Sneak Peek at Elizabeth Barbone's New Book!

 I've mentioned Elizabeth Barbone on this blog before, but for those of you who don't know, she's a local gluten free author, and creator of delicious gluten free recipes. I had the pleasure of meeting Elizabeth over the holiday season at a Price Chopper baking event where she demo'd different recipes including gluten free pumpkin whoopie pies and a chocolate bark which I ended up making for both the cookie swap with the book club girls as well as my in-laws over the holiday!

Anyway, Elizabeth has a new book coming out, How to Cook Gluten Free. I was among those fortunate enough to get a sneak peek at some of the recipes in this book and so far I'm very impressed. One of the recipes that Elizabeth shared with me was for "Powdered Sugar Doughnut" muffins, and I have to admit that my curiosity was piqued. Muffins... that taste like doughnuts? Impossible, I thought. Powdered doughnuts are one of the things that my chocolate-hating husband misses the most since going gluten free, and I knew that if these were even half as good as promised I'd have enough good wife points to score a date to an opening weekend showing of The Hunger Games. :-) So here goes nothing...

Two things I noticed about the recipe right off the bat: first of all, this was a muffin recipe with no butter. Seems almost inconceivable, right? Second, this recipe calls for corn starch (among other ingredients) which I rarely use in baking. Before I continue, I'll offer you a tip: pouring corn starch out of that big plastic Argo container into a small measuring cup? Not necessarily a good idea. Especially if wearing superdark jeans and a black sweater. Moving on...


So, I followed Elizabeth's directions ALMOST to a T (I used a regular muffin pan rather than a mini muffin pan) and ended up with a dozen powdered muffins. I let them cool for as long as I could stand it, and then sampled a muffin while still warm. It was good - my husband and I shared the "tester" muffin and left the rest for breakfast the next morning. Let me tell you - don't bother testing the muffin, just let them all totally cool off. Because the next morning the flavor and texture was EXACTLY a powdered sugar doughnut. The only thing that was missing was a big glob of jam in the middle to make it a jelly doughnut (which will definitely be added next time!). Let's just put it this way. If the rest of her recipes are as good as these doughnut muffins, we're all in for a treat. :)

If you decide to make these muffins on your own, one tip: If you think you've put too much powdered sugar on the muffin, add some more. Some of the sugar will get sucked into the muffin after a day or so.  And, well, just as I feel that cupcakes are "frosting delivery services" I feel that doughnuts are "frosting/sugar/filling" delivery services and the amount of what is delivered needs to be maximized. ;-)

OK OK, I was going to write a teaser entry and make you all salivate over this, but Elizabeth gave me permission to post this recipe and share it with you.

Ingredients:

Gluten-free nonstick cooking spray

Dry Ingredients

3/4 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking power

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 ground nutmeg (Note from Kat: The piece de resistance!)

Wet Ingredients

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil (Note from Kat: I used canola)

1 large egg

1 package (1 pound) powdered sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and
preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease the
cavities of a mini muffin pan with nonstick
cooking spray.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry
ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and whisk
to combine. The batter will be thin.

3. Fill the muffin cavities about half full. Bake for
20 to 25 minutes, until the muffins are golden
brown.

HOW TO COOK GLUTEN-FREE

4. While the muffins are baking, fill an 8-inch
square baking dish with the powdered sugar.

5. Remove the muffins from the oven and
working in batches, place them directly into
the powdered sugar. Gently roll the muffins in
the sugar to cover them. The steam from the
hot muffins will make the sugar stick to the
muffins. Remove the muffins from the sugar
and tap off any excess. Transfer the muffins
to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight
container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1
month.

Makes 24 mini muffins

Cupcake Decorating at Bettie's Cupcakes

Last week I dragged my husband tomy husband joined me for a cupcake decorating class at Bettie's Cupcakes in Latham (right in Hoffman's Playland, next to Subway). The theme was Angry Birds, and since I've been known to be addicted to the game on my iPhone I just couldn't resist checking out the class! It was $30 per person (pre-paid by credit card when you make reservations), and they'll let you decorate their gluten free cupcakes if you ask. Which is awesome because then my hubby could eat his artwork! ;-)

This class started out with fondant - coloring and shaping fondant for their bodies, eyeballs, beaks, etc. We hand-kneaded balls of fondant and then colored them with a sort of high-test, thick food coloring. We kept some white, and used green, black, red, yellow, blue, and orange (for beaks).

We used buttercream frosting to fill the cupcakes (just pressing down the pastry bag in the cupcake and slowly squirting filling in - my new favorite cupcake technique) and then as a base for the fondant. Then we used chocolate chips for eyeballs and the pig's snout and ears. Don't these look adorable? (Full disclosure - the tongue on the pig was my creative license and not part of the instructions). The cupcakes tasted GREAT - though unfortunately after a couple of days they got a little stale (in other words, eat quickly or share!). I'd definitely take another class though - it's a fun time decorating these cupcakes and I think I learned a thing or two! Bettie's has a lot of different themed classes announced on their FB page if you're interested!