Sweet of the Week #52, Kale Kolada

Well, here it is, the end of another 52 Journey for me.  And wouldn't you know it, my final ingredient is one I have chosen not to bake into a Sweet.  Instead, I'm putting it into the blender.

You see, this is the end of three years of blogging about one Sweet every week.  I've tried hard to limit my Sweet intake to only one thing a week, with exceptions for a few holidays and my birthday.  And President's Day, every third Wednesday, Thursdays when the temperature is above 40 and the barometric pressure is climbing...

In all seriousness, what I have found is that I no longer have an issue limiting how many Sweets I eat.  Some weeks there are plenty of them, there's an occasion to celebrate or a project that requires me to bake 9 or 10 recipes in just a couple of days.  Sometimes I momentarily lose control, but I always get back on track.  And then there are times when I am so tired of Sweets it becomes a task for me to create a recipe, to blog about a Sweet. 

That's how I reached this place I'm at today, blogging about a green smoothie to wrap up this year's 52 Journey.  Right now, today, I don't want to bake a Sweet.  I'm okay without a piece of chocolate cake or a hand pie packed full of caramel-drenched apples. Instead, I'm having a green smoothie.  Next week, I'll probably need a dessert to share at a friend's potluck or I'll be elbow-deep in sugar working on a recipe development project.  But today, it's a smoothie.

And hey, real quick, a note about where I'm headed.  Next year's 52 Journey is going to be much different.  After three years of blogging about a Sweet every week, I'm done with weekly Sweets.  I've got a really fun 52 Project going on over at Johnna52 (where you can find my non-baking adventures) and here at 52 Sweets, I'll be sharing an occasional Sweet, just not one every week. What I will be sharing has a great new twist...

I'll be blogging in 2012 about gluten-free Sweets that can be made for $5.20 or less.  Get it?  It's like 52, $5.20.  Gluten-free baking can be so incredibly pricey, so I wanted to make some inexpensive Sweets, simple desserts, with a minimum of four servings that can be made for $5 or so.  I hope you'll stick around for the Journey.

And now...here's the green smoothie you've been dying to read about!

Kale Kolada
(Makes two generous servings)

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3/4 cup coconut water
6 oz. cultured coconut milk yogurt (you could use almond yogurt or Greek yogurt, I was going with the coconut theme here)
1 1/2 cups coconut tidbits, frozen
1 bunch kale, stems removed (I used 5 large stems of kale in this)

Blend on high speed until well combined.  Super easy...and Sweet!

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2012!

Sweet of the Week #51, Absinthe and Bubbly Cupcakes

This week's Ingredient is Absinthe.

I first sampled Absinthe while visiting Austria in 2001.  The owner of the guest house where I was staying invited me to join other guests for a nightcap.  What he served to us was hausgemacht absinthe, homebrewed with a combination of herbs passed down through at least 3 generations. Austrians are known for brewing Absinthe with very little noticeable anise flavor, something I have sampled nowhere else.  It had a gentle green color, which turned to a cloudy, milky white when served in the traditional manner of pouring cold water over a sugar cube resting on an ornate spoon into a serving of absinthe.  One serving led to many servings.  It produced a mighty headache the next morning...

Since my introduction to absinthe, I've seen it served many ways, including in the Bohemian fashion where an alcohol-soaked sugar cube is lit on fire and dropped into a glass of Absinthe, along with a shot glass of water. I've also seen it served with an ornate fountain of sorts, with a spigot that slowly drips water over a sugar cube.  Properly serving Absinthe seems very tedious. 


Ever since visiting The Fountain on Locust in St. Louis, I've had a thing for Absinthe and Champagne together in cocktails.  I had a Hemingway while there, a drink attributed to Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon where he wrote of drinking 3 to 5 cocktails a day that included a shot of absinthe with the remainder of the glass full of Champagne.

While I'm not suggesting you eat 3 to 5 of these a day, I was thinking New Year's Eve often brings about a surplus of bubbly. So perhaps you'll make these cupcakes to ring in the New Year.

Tip:  If you don't have absinthe and don't wish to purchase it (small bottles are hard to locate and it is often around $50 in the store), just double the champagne in the frosting recipe below.  It works well without it and you'll have a delicious champagne flavored treat.  These cupcakes are great with and without absinthe.

