Orange Chocolate Bread

Yea, I know. However, if you could smell my apartment right now you would change your mind. Really.

So lets put it together and see what you think.

The recipe called for chocolate chips and freshed squeezed orange juice. I just happened to a few oranges that needed to be used so I grabbed my handy ZestN’est citrus zester and the juicer and went to work. I like this zester as it contains the zest as your zesting wich makes clean up easier and storage nice.

Orange Zest.

Squeezing OJ.

The trick to good zest is to be firm enough to get the outer peel, but not the inner rind. The rind can be tart and bitter and I found that for me personally it overshadows the flavor of the peel. Any extra zest can also be stored in the fridge for about a week and used in other dishes or as garnishes.

Store extra zest in the fridge. The ZestN’est has a cover that fits over the grater for storage.

We add the zest and the juice to lightly beaten eggs. Add the water, oil, honey, & ACV. Mix until combined.

The eggs, zest and orange juice.

Add the oil, honey, water & apple cider vinegar.

Combine throughly.

When all the liquids are combined add the the GF flour blend for bread of choice. I’ll list mine with the recipe.

This dough has just combined and it still a bit lumpy.

this is the dough after beating for four minutes.

Tossing in the chocolate chips. Seasons greetings.

After gently mixing in the chocolate chips.

Mixed the flour blend with liquids until completely combined, then mix in high 4 4 minutes.  The dough will almost be like a sugar cookie dough.  It is very cool to watch the transformation.  The dough also seemed to be a lighter color and not so glossy.  Add the chocolate chips and mix on low for a moment or two to fold them in and your ready to spoon into a pan.  I used some seasonal chocolate chips to see how they would work for holidays gift breads. The recipe calls for a lager pan than I have so the pictures reflect the two smaller pans I used.  I did not notice any major changes in cooking times. Be mindful of it however.

We spoon the dough into the pans and smooth out the tops. I leaned this nifty technique of dipping the spatula in water to help keep the dough from sticking to it. It helps a lot.

In the pan and ready for proofing.

One of the things I have discovered and really like about GF breads is that it only needs one rising and its not a big deal at that. So now put our loaf in a warm spot with no drafts and let it rise for about an hour or until the dough rises to the top of the pan then place in your nice toasty oven for an additional hour(ish). Turn out on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Bread on the cooling rack.

Slice and serve because bread is happing.

Sliced and ready to eat. No butter needed.

Experimental Bread

Todays is a bit of an experiment as I was adding in the flour blend I was using only to discover that I was short about 3/4 of a cup.  So I substituted a coconut flour for the difference.  I was just going to use an AP, but decided that if I’m gonna blow it I wanna see what happens if I do “X”.  It blended a little smoother than I was expecting and had a kind on ‘Playdoh’ texture.

As you can see, even in the pan it looks more like clay than bread dough.  It did not rise and made a somewhat dense loaf.  It was completely edible and actually had a mild coconut taste that was not bad, but I did not care for it as well as others I have done.  I would still like to use the coconut flour when I blend it in a more balanced ratio.

I did have one small piece with peanut butter and it was better that it was plain.  Might make great bread crumbs.

Experimental Bread

Experimental Bread

Might make great bread crumbs.

 

 

 

 

Brownies! They are so fun and so simple-lydelicious!

I have found making brownies fun!  And it is amazingly simple. OMG!

I just started by melting the butter in a bowl over a pan of water (I don’t have a double broiler). The bowl is an old Pyrex mixing bowl and the glass conducts heat beautifully.  When the butter was melted I added the brown sugar and stirred it around until it was like a thickish syrup.  It was a lot of fun playing with this.  Really.

Butter and Brown Sugar. Mix until dissolved.

When the sugar has completely dissolved, add the cocoa powder.  It becomes this dry and crumbly paste.  I was so sure I had done something wrong at this point, it looked so bad.

Adding the cocoa powder.

Now is when the magic started happening.  I added the eggs and vanilla and it was like POOF and the batter was like all silky smooth and glossy.

Add those eggs and wonderful happens in an instant.

When the batter is al nice and smooth again, we pour into the pan and give a tap or three to get out any air bubbles (I just drop the pan from a half inch or so above the counter).

Batter in the pan.

Toss it in the over for 20 min at 350.  Woot! Out comes love.  I get some of the best ‘It’s gluten free?’ responses from these brownies.

Fresh out of the oven.

Plate and serve.  I have also made these with chocolate chips added to the batter just before puring into the pan.  These are great topped with whipped cream.

 

Plated and ready.

Oh no!  I was going to post the recipe, but I can’t find it.  I have looked all over.  250+ Evernote recipes, Dropbox files, and even the cookbook! Nada. If I find it again, I’ll post it. Recipes are plentiful however, so get one, twink it and make it your own.  This is a great quick fix, fast gratification moment for you and your kitchen. Have fun.

A Gluten Free St. Patrick’s Day

Well, this was a great day for me.  Not only did I have a great meal with great friends, I had an awesomely great loaf of homemade gluten free soda bread.  I put my fingers to the keyboard and let Google do all the work and decided to use the Betty Crocker recipe (Although I did not use the BC gluten free flour.  I used a baking blend of different flours.)

Soda Bread

It was really tasty.  I have never made soda bread and it was incredibly easy.  My friend ate half the loaf.  Now, she does love soda bread, but she says it was a really good loaf and the she would not have guessed it was GF had she not known.  Thank you!

I did not have any currents, so we went a little non traditional and used craisins. I like craisins.

Hope you had a great day as well.

Passenger

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes
michelle w., on February 21, 2014, posted:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Threes

I made sweet corn muffins last week for my Sunday lunch group, but never got around to posting it, so this was and excellent challenge to show off the pictures I took.  I usually take pics of Sunday lunch, but I have been very remiss about posting lately.

Left over sweet goodies…

become nummy corn muffins

Corn muffins

Bonus: Lunch

The first one is of the left overs that I brought home from a salad I had the night before.  It consisted of blue cheese, crasins and candied walnuts.  The recipe only called for toasted walnuts, but I thought the candied walnuts would be nice.  The cheese had gotten mixed up with it on the way home so I just tossed it all in.  They were pretty good.  None came home.

The second image is the cut away of the muffin.  Most of the ad-ins settled a bit on the bottom, but it was ok.  The last image was the presentation to my Sunday lunch group.

The last image (yea, I know it was supposed to be three, but it was there… I was there…) is lunch all pulled together.  It seems very dis-jointed, but they liked it.  They are a wonderful test group.  Thanks guys.