Earl Grey Madeleines

Jesicakes' second Madeleines!  I visited my mom and grandma this past weekend and wanted to bring them a treat.  Since I just made the Triple Chocolate Brownie Cookies for my mom the week before, I wanted to make something a little more on the lighter side for her this time.  She didn't get to try my last batch of Madeleines so it seemed like the perfect treat.  I wanted to use Earl Grey tea as the flavoring this time.  They came out light, fluffy, and cake like but with the perfect touch of sweetness and delicate floral notes from the Earl Grey tea.  I made some changes from my original recipe.  I substituted out some of the sugar for honey for a more subtle sweetness.  I also added vanilla to marry with the Earl Grey flavor.  There's still lemon in there but slightly less.

Although I mentioned the last batch was best fresh because they were glazed, these I just dusted with powdered sugar.  They actually tasted better after they had rested a day or two, and even got softer and more moist than when first out of the oven.  The flavors all seemed to burst the day after I baked them.  It may be that I needed to let my dough rest more in the fridge, but either way they still wound up being delectable.  And of course, they're perfect to dip into or pair with a nice warm cup of Earl Grey tea.

Earl Grey Madeleines

Recipe adapted from my Lemon Thyme Glazed Madeleines, which were adapted from Annie Eats
Made Gluten Free by Jesicakes
Makes about 2 dozen standard Madeleines
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Ingredients

- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 Tbsp honey
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup brown rice flour
- 1/3 cup sorghum flour
- 1/3 cup white rice flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 9 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled to room temperature- zest of 1/2 a lemon (or to taste)
- 3 tea bags of Earl Grey tea (I used decaf since my grandma and I both avoid caffeine)

-extra melted butter and white rice flour to grease and dust the Madeleine mold.

Individual Baked Oatmeal Cups

So last month I got tested for celiac (negative! But I still want to be mostly gluten free because I just personally feel better when I don't eat gluten).  The hardest part is cutting out things that I had started eating daily during the two months before testing.  One of those things is granola bars.  They're just so easy and convenient to carry around except most of them have some form of gluten, soy, or dairy in them.  I just started using Pinterest and I saw a pin of Personal Sized Bake Oatmeal from Sugar-Free Mom and was inspired to use these to replace granola bars!  I made them in cupcake pans not muffin tins and got 3 1/2 dozen little oatmeal cups out of it!  That's part of my lunch for 42 days.  Not only is it going to cut granola bars and help cut soy, dairy, and gluten back out of my diet, but it'll probably save me a lot of money too!  I made fourteen different varieties too to try new flavors and so I don't get tired of them.  I use Chia Seeds in them which have lots of Omega 3 fatty acids, protein, antioxidants and much more.  I topped them chopped nuts and fruits to add to add more protein and for more energy.  So if you try these get creative with your toppings and see how many different varieties you can make!

Individual Baked Oatmeal Cups

Recipe adapted from Sugar Free Mom
Makes 3 1/2 dozen individual baked oatmeal cups in cupcake pans, or about 1 1/2 dozen in muffin pans
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Ingredients

- 2 large eggs

- 2 cups unsweetened applesauce
- 5 cups rolled oats (gluten free)
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1 banana, mashed
- 2 1/2 cups almond milk (or milk of choice)
- 1/2 cup of honey
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla, gluten free
- 3 tsp baking powder, gluten free
- 1 tsp salt
- toppings of choice: dried cranberries, chopped almonds, peanut butter, chocolate chips etc.

Honey, Lavender, and Lemon Cupcakes

Winter is often a time when meals are heavier and heartier, and the flavors tend to be heavy as well.  This weekend, I wanted to make something light, floral, and a little more complex than traditional cupcake flavor combinations.  I worked at a chocolate shop in Philadelphia for two years, and the entire time I worked there, my favourite truffle was the Honey Lavender one.  A few months ago I was in a spice market in Murray Hill, and I saw a packet of lavender and knew I needed to created a dessert with it.  So this weekend, during a light snow, but very grey morning we had Saturday I decided to brighten up the day with Honey, Lavender, & Lemon Cupcakes with a Cream Cheese Icing (which is also sweetened with honey and flavored with lavender and lemon).  The bases of these cupcakes are light and fluffy due to the use of just egg whites.  This texture along with the brightness from the lemon, the light sweetness from honey, and the floral notes of the lavender makes the cake delicate yet flavorful.  The icing adds a little bit of extra punch of those flavors while still remaining overall a light and bright cupcakes.  These cupcakes will brighten up your cold winter day, and come spring and summer I'm sure they'd be the perfect cupcake for a light dessert on a hot summer day.