Absinthe Bubbly Cupcakes
Makes 24, gluten-free and dairy-free

1 1/2 cup of Johnna’s Gluten-Free Flour Blend

1 1/2 cup of almond flour (Bob’s Red Mill is preferred)

2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon guar gum

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1-12 oz. container Tofutti Sour Cream (or 1 1/2 cups non-dairy sour cream sub)

1 1/2 sticks butter or Earth Balance, melted and allowed to cool

1 T.  vanilla extract

1/4 cup champagne

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together flours, baking powder and guar gum.  Set aside.

Cream eggs and sugar in stand mixer for 2 to 3 minutes until a pale yellow color is reached.  Incorporate sour cream, melted butter, vanilla extract and champagne.  Slowly add in flour mixture, mixing well on medium until dough is smooth.

Insert cupcake papers into pans, fill ¾ full with cake batter, approximately 1/3 of a cup.  Bake for 18-20 minutes. A cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean.

Champagne Creme Filling

1 cup Healthy Top (measured from the container, not from whipped)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup champagne

With electric mixer, whip Healthy Top until it doubles in quantity.  Add powdered sugar and champagne.  Continue whipping until well incorporated.

Absinthe Champagne Frosting

3 sticks Earth Balance or butter

1 lb. powdered sugar

2 T. Champagne

2 T. Absinthe 

Cream butter in mixer.  Slowly add in powdered sugar.  Once all sugar is incorporated, add in champagne and absinthe.  Mix until smooth and creamy, this makes a light and fluffy frosting if whipped long enough.  If you prefer a stiff frosting, you may add a bit more powdered sugar.

Assembling

Allow cupcakes to cool to room temperature.  Stick your index finger into the center of each cupcake, creating a divot.  If you prefer, you can cut out a portion of the cake, but just pressing into it works quite well.

Fill pastry bag or frosting tool with the champagne creme filling.  Pipe the hole full of filling using a large round tip.  (I prefer something like a 1A or 2A.)

Frost top of cupcake using your preferred method.  I used one of the ginormous cupcake frosting tips from Bake It Pretty. 

On top of the frosting, I used two sizes of sugar pearls that I bought at Sweet!  They remind me of champagne bubbles.  I also baked the cupcakes in pretty nut cups from Sweet!  I like baking cupcakes in these, no need for a muffin tin.

Enjoy the cupcakes.  Wishing you a happy, healthy new year! 

Sweet of the Week #50, Black Olive Cake

This week's Ingredient is Olives, suggested to me by my darling friend Keri.  Specifically, I'll be using black olives.  And olive oil.  

I love olives.  Olives and pickles.  Pickles and olives. My two favorite snacks.  As a child, olives had to be hidden from me.  I'd pop one on each finger, eat them all and then re-load.

As an adult, this hasn't stopped except I don't put them on my fingers anymore.  Well, usually not.  At least not in public.  While in DC at Eat, Write, Retreat in May, the nice folks at Lindsay Olives included cans of these delicious, green ripe buttery olives in our registration bags.  I'm not too proud to mention again that I popped the top off of them and ate an entire can myself in the hotel room.  Hey, at least booze isn't my weakness. Solitary olive eating isn't that bad, is it?

This week's sweet is Black Olive Cake.  I was inspired by this recipe from Almost Turkish Recipes. I've modified it quite a bit, making it gluten-free of course, along with dairy-free and changed some of the ingredients to fit my whims.  I'm not a fan of mint in baked goods, I didn't have any Black Seed handy.  What I did come up with is good.  It's not quite as good as the Oatmeal and Onion muffins with sheep's milk cheese, but if you are a fan of a slightly savory sweet, you'll like this.  Plus who doesn't want to impress their friends by incorporating olives into a cake?!?

If I were on a dairy bender, I'm consider incorporating feta cheese into this one. Anyone tried a dairy-free feta?  

Black Olive Cake
(Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)

4 eggs
1 cup Amande plain cultured almond-milk yogurt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-6 oz. cans black pitted olives, roughly chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 T. Aleppo pepper flakes
1 1/2 t. salt
1 cup almond meal (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup of My Favorite Gluten-Free Flour Blend
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. guar gum

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish. 

