The BEST Banana Bread Ever! Martha Stewart's Banana Bread, gluten free! (or not!)

This banana bread is so spectacularly delicious that I have made it some 20 times, and this is the first time I have ever been able to get a picture of it! It really is that good. I made these the other night for a Bible study, and the reaction from everyone was the same: "Wow, this is SO good."

I know it sounds like I am tooting my own horn here a bit, but I'm not: I'm not great, but the recipe sure is! I think the secret is that your cream the butter and sugar together a bit like a cake, and the addition of sour cream makes it extra moist and tender. You can also dress it up with chopped walnuts or chocolate, even though it's really great just as it is!

Martha's Best Ever Banana Bread, Gluten Free! (Or Not!)
adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 1 loaf, or about 16 cupcakes

The original recipe is not gluten-free, but I have used all kinds of gluten-free flour combinations with great success. You can use an all purpose mix, or you can you my favorite for this recipe: equal parts sweet rice flour, white rice flour, and oat flour.

Ingredients
1 stick (1/2 a cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups gluten free all purpose flour (or 1/2 cup sweet rice flour, 1/2 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup oat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sour cream (or yogurt, if you want to lighten it up)
2 large mashed bananas, really ripe and spotted

Optional:
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, combine butter, white sugar, and brown sugar, and beat on high until butter is pale and fluffy, about 5 full minutes.

2. In a separate bowl, combine flour(s), salt, and baking soda. Whisk to combine.

3. Add in eggs to mixer, one at a time, beating until each egg is fully incorporated. Add vanilla. Blend in mashed bananas and sour cream, followed by the flour mixture. Mix on low until fully incorporated.

4. Pour into a loaf pan, or into lined muffin tin. Bake 20 - 30 minutes (20 for muffins, 30 for loaf pan), edges begin to pull away from the pan, and tester in the center comes out clean. Let cool (if you can!) and enjoy!

Best Ever Turkey Burger with Spicy Chipotle Mayo

Gentle reader,

(can I call you that? Are we good enough friends that I can call you that? Because I really want to. Pretty please?)

I have a terrible confession to make. I have been sitting on a big stack of my most favorite recipes, and most of them are not on this blog. I KNOW, RIGHT?? What kind of food blogger doesn't post their best material? Lame ones, that's who. (Bad, bad blogger. Minus one gold star for me).

In my defense, I really, really care about these recipes, because I LOVE them. I want you to love them as much as I do. So if I feel like it's not perfect (and is it ever perfect? like, ever?), I don't want to post it. If the pictures are mediocre, I won't post it. If it didn't come out exactly right this time, NO POST. Are you sensing a theme here?

It's just that I love these recipes so much, and I want you to love them too. I want to make you fall in love with chipotle turkey burgers, black bean chili, and pumpkin roulade cake the way my family has. I want you to be able to make them for your family and friends over and over again. I want them to be your favorite family recipes too.

However.

That's not really going to happen if I never post the recipes, is it? So here you go: This is my family's favorite turkey burger recipe! It's not perfect. The pictures could be better. There could be a lot more of them. I could have written a better and more convincing arguments for just how good it is. But honestly? I'd rather just get it out there, imperfections and all.

So this is for you, gentle reader. I hope you try it, and I hope you like it as much as we do.

Best Ever Turkey Burger with Spicy Chipotle Mayo
adapted from Martha Stewart Living 2009
serves 4

If you are going to make this recipe, you have to make it with the mayo at least once. Even if you don't really like mayo, please try it! It really takes what is a good burger to a whole new level. You can find chipotle chilis in the hispanic section if your grocery store, or at ethnic or specialty markets.

Ingredients
1.5 lbs ground turkey
1 small red onion, minced
1/4 cup minced cilantro
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
kosher salt
black pepper
----------------------------
8 thin slices Swiss cheese
4 sesame seed buns
4 lettuce leaves
8 slices bacon
4 dill pickles slices
---------------------------
1/2 cup good quality mayo, like hellman's or best (NOT miracle whip)
1/4 cup sour cream
1 canned chipotle chili
1 teaspoon adobo sauce

1. In a medium bowl, mix together ground turkey, minced onion, minced cilantro, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper, and shape into 4 patties. Grill over medium heat until cooked through, or bake in the oven 15 - 20 minutes until cooked through. Add slices of Swiss cheese at the end of the cooking time, and let melt over the burgers (YUM).

2. Meanwhile, puree mayo, sour cream, chipotle chili and adobo sauce until smooth. If you like, you can adjust how much chili to put in based on your tastes, but I think this amount is just right.

