SPOOKtacular Gluten-Free Halloween Desserts: Review

Treats Without Tricks!

Because we love Halloween, we want treats with no tricks—no hidden problems. SPOOKtacular Gluten-Free Halloween Desserts is the solution: TO-DIE-FOR desserts that aren’t killers. This year you can give a Halloween party and feed your friends gluten-free, dairy-free treats made with all natural ingredients. Create your own Witchy Carrot Cake Cupcakes or a scary graveyard chocolate cake using alternative flours: quinoa, rice, or millet. The directions are all here. The trick is these gluten-free desserts aren’t frightful at all. They’re nutrition in disguise. They’re delicious and—SURPRISE!—they’re actually good for you!

About the Authors

Kanta Barrios, a hatha yoga teacher, and her mother, Manasi Fragoso, are both bakers extraordinaire with a passion for all things healthy and delicious!

Vidura Barrios, brother to Kanta and son to Manasi, was in charge of the editorial aspect of this project. Vidura is the founder of the popular Facebook page “I Love Halloween,” the Halloween CD series Monster’s Halloween Party, and Inner Splendor Publishing.

I was given an ebook (hard copy to come) of SPOOKtacular Gluten-Free Halloween Desserts to review and try a recipe. I decided to make BRAINS (Coconut Macaroons)!  These are naturally gluten free so no special flours to worry about. Now, I was thinking these are like the dense coconut macaroon cookies but nope! These are like a meringue light and airy macaroon. This batch made 2 1/2 dozen for me and my small scooper is a little bigger than 1 TBL size. Anyways, these baked up nicely but, once decorated mine were not quite like these so I'll just share their photo of the BRAINS. ;) The rest of the macaroons I drizzled in chocolate and took some to work to share.

BRAINS (15 macaroons)
(COCONUT MACAROONS)
These are delicious—and they really look like brains!

3 egg whites
1 cup raw sugar (coconut or demerara sugar), pulverized
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ½ cups dry unsweetened coconut flakes

(for decorating)
8 ounces (240 grams) good quality chocolate
2 ounces (60 grams) Royal Icing
red food coloring
knife
icing piping bag with #2 and #3 tips

Preheat the oven to 325°F (162°C).
Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Add the sugar and vanilla and beat to combine well.
Carefully fold the coconut flakes into the egg mixture.
Using a tablespoon, drop the batter onto the lined baking tray, making sure that each cookie has an oval shape.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes.
Let the cookies cool completely before decorating.

To Decorate
When the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate in a bowl, over simmering water.
Using the back of a knife, draw a line down the center of each cookie. (Make sure you don’t cut all the way through the cookie to the bottom.)
Color the Royal Icing a deep red, put it into the piping bag, and, using the #3 tip, draw a red line in the indention at the cookie’s center.
Now, put the thinner (#2) tip on the piping bag and replace the icing with the melted chocolate. Trace little squiggles across the top of the cookie to replicate the brain.
Once the cookies are dry, they’re ready to eat!

ROYAL ICING (covers 6 – 8 cookies)
As we’ve said, most of the cookies in this book are decorated with Royal Icing.
You can also purchase prepared Royal Icing powder and add water, but it isn’t that difficult to make the icing from scratch.
If you have concerns about eating raw egg, then you should use pasteurized egg white for this icing, as it isn’t cooked.

1 large egg white (could be pasteurized)
1½ cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg white for a few seconds before adding the sugar and half of the lemon juice. The icing’s consistency should be smooth and heavy cream-like. Add the remaining lemon juice (and more if you feel it’s needed) one drop at a time. You may also add more sugar to suit your liking.
Just a few drops of liquid, more or less, will alter the icing’s consistency.
We recommend a thicker icing for outlining the cookie, and thinner icing for filling out the inside.

ready to fold in the coconut

you can see how light and airy these macaroons are

chocolate drizzled coconut macaroons

*Disclosure* I wrote this review and or giveaway for "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" about SPOOKtacular Gluten-Free Halloween Desserts.The product(s) in this review were provided to me free of cost for the purpose of conducting my review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Product info and stock images if any are provided by PR or Co.

Unilever Soft Spreads Cookie Challenge and Giveaway

Unilever realizes that there are many misconceptions about soft spreads, so as part of the Good to Know initiative, they’ve set out to dispel the myths and share the facts.