Beat eggs, add in Amande yogurt and olive oil.  Mix well.

Add olives, green onions, sundried tomatoes, Aleppo pepper flakes and salt.  Mix well.

Add almond meal, gluten-free flour, baking powder and guar gum.  Mix well.

Pour into baking dish.  Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes, until top is lightly browned and cake tester or toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. 

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake

This cheesecake was inspired by Baked by Rachel's White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.  You'll notice mine doesn't contain "white chocolate" in the title.  That's because I made my version of this cheesecake not only gluten-free but also dairy-free.  In the holiday rush, I neglected to order any dairy-free white chocolate.  So here it is, Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.

First you'll need to make some peppermint bark.  I melted 8 oz. of dairy-free chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life)  and spread it out on a sheet of parchment paper.  Before it set, I sprinkled the top with 4 or 5 crushed candy canes.  Once it has set, crumble it up into small pieces.

And now, on to the cheesecake...

Peppermint Bark Cheesecake
(Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free)

CRUST
1 package chocolate K-Toos or other gluten-free Oreo-style cookie
8 peppermint candies or 4 candy canes
2 T. Earth Balance, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Set an 8" Springform pan out.

In food processor, pulverize the peppermint candies.  It is important to do this first.  If you do not, large pieces of the candies will become hard, crunchy spots in your crust.  Next, add all of the cookies into the bowl with the candies and process until all of the cookies are crunched into fine crumbs.  Add in the melted Earth Balance and pulse a couple of times just to incorporate.

Pat the crust mixture into the 8" Springform pan, covering the bottom and about an inch up the sides.  Place in pre-heated oven and cook for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.

CHEESECAKE FILLING
1 3/4 cup cashews (soaked overnight in water)
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup coconut oil, liquified
1/4 cup water
1 t. vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 t. sea salt
1 cup peppermint bark pieces, broken into small pieces

MOUSSE TOPPING
1/4 cup MimiCreme Healthy Top, whips to 1/2 cup (or equivalent non-dairy whipped topping)
4 ounces Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
1 1/2 T. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla

EXTRAS
Chocolate shavings, additional broken candy cane pieces or peppermint bark for topping


Filling:  Soak cashews overnight in water.  Drain.
Add cashews, agave nectar, liquified coconut oil, water, vanilla bean paste, lemon juice and sea salt to bowl of food processor.  Process until very smooth, at least 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a mixing bowl.  By hand, gently fold in peppermint bark pieces.  Do no overstir.   Pour on top of cooled crust and put into freezer.

Next, prepare the mousse topping.  In a medium mixing bowl, whip MimiCreme Healthy Top using a hand mixer.  Whip until it doubles in size.  Then add in Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese, sugar and vanilla, mixing until well incorporated.

Remove cheesecake from freezer.  Gently spread mousse topping on top of filling.  Return to freezer until 2 hours before serving.

When you remove it from the freezer for serving, sprinkle the top with broken candy cane pieces, leftover peppermint bark or chocolate shavings.  It is important to add the toppings now, not when you first assemble the cheesecake.  The color from the candy canes will run atop the mousse filling if you add them before freezing.

Allow the cheesecake to thaw a bit, slice to serve.

I served our cheesecake atop adorable saucers made of melted peppermint candies and put a cute peppermint bark heart on top of the cake.  You can read more about those fun projects here, in my holiday post about Pinterest baking finds.  Enjoy!

Why I Love Pinterest: Christmas 2011 Baking Edition

I blogged over at my non-baking spot, Johnna52, about some of the fun things I've done this holiday season inspired by Pinterest.  And then I realized I had done a whole bunch of holiday baking inspired by Pinterest, too.  I thought I'd share those things with you!

First up, these adorable Oreo truffle snowmen from Cookies and Cups.

I went to my friend Renee's house to make these with Trader Joe's Candy Cane JoeJoes.  I hoped my husband would really enjoy these as he is a BIG fan of the Candy Cane JoeJoes. This is the first year we've had Trader Joe's in town, which makes it the first year we haven't either brought a suitcase of these addictive cookies home from our travels or had a friend in a city with Trader Joe's ship them to us.  Since they weren't so hard to obtain this year, there was a spare box in the All-Things-Gluten Box stowed in the garage.  I decided to use them to make a gift for him.

