Husband says, “These have an interesting texture.” … WOT! WOT’S WRONG? He says, “They’re really good.” … H’okay, then! I’m not into cooked sweet things much these days (RAW FOODIE ALERT!), but my husband tells me these are blog-worthy.

Orgran gluten-free plain flour mix results in a texture that is somewhere between most gluten-free things & wheat flour things… thus interesting! The peanut oil gives these biscuits a pleasant roasted taste, too… Obviously these biscuits are not part of a weight-loss programme, but they can be used as part of a tasty vegan snacking programme.

& I used agave to sweeten instead of processed sugar, hooray. You could also use maple syrup if you are from a certain part of the world where that stuff is abundant & cheap…!

Makes: HEAPS.
Gluten-free, sugar-free, soy-free.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups gluten-free plain flour mix (eg. Orgran)
½ cup muesli (I used our homemade mix of buckwheat, nuts, puffed grains, seeds, etc)
½ cup chunky almond meal (or very finely chopped almonds) (leftovers from making raw treats!)
1 cup dark choc chips or other semisweet vegan choc chips… or cacao nibs!
¼ cup shredded coconut
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda

Wet ingredients:
½ cup peanut oil
½ cup (dark) agave nectar
¼ cup water
3 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof/parchment paper.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, stirring together with a wire whisk.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add all wet ingredients, and stir together.
4. Take roughly 1 tablespoon blobs of mix, roll into a ball & flatten into cookie shape on the paper. Smooth edges on the cookies to prevent crumbling (but only if crumbs bother you! I think crumbs are a great part of the cookie experience, ha).
5. Bake on the centre shelf of your oven for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
6. Store in an airtight container in the fridge (or they freeze ok, too).

Notes:
If peanut oil is too scary-fat for you – but it smells so good baking, oh boy, & makes a nice, brown coloured cookie rarer to gluten-free baking – use coconut oil instead (which would go well with the shredded coconut!), or an unscented oil like sunflower.

Filed under: biscuits, cookies, desserts, sweet things

I really like the flavors of Orange and Chocolate combined. And, thanks to my wife's latest gluten-free recipe creation, I have a new and delicious way to enjoy this favored taste combination: the Gluten-Free "Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake"™, or "Chocolate Orange-Juice-Concentrate Cheesecake"™ (which would be more accurate)

This new cheesecake formula has moved the dessert into my "top 10 list" for now, and I have had the pleasure of enjoying two of these cakes in the past couple months - it is always good to double-test recipes before publishing (and, double-eat too!) I was hoping to share a more complimentary photo of the end-product, but my picture suffered a bit and does not really make the new cheesecake recipe look as good as it tastes; the piece cracked a bit getting it onto a plate... oh well. But, it is good enough to get the idea I hope:


I may be a bit biased about how great this Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake tastes, but I find it to be fabulous. Full of chocolate flavor, plenty smooth in texture, and a very sweet orange taste throughout too.

It reminds me a bit of a chocolate Tobler Orange (actually, I believe they changed the name of those to Terry's Chocolate Orange now - produced by Kraft foods), where chocolate combines wonderfully with the semi-pronounced taste of orange (from orange-oil). But, unlike those Terry's chocolate-oranges, this dessert does not get split into 20-segments resembling slices of an orange; in fact, if I had my way, it may only get split into 2 pieces... one for me, one for my wife :)

The recipe came about rather by accident: a lack of fresh oranges in the house made the move to frozen orange juice concentrate a move of desperation that resulted in taste sensation. In addition, it makes it much easier to make, since the need for fresh oranges has been removed. And, my wife made this recipe even easier by using standard chocolate-chips (so you do not need to worry about baker's chocolates and/or weighing chocolate). We hope you enjoy it!

Here is a link to the Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake Recipe on our website's recipe library. We're using an adapted crust from another one of our cheesecakes (from our cookbook), but any favorite crust should work fine. My preference for cheesecake crusts include ones featuring nut-meals, coconut, and the like. They are rather simplistic formulas, but very tasty.

And, though it should be obvious, this OJ Cheesecake is gluten-free and wheat-free, but not dairy-free. And, before anyone asks, I took the picture of the Orange a while back... it was not available for this recipe. It is actually what I believe to be a Satsuma-Mandarin-Orange that I got at Whole Foods, and I really liked how the leaves were still intact: made for a good photo.

