Eagle Brand's "Perfect Pumpkin Pie"

Gluten-free and extremely delicious, I made two of these pies at the same time, and they both turned out great. The pastry crust came out of a recipe book I have called The Gluten-Free Vegetarian Kitchen and like always, I used Jules Gluten Free Flour mix.

For the Pastry Crust for a 9-inch Pie:
Ingredients:

• 3/4 of a cup white rice flour (or any flour mix with a 1:1 ratio)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if the flour mix you use already has it)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup butter, in about 5 pieces
• 2 tablespoons cold water, plus additional if necessary

Preparation:

1. In a food processor fitted with the knife blade, pulse dry ingredients until thoroughly combined.
2. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles a course meal.
3. Add the water, a little at a time, pulsing until a ball forms.
4. Form dough into a disk with your hands and roll out between 2 disks of parchment paper (the dough should be about 1 1/2 inches larger in diameter than the pie plate).
5. Peel 1 sheet of paper away from dough and place crust in an ungreased pie plate and remove other sheet of paper.

**Notes: if you want to use this pie crust again in the future and your recipe calls for a pre-baked crust, heat the oven to 350, prick the bottom and sides of the dough, and bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes. Also, pay close attention to how much water you add if you don't have a food processor. Make sure you don't add to much because the dough will get sticky and it will be difficult to peel the wax paper off without ripping your crust.

For the Pumpkin Pie:
Ingredients:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

I've been trying recipes and it seems like one thing or another always goes wrong, and I didn't want to post anything without being certain that I've fixed those problems. But this one turned out just fine!

I used this oatmeal cookie recipe, and they came out delicious. As always, I used Jules Gluten-Free flour for the substitution, and since this recipe calls for oats, I used Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats. It's important that you use a certified gluten-free brand of oats, because cross contamination makes most oats inedible to people that have celiac. The original recipe I used called for quick cook oats, and with the steel cut I found I had to soak the oats in water for about an hour and a half to make them good in the cookies. Also, the directions say that the dough should be about the size of a walnut when you place them on the baking sheet, but when they come out of the oven they're going to be a little smaller than your hand. It doesn't affect how well they cook, but if you don't like cookies that large, make the dough-balls smaller.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups Gluten-Free Flour (with 1:1 substitution)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 3 cups Steel Cut Oats

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour oats into a bowl and fill bowl until oats are covered. Set aside for an hour and a half and let soak.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets, even if using a non-stick. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with a large fork dipped in sugar.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes in oven. Cookies should be removed from sheet while still soft, but it's important they're firm enough to keep their shape.

Appetite For Awareness

Last night was the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness's cooking spree in Philadelphia. The spree, called Appetite for Awareness, has major restaurants from Philadelphia and the surrounding area compete to make the best gluten free dish. Attendees can go around sampling gourmet food from over 20 restaurants. Also, at the door, people are given Wegman's reusable grocery bags to fill up with goodies from vendors also participating in the event.

The restaurants included The Capital Grille, Maggiano's, Pasta Pomodoro, and Casona. Some of the vendors were Boar's Head, French Meadow Bakery, Schar, Gluten Free Dreams, and Gluten Free Naturals. And these aren't all of them, only the ones I can remember off the top of my head!

The event was great. I know my Aunt promised to take me to at least one of the more expensive restaurants because she was absolutely in love with the food. They had everything from simple pasta dishes, to duck, to ribs, to a "risotto falafel," to my favorite: chili. I also got to try the food from vendors that I would normally have to mail order products. French Meadow Bakery's products, for example, aren't carried in any of the stores in my area. I read online that they had great gluten free tortillas, and I also saw that they had white sandwich bread, which I tried at Appetite for Awareness. I'm definitely going to buy one of each after tasting their sandwich bread.

The Foundation itself deals with all aspects of Celiac disease. Besides the cooking sprees in various cities (the one in San Fransisco is on October 30th by the way), the NFCA holds workshops for doctors so they can better watch out for an diagnose people with Celiac disease, and they also have a restaurant training program where they train the staff of restaurants how to cook and maintain a gluten free kitchen. The NFCA also puts out a monthly newsletter, as well as a "recipe of the week." Their website also has a ton of reliable resources.

Oh and, cooking sprees are hosted annually, so make sure if you miss this year, to check it out next!

Oh and Schär Cocoa Wafers are very good for lunches and snacks. They also come in hazelnut, although not really being a hazelnut person, I havent tried them. My dad has though, and he thinks they're great. And he's not even gluten free!

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

These pumpkin muffins are great additions to both breakfasts and lunches. Confectioner's sugar is delicious on top. When I made this batch yesterday, I used cupcake sleeves for the first time. I went over time with the baking, leaving them in for an extra 10 minutes but when I went to eat one I realized that the inside was not cooked correctly at all and had the consistency of pumpkin pie filling. It was still delicious though! I'd recommend leaving them in for an additional 20 minutes after the regular baking time listed below if you're going to put them in cupcake sleeves. For the flour, I've been using Jules Gluten Free Flour Mix. The flour has xanthan gum already incorporated in the right ratio and it's been ground down pretty fine. What's also great is that you can order the flour in 5 lb. and 50 lb. bags.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour (for a 1:1 gluten free substitution)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) melted butter
• 1/8 teaspoon jarred ginger (or 2 teaspoons fresh)

Preparation:

• preheat oven to 375°F
• grease muffin tray
• whisk flour, sugars, baking powder, spices, and salt
• in a separate bowl, whisk pumpkin, milk, eggs, and melted butter
• add dry ingredients to wet ones and stir until just incorporated
• spoon batter into muffin tray until tin is about 1/3 full. It's important that the tin is only 1/3 full, because the muffins won't cook all the way through if there's any more batter.
• bake until muffins are golden and a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean, about 26 minutes
  

Apple Custard Pie

Last week, I made an Apple Custard Pie, from scratch of course. It was absolutely delicious and everyone was begging for a second piece. It took a while, but the end product was totally worth it. Above is a picture of it when it was finished. I have both a pie crust recipe and the recipe for the pie itself and if anyone is interested in making it, please just comment below and I'll post the recipe right away. The crust itself was great, and had no aftertaste and was perfectly flaky and wasn't dry at all. I strongly recommend the recipe to anyone, and like if anyone's interested, again, comment and I'll post the recipe.

A Little Bit About Me

It's a little tough being gluten-free at 17. Having only been diagnosed with Celiac Disease a little under a year, my purpose in making this blog is to try and help other newly diagnosed Celiacs learn a little about good brands, foods, recipes, and anything else people might have questions about. I know from first hand experience that Celiac is hard at first, and I just hope I'm able to ease people into the learning curve of going gluten-free. And I won't bore you, I promise.