Gluten-free and Casein-free Girl Scout Cookies: Tagalongs!

Holy Virginian Peanuts Batman!

Ok... maybe that sounded better in my head than it actually looks on paper, but man do I love myself some peanuts and wouldn't ya know if Virginia, my home state, is known for peanuts. MacLeod on the other hand, though he loves peanuts like no other is always wary because his nephew has a deathly peanut allergy. So we tend to keep peanuts close to the cuff, not something we actually keep in the pantry all too often. But when you talk Girl Scout Cookies, you got to talk about Tagalongs.

 

I knew going into it that with this cookie the challenge was going to be the "shortbread" or "butter" cookie part of it. Additionally I knew that it was going to be the base for my final cookie as well, the Samoa, so I had to get it right. My friends, there are literally hundreds of recipes for these "shortbread" cookies on the interwebs out there and I tried TWELVE of them. I kid you not, I tried TWELVE. What was that you ask? Did the first few turn out like rocks? Indeed they did. Were some of them not even edible? Nope they certainly were not. Oh yes, indeed the gluten-free flours are expensive all get out! UGH! But I was on a mission I needed to get these darn cookies right. To my surprise I did manage to come up with one batch of cookies that I have slotted into my cookie recipe bank as "Danish 'butter' Cookies"... you know those ones that come in those blue tins with the coarse sugar on them?? OH so GOOD! Yes, I made some that taste just like that, but not shortbread.

Anyway, thirteenth time's a charm and I  finally got my crumbly delicious shortbread cookie that I wanted. And they were ah-mazing, biting into them you would never be able to tell that these cookies were absent of any butter, its craziness! From there it was all about chilling, cutting and assembly.

 

Shortbread Cookie:

 

1/2 C Spectrum Shortening

1 1/4 C Gluten-free Flour Blend

1/3 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

 

Peanut Butter Filling:

2 C Natural Creamy Peanut Butter

3/4 C confectioners sugar (this is to thicken and sweeten, if you want to forgo the sweetener all together)

 

Glaze:

10 oz. Casein-free Chocolate chips

2 Tbs vegetable oil

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Blend together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl.

3. In a stand mixer add shortening and sugar and blend on medium-high until creamy. Add extract and egg. 

4. 1/2 C at a time, add flour mixture to mixer and blend after addition until all the flour has been added. The dough will begin to lump together which is what you want to happen.

5. Turn the dough back into the medium sized bowl and press it together and work it with your hands a bit just to get a uniform ball. It may be a little sticky, that is fine when it is chilled it will come together.

6. Place the ball of dough in the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, even over night is fine.

7. Cut two pieces of parchment paper, place one on your work space. Cut the dough in quarters(its easiest to work with a portion of the dough at one time)and flatten the dough just slightly and press the second piece of parchment on top of it.

8. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4" thick. I actually put a ruler to it to measure this because I wanted to get a really nice thickness for the shortbread. A thin shortbread is too crisp. Try your hardest to keep a uniform thickness in the dough.

9. With a cutter (1.5" round) cut round circles and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

10. Bake for 10-12 mins. at 350 degrees. As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven with a spoon or ladle (as I used) push a small indentation into the cookie to create a little more of a space for your peanut butter filling.

 

11. While the cookies are cooling, combine the peanut butter and sugar and blend vigorously, you can do it in a stand mixer, but by fork does just fine, just be sure to blend it well enough to get all the lumps out and get a smooth consistency. When you first add the sugar it will lump together but as you continue to break it back up and mix it will thin back out and become smooth again.

12. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip (a Ateco 802 or similar) OR you can use a freezer bag with the corner cut off with an ok result as well. (the piping bag is just a little neater and cleaner, but improvisation works and makes for a budget friendly kitchen!) With bag filled, hold bag upright over cookies, and squeeze enough peanut butter to spread to the edge of the cookie. With on offset spatula or knife, spread the peanut butter to the edge of the cookie.  If you don't like how the shape of the peanut butter looks (because that is what the shape is going to look like after they are chocolate coated) you can reshape a little after they are refrigerated).

