Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Gluten-Free Girl by Blue Heron Kitchen

I've been fooling around with this really great gluten-free oatmeal cookie recipe for a while. The original recipe uses coconut flour and dried cherries (and it's fantastic!). But, for St. Patrick’s Day, gimme oats and currants. These are light, crisp, buttery and the dried fruit plays a starring role. 

Ingredients are by weight. Please use your kitchen scale. If you don’t have one yet, take a look at this one (in the U.S.) It's about $11.

If your almond flour isn’t finely ground and you have a Vitamix or a similar kitchen power tool, throw your almond meal into the dry mix container and pulse until finely ground. (Similarly, you can ‘mill’ your own oat flour from oats in a Vitamix!)

Truc: Mis-en-place! Be prepared! – Measure out all your ingredients and have them ready to add, one at a time. This will make you feel like Julia Child – or if don't know what the hell I’m talking about, think your favorite hottie from the TV Food Network or any cooking show you like on television.

These are so good that people who eat wheat will like them. 

In Irish, you’ll shout, “Tá mo Celia sásta!” (“My celia are happy!”) 

In any language, you won’t find a morsel of gluten in these fianáin iontach (fantastic cookies.)

peace, love and Bon folláin!

jane

Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies

            Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

160 grams almond flour

20 grams oat flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

180 grams (13 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, room temperature

200 grams brown sugar (light or dark, your choice)

150 grams granulated white sugar

1 egg, size large, room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (Baldwin’s is a wonderful choice.)

250 grams gluten-free oats (use "old-fashioned" and not "quick" oats)

250 grams dried currants (or raisins) (gluten-free)

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

Weigh sugars and set aside.

Weigh oats and set aside.

Weigh currants (or ‘other’ dried fruit) and set aside.

Crack egg into small cup and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter, by itself, until light and fluffy.

Add the sugars and continue to mix until thoroughly combined.

Add egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Dump in flour mixture and mix on low speed until it is incorporated, scraping down the bowl, as needed.

Add oats and dried fruit and mix until incorporated.

Using a cookie scoop or two teaspoons, space the cookies about 1 ½” apart on the cookie sheet, leaving them mounded.

Bake for about 8 minutes. Open the oven, and with the back of a fork, gently flatten or “deflate” each cookie.   

Turn the sheet front-to-back and continue to bake for approximately 5-8 minutes, depending on how large your cookies, how accurate your oven; and how you like them ‘done’.

Remove and cool until firm enough to remove from sheets. Transfer to racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight tin.

Yield: approx. 5 1/2 doz. - 2 1/2" cookies








Truc: If you don't want to bake them all at once, freeze the scooped raw cookies on a sheet, lined with waxed paper. Once frozen, wrap well. When you want to bake them off, don't defrost, bake directly from the freezer, adding additional baking time.

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Blue Ribbon Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Blue Heron Kitchen, adapted from Melissa Clark

If you don’t have coconut oil in your larder, this is one good reason to go get some. The original recipe required extra virgin olive oil, the dominatrix of olive oils. When baking with oil, it’s generally not my fat of choice. Olive oil cakes (Mediterranean/Italian) rock. But leave the olive oil out of this one (sorry, Melissa.) If you can, purchase virgin and organic coconut oil. It's high-end, sweet and white (and pricey). Trader Joe's is a good resource in the U.S. I watch for sales. "Spectrum" brand is highly recommended. When it goes on sale, snag one! You'll be eating it out of the jar.

Everything else about Clark’s recipe is great (I tweaked the glaze and added some lemon oil. It removed that corn-starchy taste and added a nice depth.)

The viscosity of coconut oil is slightly heavier than refined oils; and I didn’t want a lemon poppy piña colada loaf, so I combined coconut and canola oils and the result was stunning.

Make sure your poppy seeds are fresh because when left out, they turn rancid pretty quickly. Once opened, store them in the freezer. Truc: Penzey’s Spices is an excellent resource. They’ve been opening shops all over the U.S. or you can order online. Their spice quality is high end, and customer service is excellent. 

Another online spice source is My Spice Sage.

You’ll need 3 to 4 lemons, depending on size and juiciness. I think it’s best to use organic lemons.

Boyajian lemon oil is a great staple to have in your fridge.

You can buy a set of three citrus oils from King Arthur Flour. Keep them in the fridge and they’ll last forever. These little bottles, when used correctly, are fantastic flavor enhancers; and they’re natural! The addition of a few drops of lemon oil removes the “cornstarch chalk”, adds depth; and makes it go “zing!”. You need the smallest amount. Order those oils now. And while you’re online at King Arthur Flour, order the fiori di sicilia too. Add it to pound cake and your pound cake will taste like a slice of harmony.

This lemon poppy seed cake will win you a blue ribbon at your county fair. The snow (in the U.S.) will end and county fairs will return. And we will rejoice!

Dairy-Free Truc: To make dairy- free "buttermilk", mix equal parts of vegan sour cream (Tofutti makes it) and water. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Oil and flour, for greasing and flouring pan

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour,

Zest of 2 lemons, plus 1 to 2 more lemons for juice

1 c. granulated sugar

½ c. buttermilk (if you can find Kate’s, it’s fantastic!)

3 Tbsp. + 3-4 additional tsp. lemon juice for the glaze

3 eggs, size large, room temperature, slightly beaten

1 ½  tsp. baking powder

¼  tsp. baking soda

¼  tsp. Kosher salt

1/3 c. canola oil

1/3 c. coconut oil

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

½  c. confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Optional, but recommended: Boyajian pure lemon oil for glaze

Procedure:

1.Preheat oven to 350º F. Oil and flour an 8-inch loaf pan.

