Thursday, April 21, 2011

Sweet Recipes for Gluten Free Living

When I told my friends I was taking my family on a 30 day, gluten free journey, they all turned their noses up in disgust. One of the biggest questions I received was “what about sweets?” I am not a big cake and candy eater and, although I don't discourage candy in my house, it's not widely found. There is a criteria for sweets – even before the gluten free change. We don't allow dyes, high fructose corn syrup, excessive sugar or anything that can stain the sofa.

When I was doing research on gluten free eating, I found a few recipes for desserts that I was dying to try. For the most part, I bake everything from scratch – even though I'm not a baker. I stick to basic recipes, nothing too crazy.

I started by looking for recipes that were flexible enough for me to make changes without reinventing the wheel. A recipe I use all of the time is one for chocolate chip cookies from Southern Living. Before the gluten free change, I modified this recipe because the cookies came out so dry and “cake” like. I have to warn you, there are no measurements to my changes. You will need to try these by taste until it's good for you.
Here is what I came up with for a gluten free Chocolate Chip Cookie

3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
Above is the original recipe. I substituted butter for melted vegan margarine, granulated sugar for maple syrup and for flour I use All Purpose Baking Flour from Gluten Free Pantry


I am not a cupcake eater but my children love them. I was watching Guiltless Gen one morning and she was making vegan cupcakes so I thought I would try her recipe and just replace the things I needed to.

VEGAN COCONUT CAKE
INGREDIENTS
3 cups Organic Flour
1 TBS Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Salt
1 1/3 cups Organic Cane Sugar
1/2 cup Non-Hydrogenated Vegetable Margarine
1 TBS Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Coconut Extract
1 cup Soy Milk
1 cup low-fat Coconut Milk
1/2 cup fresh shredded Coconut
My kids, nor I like coconut but I used this recipe for the base of mine because it's dairy free as well. So feel free to take creative license on this recipe.


I hope you enjoy these 2 recipes for yourself or for your kids. For more, sign up for our newsletter and receive 10 gluten free recipes.

You can also find more recipes in Gluten-Free Baking Classics
Thank you!

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