GF Oreo Balls

Another holiday favorite around our house are Oreo balls, which I traditionally make each Christmas. But this being our very first gluten free holiday season, I wasn't sure at first I would be able to make these again.

Until I stumbled across these GF oreos a couple of months ago, made by Kinnickkinnick. They make LOTS of really yummy GF foods, including animal crackers too. I picked up these oreos at the local Fred Meyer, but you can also purchase their items through Amazon.

I love that these cookies are not only GF, but also casein free for people who have problems with milk and milk products, like my dad. No worries here!

The only big difference here is that like most GF products these are WAY more expensive than your ordinary Oreos,...running about $5.00 per bag! And the bags are 8 oz. of cookies and the recipe calls for 16 oz., which means you need 2 full bags of these cookies at a whopping $10.00!

So I guess this recipe will end up continuing to be a holiday delicacy!

Then it's just a matter of following the recipe instructions, which tell you to crumble up the cookies in a food processor...or if you don't have one, you use the old fashion method and get the kids involved, mine love this part of the baking process!

Dump in your mixer with an 8 oz. block of cream cheese and blend until it turns from this above...

...into this dark, fudgy consistency shown here. Then chill in the fridge until firm.

Once the dough is firm, roll it out into balls about 1-2 inches. My dough was in the fridge overnight and I wasn't patient enough to let it warm up a little closer to room temperature (but still firm) before rolling out these balls, so they weren't very nice and round looking.

But they get MUCH better looking after you coat them in chocolate!

Which of course is the next step, coating the balls in white chocolate. I like to drizzle milk chocolate over the top too.

You can also use sprinkles, or add a little bit of peppermint extract to the dough for a mint chocolate chip flavor, or sprinkle the top with crushed candy cane pieces.

Store in the fridge to keep fresh and firm. And then try not to eat all of them in the same day! YUM!!!

GF Oreo Balls

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

16 ounces GF oreos

16 ounces of white, milk, or dark chocolate, chopped (I use almond bark)

about 1/2 cup of contrasting chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. Pulse oreos in a food processor until the crumbs are fine.

2. Pour into large mixer and combine with cream cheese until thoroughly blended.

3. Cover bowl and chill for at least 2-3 hours or until dough is firm. Scoop out with a heaping teaspoon  (or tablespoon) and roll into balls. Cover and place back into fridge to firm up dough again. Make sure the balls are very firm before dipping in hot melted chocolate or they will fall apart!

4. Slowly melt white chocolate in a double boiler, or a large pot on low heat, stirring often. Remove from heat and work quickly dipping and coating each ball. Place balls on wax paper to dry.

5. Sprinkle wet balls immediately with sprinkles, candy cane pieces, etc. or after the balls are dry you can melt milk chocolate and drizzle on top.

If you make these balls teaspoon size the recipe says you should end up with about 50-60 balls, or tablespoon size you should have about 30-35 balls. Mine were really large, more than a tablespoon size and I still ended up with 38 balls total.

Ham Potato Puffs - GF

I've posted this recipe before, here, which was really yummy and easy to make. Now I'm revisiting this recipe in a gluten free version. I found a simple recipe for a GF biscuit dough and used up the leftover potato from the baked potato skins I made earlier in the week.

It was incredibly delicious, extremely filling (you only need 1 of these with a side of fruit to totally fill you up!), and I was extremely impressed with how great the biscuit recipe turned out! I can wait to try this biscuit dough again as plain biscuits with some jelly on top. They make awesome leftovers too!

Ham Potato Puffs - Gluten Free

• 1 batch of GF biscuit mix (*see below)
  
• 1 cup cubed fully cooked ham
• 1 cup leftover mashed potatoes
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  

Directions:

1. Press each biscuit onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased muffin cup.
2. In a large bowl, combine the ham, potatoes, 1/2 cup cheese, parsley and garlic powder. 
3. Spoon 1/4 cup into each prepared cup. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. 
4. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 10 puffs.

*GF Biscuit mix:

• 1/2 cup GF flour blend (2 parts white rice flour, 1 part tapioca flour, 1 part potato starch)
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum
  
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. shortening
• 3 tbsp. milk
• 2 tbsp. melted butter

Note: This recipe makes 2-3 biscuits, you will need to quadruple (x 4) the ingredients in order to make 12 biscuits for this recipe.

Directions:

1.Combine flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt.
2. Cut shortening into flour mixture.