Renee and her kiddos E and A helped me make these. They made that adorable gingerbread house in the photo with the snowman truffle.   It was terrific to make the truffles with friends and also in a kitchen where gluten lives.  I didn't have to worry so much about cross-contamination as I would using my own appliances and kitchen tools.

Here's the scoop on these.  And by the way, if you are gluten-free like me, these work just as well with K-Toos.  Crunch up one full package of Oreos or Oreo-like cookies in the food processor.  Add in 8 oz. of cream cheese.  Roll into balls and freeze.  Renee discovered the best way to do this was to go ahead and stack them in the snowman formation, spear them with a toothpick or narrow skewer and freeze them stacked.  Our attempts before doing this were absolute failures, resulting in melted snowmen.

Speaking of melted snowmen, I saw the fun melted snowmen cakepops above on Pinterest.  They were created by Susie QT Pie's Scraps of Life.  I am a mess when it comes to making cake balls, cake pops, cake truffles.  I'm not sure why it's so difficult for me and know I've blogged about it several times.  But I finally found something that looks like what I usually make, melted snowmen!

While at Renee's house, she was making regular (i.e. non-snowmen) Oreo truffles so we turned a few into melted snowmen. That's A above skillyfully painting faces on little melted snowmen truffles.  Cute, huh?  Same recipe: 1 package oreos, 8 oz. cream cheese and melted white chocolate for dipping.  I used candy writers to draw the faces.

On to the next fun find...

The holidays aren't complete without a cocktail!  I'm a fan of anything eggnog.  Except my body isn't such a fan of dairy right now so I've been avoiding it anytime I can.  This year instead of having eggnog from our favorite local dairy, I decided to make Coquito. Here's the one I pinned on Pinterest from Hello Beautiful:

Coquito is a Puerto Rican tradition, a coconut based eggnog type cocktail. It usually calls for white rum.  Earlier this month I put coffee beans from The Roasterie into a bottle of amber rum from Spirits of St. Louis, a microdistillery.  Oh my!  Within two days, the rum smell was equally mixed with the aroma of coffee beans.  So I left the beans in the bottle for two weeks, creating the best alcoholic concoction I've had.  It seemed fitting to use it in a holiday cocktail like Coquito.  Here's my non-dairy version.

Coquito
1.  Make one batch of dairy-free sweetened condensed milk following This Recipe from Sunny at And Love It Too. Let cool before using.
2.  Over medium heat, cook 1 1/2 cups of So Delicious unsweetened coconut milk until it reduces to 3/4 of a cup. Let cool to room temperature.
3.  In double boiler, combine sweetened condensed milk, So Delicious milk (which is now equivalent to evaporated milk) and 4 egg yolks.  Whisk, whisk, whisk.  Cook until the mixture reaches 165 degrees.
4.  Remove from heat and add 1-8.5 oz can Cream of Coconut, 1 additional cup of So Delicious Unsweetened Coconut Milk and 1 to 2 cups of rum. (I use 1 1/2 cups, it's a bit umm...warming. Add a little, taste test, and then add more.)
5.  Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon over the top.  This is traditionally served in shot glasses but we go a bit larger here. 


Still on a snowman kick and with egg whites leftover from the Coquito, I found another fun baking idea...

These meringue snowmen from were the perfect use of the egg whites!  I started with this idea from Curbly. I used the meringues recipe from Bon Appetit's December 2011 issue, switching the peppermint extract for almond.  I drew the faces on with candy writers, keeping them pretty simple since they were packed into bags for surprise gifts in my Light 'Em Up project.

And one last holiday Pinterest-inspired creation...

Look at this Peppermint Bark Cheesecake! I spotted this cheesecake from Baked by Rachel , a take on Cheesecake Factory's Peppermint Bark Cheesecake.  I knew I wanted to find a way to make it gluten- and dairy-free.  Doesn't it look delicious?


I thought something like this cute peppermint bark pop from Not So Idle Hands would be cute on top of the cheesecake. Another find on Pinterest!

And here's the one last little touch.  I saw these cute serving platters from Tutto Bella on Pinterest.  They are super easy to make, just line up mints on parchment paper atop a baking sheet, pop in the oven at 350 for 8 minutes or so.