3. Toast buns. Build your burger: I recommend trying it with all the ingredients before you mess with it - all the flavors really do work together beautifully. Spread mayo on one of the buns. Layer together lettuce, patty, dill pickles, and bacon. Enjoy!

Ina Garten's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Lately I've got it into my head that coffee cake would be the perfect way to start a Sunday morning. Coffee cake, fresh pot of coffee, crossword puzzle. Husband and baby sleeping in, quiet house.

Perfect.

Well, that's the way it goes in my head, anyway. In reality, mornings can be a bit more of a madhouse, people running around half-dressed, scrambling to find socks and keys in the morning shuffle out the door.

::sigh:: One can always hope, I suppose. And just because things can be crazy around here doesn't mean that the coffee cake, the fresh pot of coffee, and the crossword are out: they just have to be enjoyed with a master level of zen. And I'm getting pretty good at that.

Watch me go!

Ina Garten's Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Once again, Ina comes through with a winner! I think this coffee cake is incredibly moist and delicious, and it works really well gluten-free. I always use a 1:1:1 of sweet rice flour, oat flour, and All purpose gluten-free flour, but I bet there are a lot of great all-purpose mixes out there that would taste grand if you just use them cup for cup.

Ingredients: Cake
12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 cups white sugar
3 jumbo eggs
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.25 cups sour cream
2.5 cups gluten free flour (a light, cake type blend is best)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch kosher salt

Ingredients: Streusal
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup all purpose gluten free flour (or any bland white flour)
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch kosher salt
3 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, etc.)


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 5+ complete minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating until the first is entirely incorporated before putting in the second. Add in vanilla and sour cream, mixing until just incorporated.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to batter 1/3 at a time, with mixer on low, mixing until flour is just incorporated. You can finish up with a spatula to be extra careful.

3. Streusal: In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar, gluten free flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter. Pinch butter into dry ingredients until large crumbs form. Mix in chopped nuts, if using.

4. Layer batter and streusal in pan, layering 1/2 the batter and 1/2 the streusal, followed by the second 1/2 of batter and streusal. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, until tester inserted in the center of the cake come out clean. Let cool, and enjoy!

Spicy Tangy Old Fashioned Southern Deviled Eggs

If you want a really good deviled egg, you have to go to a real enthusiast for a recipe. Lucky for us, I happen to know such an enthusiast, or at least, I own her cookbook. It takes a real enthusiast to write a 464 page cookbook devoted entirely to eggs. I mean, can you imagine the research phase of the project? So many eggs. So many.






Lucky for us, she stuck with it, earned herself a James Beard award, and gave us a veritable Bible of winning egg recipes. And if you happen to have some extra Easter eggs to use up, or you're going to a summer barbecue, or you are just craving some really excellent old fashioned deviled eggs, you've come to the right place. This one's a winner!



Spicy Tangy Old Fashioned Southern Deviled Eggs
adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients
4 large eggs, hard boiled and cooled
2.5 tablespoons good quality mayo
1.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard
hot sauce, such as Tobasco (I used Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce)
sea salt or kosher salt
freshly cracked black pepper
paprika for seasoning




Halve the eggs, and carefully remove the yolks to a separate bowl.




Mash the egg yolks with a fork until they are crumbly (Marie says to pass them through a fine mesh sieve, but I mash them with a fork. This is because she is a perfectionist and I am lazy. It's up to you how you want to do it, but I think we both know you want to be lazy with me. Think of the dishes. Convinced?)




Add 2.5 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard, and hot sauce to taste. I used about 1/2 a teaspoon of Sriracha, but it really just depends on what hot sauce you use and how spicy you like it (be advised, if you like it REALLY spicy you may want to use less mayo, otherwise your filling will get a little runny. I learned this lesson on the first batch when it took about a tablespoon of Tabasco to get it spicy enough for me!)




Mix until smooth, and salt and pepper to taste.




Carefully spoon or pipe with a bag and pastry tip into the halved whites. Sprinkle with paprika and enjoy!

Autumn Spiced French Toast Recipe with Maple Butter Glaze • Gluten free, or not!

A couple of weeks ago our church did a Christmas pageant, in which French toast featured a prominent roll. One of the characters just went on and on and on about how much she loved French toast on Christmas morning, and although I haven't eaten French toast in years, suddenly I found myself with an irresistible craving for it. I think I haven't liked French toast in the past because it tends to be soggy and bland. This recipe is anything but! The spices really kick the flavor up a notch, and the milk to eggs ratio us just right, leaving these light and fluffy. And when you top it all with the maple butter glaze? Heavenly. A warm, melt in your mouth breakfast, perfect for a chilly autumn or winter morning.



