gluten-freelicious

Minnie Beasley's Handmade Gluten-Free Chocolate Almond Lace Gourmet Cookies

Harmon Beasley Cannon, owner of Minnie Beasley’s Cookie Company, recently offered to send me a couple bags of his new gluten-free Handmade Almond Lace cookies, and I eagerly accepted.  I am so thankful I did!

I received two bags of the award winning cookies, one regular and one dutch chocolate.  They were wrapped with the utmost of care.  I admit, my husband and I laughed as we peeled away at what we thought to be excessive layers of bubble wrap.  In hindsight, however, I see that the meticulous packaging is a reflection of the company and the pride they take in their delicate product, from the selection of ingredients to its delivery at your front door.

The recipe for these cookies began with Harmon’s great aunt Minnie Beasley, and it has been passed down through four generations.  Harmon claims he “cannot imagine a holiday without them.”  Is it just me, or do homemade cookies with a family history taste even sweeter?

I believe this is my first experience with lace cookies, and they are unlike any other cookie I have ever had.  They are thin and brittle, and have a taste and texture very similar to toffee.  Minnie Beasley’s cookies are big, incredibly rich, and very sweet.  Even half a cookie is satisfying (although I must say I have eaten far more than half a cookie today).  As Harmon says in his brief video on Minnie Beasley’s website, “Butter, almonds, sugar, milk, cream, flour…how can you go wrong?”  I don’t believe you can.  Both the regular and chocolate flavored cookies are divine, and I can’t decide which one I like better.

Aunt Minnie should be proud.

Enjoy Life Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies

Hi.  My name is Rebecca, and I’m a sugarholic.  Enjoy Life Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies?  Yum!  Pass the box!  These tasty little bombs are loaded with explosive cinnamon sugar goodness, sure to please any sweet tooth.

I have to admit, I did not have much hope for these cookies.  Enjoy Life products are free of wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, and shellfish.  Call me crazy, but I’d think they’d also be free of taste!  In fact, we’ve tried a few of Enjoy Life’s cereals and cereal bars, and they were just eh.  Not bad for gluten-free, but nothing to write home about, either.  These snickerdoodle cookies, however, are addictive.  One is just not enough.  What gives?

It does not take a detective to figure this one out.  What Enjoy Life snickerdoodles lack in allergens, they certainly make up for in sugar!  The cookies are soft, moist, and packed with my vice in numerous forms (date paste, three fruit juice concentrates, brown sugar, and rice dextrin).  With a heavy dusting of cinnamon sugar on top and crunchy little pockets of cinnamon sugar scattered throughout, this cookie is definitely a sugar lover’s dream.

At about four bucks a box for 12 cookies in our local grocery store, my husband says, “They’re really good, but not worth it.”  Hmm, that’s questionable.  But how about $3 a box on Amazon?  I’m in.

Schar Shortbread Cookies

Please…need…a glass…of…water.

Clearly everyone has different tastes.  Case in point: I bought a bag of Schar Shortbread Cookies after reading a positive review on Gluten Free Blog.  In fact, a quick Google search shows these cookies earn mostly high praise.  One health food store even claims, “Just like grandma used to make them.”

Uh, not my grandma.

The cookies have a sweet, buttery aroma.  They are crisp, crunchy, and light.  I am even willing to say these cookies have a decent, albeit somewhat bland, flavor, close to that of your typical glutenous shortbread cookie, though not quite as rich.  So far, so good, right?

The pleasure ends there.

Schar Shortbread Cookies are dry.  Very, very dry.  No matter how well I chew, I find myself swallowing two or three times to get the fine, sandpaper-like grit off my tongue.  My throat itches.

At first I thought, Maybe this is what a shortbread cookie is supposed to be like. Maybe I forget.  After all, it has been a few months since I’ve had a “real” shortbread cookie.  Nope.  According to Chefs Best, “the ideal shortbread cookie will be crispy with a sandy texture that offers a soft, melting quality while dissolving in your mouth.”  Crispy?  Check.  Sandy?  Check.  Melt-in-your mouth?  Negative, Ghostrider.