2. In a bowl (if using Kitchen Aid or electric mixer, use the mixer’s bowl), combine lemon zest and sugar and rub with your fingers until it looks like wet sand. Whisk in (or use paddle attachment/beater blade) buttermilk, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and eggs.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Whisk dry ingredients into the batter, then whisk in oil and poppy seeds.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in pan until warm to the touch, then turn out onto a baking rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Turn cake right side up.

5.Whisk together remaining 4 teaspoons lemon and the confectioners’ sugar. Add just enough lemon juice to achieve desired glaze consistency. Add lemon oil, drop by drop, until desired taste is achieved. The lemon oil will mask the cornstarch taste of the confectioner’s sugar and will add a round and wonderful lemon taste to the glaze. Put a piece of waxed paper under the rack to catch drips and our the glaze over the top in thin rows. It will spread as it dissolves. Or, you can use a pastry brush to spread glaze evenly over top and sides of cake. Use an offset spatula to scoop up drippings and adhere them to sides and missed areas of the loaf.

Cool before slicing.

YIELD 8 servings (if it makes it out of the kitchen)

When life brings you poppy seeds, squeeze lemons!

peace and love,

jane

Best Banana Bread

Best Banana Bread

Adapted from Maida Heatter by Blue Heron Kitchen

This recipe, the best banana bread I’ve ever made or tasted is adapted from the great Maida Heatter. 

Let's go bananas!

I’m publishing this recipe by weight measurement. If you require volume measurements, send me an email at blueheronkitchen@gmail.com.

But...

If you haven’t bought a kitchen scale, here’s a link to an inexpensive one in the U.S. It’s about $23. American, and worth the investment. An electronic kitchen scale is invaluable essential to becoming a rock star baker. You'll achieve excellent and consistent results. (Check out Wirecutter (thewirecutter.com) for "the best" products. It's a great resource.)

Weighing ingredients allows you to play around! The original recipe called for all-purpose flour; and I replaced 100 grams (roughly a third) with whole wheat pastry flour. I love how the nuttiness of whole wheat complements bananas, don’t you? Fooling around with different flours is fun, but only if you’re throwing them on the scale. But beware: don’t think you have carte blanche with all flours. Different flours (even wheat) have different properties (gluten) and will alter your product. I find this very interesting, but I also have a pantry stocked with ground teff, buckwheat, millet and sorghum.

Most banana breads call for over-ripened bananas. For this recipe, some exterior black streaks and little black freckles are perfect. If your bananas are black, the sugar content will be quite high, cloying for this bread.

Truc: Don’t mash the bananas fine. Leave them slightly lumpy.

Truc: Toast your pecans first. Cool them completely and then toss them in a spoonful of the 

prepped dry mix (flour).

Truc: Toast a few more ounces of pecans than are called for in the recipe and keep them in a small glass jar. Throw them into a salad or into your yoghurt or into your cooked grains.

Eggs, size large, at room temperature. Buttermilk too, at room temperature.

Excellent quality ingredients will produce an excellent cake.

Be confident and have fun. You’re the boss top banana.

The People vs.. Fielding Mellish

(isn't this Epstein vs. Epstein?)

peace and love,

jane

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

6 oz./178 grams whole toasted and cooled pecans

10.8 oz./306 grams all-purpose flour

            (or, 206 g. all-purpose and 100 g. whole wheat pastry flour.)

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 ½ - 1 ¾ c./350-400g. mashed (lumpy) very ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 small)

4 oz./113 g. unsalted butter, room temperature (European style recommended)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (Baldwin’s recommended)

11 oz./312 g. granulated sugar

2 eggs, size large, room temperature

¼ c./59 ml. buttermilk

Procedure:

mis en place:

Measure buttermilk and butter.

Preheat oven to 350º F. /176º C.

Place medium bowl on scale and tare. Weigh pecans.

Place pecans on a small, rimmed jelly roll pan (cookie sheet) and toast in oven approx. 5-6 minutes, just until you can smell them. Take care to not burn them. If you do, start over. Remove nuts from oven and cool completely. When cooled, take about a Tbsp. of flour mixture and toss the pecans until they’re coated with the flour.

Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature.

Take out your vanilla.

Prepare a long tea loaf pan or a large, wider loaf pan, or two smaller loaf pans by buttering and flouring (or spraying with release) and flouring.

Place large bowl on scale and tare. Measure flour(s) and remove. Add other dry ingredients to flour: baking soda, salt, cinnamon and whisk together. Set aside.

Place medium bowl on scale and tare. Measure sugar and set aside.

making the bread:

Preheat oven to 375º F./190º C.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

Add eggs and continue to mix until creamy consistency. Scrape down sides of bowl, as required. (I use a silicone beater blade and this step is barely required.)

Add vanilla extract and buttermilk. (Mixture will look slightly curdled – this is okay!)

Add ½ flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down, as required.

Dump in the mashed banana and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down, if necessary.

Add remaining flour and mix until just incorporated.

Remove the bowl from mixer stand and fold in pecans, making sure that all ingredients are incorporated.

Fill prepared loaf pan(s) and place in oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour (more or less, depending on your pan and your oven), until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in pans for about 10 minutes and then invert and stand the loaves up straight on a baking rack to cool completely.

This loaf will keep for several days, wrapped well, at room temperature, a week in the fridge, or you can freeze it. But it’s really best eaten the second day, after the flavors have had their chance to dance together.