Honey, Lavender, and Lemon Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from a combination of Hooray For Weekends and Blissfully Delicious
Made Gluten Free by Jesicakes
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients

- 3/4 cup sorghum flour
- 3/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup white rice flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 Tbsp gluten free baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 4 large egg whites
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (one stick)
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp dried lavender flowers
- 3 Tbsp clove honey
- Zest from 1 1/2 lemons (about 2 Tbsp)*

*Zest both lemon completely and set aside zest from half of one for the frosting

Say Goodbye to Summer with S'mores Cookies!

Early this spring I was eating a chocolate chip cookie trying to think of a spin I could put on it and suddenly a brilliant idea hit me...a S'mores Chocolate Chip Cookie!  And then this summer came and all of a sudden on every food site I saw people were making their own renditions of a S'mores Cookie.  So maybe my idea wasn't as brilliant as I thought, but it still sounded delicious!  The one problem I was encountering was how to make them gluten free without graham flour, which is essential if I really wanted to make them taste like S'mores.  So finally this Sunday I made Gluten Free Graham Crackers from scratch and viola!  Now I could make S'mores cookies.  I based them off my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, so if you've read that the process is pretty much identical (I'll post it anyway).  The main changes are that I used graham flour (crushed graham crackers) instead of oat flour and I only used semi sweet chips in the cookie because I put dark chunks on top.  And of course topped them with marshmallows.  They were delicious, not to mention adorable!  You could really taste the cinnamon and honey from the graham flour (even without toppings these flavors really elevate these simple chocolate chip cookies into something a little more complex).  So bake a batch of these up for one last taste of summer before diving into fall flavors.

Gluten Free S'mores Cookies

Recipe a Jesicakes original with graham flour made from a recipe by Gluten Free Girl
Makes 18-20 cookies

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup graham flour*
- 1/3 cup brown rice flour
- 1/3 cup tapioca flour
- 1/3 cup sweet rice flour
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp hot water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 50-60 mini marshmallows (I used Dandies' vegan marshmallows because I don't eat gelatin)
- 1 60% cocoa Ghiradelli chocolate bar, chopped (if you want to be traditional use Hershey's squares)
- 1/4 cup extra crushed graham crackers*

* Graham Flour made from crushed graham crackers from my last recipe post here.  I used 3 graham crackers and a fourth for the extra for the topping.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Sugar Graham Crackers

One of my favourite snacks when I was a kid was cinnamon sugar graham crackers.  I especially loved them on a chilly night with a nice hot cup of black tea to dip them in.  The reason I wanted to make grahams today was to crumble them up to make graham flour for S'mores Cookies I'm also making later today.  I was surprised to find that I only needed three of these graham crackers.  This turned out to be a wonderful surprise because these grahams are delicious! Not too sweet but rather that subtle sweetness from the honey with a little kiss of extra sweetness from the cinnamon sugar on top.  I could tell straight from the dough that as long as they baked right they'd be killer because the dough alone (egg free too!) was so delicious I was struggling to not just eat it raw.  I've never made any kind of graham cracker before so I got the recipe form Gluten Free Girl and stuck pretty closely to it.  And obviously, if you don't like cinnamon or want the added sugar, just leave off the step of sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar before baking.  So bake up the perfect Gluten Fee Cinnamon Sugar Graham Crackers, make some tea to dip them into, and relax and enjoy the day.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Sugar Graham Crackers

Recipe from Gluten Free Girl with minor changes
Makes 16 graham crackers

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sorghum flour*
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp brown rice flour*
- 1/3 cup - 1 tbsp tapioca flour*
- 1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sweet rice flour*
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7 tbsp unsalted butter just out of the fridge
- 1/4 cup mild flavored honey (I used pretty generic clove honey)
- 3-6 tbsp cold water
- Cinnamon sugar

*She does her baking by weight (something I'd really like to start doing just need to do more research and also save and buy a scale).  All of these flours come out to 2.5 ounces each.