13. Repeat with each cookie and place completed sheet of peanut buttered cookies in freezer (the freezer, kids, is a must. When these peanut butter cookies get dipped in the hot chocolate they NEED to be cold, do not skip this step) for at least 30 minutes.

14. Towards the end of the chilling, melt your coating chocolate at 30 second intervals being careful not to burn the chocolate.

15. If you want to reshape any peanut butter mounts, do so now or forever hold your peace. I am a perfectionist and can't help but reshape them.

 

 

 Before the                  After the Chilling                      Chilling

                              

                       (and

                                              reshaping!)     

  

 

16. When the cookies have chilled, using a fork place the cookies in the chocolate and immerse them in the chocolate then with the top of the cookie facing up, scoop the fork under the cookie and gently tap the cookie's side at the edge of the bowl to let any extra chocolate drip off.

17. Place cookies onto a parchment lines cookie sheet to set. Once all the cookies are on the sheet, refrigerate to help set the chocolate.

18. (Again.. unnecessary step, but I do it for looks)If you want the looks to look nice, you can simply take a paring  knife to the edge to cut off any excess chocolate that puddle when you placed them after the chocolate dredge. But it's up to you, the taste great just the same!

19. Add a moderate amount of milk... or in my case a dairy-free substitute and enjoy!

 

Gluten-Free and Casein-Free Girl Scout Cookies! : Thin Mints

In the far reaches of my mind I remember a very short period of time when I was a Brownie. Yes folks... I was a Brownie. I know, you think... why is that I shocker? Well my friends, your snarky host here these days is so incredibly anti-.... umm, well, everything. (slight overstatement... but let's just say I am not the model Girl Scout mom or PTA Volunteer of the month) I don't think that there was ever a time though however that I ever had the opportunity to manipulate adults in such a way that only a Girl Scouts can each year with mass amounts of cookies. I think my Brownie days lasted maybe 6 months at the most when our troop leader lost a girl or two at the camp out that my mom didn't allow me to attend and my career in the scouts came to an abrupt end. I moved on to sports. My kiddos however both love the scouts, so here we are.

So then we get to cookie sales. Well to backtrack a little, a few months ago kiddo had popcorn sales with the Boy Scouts. It was a HUGE deal for him because for him to go and do cold sales... well do I need to explain? HE HAS ASPERGERS! So we wrote up a script. We practiced said script. We worked on eye contact. We worked on body language. We worked on knocking on doors. We worked and worked and worked. Then we went out and started to do sales. He did so well and was so pleased with himself. I think I cried every time he got a sale, it was a little pathetic and the people buying the popcorn thought I was insane. I took pictures.... and they thought I was insane. It was such a huge moment for him and though we did have some times where he needed help, for the most part he did such an amazing job.

So the popcorn wasn't a gluten issue, we bought popcorn and ate it. But I knew when the time came for Lil sis to sell cookies we would be in trouble because Kiddo was going to ape about it. I made Lil Sis promise that she could eat Girl Scout cookies, but NOT at home. Then I had an idea, why not make some of my own and just have them ready to go so when those cookies were, as he says "taunting" him, I could pull out our own gluten and casein-free versions and say "POW, here you go!"

Before I embark on making any new thing in the kitchen, cake, cookie or whatever it may be- I start with some research online. I look to see what everyone else has done because honestly there is no sense in reinventing the wheel. So starting off by knowing what ratios of gluten-free flours to the eggs and fats have worked best for other bakers is a good way to start and its usually how I start. That being said, there just aren't that many bakers out there that are baking both gluten AND casein-free. So it's a little more challenging to find copycat recipes like Girl Scout cookies that are GFCF which is why I worked so incredibly hard at trying to perfect these.