3. Mix in milk and stir until well blended. May need to add a little more milk if too dry.

4. Place into greased muffin cups, sprinkle each with melted butter, and follow recipe above.

5. OR - Roll out dough, knead, and cut into biscuit shapes.

6. Grease baking sheet and place biscuits on top. Brush tops with melted butter.

7. Bake at 450 degrees for 9-11 min.

Chocolate Reese's Dessert

This yummy dessert was eaten so quickly, that I didn't manage to get a photo of it after I cut the first slice, so here's the photo from the original recipe so you can see the layers a little better.

Of course I couldn't use Oreos for the cookie crust, so I purchased 2 packages of these:

And used all but about 6 of them in the crust. They are really rich and not bad as a GF cookie, but even better used as a rich, fudgy bottom layer in this recipe!

Here you can see my Reese's candy sprinkled over top of the light and fluffy peanut butter layer.

And finally the finished dessert. I ended up with a lot more crumbs to sprinkle over top, but it turned out amazing! I'm pretty sure this dessert is totally not within my 1,200 calorie daily diet, but yeah, as SD put it, it's disgusting how good this dish is!!!

Chocolate Reese's Dessert

Ingredients:

• 20 chocolate cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, divided
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
• 1 carton (16 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
• 15 miniature peanut butter cups, chopped
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate fudge pudding mix

Directions:

1. Crush 16 cookies(I considered each one of the larger cookies as 2 smaller ones); toss with the butter. Press into an ungreased 9-in. square dish (I used 8x8); set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, peanut butter and 1 cup confectioners' sugar until smooth. Fold in half of the whipped topping. Spread over crust. Sprinkle with peanut butter cups.

3. In another large bowl, beat the milk, pudding mix and remaining confectioners' sugar on low speed for 2 minutes Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set.

4. Fold in remaining whipped topping. Spread over peanut butter cups.

5. Crush remaining cookies; sprinkle over the top. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.

Yield: 12-16 servings.

GF Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Sometimes it's nice to find a GF alternative that doesn't require ANY flour, like these peanut butter cookies I picked up from a friend.

The recipe was very simple & my kids were very excited to see this after school treat waiting for them when they came home! Of course KW had found the bag of Hershey's kisses, so not all of our cookies ended up with chocolate in the middle, but they were still great as plain peanut butter cookies.

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies


1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
24 Hershey's kisses


Directions:

1. Cream together peanut butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until blended.

3. Roll into 2 dozen balls and place 2-in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 min. or until tops are slightly cracked.

4. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Cool for 5 min. before removing to wire racks.

Yield: 24 cookies

White Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

As the title suggests...yeah these muffins are THAT good! The original recipe was called "Raspberry Cream Muffins" which I think would also taste really good, but I don't have a lot of raspberry fans in our house, so I thought I'd play it a little safer for the first try and go with strawberries.

EJ as always hates everything, so she wouldn't try them, and KW wasn't interested, but everyone else tried them and really loved these too.

And because I totally love jumbo size muffins I tried baking these in my new jumbo pan too at the exact same baking time and they turned out perfect too.

Oh so delicious! And I think this would work with raspberries, blueberries, maybe even peaches.

Raspberry Cream Muffins/White Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh raspberries, or strawberries, blueberries, peaches, etc.
  
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour (***See gluten free alternative below)
  
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup half-and-half cream
• 1 cup finely chopped vanilla or white chips
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

***For Gluten Free flour: mix together 2 parts white rice flour, 1 part tapioca flour, and 1 part potato starch. Mix well together and then use 2 1/4 cups along with 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum.

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, toss raspberries with 1/4 cup sugar; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extracts.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with cream, just until moistened. Stir in chips and reserved raspberries.

4. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Combine brown sugar and remaining sugar; sprinkle over batter.

5. Bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm.

Yield: 1 dozen or 6 jumbo size muffins.

GF Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Check out my new alternative GF version of these yummy muffins here!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Just a simple looking, nothing special, muffin, right? WRONG! I insisted on obtaining this recipe a few years ago from a friend after taking just one bite and being completely amazed at how moist and delicious these muffins taste!!!

This is one recipe that is a TOTAL family favorite in our house! In fact, every time I make it I have to make a huge double batch because these little goodies go by FAST! The original recipe said you could use oil instead of applesauce but I HIGHLY discourage this!!!! I tried it once when I didn't have any applesauce and they turned out AWFUL, dry and greasy. Plus the applesauce is much healthier anyway.

