Mint Squares

This can be made either with chocolate or with carob.

Mint Squares

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

4 eggs

1 cup Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix

1 can sweetened condensed milk

3-4 TBSP carob powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder) - I used Chatfield's carob powder

1 tsp. vanilla

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3 cups confectioner's sugar

3/4 cup melted butter or margarine

4 TBSP peppermint extract (I used Simply Organic)

3-4 drops green food coloring

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2 -12oz. bags GF chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips if doing cocoa/chocolate-free)

7 TBSP butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*.

2. Mix sweetened condensed milk and carob/cocoa powder in a small bowl.

3. Mix sugar, butter, eggs, baking mix, carob/cocoa mixture, and vanilla with an electric hand mixer until mixed well.

4. Bake for 33-35 minutes.

***

5. Once cake portion has cooled, mix confectioner's sugar, melted butter, peppermint extract, and green food coloring.

6. Spread over cooled cake.

7. Put into freezer for about 15 minutes until layer has firmed up.

***

8. Melt chips and butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.

9. Spread over mint layer. Chill before cutting and serving.

Blondies

While on our vacation to the Boston area last week, we visited a Whole Foods. It was my first time going into a Whole Foods store and my first impression was that it looked like a typical supermarket. How awesome! The only difference was that it was a whole grocery store that carried products that the Nature's Marketplace within our Wegmans grocery store carry...and a whole lot more. We easily spent $60+ grabbing this item and that item off the shelves that I hadn't ever seen out our way.

One of the items we bought and just tried last night were the Namaste Foods brand Blondie Mix. I opted to make the whole package (9x13 pan) all at once rather than breaking it up into two 8x8 pans. I'm glad I did, because I think an 8x8 pan of Blondies would have been completely devoured a day later, so at least I have some for a couple of extra days.

They are super moist and really easy to make. I literally had them mixed up and in the oven in about 5 minutes. I think the only thing that I wasn't expecting was the flavor. They aren't bad tasting, just not what I remember a "Blond Brownie" tasting like. I think it might be the Arrowroot flour used in the ingredients. Again, it's not a BAD flavor, just different than I was expecting. We all love them here and we highly recommend them if you can find them. Namaste Foods has a store locator function on their website and I was able to locate stores in our area that carry some of their products. I just don't know which of their products those stores carry.

Betty Crocker is baking GLUTEN FREE!

Well, Betty herself may not be baking gluten-free and certainly not all of their products, but apparently they have a new line of baking mix products out there that are gluten-free. Now, I have not gone looking for them in my local grocery store yet, but I certainly will be! I'm not sure how many grocery stores have come to realize that Betty is making and selling gluten-free products yet, but hopefully we'll see them around the stores soon!

If anyone finds the products and gives them a try, please let me know how they taste. I personally can't try the devil's food cake, chocolate chip cookies, or the brownies, since I am also sensitive to chocolate, so you won't find a review of those products from me, even if I can find them in the store. I really would like to give the yellow cake mix a try though, and if I find it and try it, I'll let you all know how it tastes!

Gluten-Free Angel Food Cake

This is a recipe that was made for my daughter and me this past weekend and most of the guests enjoyed this version instead of the store-bought angel food cake (made with wheat flour). This is slightly more dense than a store-bought non-gluten-free angel food cake, but it's still very good!

Ingredients:

*1 cup gluten-free flour (recommendation was to use 1/4 cup millet flour, 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup white rice flour, and 1/4 cup sweet rice flour, but the one made for us was made with Pamela's G-F Baking Mix)
*1 tsp Xanthan Gum
*12 egg whites, room temperature (to maximize volume of egg whites)
*1 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
*1/4 tsp salt
*1TBSP vanilla
*1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Separate egg whites in a stainless steel bowl and let them come to room temperature.
3. In a separate medium bowl, sift gluten-free flour, salt, xanthan gum, and 3/4 cup of sugar.
4. Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar. Beat until the egg whites form soft peaks. Beat in the other reserved 3/4 cup of sugar about 3 TBSP at a time. Beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Slowly fold in flour mixture about 1/4 cup at a time. Once the flour mixture is combined, fold in the vanilla.
6. Slowly pour the batter into a tube pan (Bundt cake pan or similar) and spread the batter evenly. Run a knife through the cake to eliminate any air bubbles.
7. Bake for 50-55 minutes until top is golden and sides begin to pull away.
8. Cool for 10 minutes. Run the edges of a knife along the pan and pull out the insert to the tube pan (if you have one). Run a knife along the bottom of the insert and invert onto a cake plate. Serve with topping of choice!

We served ours with strawberries and Reddi-Whip...very yummy!