Because the components of these cookies are rather intricate and the steps pretty long, I am not including them all on one post, which I had originally intended to. Rather, I am breaking them up into three posts, the first being Thin Mints, Second Tagalongs and the last Samoas. Thin Mints are pretty straight forward, but the Tagalongs and Samoas are going to be chock full of descriptions and lots and lots of pictures for your viewing pleasures. Again, I was writing up these recipes and while I had the intent of just posting the recipes and shooting them out to you, I realized that it wouldn't serve you to well if you couldn't actually technically make them. So I decided to make them AGAIN and take lots of pictures to be able to offer you a visual, something that I know would help me. I have been teasing my Facebook friends for weeks now with pictures of these cookies, and my greatest apologies that the recopies have been less than quick to release, but I assure you that I only want to offer you my best!

So without further adieu... Thin Mints....

Thin Mints were the first and by far the easiest, the fats took very easily and the dough was very easy to manipulate and change to substitute out butter for palm oil instead. I didn't use coconut oil, which is usually my first choice in baking because during the holidays I did get a number of people ask if I had coconut in my cookies, which is fine, but I don't want to have a coconutty flavor in the thin mint. I attempted the dough twice for the Thin Mint and felt pretty happy with it. I did adapt my recipe from Nicole Hunn at Gluten Free on a Shoe String, a great blogger and author in the gluten-free world.

 

 

Thin Mints

adapted from Nicole Hunn @Glutenfree on a Shoestring

5 Tbs Spectrum Shortening

1/2 sugar

1/2 C casein-free semi-sweet chocolate chips (We use Enjoy Life)

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

1 C Gluten-free flour blend

1/2 C cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

 

Glaze:

10 oz. Casein-free Semi-sweet chocolate

3 Tbs. palm oil

1 tsp Peppermint Extract

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. Blend together flour, cocoa powder and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.

3. In a stand mixer add shortening and sugar and blend on medium-high until creamy. Add extract.

4. 1/2 C at a time, add flour mixture to mixer and blend after addition until all the flour has been added. The dough will begin to lump together which is what you want to happen.

5. Turn the dough back into the medium sized bowl and press it together and work it with your hands a bit just to get a uniform ball.

6. Place the ball of dough in the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, even over night is fine.

7. Cut two pieces of parchment paper, place one on your work space. Cut the dough in half (its easiest to work with a portion of the dough at one time)and flatten the dough just slightly and press the second piece of parchment on top of it.

8. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thickness. No thicker though or you won't have the crispness you want for the "thin" part of the Thin Mints. Try your hardest to keep a uniform thickness in the dough.

9. With a cutter (1.5" round) cut round circles and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

10. Bake for 10-12 mins. at 300 degrees.

11. While cookies are cooling, melt chocolate in a bowl. When using the microwave just be sure to only melt at 30 second intervals and then blend. If you go longer the chocolate will burn. Start with 30 second, mix until the heat has come down and if there are still bits unmelted, heat another 30 seconds and blend again until the heat has come down again. Add the oil and extract to this the mixture to be able to dip the cookies.

12. When the cookies have chilled, using a fork place the cookies in the chocolate and immerse them in the chocolate then with the top of the cookie facing up, scoop the fork under the cookie and gently tap the cookie's side at the edge of the bowl to let any extra chocolate drip off.

13. Place cookies onto a parchment lines cookie sheet to set. Once all the cookies are on the sheet, refrigerate to help set the chocolate.

14. (a unnecessary step, but I do it for looks)If you want the looks to look nice, you can simply take a paring  knife to the edge to cut off any excess chocolate that puddle when you placed them after the chocolate dredge. But it's up to you, the taste great just the same!

Power of Three Crepes, Gluten-Free and Casein-Free

One Year is Almost Upon Us!

We are coming ever so close to our one year Bloggaversary! Wow, an entire year since we started this blog. I think for me it calls for a number of things.

1. Facelift! Well not for me... but for the blog. I need to dive in an d give her a little attention that she so deperately needs. Its been a rough year for us and through all the changes in our home, we have been a bit neglectful. So its facelift time MofM!
2. Well... we must more than anything else actually write more frequently! We have stores and stores of recipes that haven't made it to your hot little hands yet! (well hot... eyes?... screens?, whatever)
3. Link to Facebook! We have so much good stuff going on over at our Facebook page and followers on our Facebook page who don't follow the blog and vice versa! Link time folks! We are gonna make that happen.
4. FIX TIME! I have looked back on some of my recipes and thought, hmm.. Mom, what in the piggies name were you thinking when you posted that? I have a few that have grammar errors some that are just missing ingredients, not because I didn't use them when cooking, but I just didn't post it!! AH! So I need to run a fine tooth comb over the recipe box.