Autumn Spice French Toast with Maple Butter Glaze
serves 2-3 (makes 4-6 slices)
double the recipe to feed more

this recipe is simple to make gluten-free - just substitute in gluten free bread. My new favorite is Udi's gluten-free white sandwich bread, but use whatever you like best.

ingredients
2 large eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
4-6 pieces day old bread (you don't want it too moist, or the toast will get soggy in the middle), gluten-free or not
vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons, or 1/2 a stick)
1/4 cup grade A maple syrup


1. In a medium sized bowl, combine 2 eggs, 1/3 cup milk, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon ginger. Whisk to combine.

2. On medium heat, heat enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of a nonstick pan. Dip a slice of bread into batter, coating each side, and fry in heated pan, 2-3 minutes on each side, until toast spring back when lightly touched in the center. Set aside and repeat.

3. For Maple Butter Glaze: Heat 1/4 cup butter (4 tablespoons or 1/2 stick) and 1/4 cup grade A maple syrup in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then remove from heat, and let cool. Pour into a serving vessel, or directly over toast. Enjoy!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Boy howdy, are these cookies delicious! I had all these grand plans for making Christmas cookies this year, and believe me, my plans were grand. I was going to make no less than 12 different types of cookies, and share them with all my family, friends and neighbors, and be know as the most awesome home baker in all the land.

HA HA HA.

I did end up making about 5 batches of cookies all told, but you know... stuff happens. And I didn't even especially like most of the cookies I tried... except this one! This cookie recipe is so different and unexpected. I love the cinnamon and chile with the chocolate, which makes for a delicate chocolate cookie that is spiced but not spicy. It has a really unique flavor profile, and is definitely something different. If you like Mexican food at all, you will love this cookie!








Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies

Like a snickerdoodle cookie, this cookie is made with cream of tartar and rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture, but ground chile gives it a "smoky, earthy" flavor. You can find ground chile (such as arbol, ancho or chipotle) in the spices section of your grocery store, or you can substitute cayenne pepper if ground chile simply cannot be found (but you will lose some of the smokiness).

I am also giving the gluten-free version of this recipe that I have adapted, but you can always make it with all-purpose flour like the original Martha Stewart recipe. Simply substitute all purpose flour cup for cup with the gluten-free flours mentioned below.

A note about gluten-free flours: After trying and testing virtually every gluten-free flour and combination of flours out there, this is it. Oat + sweet rice flour is the absolute perfect combination of flours for cookies, and nothing can match it for natural taste and texture. This is how a cookie is supposed to taste, and you would never even know it's "gluten-free:" it's that good! So don't mess with something that ain't broken, I say. Use these flours!



Ingredients
1 cup oat flour
1 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup UNLEAVENED all-purpose gluten-free flour, such as Bob's red mill (some come with baking soda already in the flour, and this will mess things up!)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1.5 cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon chile

For sugar and spice powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground chile


1. preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in the upper and lower thirds (or be lazy with me, and put one rack right in the middle. I'm too busy to be bothered with the turning and rotating of baking sheets during baking. Sorry Martha!)

2. Whisk together 1 cup oat flour, 1 cup sweet rice flour, 1/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon chile powder. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer, combine 1 cup (2 sticks) room temperature butter with 1.5 cups white sugar for a full 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture. Beat until just combined.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon chile. Roll 1 heaping tablespoon of dough into a ball and role in the sugar-spice mixture. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, and bake until cookies are set in the center and beginning to crack, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

Apparently, the difference between a good cookie and an AMAZING cookie is cream cheese frosting.

Want to know something interesting, Internet? When I first started to suspect I had celiac disease, I was without health insurance, and thus without access to the expensive tests used to clinically diagnose the disease (blood tests, endoscopies, and genetic tests). So after talking it over with my doctor, we decided that the best thing for me to do would be to start a gluten free diet, and see what happened. So I did. And it was like a miracle. It was like all the health issues that had been plaguing me for years were magically lifted. My chronic GI problems were cured, my chronic pain and fatigue dissipated, My insomnia disappeared, my canker sores and tooth decay ceased, and of course, after a few months I got pregnant! After only a few weeks on the gluten free diet, I was supposed to do a gluten "challenge" and eat something with gluten to see if it had any effect on me. I ate a biscuit, and I almost immediately boated up, flushed, and felt the familiar GI pain, fatigue, and inflammation. It was the last gluten I ever ate. My doctor and I agreed that I most probably had celiac disease, and that I should stay on the diet until I once again had health insurance, and we could run all those expensive tests.

