GF CCC with Oats 4.19.13

Gluten-free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

8 oz butter
2 oz chia seeds, ground
3 oz sorghum flour
2 oz potato starch
1 t salt
2 t baking powder
10 oz brown sugar
2 oz sugar
1.75 eggs (1 whole egg)
0.55 yolks (1 egg yolk)
2 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
10 oz chocolate chips (I only used 7)
7.25 oz oats

I didn't melt the butter this time.  I mixed the dough using the creaming method.  They were not greasy and actually were more like a power cookie or an oatmeal breakfast bar.  Slightly sweet and very hearty.

GF CCC with chia seeds 4.18.13

8 oz butter
3 oz chia seeds, ground
6 oz sorghum flour
3.5 oz potato starch
3 oz almond flour
1 t salt
2 t baking powder
10 oz brown sugar
2 oz sugar
1.75 eggs (1 whole egg)
0.55 yolks (1 egg yolk)
2 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
10 oz chocolate chips

Method: Melt butter and set aside to cool.  Whisk together flours, baking powder and spices.  Whisk separately the eggs, yolks, milk, salt and vanilla.  Blend sugars into the melted butter, then add the egg mixture and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients and stir until all the flour is hydrated.  The batter should have the consistency of a soft cookie dough.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Let the batter sit overnight in the fridge. This will help hydrate the chia, but keep in the fridge as the dough contains raw eggs.

The batter was pretty thick.  A heaping spoonful fell off the spoon very slowly, in about 6 seconds.

I baked them at 325 for 20 minutes.  I think they came out well.  They need to dry out on a cooling rack for a bit, but they had chewiness to them.  They still seemed a little overhydrated, though.

Richardson's chocolate covered oreo 4.11.13

I was scared, but this cookie was pretty delicious.  The chocolate was great and the perfect thickness around the cookie.  One is plenty for a nice treat.  I'm afraid to know how much sugar and calories are in just one cookie.

Henion Bakery 4.10.13

Henion Bakery, 174 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA

Bialys! I've shamefully never had one in NYC, so I don't know how this one compares.  It was their french bread dough.  I guess I was expecting more chewy, like a bagel, probably because it looks kinda like a bagel.

Croissant!  It was yummy, and whole wheaty

Scotch oat cookie!  Butterscotch and oats make this cookie very yummy.

Bart's Homemade Ice Cream 4.10.13

Bart's Homemade Cafe, 103 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA

Mint chocolate chip.  Very large chips, but sparse.  The ice cream had a strange texture, like it had too much air in it, like whipped cream.  It was not very good.

Angel Food Cake 4.9.13

Oh, no!  The cake collapsed.  I suspect too much hydration.  I forgot to adjust here for no gluten.

0.75 oz tapioca starch
0.75 oz potato starch
0.625 oz sweet rice flour
0.625 oz cornstarch
2.875 oz caster sugar

5.5 ea egg whites
1/8 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/8 t almond
3.25 oz caster sugar

Great taste, but not very fluffy.

Sponge Cake II 4.5.13

Here's my sponge cake with a little less sugar and more flour.  I also included liquids and baking powder.

3.625 oz cake flour, sifted (less if possible next time)
2.2 oz yolks (4 large yolks)
4.8 oz whites (4 large whites)
1/4 t baking powder
2.25 oz caster sugar
2.5 T warm water (1.25 oz)
1.5 T canola oil (0.75 oz)
1/2 t vanilla

Fill 8 inch pan with 13 7/8 oz of batter.

It came out pretty good.

I filled half the cake with sliced strawberries macerated, and vanilla pastry cream.  Then frosted with strawberry whipped cream.  Yum.

Vanilla Pastry Cream

1 c milk
2 oz sugar
2.5 oz yolks
0.75 oz cornstarch
0.5 oz butter
1/8 t lemon or 1/4 t vanilla flavoring

Gluten-free Chips 4.5.13

Back to Nature makes such delicious gluten-free chips.  I love the white cheddar flavor too.  There's something addictive about these.

I also tried Lundberg and Real McCoy's rice chips.  Lundbers chips were okay; they didn't have the best flavor.  Real McCoy's were better, but not as addictive as the Back to Nature brand.

Glutino chips were not yummy, they had a strange taste and flat texture.  The white cheddar rice thins were awesome.  I could eat the whole box in one sitting.

Pinkerry Key Lime Yogurt 4.4.13

Pinkberry, 1380 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA

The key lime yogurt was better than I imagined.  It has a subtle citrus flavor that was just so delicious in the tart yogurt.  It wasn't too sweet and the flavour wasn't too strong.  It was just perfect and could replace the original tart flavor.

Richardson's for Easter 4.4.13

Richardson's Candy Kitchen, 500 Greenfield Road, Deerfield, MA

Yummy dark bunny!

Sponge Cake I 4.3.13

I tried a new sponge cake recipe and it was a success.  It's not the final recipe, but it allowed me to find the appropriate baker's percentages that I was looking for.