We’ve sampled several brands of cookies, and, in my opinion, there are far better options out there.  Given the expense of one bag of cookies, I would say this was not money well spent.  If you are desperate for a cookie, and Schar Shortbread Cookies are the only gluten-free goodies for miles around, they may appease your craving.  Just be sure to have a tall glass of liquid on hand.

Trader Joe's Flourless Chocolate Cake

With a drizzle of chocolate syrup, this Trader Joe’s Flourless Chocolate Cake is incredibly photogenic, but is it as scrumptious as it appears?  Is it the mouthwatering, “Get in my belly!” treat it so convincingly portrays?  Hmmm…it’s definitely good.  I’m just not sure it’s that good.

I think I’m waffling because flourless chocolate cake is not really cake, as it lacks, um…flour.  So, the “cake” really tastes more like fudge.  But, because it has eggs, it’s not really fudge either.  It’s not soft and moist as you would expect good cake to be or smooth and creamy as you would expect good fudge to be.  The texture and consistency fall somewhere in between.  My taste buds are confused.

Okay, enough semantics.  Trader Joe’s Flourless Chocolate cake is a dense, fudge-like cake topped with rich, dark, creamy icing.  The icing is delicious, but the cake is a bit thick and dry.  A cold slice straight out of the fridge is a bit difficult to get down, but it moistens up nicely with a quick stint in the microwave, and it is a sweet companion to a cold glass of milk or a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Yes, I suppose this is a pretty tasty gluten-free dessert.  I’ve eaten almost a quarter of the cake trying to decide how I feel about it; it must be good.  I think I’ll have another small piece…just to be sure.

NOTE: This cake is listed in Trader Joe’s “No Gluten Ingredients” packet.  It is, however, made on equipment shared with wheat.  The packet states, “Our suppliers follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s) to segregate ingredients on shared euipment and/or in the facility.”

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!

Not everyone is meant to make a difference. But for me, the choice to lead an ordinary life is no longer an option. -Peter Parker

Spider-Man Chocolate Cupcake

These, my friends, are no ordinary cupcakes.  They were baked with love…and Pamela’s Products Luscious Chocolate Cake Mix.  Oh.  My.  God.  Pamela’s not kidding.  They are moist, fudgy, and, indeed, luscious.

We made our very first batch of Pamela’s gluten-free chocolate cupcakes for my son’s fourth birthday celebration with my husband’s family.  My son mixed and baked the cupcakes with his Gigi, and I decorated them with red and blue butter cream frosting.  I maxed out my artistic talent to appease my son’s love for Spider-Man.  They looked pretty cool, or at least my son thought so.  But how would they taste?  With just one bite, we all agreed; we were in cupcake heaven.  My brother-in-law and his girlfriend did not hesitate to take a few home.

Still, I was nervous.  My son’s fourth birthday party was rapidly approaching.  It was one thing to receive affirmation from a few close family members; it was another thing entirely to satisfy the gluten-craving tastes of a crowd of preschoolers and their parents.  Too intimidated to attempt the Wolverine cake my son hoped for, I decided, to his delight, to have the kids decorate their own cupcakes.  When the big day arrived, I brought out the tray of naked cupcakes and triumphantly passed them out willy-nilly to my son and his friends.  One mom quickly questioned, “Are these all gluten-free?”  The look on her face pleaded, “Please say no.”

“Yep.  They’re good!” I promised, with fingers tightly crossed.

The kids had a blast slathering on icing, sprinkles, and M&Ms and eagerly devoured their masterpieces the instant my son blew out his candles.  If smiling, cupcake smeared faces are a sign of success, then I was victorious.

I encouraged parents to help themselves to the separate tray of cupcakes I’d already frosted.  It may have been my imagination, but they seemed hesitant; word had spread that the cupcakes were gluten-free.  Slowly, cupcake after cupcake disappeared, probably more out of curiosity and politeness than desire, but, soon, the praise began to roll in.  I was pleased to hear the shocked, “This is really good!” and “It doesn’t even taste gluten-free!”  My best friend exclaimed, “These are gluten-free?  Seriously?!  They might be the best cupcakes I’ve ever had!”

Yes.  Yes, they just might be.