (careful, though, the almonds can burn if you are not watching).
Add in the green beans and stir until the ingredients are completely integrated.
Cover the pan with a lid and lower the heat to medium or medium-low for up to three minutes.
Pour in the spices and Dijon mustard in the final minutes of cooking (i.e. the green beans are still a vibrant green and lukewarm).
After it has cooked, let it sit for five minutes before serving.

Serves 8 – 10 people as a side dish, with a very likely chance of leftovers.

Draft Cider, Saffron, & Chive Gourgères

Maybe it has to do with not having anything to occupy my thoughts aside from what is going on at home day to day, but I’ve been considering my holistic lifestyle as of late. Meaning, I wondered how I came to be gluten free, a standard of living that led to other variants of food-related health I follow. Just how did I end up becoming gluten free? Why was it so easy to follow? Could I, rather, would I ever go back to the “White Bread Diet”?

My Creative Mind is quite the philosopher when it wants to be.

Let us consider the WBD for a moment, if you please. As a kid, I was quite the picky eater. I didn’t like pancakes doused in syrup or breads with visible seeds or grains. I didn’t like runny egg yolks, or eggs for that matter. I didn’t like the texture of oranges or tomatoes. I wasn’t a fan of rice. The majority of seafood was off limits. And don’t get me started on vegetables. Much of my focus was anything I could put in a sandwich or on top of a dinner roll or pasta. 

First time making them. They were slightly larger, and without the saffron.

The WBD also goes hand in hand with Adding White Sugar To Everything. When I was sick, and I often was, with terrible migraines and a tender stomach, sodas such as Ginger Ale or Coca Cola dulled the pain. Nasty tasting medicine tinctures were served with Breyers vanilla ice cream just so I would eat it without nausea forcing it back up again. There was a time I actually put white sugar on top of fruits for sweetness, when fruit juices were not 100%, when Slim Fast was an okay breakfast for all, and when high fructose corn syrup what the sweetener of choice.

It’s apparent that we’ve come a long way since then.

The WBD is the inhibitor diet, the diet that keeps you from truly tasting the wonders of the gastronomic universe. It keeps you in this tiny box where a particular cuisine or food type reigns supreme, where going out to an ethnic restaurant only to eat what you know you like is an adventure of epic proportions.

Out of necessity, this so-called restrictive lifestyle known as GF has broadened my palate and eating spectrum. It was a gateway lifestyle to a happy Morri, a healthy Morri that started to realize the infinite possibilities of her “limitations.” When I cut out refined sugars and pre-made gluten free products of old (Before the Lärabar, the Gluten Free Mall, and So Delicious Coconut Chocolate Ice Cream), I started to see exactly what I had been missing. I started making things from scratch, and developing a knack for it. I began craving for vegetables the eight-year-old me (heck, even the sixteen-year-old me) would have never eaten, or enjoyed eating them. The science and magic behind food and making recipes were always a mystery in my world BGF (before gluten free), and now I’m making things that most people feel they have to buy because they are so hard to make at home. 

The Gluten Free Ratio Rally (hosted by the amazing Erin of The Sensitive Epicure) has revolutionized gluten free baking since its beginnings earlier this year. It brings a number of wonderful people to make something of the same type with their own personal twist added to it. If you have a ratio for a particular food that you are familiar with, say pancakes or muffins or scones, you can use whatever ingredients you have on hand and make a remarkable dish. At the same time, if you are given a ratio to a food that you are unfamiliar with that up until now was a recipe left to the professionals in the culinary world, it is no longer impossible. It’s a challenge.

Before May of this year, I never thought I could make a pâte à choux recipe, even BGF. This eggy pastry dough can be made into savory starters or dessert delights, ranging from gnocchi and gourgère to churros and éclairs. It can be stuffed with soft fillings or topped with ganache or served by its delicious lonesome. It can be steamed, baked, boiled, and fried. This is the pastry of all pastries, one that is all elegance and not as hard to make as one would think, gluten free or not.

Draft Cider, Saffron, & Chive Gourgères

8 oz Newton’s Folly Authentic Draft Cider
4 oz Butter
1 oz Glutinous rice flour
1 oz Rice flour
1 oz Millet flour
1 oz Tapioca starch
8 oz Egg (around 5 eggs, with egg white removed)
1/4 tsp. Sea salt
1/4 tsp. Saffron threads
1/3 c. (0.5 oz) Finely grated Parmesan-Reggiano
1/3 c. (1 oz) Finely grated Gruyère
0.25 oz (1/4 c.) Chives, thinly chopped

Preheat the oven to 425°F.
In medium-sized pot, bring the hard cider, butter, saffron, and salt to a simmer over a high heat.
Reduce the heat to medium, add the flour, and stir rapidly with a wooden spoon. (The flour will absorb the liquid quickly and a dough will form and pull away from the sides.)
Keep stirring to continue cooking the flour and cook off the liquid, about a minute or so.
Remove your pan from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes, when you are able to touch the dough for an extended period but it is still warm to hot.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring rapidly until each is combined into a paste.
Stir in the grated cheeses and chive after the eggs have been incorporated.
On a parchment-lined or greased baking sheet, pipe or spoon out golf ball-sized portions (I used an icing bag for this).
Place the gourgères in the middle of the oven for ten minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F to complete the cooking, about 10 – 15 minutes longer.
Taste or cut into one to judge the doneness of the pastries.
Before serving, you can fill the puffs with a soft cheese or a savory mousse.

Makes 24 – 28 gourgères. Can be served immediately or stored up to 48 hours in the fridge.

And don't forget to check out what the other lovely members of the Rally did with the pâte à choux ratio:

Amanda of Gluten Free Maui | Earl Grey Cream Puffs  
Amie of The Healthy Apple | Pate Choux with Creamy Macadamia Icing     
Britt of GF in the City | Pâte à Choux
Caleigh of Gluten Free[k] | Savoury Paris-Brest
Caneel of Mama Me Gluten Free | Key Lime Cream Puffs
Charissa of Zest Bakery | Choux Shine: Koshi-an Filled Cream Puffs
Claire of Gluten Freedom |  Chocolate Eclairs
(Our amazing host!) Erin of The Sensitive Epicure | Gluten free gougeres filled with herbed goat cheese mousse | Churros y Chocolate Sin Gluten
Gretchen of kumquat | Cheddar Gougères with Dates and Pine Nuts | A Danish Puff
Irvin of Eat the Love | White Cheddar Gourgères stuffed with Porcini and Shallot Goat Cheese
Jenn of Jenn Cuisine | Gruyère & Herbed Gougères
Lisa of Gluten Free Canteen | Cracked Pepper & Cheese Gougères
Mary Fran of Frannycakes | Marillenknodel with ginger and cardamom sugar & chai cream puffs
Meaghan of The Wicked Good Vegan | Cardamom and Rose Water Cream Puffs (with Rad Whip!)            
Meg of Gluten-Free Boulangerie | Chouquettes   
Pete & Kelli of No Gluten, No Problem | Almond Choux Florentines
Rachel of The Crispy Cook | Cream Puffs Filled with Coffee Cream
Robyn of Chocswirl | Gruyere & Parmesan Gougeres with Sage & Thyme   
Sea of Book of Yum | Rose Vanilla Cream Puffs and Vanilla Eclairs
Silvana of Silvana's Kitchen | Gluten-Free Spinach Gnocchi Parm
T.R.of No One Likes Crumbley Cookies | Beignets
Tara of A Baking Life | Parmesan & Black Pepper Gougères | Frangipane Puffs