4 3/8 oz cake flour, sifted
2 7/8 oz yolks (4 large yolks)
5 5/8 oz whites (4 large whites)
5 1/4 oz caster sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t almond

Mix dries.  Beat whites until foamy, add lemon juice.  Add half of sugar when whites get to soft peaks.  Beat until glossy.  Beat in yolks, then stir in dry ingredients carefully.  Bake at 375 until set.

There's less egg sand more sugar in this new recipe compared to my previous one.  I'm not sure why need the recipe needs baking powder with no liquids or additional fats in the recipe. The texture of the cake is very spongy.  The holes are very large and the cake is very light.  I'd prefer light cake with tight crumb (small holes.) The cake is very flexible, which is a great feature.  But it is dry without much taste.  But it has the perfect sponge texture.  

Next time I will try the previous recipe with more flour.

Chia CCC II 4.2.13

Increased amounts of tapioca and almond.  However, I'd like to try a white version without the chia.

Chia Chocolate Chip Cookies

8 oz butter, melted

3 oz chia seeds, ground
3 oz sorghum flour
3 oz potato starch
3 oz tapioca starch
3 oz almond flour

1 t kosher salt
2 t baking powder
10 oz brown sugar
2 oz sugar
1.75 oz eggs (1 whole egg)
0.55 oz yolks (1 egg yolk)
2 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
10 oz chocolate chips

The cookies still had a lot of hydration and came out too thin.

Chia CCC I 4.1.13

Chia Chocolate Chip Cookies

8 oz butter, melted

3 oz chia seeds, ground
3 oz sorghum flour
3 oz potato starch
2 oz tapioca starch
2 oz almond flour

1 t kosher salt
2 t baking powder
10 oz brown sugar
2 oz sugar
1.75 oz eggs (1 whole egg)
0.55 oz yolks (1 egg yolk)
2 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
10 oz chocolate chips

The batter was very wet.  I made cookies which spread a lot and took a long time to dry out.  The bar cookies were wet as well.

Flour and Georgetown Cupcake 3.31.13

Flour, 131 Clarendon St, Boston, MA
Georgetown Cupcake, 83 Newbury St, Boston, MA

Carrot Cupcakes for Easter!  I also wanted to try the peeps at Flour Bakery, but they were sold out.

The Flour cupcake is on the left.  They are jumbo sized.  Unfortunately, my cupcake got smushed in the box. Flour's cupcake was my favorite.  The cream cheese frosting was light, slightly tart and buttery.  The cake was hearty, moist, and had the texture similar to a bread or tea cake. The Georgetown cupcake is on the right.  I had to wait for it, so I think the cupcake was slightly warm when it was frosted, as the frosting is sliding off the top.  It has a fondant carrot on top, which is cute.  The frosting was very sweet, and the cake was light and moist. I favored Flour's cupcake because the cake had richer flavor and the frosting was delicious.  I don't like super sweet frosting.

Flour's Carrot Cupcake

Georgetown Cupcake's Carrot Cupcake

I also tried a Strawberry Chocolate Lave Cupcake at Georgetown Cupcake.  The cake was a little try, but they serve it as a filled cupcake, which disguises the dry cake.  The chocolate cake did have nice texture though.  The frosting was very sweet, but it had a nice strawberry flavor to it.  The filling was super sweet fudgy chocolate.  A little too sweet for me, but very pretty.

GF CCC 3.25.13

I'm trying a new "white" flour blend with my chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The flour blend is for equal parts almond flour, sorghum, tapioca starch and potato starch.  I'm trying these flours using equal weights.

8 oz butter
3.5 oz sorghum
3.5 oz potato starch
3 oz tapioca starch
3 oz almond flour
1 t salt
2 t baking powder
10 oz brown sugar
2 oz sugar
1.75 eggs (1 whole egg)
0.55 yolks (1 egg yolk)
2 T milk
1 1/2 t vanilla
10 oz chocolate chips

I used an extra half ounce of flour in the recipe since the dough looked soft and I chose potato starch because the original suggestion was for equal volumes of flour, and potato starch has the least volume for its weight.

I'm going to let the battter sit overnight and try baking some cookies tomorrow.  I would also like to add chia flour to this recipe.

Day 1 results - too much hydration!

Day 2 results - too much hydration!

There's a strange chewiness to these cookies.  I think it's due to the tapioca and potato starches.  I think controlling these amounts may be the key to the perfect texture.  I really like the color of these cookies, so maybe adding some white chia is a good idea.

Egg Cookies 3.26.13

Linzer Apricot Eggs!

Quebrada Baking Co 3.25.13

19 Leonard St, Belmont, MA

Home of the Bunny Cake!  This one found its way home.

Phone home, bunnies!

Power Cookie 3.20.13

Bonnieville's power cookies have a new resealable packaging.  Pick them up at your local Whole Foods or other health food stores.  I got the chocolate mint.