First Gluten-Free baking FAIL!

One of the recipes in the gluten-free cookbook that I picked up is for doughnuts. I'm usually not a huge fan of doughnuts, but they were baked, not fried, so I was intrigued. Since I was going to be doing some other baking the same morning, I pulled out almost all the ingredients I would need for the day's baking adventures and set to work.

Look at that great picture of a doughnut! Unfortunately mine didn't turn out quite so well...

After mixing all the ingredients together, I did a quick grease job on the doughnut pan and started pouring in some batter. I was able to find the doughnut pan at a kitchen outlet store down in Santa Fe for about $6.

I cooked them for the specified amount of time, and they looked pretty good when I pulled them out of the oven. They didn't fluff up quite as much as I was expecting, but they seemed pretty good.

Once I started turned them out of the pan though, they started falling apart! I was able to get one or two full doughnuts out of the first pan.

At least the one that came out whole looks like a real doughnut! I added 2 or 3 more 'real' doughnuts to my pile from the second batch, and then I added some cinnamon and sugar.

Overall, I wouldn't call the doughnuts anything more than mediocre. I'm not sure if I need to up the cooking temperature some, or just cook them longer, or maybe reduce the amount of oil a little bit. They just seemed a little dense for a doughnut. I'm a much bigger fan of the fluffy doughnuts! But, my mom is a huge doughnut fan, so I might have to mess around with the recipe some more to see if I can perfect it. Maybe there will be a revised gluten-free doughnut blog post in the future... :)

Gluten-Free Baking, Part 1: Carrot Cupcakes, Vanilla Icing, and Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

An old co-worker and her husband opened up their home to use during our week-long fake vacation, i.e. the week that Los Alamos was evacuated due to the Los Conchas fire. Thankfully we had a safe place to go with our cats, and everyone survived the ordeal and came out healthy and happy (which for the cats means back to their crazy selves). 

The woman we were staying with had just received a new cookbook as a gift and all the items in the cookbook were gluten-free. I admittedly have absolutely no experience with gluten-free baking, but in anticipation of future bakery customers that need to eat gluten-free, I figured it was about time I learned a thing or two. A trip to Border's and I was in possession of the two cookbooks that have been produced by the owner of Babycakes Bakery in NYC, a gluten-free, vegan, kosher bakery that has received rave reviews. I also made a few trips to the Santa Fe co-op to pick up some ingredients, and I was ready to start baking! 

**If you'd like recipes for any of the items you read about here, please email me or post a comment and I'll reply! Most of the recipes in this post and the next, more recent post, are pretty rigid followings of the Babycakes cookbook recipes. 

My first two attempts were carrot cupcakes and vanilla icing. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of either (I forgot my fancy new iPhone could take pictures!), but that's okay...I wouldn't call either of the products pretty! The carrot cupcakes turned out okay, but Scott and I both agreed that there was a bit too much baking soda...there was an odd aftertaste, most likely due to the baking soda. When cooking at high altitude, I usually decrease the amount of baking soda, but I was hesitant to mess with proportions too much during my first gluten-free baking attempt. I would definitely decrease the amount of baking soda next time though. Overall, the cupcakes were still very moist and flavorful, and I would definitely make them again. 

The vanilla icing, on the other hand, needs some more work! The use of coconut oil is very common in these cookbooks, and I had mistakenly bought unrefined coconut oil, which meant that the coconut flavor was still pretty strong. Tasty, but maybe a little overpowering for vanilla icing. Also, I had skipped over the part of the instructions where it says that the icing is best if made the night before. Whoops! I was making it about an hour before I was hoping to use it. Regardless, for some reason it never thickened...perhaps I added too much rice milk? It shouldn't really have mattered though; coconut oil is a solid below about 70 degrees, so it should have hardened back up once I put it in the fridge. Hopefully it'll turn out better on my second attempt! The flavor was still very good though (if a bit coconut-y), and I did end up using it to make Frozen Icing Chocolate Chip cookie sandwiches, which worked just fine! 

The third thing I made during "Part 1" of Gluten-Free Baking Adventures was double chocolate chip cookies. Again, I mistakenly used unrefined coconut oil, so the cookies were a bit more coconut-y than normal double chocolate chip cookies, but overall the flavor as really good. Texture seemed a little off though. The first batch of cookies seemed extremely oily, so I added some more flour (almost unheard of when baking at altitude! Usually it's more liquid), which helped some. They still seemed a bit crumbly and weren't quite what I like in a cookie. Scott pointed out that they would make excellent ice cream cookie sandwiches though, which of course led to the 'Icing Cookie Sandwiches'!

Sorry, no pictures...they'll all be in the next post!

A little absent lately....

Sorry for the delay in entries! With a wildfire looming in close vicinity of Los Alamos, the whole town was evacuated, and I haven't had much time for blogging! I have, however, had lots of time for baking, during our 1 week "vacation" of sorts. So, stay tuned next week for some new blog posts about my forays into gluten-free and vegan baking...

Tomato and Basil Calzones

I have been fighting a nasty summer cold the past few days, and finally started feeling well enough yesterday to do some cooking. Scott and I had some delicious cherry tomatoes and basil from Los Poblanos Organics (our local CSA), and I figured the ingredients would be perfect for some calzones! I had to get some cough syrup from the Los Alamos co-op anyways, so I picked up some mushrooms and pepperoni, as well as some mozzarella cheese from Las Cruces to complete the calzone 'package'.

I have a wonderful pizza dough recipe that I make in the breadmaker (secret ingredient: wheat beer!), so I put all the ingredients in the breadmaker and let it work its magic. I ended up with a perfectly fluffy batch of dough for my calzones!