That day is today. A few weeks ago, I met with a gastroenterologist (say that 10 times fast), who also agreed that I most likely have celiac disease. However, because I have been on the gluten-free diet for so long (three years folks!) he warned me that it will most likely be very difficult to get a clinical diagnosis. By this time, my guts have probably healed, leaving little evidence of the disease behind. Two weeks ago, we did an endoscopy, and I learned that I do indeed have very healthy looking intestines. Yay? Am I happy that my guts are so good looking these days, or am I sad that getting a diagnosis is going to be so hard? Since my guts looked so good, I figured I would probably be getting some negative biopsy results back, and I wasn't sure where to go from there. Imagine my surprise when, by some strange twist of fate, my biopsies from that procedure were lost. The doctor was very embarrassed to inform me of the fact, said nothing like that had ever happened at that hospital before, and that he was very sorry, and would not charge my insurance for the procedure. Would I mind doing the procedure again?

Gobsmacked, I was talking to a friend of mine, a nurse, who said I was actually pretty lucky that the biopsies were lost: my insurance is less likely to approve any subsequent biopsies with a negative one on my record, making it that much harder to get a positive diagnosis. So, to increase my chances of getting a positive diagnosis this time around, I am doing what is called a "gluten challenge." Essentially, I am going to eat a TON of gluten for the next 30 days before my next biopsy. My hope is that it will cause enough damage to my upper GI tract to get a positive diagnosis. And if it doesn't? Well, at least I gave it my best shot. 30 days is really the minimum for a gluten-challenge, with some recommendations going from 3 months to 5 years! I am just not willing to go that long (it's HARD y'all), but 30 days I can do.

And honestly? I am having one hell of a last hurrah! First I had a crunch roll at my local sushi restaurant, liberally dunked in soy sauce. Then I had a chocolate doughnut. And then I ordered some Papa John's pizza. Since then I have been gobbling down every gluteny things i haven't been able to make for the last three years: cheese danishes! apple strudel! naan bread! Israeli couscous! Whole wheat sourdough sandwiches! Soba noodles! On doctor's orders, I have been STUFFING myself with gluten. I would love to say it feels good, or that everything tastes as good as I remembered or imagined, but honestly? It doesn't. None of this stuff is as good as I remembered (or maybe, as good as I had built it up to be in my rose colored memory). And NONE of it is worth the side effects: the bloating, the fatique, the GI pain, the inflammation, etc. etc. (ok, well, maybe the doughnuts) I am only on day 3, and I feel SO sick.

A unexpected and rather happy consequence of this challenge is that it has put to bed the nagging worry in the back if my mind that gluten-free food (especially baked goods) can never taste as good as gluteny food. I have always worried just a little bit that gluten-free cookies and cakes only taste good to me and my gluten-deprived tastebuds, and that other people are only being nice when they say my stuff tastes good. Since I can't compare, I can only take their word for it. I am happy to say, after eating quite a lot of longed-for and forbidden treats over the last few days, that gluten-free stuff can taste just as good, if not better than, gluten-based baked goods. If anything, wheat is actually quite bland tasting, and has much less flavor than gluten-free flours and flour mixes (which may be why some people recoil from gluten-free treats: it's not that it's bad, but it's different than what they have come to expect).

So when I say that this is an extraordinary cookie, I say that with no reservations or apologies. This in not just a good "gluten-free" cookie: It's a damn good cookie, gluten-free or not!



Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese
Adapted from Everyday Food, September 2010

You can totally swap in the gluten-free flours for all purpose wheat flour, as that is what is in the original recipe, so I am sure it works. I love using oat flour - it has a familiar taste that everyone recognizes, and in this recipe it works really well with the rolled oats and the vanilla bean speckles.

1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup Bob's Red Mill all purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1.5 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 cup golden raisons

8oz cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
6 tablespoons powdered sugar


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with oven racks in the upper and lower thirds. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, corn starch, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

2. In an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until fluffy and pale, 5 minutes. Add in vanilla, molasses, and eggs, mixing until just combined. Slowly add flour mixture, and mix until just combined. With a rubber spatula, fold in oats and raisins.

3. Drop dough in 1 LARGE tablespoonfool mounds on two baking sheets. Bake until cookies are just set at the edges, and slightly soft in the middle, about 11 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

4. In mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, vanilla bean paste, and powdered sugar until light. spread filling on flat side of cookie, then sandwich with second cookie. Repeat. Enjoy!