Last chance for Gluten-Free Halloween recipes

A friend sent me this list of creative and gluten-free recipes from about.com's gluten-free cooking section.  They're a lot of fun.  If you haven't settled on your Halloween feast yet, here's your last chance!

Gluten-Free Halloween party

This is third GF Halloween and I've learned a few tricks for Gluten-Free entertaining.  These are pictures of the sugar cookies I mentioned a couple of posts ago -you can see how they turned out!  Also, the cupcakes and brownies are from Pamela's mixes.  

I think Pamela's products are the most consistently good GF baked goods and mixes I've found.  They taste the most like the "real" thing.  My friends, who are not shy about telling me if I've missed the mark, all thought these cupcakes were an improvement over previous mixes I've tried.  Also, they said these sugar cookies tasted like plain old normal sugar cookies (not like potatoes like last time.)  There were high-fives all around.

Of course, I own 20 gluten-free cookbooks, but if I want to save time for things like decorating sugar cookies, then a good-quality mix helps me get there with less stress and more fun.

Sometimes people ask why I don't just buy stuff with gluten in it and serve it alongside my food. Although, I don't expect the world to change for me, my house is a "safe" place for me to eat.  

Trying to police dips, cheese or other spread that could become cross-contaminated would take the fun out of it for me.  One time I brought a risotto to a potluck. I stepped away from the table and out of the corner of my eye saw someone dipping crackers into it. 

If I have the choice, I'd like to avoid even the possibility of cross-contamination.  So, sometimes it means going the extra mile food-wise to make sure that everyone can enjoy the party.

Don't forget Rebecca Reilly!

Gluten-free-cookbook-goddess Rebecca Reilly will be in town Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008, to speak at the North Texas Gluten Intolerance Group meeting.  The meeting is free.

Rebecca Reilly is the author of Gluten-Free Baking.  I just used her quiche crust recipe this past weekend.  Divine!  You can read more about her on the North Texas GIG site.

Date: Saturday, November 1st, 2008
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Celiac 101 (newly diagnosed)
           10:00 AM - 12:00 PM Support Group Meeting
Place: Richland Hills Church of Christ

Directions and details

Tasty tweak of Gluten-Free Pantry cake mix

My co-worker, friend and fellow soldier in the war against wheat, Karla,  shared this idea with me.  In attempting to recreate a favorite family recipe, she recently bought a box of Gluten-Free Pantry white cake mix and tweaked it this way:

• buttermilk in place of the liquid
  
• real butter as the fat
  
• and added a heaping tablespoon of brown sugar 
  
• and two heaping tablespoons of cocoa.  She adds more cocoa might be better
• Karla used a small cake ban of 9x9 or 8x8

This reminds me of a book which I had chucked as not gluten-free friendly - The Cake Mix Doctor.  Now I wonder if I should look for another copy and give it another try?

Gluten-Free roll-out sugar cookies - my defeated foe!

I love making sugar cookies, cutting them out and decorating them with icing for Halloween.  However, last year, was an epic event involving lots of broken cookies and friends who complained the cookies tasted like potatoes.  

The recipe I used, from Bette Hagman's Gluten-Free Gourmet for Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies, recommends using potato flour to roll them out.  

This year, went a lot more smoothly.  I only rolled the dough out to about 1/4" thickness and I used tapioca starch to keep the cookies from sticking to the rolling pin.  Last year, I was determined to try and get them down to 1/8" which lead to a lot of sticking and cookies that couldn't be transferred to a cookie sheet.

I'm going to try using a Wilton glaze icing to reduce cookie breakage even more.  Spreading icing on with a knife was a tricky proposition last year.  I'll post a photo and let you know how it goes!  Good luck in your own cookie endeavors.

Be Free For Me - Gluten-Free Coupon Site

I saw BeFreeForMe.com on about.com's Celiac page - it's a site where you can get free samples, coupons and recipes based on your food intolerances.  They let you pick Gluten Free, nut free, soy free, etc.  Also, you can mix or match allergies.  Fun, huh?  Anyway, it sounds pretty cool and they have a newsletter as well.

Is Blue Cheese Gluten Free?

This is one of those questions that keeps me up at night.  Does mold, started on bread, retain evil Gluten?  Or is it like if a cow eats wheat grass and we eat the cow, it's still all cow and it's safe?  Or, like my good friend asked, "Why do you want to eat moldy cheese anyway?  Doesn't mold mean it's bad?"

Luckily, someone with more research than thought experiments has come up with some answers.  I got this from local Gluten-Intolerant-Guru Betty Barfield who got it from cookbook and newsletter author Connie Sarros. (That's a lot of explanation, but this is how you know I didn't make it up myself out of wishful thinking.)

Click here to order and learn about blue cheese.

Once again the question has been asked, "Is blue cheese gluten-free?" Blue cheese is made from penicillin roquforti which, in today's modernized world, most often produces spores in sterile fermenters (not on stale bread). According to Wikipedia, "Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk and/or goat's milk cheeses that has had Penicilliun cultures added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue or blue-green mold. Some blue cheeses are injected with spores before the curds have been formed and others have spores mixed in with the curds before they are formed. Blue cheeses are typically aged in a temperature-controlled environment such as a cave.

The brand names that come to mind when you say 'blue cheese' are Roquefort (made in the south of France), Gorgonzola (Italy), Stilton (England), Danablu (Denmark), and America's entry, Maytag Blue Cheese. Keep in mind that, while NOT ALL blue cheeses are gluten-free, most are.

Most brands of blue cheese ARE gluten-free (but be sure to read the label each time before purchasing) A few brands that are GF:

• Cabot
• Athenos
• Clemson
• Rosenborg
• Boar's Head
• King's Choice
• Smoked Shropshire
• Les Fromages D'Ann Marie
• Whole Creamery Blue Cheese Crumbles
• Lighthouse Idaho Blue Cheese Crumbles
  

The following brands of blue cheese are NOT gluten-free:

• Sargento Blue Cheese
  
• Organic Valley Blue Cheese Crumbles

-Connie Sarros