The above pictures show a recent gluten-free cheesecake recipe we were experimenting with. This was to be a gluten-free peanut-butter-cup cheesecake of sorts (peanut butter cheesecake, with peanut-infused crust, all topped with a chocolate layer). Well, even though it *looks* rather good, it was just "OK", and needed some more fine tuning.

So, the question became: what to do with an entire cheesecake that does not meet the cut?

To begin with, I ate a fair amount of this cake myself. Like I said, it did not meet the cut for what I consider "top of the line" desserts, so the recipe will get tuned further before release to the public. But, it was not TOO bad,... it mainly suffered from texture issues, and was a bit thicker/springier than I wanted. It lacked some of the smoothness and creaminess that it should have had (I think there was too much peanut butter proportionately, and the next attempt should perhaps use part Marscapone cheese instead of all Cream Cheese - which is substantially thicker than the former).

But, I tired of this cake, and contemplated its removal from the house.

Perhaps the Mouse / Mice will like it?!
Instead of just pitching the cake into the compost, I decided to address a second issue of the moment (or season)... one that is an inevitability of country-living from what I have determined through conversations with everybody else living in a 20 mile radius here in the country: mice!

Well, it turns out that this time of year is especially prone to mice wanting to move into the house. When the farmers pick the crops and return the fields to nothing more than a bit of thatch, the mice seem compelled to seek refuge in some place a little more stable - and warmer - the closest human residence!

Trapping with Cheesecake
We use these really effective no-kill traps (we refuse to kill animals that are not of any threat to us). And, experimentation with baits had previously determined that the only thing more desirable than cheese was peanut-butter. So, how about a gluten-free peanut-butter-cup cheesecake instead?

The results are clear: mice prefer this cheesecake to all other bait by a factor of about 4 to 1. Seriously. They will ignore traps containing just cheese, and/or just peanut butter, and choose the mouse-bait recipe containing both of their favorite ingredients in one -- PB Cheesecake.

One of our catches:

Isn't it cute? The leaves around it should give a sense of scale... it is only about 2 inches long (tail excluded).

This one had very distinctive markings: those little tan patches on each side coupled with gray. Most mice have been either all gray or all tan, but this one was a hybrid. And, after release, it posed nicely for the picture, holding still for nearly a minute as I talked to it and told it not to return (I do no think my speech helped: I swear this SAME one showed up for "seconds" 2 days later). Oh well. I have a lot of cake for it to eat while I figure out where it gets in.

And Another...
We have also had these ultra-cute "Meadow Jumping Mice" (credit: picture borrowed from someone else online -- ours looked identical, but did not hold still for a photo):

These guys are SUPER TINY... barely 1-1.5" around when sitting like this. And, they "hop" around like little kangaroos. We see them hopping around outside the basement windows every so often, collecting grass and seeds (and, probably hauling that back into some nook of our house.). They might as well be a wild pygmy hamster or pygmy gerbil or whatever. Very, very similar. Too bad I got rid of the aquarium when we moved, or I would have been tempted to have one as a "pet".

Eradication continues...
I still have a lot of that gluten-free peanut-butter cheesecake recipe (attempt) in the fridge where it should last long enough for me to figure out where these little critters are entering the place from. Although they are cute and all, I wish I could just enter into a pact or accord with them whereby I deliver the cheesecake to some OUTSIDE location for their consumption, and they stay out of my house, instead of me needing to bait the no-kill traps that then force me to take them for a nice long walk out into the woods or field for release. But, such is... country living!

[by Mike] There is nothing quite like experiencing the warmth and hospitality of kind neighbors. In this case, our new neighbors (the local Mennonite family that owns Trickling Springs Country Store on a farm down the street), made an early morning delivery that was most wonderful -- they surprised us with a treat of Fresh Sweet Corn on our doorstep, completely unexpected.

I woke up early, opened the front door, and there on the steps was a bag of 14 ears of corn. The only reason I knew it was from the family about 1/4 mile down the road is that, when my wife and I stopped by their little country store to shop for fruits, veggies, cheese, and a few other items the day prior, we asked about the availability of sweet corn in the area and were told that this year they had not planted any for resale at their store, but had planted only what they wanted for their own consumption. I asked if they knew anyone else within a mile or two that was selling any sweet corn to the public this year, and they did not know of anyone that close.