With a wide variety of soft spreads, including Country Crock, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, Promise, Brummel & Brown, and Imperial – they have a spread for you. And best of all, they can say ALL of their spreads are Good to Know because they:
· Have 0g trans fat per serving
· Contain no partially hydrogenated oils
· Have no cholesterol
· Are 70% less fat than butter per serving
· Have 30% fewer calories than butter per serving

Sounds great, but how does it taste? Not only a better nutrition option than butter, but they’ll also keep your holiday recipes tasting delicious and coming back for more. 



This Christmas season, I was challenged you to try a cookie recipe, which calls for soft spread instead of butter, and tell you how it tasted. I chose to make this recipe for sugar cookies with kisses on top, gluten free using I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! all purpose sticks instead of butter. These came out FANTASTIC!! I promise you my family would not have known these were gluten free had I not told them. Gluten Freers, you must try this recipe out.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookies
from Serious Eats

• 2 cups white rice flour
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/3 cup sweet rice flour (aka mochiko)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! all purpose sticks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• Coarse sanding sugar, about 1/2 cup (I used red & green crystals)
• peppermint candy kisses

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! all purpose sticks, and vanilla, about 1 minute.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined.
5. Reduce speed to low and add the dry ingredients. Mix for 45 seconds.
    Chill dough for 15-20 minutes.
6. Roll dough, about 2 tablespoons each, into a ball. Roll dough ball into the sanding sugar.
7. Place coated dough ball onto prepared baking sheet. Be sure to space cookies about 2 inches apart.
   Flatten cookies very slightly with the palm of your hand.
8. Bake cookies, about 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown. Remove cookies from the oven and press a kiss into each cookie, allow to cool for 3 minutes on the baking sheet. After 3 minutes, transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
   
   Store cookies in an airtight container.
   
   

In the spirit of giving, they’d like to offer one of my readers a basket of baking goodies.
One lucky reader will receive a Good to Know baking set which includes:
· Silpat® baking sheet liner
· Steel Cooling Rack
· Nonstick cookie sheet
· Stainless steel cookie scoop

a Rafflecopter giveaway  

*Disclosure* I wrote this review for "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" about Unilever. The product(s) in this review were provided to me free of cost for the purpose of conducting my review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are not influenced by monetary compensation. Product info & stock images provided by PR or Co.

Yard Sale Goodies: Cinnamon Rolls and Chocolate Chip Cookies

The other weekend we decided to have our yard sale from moving (we waited since we now have a driveway/yard lol), so yes we packed and moved all our junk with us. At the last minute I decided to add to the chaos and bake some treats to help make some money, and help spread the word of my blog, right? I made 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies and a batch of cinnamon rolls, from my favorite recipes. There is something good about this house, the stove cooks my food wonderfully, and makes it smell so good (must be the smaller home?), and even making the cinnamon roll dough it wasn't as wet as when I made it at the other house, it was beautiful! Plus, see in my collage, I can now roll out my dough on my counter, no more using my stove top! lol

I love these cinnamon rolls, and have been making them since I found them. As for the yard sale, it didn't go so great, our St. is up quite a few other streets. Not the best location for yard sales. Oh well. I did sell 2 packs of cinnamon rolls to a lady, I hope she enjoyed them! I sold lots of baggies of cookies too.

Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls
from My Kitchen Cafe see slightly adapted #2

Rolls:
½ cup warm water
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
3 ½ ounce package instant vanilla pudding (made into pudding)
½ cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
6+ cups flour

Filling:
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups brown sugar
4 teaspoons cinnamon

Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese
½ cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
dash if cinnamon

In a small bowl combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Set aside. In large bowl, take pudding mix and prepare according to package directions. Add butter, eggs and salt. Mix well. Then add yeast mixture. Blend. Gradually add flour; knead until smooth. Do not over flour the dough! It should be very soft but not sticky. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled. Then roll out on floured board to 34 X 21 inches in size. Take 1 cup soft butter and spread over surface. In bowl, mix 2 cups brown sugar and 4 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top. Roll up very tightly. With knife put a notch every 1 1/2 inches. Cut with thread or serrated knife. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Cover and let rise until double again. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Remove when they start to turn golden (don’t over bake). Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting (combine butter and cream cheese and mix well, then add vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, mix again, then add milk for desired consistency). Makes about 24 very large rolls.

*Freezable Recipe: After shaping the rolls and placing them on the baking sheet, cover with lightly greased saran wrap and a layer of tin foil. Store in the freezer. The night before you want to serve them take out the rolls and put them in the refrigerator. Let them thaw in the refrigerator. Take them out about 8-9 hours after being in the refrigerator and let them rise until doubled. Bake according to the recipe. (If you have less time, you can take the rolls out of the freezer and let them come to room temperature on the counter – about 4 hours, then let rise until doubled).


Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes a double batch

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix powder until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

enjoy,

Cinco de Mayo Eats

Cinco de Mayo today! What will you be having to celebrate with? I'm thinking tacos or something of the like. I've gathered some of my delicious eats that would be great to have, what can I get ya? Just click a title to get the recipe.

Beer Battered Fish Tacos


Pork Carnitas and Pico de Gallo


Crock-pot Tacos


I forgot the Mexican rice!



Tortilla Chicken Soup


Taco Seasoning Mix


Fiesta Brownie Cups


Mexican Wedding Cookies


enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Dulce de Leche Duos with Homemade Dulce de Leche

Jodi of Beansy Loves Cake decided on Dulce de Leche Duos for her pick of TWD this week. She will have the recipe for these cookies on her blog, and be sure to check out her cute cakes too!

I don't think I have ever tasted Dulce de Leche before? Maybe it was swirled in some ice cream, but tasting it by itself, no. Carmel (or caramel), yes. This week I have. To me, the two taste very different. Dulce de Leche (DDL) is much richer, milkier. I will admit I prefer carmel. *ducks out of the way of rotten tomatoes*

Anyways for these cookies, you add some homemade or store bought DDL into the cookie dough, then you sandwich them together with more DDL. It makes these cookies very sweet, kinda sticky to the touch, a little crispy out of the oven and durable. I used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk to make my DDL, and found that I only had enough DDL left to sandwich about 9 cookies! SO if you'd like to make this, with homemade DDL, use 2 cans and you'll have leftover DDL for ice cream! So I thought these cookies were very sweet and rich but too much for me.

There are a few methods to make Homemade Dulce de Leche. You could boil it, crock pot it, stove top it, or bake it, see here for methods we discussed. After 2 failed attempts in the crock pot (mine overcooked it, my low must be a med-high), I decided to try one more time in the oven.

It came out great, maybe a little light in color, but it was not overdone! Yay!

OVEN METHOD

(Eagle Brand website)

HEAT oven to 425°F. Pour sweetened condensed milk into 9-inch pie plate. Cover with foil. Place pie plate in larger shallow pan. Fill larger pan with about 1/2-inch hot water to surround pie plate. (I used my large roasting pan)

BAKE 1 hour or until thick (mine took 1 hr 25 ish mins) and caramel-colored. Carefully remove from oven; remove pie plate from shallow pan. Whisk caramel until smooth. Cool 20 minutes before serving. Store any leftover caramel in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature or heat until warm to serve.

enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Thumbprints For Us Big Guys

Cookies! Cookies! and lots of cookies! Mike of Ugly Food Dude selected Thumbprints For Us Big Guys for TWD this week.

I was never a huge fan of thumbprint cookies because of the baked jam. It turns sticky and chewy. But Dorie's recipe is wonderful because it is not baked into the cookie!



I warmed up 3 flavors of preserves, apricot, raspberry and blackberry. Don't they look like little gems? =)
Anyways, I also used almonds that I ground up, instead of the hazelnuts, and all vanilla extract, not a fan of almond extract.

These little suckers crack when you make your thumbprints in them, and then once baked, they fill back up so you have to hurry and very carefully (because they will crumble!) re press a thumbprint (or finger print) into them. Then you put a dab of warmed jam into them. After a while, once they've set the jam will set up, so storing them will be easier.

I thought these were great little cookies and the kids thought they were fun. This makes tons of them, so who wants one? =)

Be sure to check out Mike's blog for this recipe!

And guess what!! Be sure to come by and check out next week's TWD because it's MY turn to pick a yummy Dorie recipe!! Eeek! So excited! It's also Mr.s Birthday week, so it'll be special. =)


enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Kait of Kait’s Plate selected My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies for this week's TWD. Now I have baked these prior to my TWD days (which is why I have the recipe posted), check them out here. I used M&Ms in mine, which was all I had. I chose not to bake them again, because well, they were not my fave. I don't like thin flat crispy cookies. These turned out so flat to me (I photographed the puffiest ones). Check out the mixed reviews in the P&Qs here. Maybe you'll like them!

enjoy,

Baking Up Roses: Melting Moments

Happy Valentine's Day! I saw Happy Home Baking post these beautiful rose cookies, and after searching for the conversions, I used this recipe found here at Joy of Baking. Apparently these cookies are quite popular, but I have never heard of them! I baked up these roses for my family as my Valentine's treat to them.

