gluten-freelicious

This Sweet Potato Bread, courtesy of Pamela’s Products Ultimate Baking & Pancake Mix, may be my favorite gluten-free food to date.  It’s not just gluten-free, it’s gluten-freekin’licious!  The amazing blend of flavors and textures leaves your mouth watering for more.  The bread is soft and moist with a wonderful blend of sweet and spice, and the brown sugar and walnut topping adds the perfect crunch.  So.  Very.  Yummy.

Sweet Potato Bread

I intended to make Pamela’s Pumpkin Bread, but pumpkin, apparently, even canned pumpkin, is a seasonal fruit.  I could not find it anywhere!  (Okay, so maybe I only looked in two grocery stores, but isn’t that enough?)  Actually, after searching the second store high and low, I finally found and bought what I thought to be a ginormous can of pumpkin and eagerly started to mix ingredients as soon as I got home.  I even doubled everything so as not to waste any of the precious fruit.  Only after I’d melted the butter, cracked the eggs, poured in the sugar, and opened the can did the sweet smell hit my nose, and I realized it was pumpkin pie mix!  Err.  If I wanted pumpkin bread before, I really wanted it now.

I don’t substitute.  I don’t experiment.  I don’t toy with recipes and ingredients.  I leave that to the experts.  But I wanted pumpkin bread!  I decided to take a big step.  Wait for it…I popped two sweet potatoes in the oven!  Craaazy! When they had baked to perfection, I slit the skin, slipped the sweet, mushy pulp into the bowl, and continued with the recipe.

The savory smells flooded the house as the bread baked.  When it was done, we waited mere minutes for it to cool before slicing in.  It was heavenly.  The first loaf lasted less than two days.  I froze the second loaf, and we took it to my mother-in-law’s house for a quick weekend visit; it was gone within a few hours.

I imagine the sweet potato adds a bit more sweetness, but I’m sure Pamela’s Pumpkin Bread is just as good.  If nothing else, it’s faster to open a can of pumpkin (if you can find it) than it is to bake sweet potatoes.  Still, this was one mistake I was happy to make.

Pamela’s Pumpkin (or Sweet Potato) Bread with Crumble Nut Topping

4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup of canned pumpkin (or the pulp of one baked sweet potato)
1-1/3 cups Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves

Topping: (optional)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup of nuts (sliced almonds, walnuts, pecans)

Batter: Beat together butter, sugar, egg, and pumpkin (or sweet potato). Add remaining bread ingredients and mix together. Pour into a greased loaf pan (8 x 4). Mix nut topping ingredients and smooth evenly over batter to the edges. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or when toothpick inserted comes out almost clean.

It’s perfect, right?  I have my breakfast strategically placed on the table so I can take some quick shots for my post today, when a hand slips in to grab a few tasty morsels, proving just how irresistible they are.

Cinnamon Chex Cereal

Alright, maybe irresistible is a bit of a stretch, but they are downright tasty.  Cinnamon Chex is a nice blend of sinfully sweet and wholesome goodness.  The flavor is reminiscent of one of my all-time favorites, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but with less fat, sodium, and sugar, and more protein…oh, and no gluten!

The cereal combines the now gluten-free Rice Chex and Corn Chex.  Some pieces are coated with cinnamon, while others are plain, and the ratio is just about perfect.  Beware, the gratifying crunch does not last long when milk is added.  That, however, is seldom a problem here, as bowls of Cinnamon Chex seem to empty as rapidly as they are filled.

A box of Cinnamon Chex lasts only moments in our house, because it is satisfying at any time of day.  Whether you crave a bowl of sweet cereal with milk in the morning, a dry handful or two to snack on in the afternoon, or a guiltless dessert at night, Cinnamon Chex is there.

Note: Chex now has six gluten-free cereals and a plethora of gluten-free Chex recipes.  I can’t wait to try them!

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

Every morning, I ask my son what he’d like for breakfast.  I really don’t know why I bother, because the reply is nearly always the same.  “Umm…waffles.”  Occasionally I’ll try to mix it up a bit and ask, “How about pancakes?”  I’m amused when his face lights up, and he exclaims, “Pancakes!  Yeah!”

I shudder to think what we would do without Pamela’s Products Ultimate Baking & Pancake Mix.

When I made my first batch of waffles with Pamela’s mix, oh, so many months ago, I followed the directions on the back of the bag.  They were pretty good…for gluten-free waffles.  They were light and fluffy, and, thankfully, we didn’t detect any unpleasant aftertastes.  I’d read several reviews claiming Pamela’s mix to be the best out there, gluten-free or no.  We weren’t quite there yet.  They were likely the best gluten-free waffles we’d had.  They sure beat the cardboard frozen kind that require half a bottle of syrup to mask the taste and ease the passageway towards digestion.  But the best waffles ever?  Not yet.

With the next batch, I tried a trick we’ve found to improve just about any pancake mix out there, especially those of the gluten-free variety.  I used Aunt Jamima proportions with Pamela’s mix (see below), the main difference being the substitution of milk for water.  The result was absolutely gluten-freelicious.  Yum.  Now that’s what I’m talking about.

With this minor adjustment, Pamela’s mix makes amazing pancakes and waffles.  I’m not sure what makes them so good; perhaps it’s the almond meal.  What I do know is this: I would serve a hot, steamy batch of Pamela’s waffles to all my gluten-consuming friends and family without hesitation, and I would tout them as the best waffles ever.  Yes, they are that good.

Note: I paid $20 for our first 4 lb bag of Pamela’s goodness at our local health food store.  I like to support the locals, but…seriously?  I now have six 24 oz bags automatically delivered to our door once every two months through Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program for $28.77.  Sweet.

Gluten-freelicious Pancakes and Waffles (Pamela’s Mix, Aunt Jamima’s Proportions):

1 cup Pamela’s Products Ultimate Baking & Pancake Mix
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 TBSP oil (2 TBSP for waffles)