So, it seems our inquiries about Sweet Corn gave the neighbors all of the clues needed to know that we really, really enjoy fresh sweet corn. And, in an act of complete selfless kindness, they decided to surprise us by reallocating some of their own supply to us. Thank you neighbors! And, this corn was absolutely awesome - fresh, delicious, sweet, and satisfying! (I hope we can grow some of our own next year too!)

Now, I feel the desire to bake them something from our Gluten-Free Desserts cookbook in return, as soon as we do some "research" to probe for what type of desserts they may like -- perhaps a nice Carrot Cake, Chocolate Cake, or even a Cheesecake? Well, we will have our work cut out for us... and, there are a few children at their farm location to gather dessert feedback from too. Speaking of farms...

Our New "Garden" (aka: Farm)

Here are a couple pictures of our new yard / garden / farm looking off our deck. There is a bit of overgrowth to say the least -- we did not have time to give the new "garden" the weeding it deserved as we were busy moving and all. And, much of the area is planted in soybeans currently (another gluten-free wonder-crop used in so many products these days), though we hope to slowly change that over to a wider variety of more specialized gluten-free grains, vegetables, and fruits over the coming years. (even some of that sweet-corn mentioned earlier)

Iin case you are wondering, no *we* did not plant the soybeans -- some local Mennonite farmer rented the "extra" space from us this year to raise soybeans on until we can get going with our ultimate wheat-free and gluten-free plans. We talked to him about potentially planting things like Teff, Millet, Sorghum, and so on for us in upcoming planting seasons, and it sounds like he may be able to help... sure beats trying to plant by hand -- his tractor and equipment will come in handy, though it sounds like we may need to acquire some seeders suitable to different grain sizes (I really have no idea what is involved yet; this is going to be a big, ongoing, learning process!)


As you can see, we will have our work cut our for us in the years to come. But, along with the work comes all sorts of benefits like: peace and quiet here (it is so totally quiet at night that it is hard to believe there is anyone within a mile or two), a nice view (right now, that view is green, green, green, all around as far as you can see), and room to just walk around and enjoy the great outdoors too. I guess we could also host a party for hundreds out on the lawn if we had to. lol.

Time to get back to some kitchen remodeling now, as we are transforming the baking area into something more conducive to creating more gluten-free desserts and other gluten-free foods. I hope to get this done soon, as we feel a bit out of place without the kitchen from our old house, and need a preparation area that fits our cooking and baking style. And, I also need to get Nick to write some more reviews, but he seems to have gotten busy with taking some College courses now too.

[by Mike] I wrote a Gluten-Free Recipes series here on the Gluten-Free Blog last year entitled "Garden-to-Plate", where I featured all sorts of homegrown vegetables grown right here in our organic garden. Some of those recipes included things like:

• a very versatile tomato, onion, peppers, basil, and garlic "base" recipe that we use for many additional recipes
• Zucchini, White Squash, Onion, Garlic, Basil recipe - fast and tasty
• Eggplant recipe featuring caramelized garlic, onion, basil, and some hot pepper flakes
• Pumpkin-Tomato Soup Recipe (using our versatile tomato-base above)
• A "recipe" of sorts: a recipe for a bio-diverse yard and garden
  

and now...

2009 Brings Spaghetti Squash to the Garden


Oh, how I love fresh Spaghetti squash, covered with all sorts of other fresh vegetables from the gluten-free garden! This simple recipe starts with baking a Spaghetti squash while simultaneously pan-searing some fresh zucchini, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and a bit of basil in some olive oil.

The spaghetti squash is cooked "al dente" (leaving the fibers in the squash just ever so slightly "crisp" or "firm" yet - versus overcooking), which makes for a wonderful texture just like a great "real" pasta cooked to perfection. In fact, I tried this gluten-free spaghetti squash with just olive oil and some fresh ground black-pepper (prior to topping with the tomato / zuchini sauce), and it was wonderful even served that simple.

I highly recommend these squash, and if you can not grow them where you live, hopefully you can find them at the grocery store. We are grateful to be able to grow them ourselves, especially given that (in the off-season for sure) they tend to be rather over-priced at the store. This year, we have already harvested 4 of these nice gluten-free diet products, with each being about 10 or 12-inches long by perhaps 5 or 6 inches in diameter.

