lavender glazed candied chestnuts

lavender glazed candied chestnuts, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

Christmas morning and often before I love to include panettone on the menu. It is Italy's Christmas cake and is delightful. The key ingredients to making this cake unique are fiori di Sicilia, which is an extract of special flowers, and candied chestnuts. The best panettone I have ever tasted is the one Williams-Sonoma sells. The challenge is to duplicate it and make it with gluten free flour. I have never found candied chestnuts available for sale so I set out to make them myself, a good kitchen challenge. And as long as I was making them I decided to add one more flavor: lavender. I took roasted chestnuts and simmered them in a concentrated simple syrup (2 parts sugar to one part water) with a whole vanilla bean. Then I added the lavender and let it steep in the syrup. Then a second sugar syrup, even more concentrated to dip the already lavender dipped chestnuts, so double dipping. I added a little candied lavender to the top and let them dry for 15 hours.
I chopped them up, mixed them with the macerated dried fruit and citrus peel and added them to the batter of the cake. The cake recipe is from King Alfred Flour. The final result was a beautiful tasty and gluten free panettone.

Kate and her chocolate honey almond tart

Kate and her chocolate tart, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

Gluten-free. Does this look like her world has been compromised? Not at all. Kate has celiac disease which makes her body very sick if she has gluten in her diet. So we, like many families, have figured out some solutions.
This chocolate tart is really delicious. It is an offtake of Giada de Laurentes' recipe. It is simple: a chocolate cookie and almond crust baked in a springform pan with a honey sweetened ganache filling.
With or without gluten you should try this one:
Chocolate honey almond tart:

Preheat oven to 350deg

chocolate cookies, Pamela's gluten free (or chocolate graham crackers) 5 1/2 oz.
2Tbs almond flour Or almonds
1/2 cup butter, room temp, cut into 1/2 inch squares
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup honey
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a food processor crush and mix chocolate cookies and almonds
Add room temp chunks of butter
Press into buttered springform pan
Bake for 12 minutes
Cool for 20 minutes
Meanwhile:
Heat cream and honey on stove until honey is melted and mixture is smooth and hot
Pour over bowl holding chocolate chips
Stir and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth
Pour over crust
Place in fridge to cool- at least 5 hrs.

Bon Appetit gluten free friends!

chocolate tart, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

start with the best ingredients

chocolate tart ingredients, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

Pamela's is a great source for gluten free products, I love pasture fed dairy products, organic almonds, local wildflower honey and the very best chocolate.

chocolate tart, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

pumpkin muffins, gluten free

pumpkin muffins, originally uploaded by cabanagirl.

I am down to 4 pumpkins in my cellar. Today I roasted one of them, pureed the meat and used it in this delightful gluten free treat. "Gluten free treat" is rather an oxymoron but with the help of some good basic recipes and some "tweaking" on my own there are such things. My granddaughter, Kate, is gluten intolerant (actually she has celiac disease) so we have had to learn how to bake with flour other than wheat or barley. Annalise Robert's wrote a couple of baking books that contain all gluten free products. This recipe is from her book....tweaked by me. I hope you give it a try:

1 3/4 cup brown rice flour mix (following this recipe)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
2 large fresh eggs from pet chickens
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup + 2 Tbs canola oil
2 Tbs molasses (try pomegranate molasses)
1 cup pumpkin puree (from last summer's harvest)
1/2 cup raisins

Oven on 350 deg
Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger in mixing bowl.

Combine eggs, water, oil, molasses and pumpkin in a separate bowl and mix well.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Do not over beat. Pour batter evenly into 12 muffin pan or loaf pans (3- 5" by 3").

Bake for 20-25 mins for muffins or 40-45 minutes for loaf pan or until dry toothpik test

Let loaf pan cool or remove muffins immediately.

Serve with a dollop of mascarpone cheese.

Who says G-F can't be yummy?

Brown rice flour mix:
brown rice flour - 2 parts
potato starch (not potato flour) 2/3 parts
tapioca flour 1/3 part