Too many cherries....

I've always loved to bake, but baking in the summer is not for the faint of heart.  On top of that gluten free baking is always an adventure, even if you are using a mix.  However, we had a relatively cool night this week and I had some cherries that we needed to use up.  The traditional way to use up cherries is to make a clafouti.  It's a rustic French dessert that is like a custard, but it has a little flour in it.  Traditionally, the French didn't pit the cherries to add more flavor, personally, I pit my cherries first.  I've adapted my recipe to make it gluten-free.  I don't use the pre-mixed all-purpose GF flours for clafouti because the texture comes out wrong, too mealy.  The recipe does call for a small amount of xantham gum.  It's expensive (about $11 - $13) for 8 oz.  However, it is vital that this be included.  Without the xanthum gum the other flours just won't have the elastic qualities you need. It will almost last you forever!  Just for fun, this morning I weighed my bag of xanthan gum.   I was shocked to see that after 18 months and a lot of baking that I've only used 3 ounces of xanthan gum. Inconceivable!!! Based on that, I'll be throwing out almost half a bag when it expires - eeek!

Since I was turning the oven on and heating up the house on a summer night, I also baked some bread for us wheat eaters, a double batch of GF banana bread (froze one loaf) and GF peanut butter brownies.  I cut up half the brownies into individual square sizes, wrapped them into plastic and froze them too.  The clafouti doesn’t freeze well, but it’s great cool for breakfast/brunch or warmed up w/ vanilla ice cream.

One other general baking note; we don’t use the common non-stick sprays for pans.  They don’t seem to be GF.  However, we did find a spray that is 100% olive oil or 100% canola oil, so we either use those or if they run out, we use wax paper & butter just like the old days!

GF Cherry Clafouti

-          2 cups cherries

-          2 tbsp slivered almonds (optional)

-          3 eggs

-          1 cup sugar

-          1 tbsp brown sugar

-          1/8 tsp salt

-          ½ cup sorghum flour

-          ½ cup millet flour

-          1 cup milk (easy to substitute soy or coconut milk if there's a dairy allergy)

-          ¾ tsp almond extract

-          1½ tsp vanilla

-          Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter a 9 x 9 dish.  Toss cherries and almonds into pan -- cherries should almost cover entire bottom of pan.   Whisk together eggs, sugar, salt & flours.  Add milk and extracts.  Bake 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean in the middle -- sometimes takes 70 minutes but I'm at high altitude and use a glass pan.  It should be lightly browned on top and wiggle slightly.  It will be poofy and will deflate while cooling.

You can also use other fruits, like blueberries, peaches, etc. but I would leave out the almond extract.  If you are making with apples, I would put in a little cinnamon and/or nutmeg. I really like the edges, so this would be a great thing to make in individual serving size dishes as well.

GF Peanut Butter Brownies from Pamela’s Mix

I don’t normally make brownies from mixes…but we found some Pamela’s brownie mixes at 50% off!  Woohoo!!!  I made the ultimate recipe off the side of the package w/ sour cream in the mix.  Then I swirled in my peanut butter goo:

Peanut Butter Goo 

-          1/3 to 1/2 cup of GF peanut butter

-          Up to ¼ cup of milk or cream or buttermilk

-          ¼ to ½ cup of powdered sugar

-          Dash of vanilla

As you can see, it isn’t really an exact science.  I start with the peanut butter & vanilla, then I start adding milk (or cream) and powdered sugar until I get a goo that is batter consistency.  I put blobs on top of the brownie batter in the pan and swirl it about.  You don’t want it to completely mix into the batter.  The brownies will take longer to cook & if you have PB lovers, they will disappear faster.