gluten free. . . but you would never guess!

Apricot Oat Crunchies- Cookies That Are GF Or Not!

Written on May 7, 2012 by Andrea in Cookies, Recipes

These Apricot Oat Cookies have a lot of good things in them- dried apricots, oatmeal, cornflakes and coconut. The result is a lot of great flavors and a fun texture. This cookie is great anytime and I love making it during the holidays because it looks beautiful as part of a plate of mixed cookies.

The recipe for this cookie is very versatile because you could substitute any other dried fruit in place of the apricots.

These cookies are very quick to put together- the part that takes the longest is cutting up the dried apricots.

You will notice that I used 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum in this recipe. It needed the gum because the baked cookies fell apart when I made them without it. I only use xanthan gum if the recipe needs it.

I shared this recipe with Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, Hearth and Soul Hop at 21st Century Housewife, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager, Gluten Free Wednesdays at The Gluten Free Homemaker, Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies, Allergy Friendly Friday at Cybele Pascal Allergy Friendly Cuisine, Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist, Allergy Free Wednesdays at The Tasty Alternative

Here are a few other recipes that you might enjoy:

Apricot Almond Refrigerator Cookies

Gluten Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Banana Walnut Cookies

Apricot Oat Crunchies- Cookies That Are GF Or Not!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper

Beat sugar and butter, then add vanilla and egg.

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

In a medium bowl, stir together GF flour mix, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.

1 cup GF Flour Mix* (or “regular” flour if you don’t have an issue with gluten)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if using “regular” flour)

Blend flour mixture with butter mixture.

Add oatmeal, coconut and apricots and mix well.

3/4 cup gluten free oatmeal

1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

Add 1 cup gluten free cornflakes and mix gently so they don’t get all broken.

Drop cookie dough by tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, 12 per sheet. I form the dough into a more rounded shape with my fingers.

Bake at 350 degrees for a total of 10 minutes, switching the baking sheets from top to bottom midway through the baking time.

Cookies will be a light golden brown when done. Don’t bake too long because they will get hard!

This recipe makes 3 dozen cookies

*GF Flour Mix

The GF flour mixture that I use is pretty standard. I use Authentic Foods gluten free flours because they are ground more finely than commercial brand GF flours that you can buy off the shelf. This results in wonderful baked goods that do not have that “gritty” feel when you chew them like so many products we all tried in the beginning!

GF Flour Mixture

2 cups AF Superfine Brown Rice flour (available in the amazon.com store on my blog)

2/3 cup AF Potato Starch flour (available in my store)

1/3 cup AF Tapioca flour (available in my store)

I make up several batches of this mixture at a time and keep it in a canister. I keep all of my other GF flours in the freezer.

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Chicken Marinated with Lemon and Basil

Written on May 5, 2012 by Andrea in Main Courses, Recipes

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This Lemon and Basil Chicken is another new favorite of ours. The marinade flavors the chicken so much more and the meat is really moist if you let the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for 24 hours before you cook it.

We buy the family size packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts which usually weigh about 4 pounds. It sounds like a lot to cook for just 2 people but we eat it all kinds of ways for the next few days. We eat it that night with a vegie and a salad, then the next day it makes a great healthy sandwich for Frank and a salad for me.

We are really lucky to have several grocery stores to choose from because at least one of them always has the chicken that I buy on sale. This last time we only paid $1.68 a pound for boneless skinless breasts. I only buy meat from brands that I trust to not add any salt brine or other ingredients to preserve the meat. If you see pork or beef that is “guaranteed tender” or other words like that, watch out because things have been added to the raw meat to make it tender.

We are trying to avoid foods with nitrates and nitrites, so that usually means sliced meats from a grocery store deli are out. Unless the meat is freshly roasted at the store you are buying it from, most meat will have some kind of preservatives added so it can sit in the case until it is purchased by someone.

Boar’s Head is one of the main brands of deli meat and cheese that grocery stores here in Arizona carry. I just looked on their website and they have an All Natural category in their product line. I will have to look now to see if the local stores carry any of the All Natural deli meats.

I kind of got sidetracked from my Lemon and Basil Chicken recipe, didn’t I? The reason I went sideways was because I started thinking about barbecuing and roasting more chicken and other meats to use in sandwiches instead of buying sliced deli meat.

In this recipe I used some Meyer lemon rind and juice that I had frozen when my neighbor at the old house had a huge crop a couple of years ago. If you like Meyer lemons and you find them in your store for a good price, think about buying a bunch and zesting and juicing them to freeze for future recipes. I use a Microplane zester and then juice them with a citrus juicer. The year that my neighbor gave me all of those lemons I think I counted and it was 175 lemons that I zested and juiced! No wonder I still have some left!

This recipe for Meyer Lemon and Basil Marinade makes just under 2 cups which was more than enough for the 6 chicken breasts that I had.

