Grown Folks Bakesale & Lemon Meringue Cookies

I've just returned from traveling some more and with mixer in hand(s) I was ready to start preparing my treat for today's Food Blogger Bakesale, raising money for the amazing organization Share Our Strength that dedicates itself to ending childhood hunger.  SOS does amazing work, and I encourage you to either add them to your yearly donation list or volunteer to help in any way you can.

One of their fundraisers, the Great American Bakesale, translated last year to a local Food Blogger Bakesale in Los Angeles with others all over the country.  Hopefully lots of hungry people will join us today, May 14th at 11:30a-2p at BLD restaurant (7450 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036.)

Last year I made some almost allergy-free apple muffins.  They were delicious, but not a big seller compared to the delicious dripping goodies.  It's hard to compete at a bakesale with a healthy product that scares some non-allergics.  I thought I would try to appeal a little more to the masses this year by going in a completely different direction: Lemon Meringue Cookies.

Meringues happen to be one of my specialties (probably because they're not so hard) and I think they're a nice fat free palate cleansing opportunity next to the brownies.  Fingers crossed people like them!  Will you like them enough to make them at home?  I would.  The bright lemon flavor really meshes well with the sugary goodness of a meringue and adds a subtle back bite.  And really, what's a better marriage than lemon & meringue?

I started with my basic recipe and went from there.  Remember meringues are easy, but they are for the patient!  Read my previous post before embarking so you can see why drying is an important step.

Lemon Meringue Cookies

Makes loads of cookies, half if desired

Ingredients:

4 large egg whites

1 tbs of fresh squeezed lemon juice

splash of vanilla (or 1 tsp if you're measuring)

a dash of salt (or about 1/4 tsp if you're measuring)

1 1/3 cups evaporated cane sugar (fairtrade if you can)

the zest of 1 medium sized lemon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, beat the first 4 ingredients together using an electric mixer on low-medium speed, until you reach a foamy, barely soft peak form.

Pour sugar in slowly while beating the mixture until the sugar is incorporated.

Beat carefully on medium-high until you get stiff peaks (if you remove the beater from the mixture you'll notice a peak that can stand on it's own).  Go slower than faster.  If you over-beat, the meringue will not come together.

Fold in lemon zest.
Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Either put meringue in pastry bag and pipe a million cookies OR use a tsp dropping cookies.  Note: the smaller your cookies the less time they take to dry, and this becomes easier & faster for you.
Place cookies in oven on low and middle racks and immediately switch oven temperature to 200 F for 1 hour.
To make sure your oven is at an average temperature (and not a higher heat oven) watch your cookies (10, 15, 25 minute marks) and the second you see any golden goodness appearing or if you touch them and the cookies feel like they're firming, turn the oven back up to a high temperature for a moment, close the oven door, then SHUT OFF the oven.
If you've piped small cookies, dry for 1 hour with the oven door shut and test.
If it's ready take them out, if not, turn oven on to 250 for about 5 minutes (watching the cookies) and then shut oven off and dry for another hour.
Repeat drying as many hours as needed.

Meringues really are a delicious treat and they keep well so use leftover to decorate desserts or pack in bagged lunches.

Meringue Madness

Meringue cookies are just about one of the easiest naturally GF snacks/desserts that one can whip up.  All you need is an electric mixer of sorts (unless you want to beat egg whites by hand vigorously until said hand falls off) and a lot of patience.

The first time I made meringue, it wasn't exactly amazing.  I didn't really understand why, but it was kind of squishy inside.  It wasn't until I read more about the wonderful world of stiff-whipped egg whites that I learned about a little thing called "drying time" that is absolutely necessary to achieve desired meringue texture.  This is also where that patience comes in.

In order to whip up perfect meringue cookies, in my humble opinion, I recommend at least 8 hours of drying time.  Yeah, I know 8 hours sounds like a long time, but think of the last time you made an icebox pie or a gelatin or anything frozen that required 4, 6, or sometimes a day's worth of time to hang out and achieve greatness.  So indulge me the 8 hours.  I promise you, you'll find it's worth it.

The other little note about cooking large quantaties of meringue cookies is that you have to watch them.  Normally, recipes call for low temperatures for small amounts of time, but with this method I find that the meringues are too under-cooked to ever firm up no matter how long you dry them for.  I raised my temperature slightly and increased my time, but I watched them like the tricky bastards they are.  The second those puppies got a hint of gold on them and were mostly firm to the touch (like a soft baked cookie) I shut that oven off and let the drying begin folks.

