More GF recipes….
If I keep this up, I’m gonna hafta start taking gorgeous pics of the ingredients & finished products….if I can remember to take pictures of the finished products before I snarf them down. It’s just that I’ve spent so many years (15+) that if I do run across something that’s GF and DF and tasty, it seems only right to try & help some other Gluten Mutant out there who’s struggling to find edible, even yummy food. Considering all the lousy GF crapola I’ve encountered, you’d think I’d be scrawny, but….not quite.*
Anyhoo. Here’s a recipe for wonderfully tangy, lil’ bit gooey lemon bars that will do nothing to assist any weight loss or even weight maintaining attempts, but will set you drooling & sneaking out to the kitchen to hoover them up in the middle of the night.
First off, this works best using my own personal GF flour blend…just what the world needs, right? Yet another GF flour blend. This one has worked really well in everything I’ve tried, & it avoids the problems of many of the commercial GF blends (those based on garbanzo beans taste like…well, beans; rice-flour-based ones are sorta gritty, etc). Somehow I came up with this blend while trying to make a good GF/DF oatmeal cookie. It worked exceptionally well.** It also works excellently for these lemon bars, and it makes kick-ass shortbread if you just use the recipe for the crust & leave off the lemon layer part. I’ve also used it to bread fish; it didn’t seem “dessert-y” at all. I s’pose it’s not totally “mine,” since part of it is a pre-made all-purpose GF blend, but oh well. I let the commercial ones provide some of the gluten-replacement work & I reduce the beany/gritty issues. I like Bob’s Red Mill GF stuff, tho I find that what works best is mixing his GF all-purpose mix & GF pizza crust mix 1:1, if I’m not using my own blend (i.e. if I’m out of almond flour). My blend would probably work with most any of the commercial GF blends, except GF Bisquik: I tried that & it was really bitter.
At last, the recipes:
Kelly’s very own GF Flour blend:
2:1:1 Bob’s GF All-Purpose Baking mixŦ : tapioca starch : almond flour
In other words,
2 cups Bob’s or whoever’s GF flour blend (whomever’s?)
1 cup tapioca starch (or tapioca flour, same thing)
1 cup almond flour
The goodies (At last!):
LEMON BARS (crust by itself = wonderful shortbread)
Crust
1 c my very own GF Flour mix
1/2 c softened DF butteroid (Earth Balance gold package sticks)
1/4 c white sugar
Filling
3/4 c white sugar
2 Eggs
3 T GF Flour mix
3 T lemon juice (if you don’t like ‘em very lemony, use 2T)
1/4 t baking powder
[1/2 c powdered sugar for topping]
Heat oven to 350°F. Beat butteroid & sugar til smooth. Add flour mix, beat at low speed til mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press onto bottom of ungreased 8-inch square baking pan. Bake 15-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. (For shortbread, bake until very lightly browned in center, ~30 min).
Meanwhile, combine all filling ingredients except powdered sugar in small bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Pour filling over hot, partially baked crust. Continue baking 18-20 minutes or until filling is set.
Sprinkle with ½ powdered sugar while still warm, then dust with the rest when cool (looks very snazzy if you have something lacy to lay on before dusting with powdered sugar, or harken back to first grade by cutting out a “snowflake” in a clean sheet of paper & use it). Cut into bars. Try not to eat all at one sitting.
Notes:
-I see “GF baking powder” or GF vanilla” in recipes a lot; I don’t know why, because you’d have to go ‘way out of your way to find baking powder or vanilla that did have gluten. There’s still a ton of mis-information about gluten free things floating about. It’s very depressing.
-on tapioca starch/flour; they’re the same thing. Ditto potato starch/potato flour; same deal. However; corn starch and corn flour are not the same things. Ain’t life fun? (or English, or baking terminology, or something).
Happy snacky eating, folks. I’ll try to get purty pitchers next time. I found my camera again so am not dependent on my phone, which will help.
Oh btw; I got a hankering for eggrolls again the other day but it was late & I was lazy, so I tried using the rice wrapper & then putting that between 2 layers of GF rice tortillas (they crack when I try to wrap anything, so I just used ’em to sandwich the spring roll), then briefly frizzled them in hot oil to supply crunch. Bad, bad, bad idea. I shoulda made the batter. My GF flour mix works for that kinda batter, too. (Also the filling was about 90% zucchini, since I’m suffering from a surfeit of that despite only planting 1 plant, which didn’t help. Squash eggroll isn’t the In Thing of the future, methinks).
*Latest doc visit informed me my BMI had snuck over the “OVERWEIGHT” level; 25 is the cutoff, mine was 25.3. My brain is telling me that this is not a sign I’m morbidly obese or anything, but my fubared body image is down there screaming “FAT! YOU’RE FAT!!! HIDEOUS REVOLTING ICK FATFATFATFATFATFATFAFAFAFAAAHHHHHH!!! But really, that’s another post entirely, no?
**I guess this means I’m gonna hafta post the oatmeal cookie recipe. Soon. Not that there’s such a mob of folks out there waiting impatiently for my next pearls of wisdom…but I will put up the recipe soon, because they’re seriously to-die-for.
Ŧ or Bob’s AP + pizza, or any commercial GF flour blend
ecanarensis 