In addition to the lemon, basil, onion, garlic and olive oil, I added 3/4 of a cup of peeled chopped apple to this marinade. I wanted to sweeten it naturally and also give the mixture a little more bulk. I used 1 tablespoon of honey to balance the rest of the acid from the lemon juice. If you use regular lemons instead of Meyers you will probably need to add a little more honey.

I shared this recipe with Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist, Allergy Free Wednesdays at The Tasty Alternative, Real Food Wednesday at Kelly The Kitchen Kop, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager

Here are a few of my previous chicken recipes:

Grilled Chicken Chopped Salad with Curry Dressing

Chicken Cacciatore

Soy Free Teriyaki Style Marinade

Chicken Marinated with Lemon and Basil

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth:

1 large clove garlic, chopped fine

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons onion, chopped fine

2 tablespoons Meyer lemon zest

1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup apple, peeled and chopped small (I used Gala)

1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar (more to taste if using regular lemons)

Place 6 or 8 boneless skinless chicken breasts (4-5 pounds) in marinade and refrigerate for 24 hours before barbecuing or baking.

This recipe makes just under 2 cups of marinade

Welcome to Andreas Kitchen!

If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to my blog to get updated whenever I post a recipe.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies- GF Or Not!

Written on May 2, 2012 by Andrea in Cookies, Recipes

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These Mexican Chocolate Cookies will be the 28th cookie recipe that I have posted. I wonder if I should divide the category up into two sections- Chocolate Cookies and Non-Chocolate Cookies? Maybe I should because then it wouldn’t be so obvious that I have posted more cookie recipes than anything else. Oh well!

I was just thinking that this cookie would be great used as part of an “Oreo cookie” type of gluten free pie crust. The flavor of these cookies is a pretty intense dark chocolate because I used my favorite Droste Dark Chocolate Pastilles in addition to 1/4 cup of regular chocolate chips.

This recipe was originally published in Cooking Light Magazine in December of 2009. I changed the all purpose flour to my Gluten Free Flour Mix, but the only other change was to reduce the amount of sugar from 1 and 1/4 cups to 3/4 of a cup. I know, it’s a lot! Why does everyone make things so sweet?

These cookies have just a dash each of black pepper and cayenne pepper, so the pepper flavor is not that dominant. 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon is the other ingredient that turns this cookie into a Mexican Chocolate cookie.

After these cookies are baked they are topped with just a little bit of powdered sugar. I use my metal sieve to dust the sugar on lightly.

I shared this recipe with Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies, Gluten Free Wednesdays at The Gluten Free Homemaker

Here are a few of my other favorite chocolate cookies:

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cappuccino Thins

Chocolate Sambuca Cookies

Mexican Chocolate Cookies- GF Or Not!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cover 3 baking sheets with parchment paper

Stir together dry ingredients:

3/4 cup GF Flour Mix*

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

dash of black pepper

dash of cayenne pepper

Melt chocolates on low in a pan on your stovetop (or microwave)

1- 3.5 oz package Droste Dark Chocolate Pastilles (or other75% cacao chocolate)

1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Set chocolate aside and cool slightly before using but don’t let harden

Beat sugar and butter in a large bowl until well blended

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter, softened

Add 1 egg to sugar mixture and beat well

Add cooled chocolate and

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon water

Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture and beat until just blended.

Form tablespoons of dough into round shapes and flatten slightly on prepared cookie sheets

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes total or until almost set.

Switch baking sheets from top to bottom midway through the cooking time

Remove from oven and cool on baking sheets for a couple of minutes until set.

Cool completely on a wire rack after dusting lightly with a little bit of powdered sugar in a sieve.

This recipe makes 30 cookies

*GF Flour Mixture

GF Flour Mixture

2 cups AF Superfine Brown Rice Flour (available in the amazon.com store on my blog)

2/3 cup AF Potato Starch Flour (available in my store)

1/3 cup AF Tapioca Flour (available in my store)

I make up several batches of this mixture at a time and keep it in a canister. I keep all of my other GF flours in the freezer.

Welcome to Andreas Kitchen! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to my blog to get updated whenever I post a recipe.

Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup

Written on April 30, 2012 by Andrea in Recipes, Soups

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This Italian Sausage and Vegetable Soup is another recipe that I have been making for many years. You can make it with a variety of vegies but I love this version with red swiss chard, green beans and roma tomatoes. I use lots of onions, fresh fennel and garlic in the soup base as well as…

Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes- GF Or Not!

Written on April 29, 2012 by Andrea in Breakfast, Recipes

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This recipe for Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes was originally published in Bon Appetit Magazine in September of 2010. The recipe is not on their website but it came from a restaurant in Carbondale, CO called Village Smithy. It looks like a great restaurant that would be fun to visit! The first time I made this recipe I…

Gumdrop Cookies with Oatmeal and Coconut- GF Or Not!

Written on April 26, 2012 by Andrea in Cookies, Recipes

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This recipe for Gumdrop Cookies was originally from my Mom. The only change that I made to it was to reduce the sugar by 1/4 of a cup and to convert it to gluten free by substituting my gluten free flour mix in place of regular white flour. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of…