I divided the dough into fourths and worked with just one batch at a time. I rolled each piece into a large rectangle and then layered on pepperoni, basil, tomatoes, and mushrooms, then topped with mozzarella cheese. Once the fillings were set, I cut small diagonal slits along the sides, so I could fold them up into pretty little calzones!

First calzone, filled and sliced and ready to be wrapped up!

It was a bit tricky getting each one folded up, and the first two turned out a little less than pretty. The second two looked a bit better.

All wrapped up! The two on the left were my first two, the two on the right were my second two (so they look a little better!). They still remind me of little mini-mummies or something though.

I baked them at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, brushing them with olive oil, garlic powder, and kosher salt about halfway through the baking process. 

The crust cooked up wonderfully, slightly brown on the outside, but still light and fluffy on the inside. The kosher salt added that extra bit of flavor (like salt on a pretzel!), and the fresh cherry tomatoes were delicious! I was actually too excited to start eating that I forgot to take an 'after' picture! Check back for one soon, as I will be reheating one of these lovely calzones for lunch :) 

Homemade Granola bars

This past weekend, my cooking adventure was my first attempt at making homemade granola bars. My boyfriend Scott and I have been getting some really delicious organic chocolate coconut granola bars from our local CSA, but I figured they had to be fairly easy to make. I decided to start with pre-made granola, rather than trying to make my own...my last attempt at making granola turned out sub-par. Plus the recently opened Los Alamos Co-op had some really tasty looking hemp and oat granola that I thought would make an interesting base for my granola bars.

I used a basic King Arthur recipe for granola bars that called for butter, sugar, corn syrup, eggs and vanilla, plus 5 cups of granola, which could also include dried fruit and nuts. I decided to keep this first batch fairly simple and only added some roasted and salted almonds as well as some toasted coconut. I also omitted the sugar, since the granola was already fairly sweet to begin with and I didn't see a need for more added sugar. 

After mixing all the ingredients together (and adding a little more corn syrup for proper cohesion), I jammed the mixture into a casserole dish and baked it at 375 for about 25 minutes. The edges began to brown, which had me a little worried, but it worked out in the long run: the bars made from the edges are crunchy, and the bars made from the middle are chewy! 

Granola bars right out of the oven

I let them sit for about 10 minutes before cutting them into rectangles. I kept the almonds whole, but I will chop them up for the next round, because they made cutting a little difficult. 

As the granola bars continued to cool, I melted some dark chocolate chips with some milk to create a chocolate glaze for the top. One the granola bars had cooled sufficiently, I drizzled the chocolate on top, and then put them in the freezer to harden the chocolate. 

Ready for the freezer!

After leaving the granola bars in the freezer for about 20 minutes, I re-cut them and wrapped each granola bar individually in plastic wrap.

Taste test verdict: two thumbs up from both Scott and I! The saltiness of the almonds is a nice balance to the sweetness of the granola, and the little puffed hemp seeds in the granola makes for a great overall texture. I will definitely make these again!

Faux McDonald's soft serve

I forgot to take pictures of the end result of this recipe, but I'm sure it's one I'll make again and again, so pictures will come eventually!

I love reading the blog that is maintained by the 'No More Dirty Looks' authors. In a recent post, one of the author's shared her recipe for 'soft-serve' ice cream, except it was a healthy version made out of Greek yogurt. That means WAY less fat and sugar, and way more good-for-you things like protein. The original version is as follows:

Mix:

—3/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt (I used the Fage 2% — feel free to try a sugar-free vegan alternative but make sure that its THICK.)

—1 tbsp vanilla extract

—Stevia to taste (Stevia is a natural sweetener made from a plant. You can get it anywhere now, and it has no glycemic impact and no creepy chems.)

—Stir in 1 tsp of organic crunchy salted peanut butter (I used one from Trader Joe’s—whatever you use, it’s gotta be crunchy and salty. I know you can’t see them in the picture—I’m not going to win any food photography awards—but those little crunches are the best part.)

Drizzle with:

—1 tsp of maple syrup (I’m using a can I smuggled home from my last visit to Quebec. It’s been in my fridge for a while and it’s nice and thick.)

To do the chocolate version drizzle instead with a melted square or two of high-quality dark chocolate. I bet raw honey would be yummy too, but not any kind of McDonald’s equivalent.

I am admittedly horrible at following recipes (I tend to use them more as guidelines!), so I had to make a few modifications. I used Brown Cow brand Greek yogurt, and agave nectar to sweeten, since we never keep Stevia around the house. I also added a little extra peanut butter, since I'm currently obsessed with Maranatha brand organic crunchy peanut butter.

Lastly, I melted some dark chocolate to put on top. YUM!! I came up with a few ideas this morning on how to modify this recipe to make it even better, so look for pictures and an update soon

Where did the blog name come from?

My blog name of 'Cupcakes and Calderas' might seem a bit odd at first, so I figured I would explain my thinking. Given that this is a blog about baking, having the word 'cupcakes' in the blog name is an obvious choice. The 'caldera' part might be a bit more confusing.

In the geological sense, a caldera is a large, bowl-shaped volcanic depression that is typically formed by the collapse of a volcanic cone when the magma body contents below the volcano are erupted rather quickly. Here in Los Alamos, we have the Valles Caldera right in our backyard, which formed almost 1.2 million years ago. Nearly 300 cubic kilometers of volcanic material was erupted, which caused the eventual collapse of the overlying land and eventual caldera formation.  Because of my geologic background (and the fact that I always like a good alliteration!), 'Cupcakes and Calderas' seemed to be a good blog name choice.

It was only after I decided on the blog name that my boyfriend pointed out the 'true' meaning of the word caldera. 'Caldera' in the Spanish language means "kettle" or "cauldron", and comes from the Latin root 'caldaria' which means "warm bath". So the word choice ended up being a good connection to baking after all!