So coming back to the recipes, we have been cooking up a storm lately. The funny thing is that we have these tried and true recipes in our home kitchen that every time I make them I think that I have already posted them... then I look at the blog and realize that I haven't. I think that there may have been one teeny aspect that I may have not been happy with and wanted to try again or something along those lines. I am if nothing else, MacLeod can attest to this, my absolute worst critic. But if I don't think something is FATASTIC, I just won't let it leave my kitchen and certainly won't share the recipe.

One recipe I have been using for a long while now that I have altered here and there and come back to a lovely heart warming delicious and AH-mazing result is this crepe recipe. To me crepes always seemed like something extra special, like going out for a special brunch with mimosa kinda special. Years ago when MacLeod and I were first dating, pre-gluten-free days, we ran into this food cart in our local farmer's market, a crepe food cart! I was head over heels in love with them. From that day on I knew I needed to learn how to make crepes.

Then gluten went bye bye and so did crepes... or did they? I tried lots of recipes on the interwebs that claimed the fame of "super easy and delicous" and "3 ingredient" which were so blech. Really what you have to go back to are the mechanics of the crepe as it is done in the gluten-full way... only... gluten-FREE. I took the methods learned via The Gluten Free Girl, a gluten-free all-star and my previous crepe making expereince which served me well.

Because we are working towards a completely gluten-free AND casien-free kitchen, these crepes are made with no gluten and no dairy products at all and I got to tell you the resulting crepe is amazing. I don't think you miss the butter, but that is just my humble opinion. (While writing this entry I was amused to find that MacLeod was actually disappointed to discover that I "deceived" him with the absense of butter in the crepes) I recently have had a love affair with amaranth and millet for all thier amazing nuttiness and deliciousness they add not to mention nutritional greatness. So in this recipe I have added amarnth flour to the crepes and just love them. for a little extra about this wonderful flour....

Generally harvested from seeds, amaranth is an excellent source of protein, unlike many other grains. Like other grains it provides essential amino acids but the seeds of the Amaranthus species specifically can provide 30% more protein than rice, sorghum and rye making it a protein powerhouse in the grain department. Wiki  That, and of course it tastes wonderful in baking!

Power of Three Crepes (as kiddos called them... via Doctor Who, Season 7)

Gluten-free, Casein-Free Crepes

1 Cup Gluten-free flour blend
1/2 C amarnth flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 3/4 C water
 Cooking Spray

1. Combine flours and salt.
2. In a small beat the eggs lightly, then add to the flour blend and begin to combine.
3. Slowly start to add water to the flour mixture and blend. The mixture will be thin, which is what a crepe mixture needs to be.
4. With a mesh strainer, strain the mixture into another bowl to strain all the lumps out of the mix.
5. Let the crepe mix sit for 10-15 minutes while you finish preparing all the fillings that you want to use.
6. Heat your pan on medium-high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
7. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter on the pan and swirl the batter over the pan to coat it thinly. (if you have trouble figuring out how to do this, there are a few tutorials on youtube that can help you out with a visual). Allow the crepe to cook for just a few minutes and with a spatual just lift the side slightly to check that its browned a bit.
8. You can either use your spatula to flip your crepe or you can use the handle of your pan to move your pan to flip your crepe over (if your really, really brave!... again, I recommend youtube for tutorials if you don't know already... because you can learn ANYTHING on youtube!)
9. Allow the other side to cook just another 30 second more or so and viola, crepe is done. Move to a plate and keep in a warm oven. Pile the crepes onto the plate in a warm oven while you complete them, until assembly.
10. To assembly, you can be creative about how you want to fill them. Below we have included some of our favorites!

