Gluten Free Bite Size Peanut Butter & Peanut Blossom Cookies

I've been toying with the idea of going gluten free/gluten limited myself. So far, I've been gluten free for six days. My life has not completely changed so far, but I'm looking out for it. I've been craving the Bite-Size Peanut Blossom Cookies I made around Christmas time and thought this was a perfect time to try making them gluten free. I've discovered two things with this experiment: 1. These cookies taste excellent gluten free, and 2. It is not necessary to form balls of cookie dough before baking them. I used my new favorite method of portioning dough--refrigerating cookie dough in a pan and cutting squares/cubes from the resulting slab of dough. It makes life so much easier, and they taste just as good. There's no law that says cookies must be round, right? Thank you refrigerated cookie dough manufacturers for giving me the idea.
So, gluten free peanut butter cookie fans out there, give these a try. You'll love them. I promise.

Gluten Free Bite Size Peanut Butter & Peanut Blossom Cookies
    --Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup Crisco vegetable shortening
• 3/4 cup smooth/creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Better Batter Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• granulated sugar
• 1 bag Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Baking Chips

Instructions:
Prepare a metal brownie pan (I used a 7 cm x 11 cm pan) by lining it with parchment or wax paper. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, and the sugars until fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix on low until combined. Do not overmix.
Transfer the dough to the paper-lined brownie pan and smooth it out until you have an even layer. Place plastic wrap on top and then gently pack the dough in and leave the plastic wrap on top of the dough. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to chill.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit about a half hour before you plan to form the little cookies. Then line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place about 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a bowl that you will use to coat dough pieces.
Once dough is thoroughly chilled, remove from the refrigerator. Lift the dough out by using the edges of the paper. Cut the dough into about 1 cubic centimeter pieces, so that you end up with about a half teaspoon of dough. At this point, you can either roll each cube into a ball, roll in sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheet, OR you can just toss the little dough cubes in the sugar. Shape didn't matter to me today, so I used the cubes--much faster.  Leave about 1 1/2 inches between dough balls/cubes. If you plan to make blossoms, put them in the oven at this point. If you want just peanut butter cookies, use a fork to press a criss-cross pattern on the top of each dough ball/cube. Bake cookies for about 5 minutes at 375 degrees, or until they are puffed and slightly cracked. 
Remove from oven and immediately top each peanut blossom cookie with a milk chocolate chip, pressing down to secure the chip. You need to move quickly because you have a lot of cookies and they start to cool pretty quickly. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for about five minutes.
Move cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. Wait until the chocolate has solidified again before storing or serving.
Makes approximately 150-175 mini cookies

Crispy Caramel Corn

Crispy Caramel Corn

Another recipe to prepare us for fall...
This caramel corn is dry and crisp, not sticky like some caramel corn I've encountered. It's got a rich brown sugar and butter flavor, of course, and I like to eat it 'til I get sick. If you want the full "Oh-my-gosh-I-think-I-ate-too-much" experience, only use four quarts of popcorn. If you're on a diet, or if are simply more sensible, use the whole 8 quarts.  You can figure out your preference after making it a couple of times.
I think this recipe comes originally from my dear friend Cheryl Tellers-now-Whitney. Thanks, Cheryl!

Crispy Caramel Corn

Preheat oven to 250°.

Combine in a medium to large microwavable dish:

• 1 C brown sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 1/4 C light corn syrup
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Put in microwave on high until butter is mostly melted and then stir to combine ingredients. Bring to a boil by cooking on high for about 2 minutes. Remove and add:
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Put 4-8 quarts air-popped popcorn into a huge bowl. Pour above syrup stuff over popcorn and mix thoroughly. Spread popcorn onto two non-stick cookie sheets. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes, rotating pans between top and bottom shelves. Remove from oven; stir immediately. Stir occasionally while cooling. Store in an airtight container.

Caramel Corn made with Tiny But Mighty Popcorn

Caramel Apple Dip

Apple quarter going for a caramel dip.

Fall is near, and so of course it's time to start pushing the foods related to that season.  This caramel dip recipe comes from Eddie's Aunt Willa. Now, that woman's got some AMAZING recipes--and she's an amazing award-winning quilter to boot. It takes a lot of elbow grease, or a Kitchen Aid mixer, to get all the caramel chunks to dissolve, but it's worth the effort, of course. Otherwise I wouldn't be posting this recipe.

Caramel Dip 

• 40-45 unwrapped caramels
• 5-8 tablespoons butter (depends on how you feel about butter)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Put all of the above ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high for 2- 2 1/2 minutes. You will be tempted to microwave longer, but the caramel chunks will melt after much stirring. 
Now, you can either stir with a spoon or heavy-duty wire whisk by hand until smooth OR you can transfer to bowl of a standing mixer and mix on the lowest setting until smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl. Serve immediately, or allow to cool, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use. Microwave for a minute on high and stir.

Apple Quarters

• 5-7 Granny Smith apples
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons water
• 20-28 fat wooden skewers, like you'd use for corn on the cob
• 1 small melon baller

Wash apples. Scoop out the stem and the bottom end with melon baller. Cut in half and scoop out the core with the melon baller. Cut each half in half. Stick in skewers.
Mix lemon juice and water. Dip each quarter into lemon water, shake, and dry off skin. This should help prevent excessive browning.

A melon baller makes the job easier.

English Toffee

Buttery, crunchy English Toffee

Even though my gluten limited son does not eat this stuff, I think it's probably one of the best things you can eat if you're avoiding gluten. Sweet, buttery, crunchy, chocolatey, and nutty, this is one of my favorite sweets that I try to reserve for the holidays. Any more than that, and I would weigh that 500 pounds people keep wondering about.
This recipe is somewhat difficult, in that it requires a candy thermometer and molten hot sugar. As with a lot of candy making, you always run the risk of not only burning yourself, but ending up with grainy candy. This recipe rarely turns out grainy for me, but I do it in the winter when the weather is cool and dry. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about making this one. If you're up for the challenge, it will be well worth the time and effort.

English Toffee

Ingredients

• 1 cup coarsely chopped almonds or macadamia nuts (roasted & unsalted)
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds or macadamia nuts (roasted & unsalted)
• 3/4 cup packed C & H Light Brown Sugar 
• 3/4 cups  C & H white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 9 ounces chocolate, melted and tempered (I like to use Dove Milk Chocolate)

Directions
1. Line a square Pyrex pan (8X8) with parchment paper (I suppose the non-stick foil might work as well...). Spread coarse nuts in bottom of pan. Set aside.
2. In a heavy saucepan heat butter and sugar to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil over medium heat until it reaches 300° on a candy thermometer. At that point immediately pour and spread over the nuts. Allow to cool 5-6 minutes.
3. With a bench scraper, cut toffee while it is still soft into 16 pieces. Allow to cool to the touch, and break apart. Set on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Over a double boiler, melt chocolate until it is 2/3 melted. Remove from heat and stir until completely melted. Place finely chopped nuts in a shallow pan.
5. Using two forks, completely coat each piece of toffee with the chocolate. Toss in the finely chopped nuts until coated. Return to parchment paper to cool and set.
Makes 16 yummy chunks.

Note: An easier alternative to coating individual pieces is to just pour melted chocolate over the cooled, uncut toffee and sprinkle with nuts. Then when the chocolate has set, break toffee into pieces.