Now, the only down-side to things is that we must soon leave our old organic gluten-free garden behind as we move, permanently, to our new house that has the much larger gluten-free farming area with it. Our old house has sold now (closes this week), and that means we have a LOT of work to do at the new property to get the garden ready for 2010 larger-scale production. That new "farm" will definitely include spaghetti-squash, as we have already saved and dried some seeds from the squash featured in the pictures here -- ready to plant next year. Oh how I look forward to planting an ever-increasing variety of Celiac-safe vegetables, fruits, and perhaps even grains (e.g., Millet, Teff, etc.)... if only my body keeps up with my ambition!

Looking Forward...
Nick should be back soon writing a few more wheat-free and gluten-free product reviews in the coming week once he finishes up some other business he had to take care of. I know he has a large lineup of commercial products to taste-test and share an opinion about.

And, once my wife and I are fully situated at the new house, we should have some later-season garden treats to feature on the Gluten-Free Blog in addition to other product reviews. We were lucky enough to have had the chance to plant some garden items at both locations this year, so we have plenty of squash, sunflowers, cucumbers, and even a few tomatoes at the new house that should keep us cooking up healthy dinners there... and recipes/suggestions for online too.

Gluten-Free Cookies!
Bring 'em on!

I continue my gluten-free and wheat-free product review series today with something we can all enjoy: gluten-free cookies.

[by Nick - guest gluten-free blog author]

Well, today Mike had cookies on the mind, and he has asked me to write another review using my own recent non-gluten-free eating experience to compare another gluten-free food to what I would expect from the "real thing".

I’m sure you folks out there have enjoyed a cookie or two in your time - - I know I have. Now, when you hear the word ‘cookie’ you’re probably thinking of your favorite cookie that you enjoyed growing up as a kid. Well, I can tell you that what we’ll be talking about today here on the ol’ gluten-free blog is your basic short bread cookie, but of course it’s gluten-free.

Today's blog is dedicated to the Schar gluten-free shortbread cookie and my opinion of it and how it stacks up (here is a picture of a few on a small plate - click to get a nice large version of the product if you want).

Mike turned me onto the brand Schar, which makes a wonderful gluten free cookie that has the look and feel of a ‘Lorna Doone’, but without all the calories. But we must remember that it isn’t called a cookie for nothing. These cookie treats are made with corn flour, sugar and vegetable oils (palm, coconut and canola), as well as eggs, honey and artificial flavors. But, I would like to add that when you compare the ingredients and fat content to your average, every-day cookie in the snack aisle, these little gluten-free buggers are much healthier than their competition (they have rather low sugar and fat grams per serving) and the Schar shortbread cookie is a wonderful alternative for snack time in your wheat-free / gluten-free household.

So, how do they taste?

Well . . . . . . for starters, when I chomped down on one of these puppies, the texture was crisp and the immediate hint of honey was picked up by my taste buds on the tip of my tongue. Since butter is not used in this cookie, there is a distinct difference between this gluten free cookie, and counterparts containing butter, but one thing is for certain,... and that is there is plenty of flavor.

The aftertaste is quite pleasant too, and Mike and I have both agreed that there is a hint of vanilla that lingers soon after the last bite. As far as the sugar content is concerned, it’s relatively lower compared to other non GF cookies, with the Schar product weighing in at only 5 grams per serving; with a "serving" being 4 cookies (28g). Not too bad. Try getting that in your Oreos. Uh, not!

Now, the one thing I’m not too impressed with is the price. A little 7 oz. bag of these gluten-free cookies cost close to a whopping $5.00 USD. Now, you can imagine why it pays to bake your own gluten-free cookies and desserts: it’s cheaper and you can – with practice – get the recipe exactly to your liking. Of course, this is a good part of why Mike and his wife created their gluten-free desserts recipes and cookbook - to help themselves and others who have the time and desire to bake their own treats do so, and save some cash in the process. But, the simple fact is, there is not always the time (or desire) to slave over a stove when you just want (or "need") a quick gluten-free cookie fix; so, store-bought cookies like this Schar Shortbread come in handy in a pinch.

The Verdict
I would conclude that these cookies are pretty tasty and go great with a glass of milk or a good English tea, but they definitely are a bit expensive (which I am quickly learning is common with gluten-free foods and diet items). So, the verdict is in and for all of us out there that have Celiac disease, are living on a gluten free diet, or for us that are just looking for a slightly healthier alternative to our buttery cookies, snacks and desserts, the Schar shortbread cookie won’t necessarily hit you in the waistline but it will definitely hit your tastebuds in a good way while hitting the old wallet up for some more cash.