I decided to try making saucers on which to serve cheesecake.  They came out of the oven a little uneven, due to my oven being unlevel.  While they were still hot (caution: this is dangerous), I used kitchen scissors to trim them into more even shaped.  It worked.  These are pretty fragile, but oh my goodness are they cute!

Here are a few photos of my cheesecake, my version of the peppermint bark pop and the cute peppermint plate I made:

OH--about the cheesecake recipe!  Because this post has reached extraordinary length, I decided to give the cheesecake its very own post.  You'll find the recipe for the cheesecake here.  It's one of my very favorite cheesecakes ever.  Seriously, it's that good.  If you like chocolate with mint, you'll love this.

There you have it, my holiday Pinterest finds and what I did with them.  Tell me about yours!

Sweet of the Week #49, A Learning Experience...

This week I planned to share with you a Sweet featuring Velvet Creme Popcorn.  You know those giant tins of popcorn you see at the holidays?  Well, those were originally the creation of Velvet Creme Popcorn, a company founded in 1937 in Kansas City.

Way back in 1954, Velvet Creme first offered popcorn in a decorative tin. In the KC area, Velvet Creme is one of our local gems. I'm not sure how Kansas City came to have two well known popcorn companies, but we are also home to Topsy's Popcorn, a company that once had over 500 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Using popcorn in a Sweet seemed to be a good way to give a nod to one of our local products.  I had planned to use Velvet Creme cinnamon popcorn to make cupcakes, grinding the popcorn into flour like Stefani at Cupcake Project did earlier this year. 

John and I made a trip last week to Velvet Creme's store in Westwood, Kansas.  It was fun looking around at all of the flavors of popcorn, snack mixes and brittles. They had lots of fun gift items on display, everything you would need for a great movie night at home!

John is a big fan of cinnamon popcorn and we bought a couple bags plus a bag of white chocolate almond caramel corn and a bag of popcorn to pop at home.  There were folks ordering large tins of popcorn to ship across the country and even a lady who brought back a tin from many years past to have it refilled.  She said it was her holiday tradition. 

And now...for the learning experience.  As I always do, I read the labels on the ingredients in everything we bought.  No wheat, no mention of being processed in a facility that also processes wheat.  This morning, on our local news, the reporter said Velvet Creme wanted to share with its customers undeclared soy, milk and wheat in a few of their products.  Yikes.  While the list does not include the flavor of popcorn I bought, I've decided it's probably best for me to not incorporate this ingredient into a Sweet, just to be safe.  Sounds like there is wheat used in their facility and that's not a good thing for me.  I'm a little bummed.

Each day eating gluten-free is a challenge, reading labels, questioning restaurant staff, clarifying ingredients to make sure I am eating in a way that is healthy and necessary for my body.  What I learned from this experience is to make sure I am absolutely vigilant about reading labels and asking questions, even when I don't want to be a bother.  I also learned that there are companies who want to make sure their customers stay healthy, voluntarily issuing statements like Velvet Creme has done.  While I will avoid their popcorn this year, John will continue enjoying it, now having a second bag of cinnamon popcorn that was previously reserved for cupcake making.  So there's no Sweet this week, just a learning experience.

Sweet of the Week #46, #47 and #48: Oatmeal Caramelized Onion Muffins with Sheep's Milk Cheese

This week's Sweet incorporates three of the Ingredients on this year's list:  Oatmeal, Onions and Sheep's Milk Cheese.  These muffins are my current favorite from the entire year.  I got a little teary-eyed in the kitchen while eating them warm from the oven, I didn't expect them to be so good as the combination of ingredients didn't seem particularly appealing to me. But oh my....these were a delicious surprise!

My friend Mandy suggested two ingredients used in these muffins, Oatmeal and Onions.  When she suggested this ingredients, she was in her last month of pregnancy with her little guy who is 11 months old now. Mandy told me oatmeal and onions sounded good, just not necessarily together.  Not one to walk away from a challenge, I knew the moment she suggested those ingredients I would find a way to combine them.  But it was only within the last two weeks that it struck me to combine sheep's milk cheese with oatmeal and onions.  I was thinking about the delicious sheep's milk cheese from Green Dirt Farm we had taste-tested over a year ago while shopping at The Mercantile in Lawrence, Kansas and pondering ways to incorporate it into a sweet.  Putting a healthy schmear of it on a muffin seemed like a great application and these yummy muffins were born.