Fillings:

Blueberry Filling:

1 C frozen wild blueberries (we use Wyman's Frozen Blueberries)
1/4 coconut palm sugar
1 Tbs  water
1 tsp tapioca flour

Simmer blueberries and sugar for approximately 25 minutes or until the berries are cooked down and the liquid is dark in color. The liquid should still be thin. Add tapica flour to water and mix to combine then add to simmering berries. Allow to simmer for another 5 minutes to thicken. Remove from heat.

Strawberry Delights:

2 C Fresh Strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 banana, sliced
1/2 C full fat coconut milk (canned, refrigerated)
1/4 C confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C dark chocolate, dairy-free (we use Enjoy Life), melted

In a stand mixer, with a whisk attachment, whisk together chilled coconut milk, confectioners sugar and vanilla. If the mixture is too thin, add more sugar by the tablespoon to thicken to your desired consistency. Spoon about half the mixture into a bowl and add the melted chocolate and blend well.The remaining amount will be used to garnish and use as whipped cream.

Piggies in a Blanket:

Any combination of breakfast meats, diced
Non-dairy cheese

Toss the meats and cheese together in a bowl prior to crepe assembly.

Busy Days and Catching Up

Its been a while since I have been back and McLeod owes an entry here, he swears that he will be visiting soon for the long awaited BAAACON Pancakes, the new breakfast favorite in our house. If it's not a bacon pancake, it's a boring pancake.

I digress....

We are in the midst of an extraordinarily busy and hectic time in our lives right now which has left us slightly neglectful, but not purposefully. McLeod and I, as we have mentioned before are finally getting married at the end of February. So we are in the final month of intense wedding planning, which is... complicated. Its been a while since the first foray into wedding planning and maybe I wasn't that "into" it when I married the first time... perhaps it was the person? I dunno, but this has been something of an ordeal to get planned. Maybe its just weddings in general are insane to plan... why on earth do people do this to themselves? I liken it to water torture... slow and very painful. But I think that is just part of me... I don't really like to go shopping, I dislike showers of any king unless it entails cleaning of the body.

Then there is the fact that kiddo has somewhat, well hit a wall in therapy and such. We are in the process of finding help help stabilize him. But even there we have been running into problem after problem with practices refusing care because he has Medicaid as a secondary insurance, even though they do accept our private insurance. Its ever maddening and pushing me closer to snapping in one of these offices when I can't get my kiddo the help he needs to feel better.

We are in the process of reworking his IEP at school, currently awaiting the evals for a number of specials to see what we can do to get services going at school to help him. Socially, school is an increasing challenge for him, each day seems like another horrible story about some interaction he has had with a kid he hates. We hope that we can get some support for social skills at school for him as well with the IEP revamp.

He has been so moody and difficult, but we have really been trying our hardest. Fore instances, we thought the Pinewood Derby would be a great time, tons of family fun! Yes! .... or no. Well, he had been talking about it for about a month and then we started to work on the car and he quickly lost interest. McLeod and I finished the car and we were ready to go by race time. In the morning we were ready to go and kiddo was excited. But when the races started and he didn't win each race he started to fall apart, meltdown time started up and by the time we left he was full blown meltdown. It was bad. I really wanted to not be angry about it all, but the car was really nice even if it didn't win all the races. All the other boys, wether they won or lost were having a great time and I was trying my hardest to remind myself that kiddo is not like each and every one of those boys, he is kiddo.


To just keep things interesting, and keep Mom on her toes, kiddo's feeding tube was removed- YAY!!!! It had been 8 years in the making! I will be writing up a more detailed entry about eating and diet about how we got here, but about this week- complications? Yes, the hole, 80% of the time heals up right on its own within 24-48 hours. Wouldn't ya know that kiddo would fall into the 20%. So we are now on a wait to get him scheduled for surgery to have the hole closed, UGH! He is miserably unhappy about it and in the meantime the hole leaks every time he eats or drinks. It sucks.

So that is what is going on!

Tomorrow.... CREPES!!!

....then... yes, Girl Scout Cookie copycats!!!