Quinoa is a wonderful gluten-free grain that I enjoy as often as possible, and a grain that has recently grown in popularity (not just among Celiacs) in the culinary world -- and with that growth in demand has come increasing prices. I witnessed small 12oz or 1-pound boxes of quinoa doubling in price at the grocery store over just the past year, and have read many a blog about other people seeing the same thing.

Well, we were out at CostCo the other day, and I was delighted to come across this very large (4 POUND) bag of Organic Quinoa for only $7.99 (i.e., $2.00/pound), which is incredibly price-competitive and the cheapest I have seen quinoa grain in a long time.

If you are new to quinoa, you may want to check out a few different recipes we have posted here on the Gluten-Free Blog as well as on our Gluten-Free Recipes page, including those linked to in the following paragraphs. Quinoa is generally rather simple to prepare (hardly any more difficult than cooking rice), but brings much more flavor and nutrition to the table for the same effort.

Gluten-Free & Wheat-Free Garlic, Pepper, and Herb Quinoa
Recipe (picture below):

And there there is always the Gluten-Free Quinoa Meatloaf recipe (picture below), which I also blogged about last year with an entry talking about some of the other health-merits of quinoa in recipes like this...



There are certainly many more ways to enjoy this wonderful gluten-free grain. Sometimes we simply cook it up and use a bit of wheat-free/gluten-free tamari (soy sauce) over it. We have used it where rice would otherwise be used for various dishes as well. Fact is, quinoa is quite versatile, vegan (our meatloaf withstanding. heh), wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, high-protein, high-fiber, and all those other great things! And, as long as CostCo has cheap Quinoa available, it will be an affordable option too!

We have been showing our house to prospective buyers recently, and quite often when we reach the basement portion of the house-tour, the stacks of Gluten-Free Dessert Recipe books on the large commercial-duty shelving gets attention. This leads to a quick discussion along the lines of "what gluten-free is" and so on.

One major misconception that people have about gluten-free / Celiac disease diets is that it is just "flour" (i.e., white wheat flour) that must be avoided. So, I quickly enumerate the wheat, barley, and rye, as well as any derivation thereof. Then comes a discussion along the lines of "what can you eat then?" and so on.

Yesterday, a couple of nice ladies that were really interested in the house for the kitchen (fellow cooking aficionados it seems!) commented something to the effect that I must be limited to just baking with rice flour due to the Celiac Disease, at which point I started listing a whole host of additional gluten-free grains/flours and the like that we bake with (both in our cookbook recipes, and in our day-to-day cooking and baking). After browsing through our Gluten-Free Desserts cookbook, I think they got the idea, and quickly noticed that we (gluten-free types) have all sorts of variety and can bake and consume everything from cookies to cakes to cheesecakes and pies, and so on.

After presenting a "gluten-free grains quick list" to a various people over the past couple weeks, it struck me how much more VARIETY we Celiac and gluten-free diet types have when it comes to our daily flours and grains as compared to the "normal" (i.e., wheat-eating) population. The typical American diet is rather narrowly focused around processed white flour (wheat-based), and some occasional whole-wheat flour, and some corn starch perhaps.

But, here is what we Celiac Disease and gluten-free consumers have at our disposal and use regularly (or, can use regularly if we choose) for our flours of choice:

• Rice
• Corn
• Potato
• Teff
• Sorghum
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Buckwheat
• Millet
• Chia Seed
  
• Various bean-flours
• Squash flours (e.g., pumpkin)
• Cinnamon, Cocoa, and other spices (that I use in large quantities like flour when desired)
  
• and many more...

In addition, it seems that we are more likely (as a group of bakers / dieters) to know about other alternatives like Agave Nectar for sweetener, and whey-protein for binders, and so on.

So, whenever I encounter the theme of "living without" (with regards to living without gluten), I can not help thinking that perhaps it is the rest of the population that is living without -- without the variety of grains, flours, and ingredients that one may otherwise never encounter or experience unless essentially "forced" (by Celiac Disease, gluten-intolerance, autism, what have you...) to try all these great alternatives to "normal" flour.

Happy variety-filled baking everyone! (and, Happy Fourth-of-July too!)