Oh, wait...I left out the best part of these muffins. Well, okay, the second best part.  The first best part is for sure eating them but the second best part is my trip to Green Dirt Farm last week.  Josh at Green Dirt Farm was kind enough to meet me and John at the farm and show us around while answering all of my questions. I always have lots of questions at farms, I'm fascinated with how food arrives on our plate! 

We went on a beautiful drive, just about 30 minutes from home.  It was a chilly, grey day but we still enjoyed the change of scenery. Even this time of year, I am struck but how pretty it is where we live, rolling hills and lots of trees. 

At the farm, we saw several varieties of sheep, most of them pregnant, so there's no milking happening right now.  We also saw several of the working dogs.  I'm not sure what kind of dog Mudge is (the black one in the background) but the beautiful white dog is a Maremma.  As much as I love dogs, I was even more captivated by the llamas. That's right, they've got llamas at Green Dirt Farm.  Llamas!  I had no idea llamas were used for herding/guarding duties on farms.  We could see a long llama neck way up high on a hill, peeking out from behind a large hay bail, watching our every move. Fascinating.

I asked lots of questions about nutritional content of sheep vs. cow milk, sheep vs. goat milk and environmental impact of raising sheep vs. raising cows.  I wanted to understand why I am more tolerant of sheep and goat milk than of cow's milk.  The knowledge I collected is more than I could post here, my head was full of information, every tidbit of it making me more conscious of how I buy food, of what I choose to eat. We talked about how the land is managed, how the grazing areas are rotated.  Josh mentioned that if the sheep were allowed to eat all over instead of being corralled into smaller areas at a time, they would eat all of their favorite stuff and move along.  He referred to this as Brussels sprouts vs. ice cream.  I wonder if there are sheep like me, the ones who would choose Brussels sprouts over ice cream?   I see it with our hens everyday, they don't all like the same foods, and I'm surprised at this.  And so I wonder if animals not allowed to graze are forced to eat food they don't really like every single day? 

So there's my little peek into Green Dirt Farm.  I plan to go on a tour during the  milking season and will share more then.  It's really a fascinating place and the cheese is unlike anything I have had elsewhere. It is not only tasty but I feel good about eating it.  Plus the sheep are such happy ladies and you know how I love seeing happy critters being allowed to romp around on a well-kept farm.  Should we all plan a Spring-time field trip?

In selecting which cheese to use with these muffins, I spoke to the fromager at The Mercantile.  He said if he were using one of the Fresh spreads from Green Dirt Farm on the Oatmeal Onion Muffins, he would choose the plain variety.  That variety isn't available right now and won't be until the sheep are producing milk again in the Spring, so the second choice was the Lovage.  I associate the flavor of lovage with celery, however this cheese spread has a nice herb quality to it with just a little freshness in the aftertaste, a little effervescence of lovage.  It works perfectly with the oatmeal onion muffins. I'd like another right now. 

I still haven't convinced you that you want to eat Oatmeal Onion Muffins, have I?  Would it help if I told you they were all gobbled up here, that I had to HIDE the remaining four muffins to take to a friend? I don't have to do that around here even with chocolate-y goodness, but the Oatmeal Onion Muffins were a big hit.  I hope you'll try them. Here's the recipe:

Oatmeal Onion Muffins (Makes 12 muffins)
Inspired by this recipe by Beth McCasland

1 cup gluten-free rolled oats (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick Earth Balance or butter, melted and cooled
1 cup of my favorite all-purpose flour blend
1/2 t. guar gum
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder
1/2 cup caramelized onions (learn how here, it took 3 medium onions for 1/2 cup)

In large mixing bowl, combine oats and almond milk.  Let sit for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small mixing bowl, combine flour, guar gum, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

Add to oats and milk the egg, brown sugar, melted Earth Balance or butter.  Mix until well combined.  Stir in dry ingredients.  Last, fold in the caramelized onions.

Pour approximately 1/3 of a cup of batter into each well of an oiled muffin tin.  Bake at 400 degrees for 14-16 minutes.  A toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle will come out clean.