Trust me this is an excellent, very simple muffin recipe your kids will BEG you to make! I've made it in regular size muffins and smaller mini muffins cooking at the same temperature and time and it always turns out awesome! It's perfect if you need to bring a simple side dish and tastes just as great and even more moist the next day!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
¾ can pumpkin (10 oz.)
¾ cup apple sauce

1.5 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips or nuts or ½ cup of both

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, pumpkin and apple sauce until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl mix together all remaining ingredients except chocolate chips.

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until blended. Stir in chocolate chip and pour batter into greased muffin tin.

5. Bake for 18-20 min.

Yield = 24 muffins

Chewy Surprise Cookies

I don't like hard, crunchy cookies. There's nothing better than a soft, chewy cookie melting in your mouth with the most amazing flavor! And anytime you can mix peanut butter & chocolate, you know it's good...throw in a little caramel too and there's no way you'll be able to resist these cookies! (Are you drooling yet?)

This recipe is now a HUGE family favorite! Be careful, because these cookies are simply irresistible and you'll end up eating tons of them. One batch makes 7-8 dozen depending on how big you make the cookies and you'll LOVE the secret ingredient...Milk Duds!!! Trust me, the picture simply doesn't do this recipe justice! This is one you'll really want to try!

Chewy Surprise Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups butter-flavored shortening
• 1-1/2 cups peanut butter
• 2 cups Domino® or C&H® Granulated Pure Cane Sugar, divided
• 1-1/2 cups Domino® or C&H® Pure Cane Dark Brown Sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 package (10 ounces) Milk Duds

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream the shortening, peanut butter, 1-1/2 cups sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Chill for at least 1 hour.

4. Shape 4 teaspoons of dough around each Milk Dud so it is completely covered. Roll balls in remaining sugar.

5. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until set. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks.

Yield: about 8 dozen.

Pretzel Ice Cream Cake

This dessert was very easy to make, although my ice cream was pretty soft and the hot caramel really melted the top. Next time I'll buy the squeeze bottle of caramel topping instead.

There's a nice and unique taste with the pretzels and a fun crunch too. Since mine turned out a little melted on top, here's the photo from the magazine too.

Pretzel Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 cups crushed pretzels
• 6 tablespoons cold butter
• 3/4 cup hot fudge ice cream topping, warmed
• 2 packages (7-1/2 ounces each) chocolate-covered miniature pretzels
• 1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping

Directions:

1. Place crushed pretzels in a small bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Press onto the bottom of a greased 9-in. springform pan. Cover and freeze for at least 30 minutes.

2. Spread fudge topping over crust; cover and freeze.

3. Set aside 16 chocolate-covered pretzels for garnish. Place remaining pretzels in a food processor; cover and process until crumbly. Transfer to a large bowl; stir in ice cream. Spread over fudge topping.

4. Drizzle with caramel topping. Garnish with reserved pretzels. Cover and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Yield: 16 servings.

Editor’s Note: If you are unable to find chocolate-coated pretzels, use 1 package (11-1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips, 4 teaspoons shortening and about 110 miniature pretzel twists. In a microwave, melt chips and shortening; stir until blended. With a fork, dip pretzels into chocolate mixture to evenly coat, reheating chocolate if needed. Let stand on waxed paper until set.

Going Once, Going Twice, Sold! - Feb. 2008

Friday, February 22, 2008

Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!

Tonight we attended the annual pie auction at church where I brought 2 pies to auction off towards the scholarship fundraiser to help cover costs for Family Camp. My strawberry creamcheese chocolate pies have received a very delectable reputation the past couple years and now have become a great contributor to the fundraiser each year.

A light flaky crust, topped with a hidden chocolate layer, followed by a cream cheese mixture, a few other "secret" ingredients (not really), the biggest fresh strawberries I can find, and finally drizzled with white chocolate...mmmmmmm! It's seriously the prettiest pie I've ever seen. And oh yeah, it's even MORE delicious than it looks! This year my 2 pies brought in a significant amount of donations to help with the fundraiser, which is awesome.

There's nothing quite like the feeling that comes with other people raving about something you've made. It's such a wonderful compliment. Of course it's really hard to make two immensely delicious looking pies such as these only to give them away, so of course I had to make one to keep at home...yeah, it didn't last long!