To get the red in these, I painted red stripe down the inside of my canvas pastry bag. I used a Wilton 1M star tip, and found it still hard to pipe these out. I let it sit out to warm up a little and that seemed to help some. *I piped my rose cookies and then chilled them a little before baking, so they'd hold most of their shape. These are an extremely delicate cookie, and the taste reminds me of a Spritz cookie. I was only able to get 2 dozen roses plus a few.



Melting Moments

1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (30 grams) powdered (confectioners or icing) sugar
1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Topping:
1 cup (110 grams) powdered (confectioners) sugar, sifted

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. *Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

When dough is firm, form into 1 inch (2.54 cm) balls and place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets spacing about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 12 - 14 minutes or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, line another baking pan or tray with parchment or wax paper. Sprinkle about half of the confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar onto the bottom of the pan and then place the slightly cooled cookies on top of the sugar. Put the remaining sugar in a fine strainer or sieve and then sprinkle the tops of the cookies (or you can just roll the cookies in the sugar).

These cookies store very well. Place in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper and they will keep a couple of weeks.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.



enjoy,

Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies

What luck! Jenny at Picky Palate posted about these cute little cookies she made, and it just so happenes that I was making Valentine sugar cookie cut outs that day, so I saved some leftover dough and made some of these! Snickerdoodles, move over!!



You make them like you would cinnamon rolls, roll out the dough, spread on some butter, sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon then roll up and slice. I baked mine for about 10 minutes, then glazed with a simple powdered sugar and milk icing when cooled.






They're the cutest things ever!


enjoy,

Decorator Sugar Cookies

I have a few recipes in my blog for sugar cookies. I have one that uses shortening in the recipe, then you frost the cookies with a fluffier type frosting. Then I have a recipe where you'd sprinkle with a decorating sugar before baking, and now this one, which would be great for royal icing and making all fancy using tips (Sorry! I am no where near that stage!). When I first saw Amanda of I am Baker's cookies I was blow away (go check out her cookies)! Man they are gorgeous! She was even kind enough to share the recipe she uses for her cookies, and icing!

I used this recipe for my daughter's heart shaped Valentine cookies for her class party. I have a few heart shaped cutters, but they are small, and aren't a good shaped heart (I wanted something that would hold it's shape when baked).



So I found a cute set of cutters which had a nice big 5" nice heart shape and little heart shapes with scalloped edges, so cute! I wanted a big shape so the kid's little hands could hold it and have lots of room to decorate.

These came out great!! I am really happy with this recipe. I baked mine for about 10-12 minutes, and they were rolled thinner than 1/4".




Sugar Cookie Recipe
may double recipe (I got about 28 -5" cookies from a double batch, plus some extra dough)

¾ cups Butter, room temp.
1 cup White Sugar
2 whole Eggs
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
¼ teaspoons Cream Of Tartar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine room temperature (not melted) butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and combine.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt. This is an important step; you want to avoid lumps in your dough.

Slowly add dry ingredients into wet batter until fully incorporated.

Drop dough onto a large piece of saran wrap, mold it into a 4×4 square, and refrigerate for at least one hour. I often let mine sit overnight.

When ready to bake the cookies, generously flour a flat surface and roll out the dough. You can use as much flour as you need! I prefer to make cookies about 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick, but you can go thicker and still have successful results.

For best results, bake on silpat or parchment paper. You can reuse parchment, too!

Bake at 325-350 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes. In my oven, right about 6 minutes yields a perfectly cooked cookie, with no brown edges.

enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars

room temp

Wow, it's been a while since I've baked with TWD. I don't know what happened, all of a sudden I have no desire to want to bake or eat sweet treats. I guess that could be a good thing, right? But because I admire Dorie, I'll pick it up and keep baking along with her.

Lillian of Confectiona’s Realm chose Dorie's Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars for her week at TWD. This is basically a layered cookie bar and it makes a 9x13 pan full, so you may want to half this recipe or wrap up and freeze what you can't eat now, to have for another time. That's what I did.


I went ahead and cut some when they cooled off, and chilled the rest. Dorie likes her cold so I had to see what they were both like. Cutting them chilled makes it a lot easier, you can slice them pretty thin (mine were 3/4" thick), and I have to admit even though I liked them at room temp. and chilled, I liked them cold best.



These little guys are rich though with the chocolate, cookie layer, peanuts and the raisins. A little piece is all you'll need.

If you would like to try this recipe click over to Lillian's blog, she'll have the recipe posted for ya.

enjoy,