Serve with Fresh spread from Green Dirt Farm.  These muffins are tasty warm from the oven, but also keep very well, if you can manage to keep them away from your family.  I'm excited to experiment with this recipe, incorporating sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives next! 

Green Dirt Farm is located near Weston, Missouri.  They host Farm Table Dinners, workshops, tours and more.  You can buy their cheese in many Kansas City area stores or order on-line.  Visit their website for more information.

Sweet of the Week #45, Cream Cheese Frosted Spice Cupcakes with Aleppo Pepper

The holiday craziness has taken hold here and I'm finding my baking and blogging time a wee bit limited.  I've resorted to using a mix (gasp!) again, but assure you this one is delicious, so worth trying.

Plus, I'm about to share a really handy tip with those of you unashamed to occasionally use a mix in your kitchen.  This tip began as desperation, I needed a spice cake mix to make Cherpumple*, and ended as a tasty surprise.  So here goes...

How to Make a Yellow Cake Mix Into a Spice Cake Mix
Using one Betty Crocker gluten-free yellow cake mix, add the following:
1/2 t. powdered cloves
1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
2 t. powdered ginger

To incorporate this week's Ingredient, Aleppo pepper, I also added 1 teaspoon of crushed pepper flakes to the spice blend.  WOW!  This may be my favorite ingredient of the entire year!  Aleppo pepper has a hint of heat along with a hint of sweet with a visible oil sheen on the flakes.  Since making the first batch of these cupcakes, I've used the pepper flakes on stir-fried vegetables and on pizza.  Then I made more of these cupcakes, just to make sure I wasn't mistaken the first time.  I was not, they are delicious. 

Here's the scoop on the cupcakes.  Mix the cake mix according to the directions on the box.  Add the spices listed above, plus the Aleppo pepper flakes.  Bake according to the directions.  Top with this yummy dairy-free cream cheese frosting and sprinkle a few Aleppo pepper flakes on top.  That's it, super easy yet an impressive flavor combination that doesn't scream that it came from a box.

Give it a try!  If you like a little bit of sweet heat, you'll enjoy this one. 

*I'll be sharing my Cherpumple adventures in a post about holiday baking soon.  Promise. I simply can't pass up the opportunity to tell you about the 10 pound gluten- and dairy-free three pie/three cake monstrosity I took to a friend's holiday gathering.  But first I need to run exactly 27.773 miles to burn off the calories I consumed eating two servings of this crazy creation.

Sweet of the Week #44, Snowball Cupcakes with Cotton Candy

One of my favorite gluten-free snacks is Cotton Candy.  Sure, it's all sugar and food coloring, but it's also only 100 calories per serving.  For awhile my hair was pink, which resulted in my husband remarking several times it must be a result of all of the cotton candy I eat.  That's a possibility, because I really dig pink cotton candy.  Once I even considered switching careers and selling cotton candy. (I'm kidding...sorta.*)

This week's sweet is a chocolate cupcake made with a mix (gasp!) and cream cheese frosting.  I topped each cupcake with tiny snowballs made with white cotton candy I bought at the grocery store.  I sprinkled a tiny bit of edible glitter on top of each cupcake and inserted a cute snowman cupcake pick into the top.  CUTE!

Chocolate Cupcakes from a mix
1 Betty Crocker cake mix, prepared according to directions with one addition:  add 1 teaspoon of instant coffee crystals to the water.  This deepens the chocolate flavor.

Dairy-Free Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. container of Tofuttti Better Than Cream Cheese
5 T. Earth Balance vegan buttery sticks
2 t. vanilla bean paste
2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar

In bowl of stand mixer, combine all ingredients except powdered sugar.  Blend until well combined.  Slowly incorporate powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

Cotton Candy Snowballs
Pull out small pieces of cotton candy and gently press into a ball shape.  Don't press too hard or they will become dense balls of sugar.  Pile a group on top of your cupcakes and sprinkle with edible glitter (optional).  I used five on top of each cupcake.

*Big thanks to the kind cotton candy vendors at the Kentucky State Fair who indulged me in one of my fantasy jobs, selling cotton candy.  This lasted all of 45 seconds, until reality set in and the income-consumption ratio became clear to me.