Guess what I did today! I made these baked chocolate chip donuts. I had originally been looking at baked donut recipes so that I could use my brother’s donut pan, but in the end, I made mine into donut sticks by baking them in my mini loaf pans.
A Flour By Any Other Name
tales from a gluten-free kitchen
Category Archives: nut-free
Eggs Smothered in Jalapeno Cheese Sauce: Better than Eggs Benedict?
I think I may have found an amazing alternative to eggs Benedict. Don’t get me wrong. I am a big fan of eggs Benedict. Well, used to be. When I order it now, I always order it without the English muffin, of course, but it is not really the same and not nearly as filling. And just this past fall, I tried ordering it in one restaurant where, apparently, the “hollandaise sauce” was not gluten free. I ended up eating something else.
Quick Thinking
I have quick breads on the brain lately, so I made this currant loaf. It has lots and lots of currants, plus orange rind and citron peel. It turned out nicely—this photo doesn’t really do it justice. This is what I am having for breakfast tomorrow.
A Solid Ending
I mentioned previously that June was butter tart month in Ontario. I made a valiant effort to eat butter tarts at the beginning of the month (five days straight!) but didn’t manage to have one every day. However, I did manage to celebrate the end of June with a bang.
Toronto had an event called the Great Canadian Butter Tart Bake-Off at the end of June. It featured six pastry chefs each baking and serving a different style of butter tart. Since we can’t enjoy regular butter tarts, my sister decided we would have a butter tart bake-off of our own.
Breakfast Cheesecake
I am currently developing a recipe for breakfast cheesecake. I know that you can eat any cheesecake for breakfast, but this one is a simple, no-fuss, no-crust cheesecake that’s baked in a bain-marie and scooped into a bowl like custard or pudding. A girl has to eat something for breakfast, right?
Butter Tarts for Breakfast
Apparently, June is Butter Tart month in Ontario. I don’t know many details about this. For instance, is this the inaugural Butter Tart Month? Will every June from now on be Butter Tart Month? Or is this simply a one-off promotion? However, I am lucky enough to live in a house where there are lots of gluten-free butter tarts. I have managed to eat butter tarts, in some form, every day of June so far (yes, I know it has only been three days). I don’t know how long I can actually keep it up, but I am willing to try. Today, I had two butter tarts for breakfast. Delicious.
Update, June 5, 2014: I have heard back from the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance. It has dubbed June Butter Tart Month in Ontario in an effort to promote the various butter tart experiences available in the province—such as Wellington County’s Butter Tart Trail. OCTA is working on making June officially Butter Tart Month in the future. I can’t help but applaud its efforts.
You can read more about various ways you can celebrate the butter tart here, but the site only has last year’s information.
Scallops and Bacon and Garlic! Oh My!
My niece is brilliant. She came up with an incredibly delicious idea this week. As part of a meal, we had bacon-wrapped scallops. But they were scallops with double plus bacon, really. First, she fried a slice of bacon for each scallop. Then, she cooked the scallops gently in bacon fat. Next, I fried chopped garlic in bacon fat—I chopped five large cloves for 10 scallops. She assembled them, wrapping each scallop in bacon and carefully distributing the garlic over the scallops. This photo does not do them justice at all.* The result was pure bliss.
*(I guess that means we will be forced to make them again so I can get a better photo…)
Poutine: Yes, I Am Canadian!
Poutine is a staple of French-Canadian cuisine. It’s simple but extremely tasty.
A few years ago, I went with my sister and my niece to a concert put on by Ron Cahute and Jane Lapko, the creators of these educational French songs. They performed their Poutine song, which goes like this:
Poutine, let’s start with the french fries,
Poutine, add the cheese and the gravy!
Poutine is my favourite thing,
It’s fries with an attitude!
Jalapeno Cheddar Sauce for Pasta
I love jalapenos. I first learned how to use a canner just so I could pickle my own peppers. I have grown my own plants a couple of times, too. One year, when I had a large garden, I ended up pickling 60 cups of peppers.
Happy Birthday to Me
One of my sisters made me this fabulous cake from Martha Stewart for my birthday. It was absolutely amazing.
She made it using three boxes of Betty Crocker gluten-free chocolate cake mix. Other than that, she followed the recipe. It was truly decadent.
And the best part? We celebrated my birthday a day early and I took leftovers home. That meant that on my actual birthday I got to eat this cake for breakfast. That’s a pretty good way to start the year.
This dessert features six layers of chocolate cake, a ganache topping and a salted caramel filling.
A Flour By Any Other Name 