angel food cake

Last week I found our fridge hosting an abundance of eggs and my sweet tooth aching for a dessert... I pulled out the Bronski's Artisanal Gluten Free Cookbook and flipped for a bit before landing on the angel food cake recipe. Perfect.

I measured everything and waited for the egg whites to come up to room tempature... and waited and waited... this was hard.

When I was able to start whipping I had to pull out the kitchen aid book to remind myself of what settings to whip the egg whites into stiff peaks (high on 8).

and whipped.... almost ready but not quite...

 after a bit in the oven I pulled it out and enjoyed the intoxicating smell of angel food cake. It was so pretty in the bunt pan that I really hated trying to take it out after letting it cool. (I don't have a angel food pan so I just subbed the bunt pan)

I managed to get it out of the pan but it wasn't pretty. Thankfully it tasted great and Dave and I managed to polish it off in just a few days. As always the Bronski's recipe didn't disappoint, I'm looking forward to their cupcake book which is due out this June 1.

Chaos's Gluten Free Cookies

Today I took a break from baking for humans and made some cookies for Chaos and Mayhem. It's not the first time I've made them but it's been a while and it was my first time making them gluten free. We've banned gluten flour from the house as it gives me a migraine to bake with it and Dave isn't much of a baker.
I'd love to give credit but the recipe has been in my book since at least 2006 and I have no idea where it came from. We've dubbed them Chaos Cookies and they were very well received by a tough panel of judges, Chaos, Mayhem and their friend Stella.

Chaos's Gluten Free Dog Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup flour (I used my old batch of Gluten Free Featherlight)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix Flour and baking powder then add peanut butter and milk. Combine then roll out on floured surface to 1/4" thickness. Cut out your pups favorite shapes or keep it simple. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Cool before serving to your pup! Keeps best in fridge or freezer.

I've found that a simple shape makes for the best cookie cutter. We had a skinnier dog bone cookie cutter but found that the bones broke easily. I also made some triangles for smaller treats for toy stuffing.

 The judges all agreed- they loved the peanut butter flavor and the smells that came out of the kitchen. They couldn't even tell that the cookies were gluten free.

A bit of local love... Brown Dog Telluride

From Droid think outside

I feel like gluten free is finally gone more mainstream. I think this as I have options in my small mountain town of Telluride. I mean I can even go out for pizza with my friends like a normal person, in a sports bar, which happens to have a mini- Fenway on the back wall.
This is a very new development. I found out about the Brown Dog offering gluten free pizza about a month ago but when I called to ask about it there was only one chef who would work with the dough and he wasn't working the night that my friends wanted to go out. I called again for the next group outing and it was official- I could get pizza. The pie had a thin crust which I'm fond of, not quiet New York thin but definitely not Chicago Style.
This doesn't help out my effort to ditch the dairy but it's great to have another option and be able to get food with friends at the local sports bar, good thing as it just might be Red Sox season in my house.

A bit of blog love...Lettuce Wraps... a la PF Chang Style

One of my favorite things about reading other blogs is being able to relate to another person's gluten free story. Each of us arrived at the gluten-free lifestyle a different way but we each stay for the same reason- to feel good and enjoy food again. Posting recipes and sharing food via the internet, blog love at it's finest.
Dave and I have been making lettuce wraps for years but the other night we dug up Heidi's recipe over at Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom and used it as a guide to make PF Chang Style Lettuce wraps. So good and a great dinner for two...

I'd like to blame my lack of blogging on spring. I'd love to say that the weather's been great so we're spending time outside with the dogs at night instead of the kitchen but that's sadly not the case as we had over a foot of snow last week Yes, it's May. Yes, I do miss spring. Yes, it's mostly melted now so I can start to pull out chacos until the next snowstorm later this week.
Dave's a snowmaker and groomer at the ski resort so we're readjusting to making dinner for two again. I'm spending a lot less time in the kitchen making and perfecting new recipes and experiments. When I dine alone, I tend to get obsessed with a new dish. Dave won't go for that as he likes variety. We're trying to move into summer mode even if Mother Nature has other ideas for us.