The funny thing about the below recipe is you'll notice I used banana extract.  It's because originally I wanted chocolate-chip banana meringue cookies.  The cookies never had a hint of banana flavor to them, but I never removed the ingredient for fear it was some magical X factor.

Alright, your turn now:

Chocolate-Chip Meringues

aka I Can't Believe It Smells Like Tollhouse Cookies

Ingredients:

(makes around 50 cookies)

4 egg whites from X-Large, organic eggs

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 tsp GF vanilla extract

2 tsp banana extract

1 1/2 cups evaporated cane sugar (fairtrade if you can)

6 oz of mini chocolate chips (my favorite is Enjoy Life!!!)

Directions:

Preheat oven on a high temperature, i.e. 400 or 450 F.

In a large bowl, beat the first 5 ingredients together using an electric mixer on low-medium speed, until you reach a soft peak form.

Pour sugar in slowly while beating the mixture until the sugar is incorporated.

Beat carefully until you get stiff peaks (if you remove the beater from the mixture you'll notice a peak that can stand on it's own).  Go slower than faster.  If you over-beat, the meringue will not come together.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a tbs, drop meringues on two large cookie sheets lined with parchment paper (use the parchment, trust me)
Place the cookies in the oven reducing the heat to somewhere between 275-350 F, depending on how hot your oven gets.  Remember we want to cook them slowly but not at a glacial pace.
Watch your cookies (10, 15, 25 minute marks) and the second you see any golden goodness appearing or if you touch them and the cookies feel like they're firming, turn the oven back up to a high temperature for a moment, close the oven door, then SHUT OFF the oven.
IMPORTANT: If you leave the oven at a high temperature for 8 hours, you will not only burn the meringues, but you will likely burn down your house too.
Let the cookies dry for 8 hours.  If after 8 hours for some reason you touch the cookies and they're supersoft, rebake at low heat for 15-30 minutes more and dry for a couple of hours.  Repeat until they're complete.  The amount of time it takes depends entirely on your oven.  Once you make the cookies once, you'll know how to run the show next time.

Even though I try not to eat too much sugar, I do love these little yummies.  They're great for portable snacks or to share with friends.  Just don't forget to store them in a tight, closed container.  Go ahead; dry something else besides your clothes for once.

Pumpkin Muffins Trial 2: Success!!

I tried these a couple of weeks after the disaster that was the first PM trial.  The texture is still a little spongy but I have a feeling that's because there's no actual sugar or oil in these bad boys. I know that a muffin without many traditional muffin ingredients can seem boring or gross, but I'm used to the whole eating without traditional ingredients thing at this point.  And really, it's not that bad.  I kind of even like them!

Very important: these muffins should never be served cold.  You can store them in the fridge or freezer and they keep well, but without heating them up in the microwave or oven it's not a good idea.   They're hard as rocks when they settle. Again, these aren't sounding like the most appetizing of treats but they're a good substitute when trying to eliminate certain ingredients. Here's what I tried this time around:

Nearly Free From Everything (including awesome texture)

Pumpkin Muffins, Trial #2

Adapted from 1Steve at Recipezaar:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup GF rice flour blend

1/3 cup + 2 tbs agave

2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp spice blend

1 egg

1/2 cup milk (I use lactose free skim milk)

3/4 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup apple puree

Directions:

Preheat oven to 35o degrees F.

Place parchment paper liners in a 12 muffin pan.  Do not grease; it's parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift all dry ingredients together.

Add all wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well, careful to not over-mix.

Drop sticky batter into 12 liners and bake, watching carefully until muffins brown (about 6-12 minutes in the crazy oven I'm using.)

Remove and cool.

Since this trial, I've also tried replacing the pumpkin with 1 1/2 cups mushed banana.  Those were quite yummy as well with nice, big chunks of squished banana.  Even the saddest of muffins can sometimes make an allergic girl quite happy.  Plus they're honestly easy, quick, and cheap to produce.  Who doesn't like that?

The Muffins That Ate...It

I wanted some really great title for this post.  Like Killer Muffins Attack Tokyo or something. For one, my muffins weren't poisonous.  Two, they have nothing to do with Tokyo.  And three, don't killer anythings attack other places?

Alright, it's Monday morning and clearly that's taking a toll on the sane center of my brain, but that does not change the fact that I did make muffins yesterday.  And they did eat it.  However, I'll still eat them.

I think there are many reasons that these muffins did not turn out, and I plan on sharing them with you so you can either help me solve my issue for trial #2 coming up next weekend or not repeat my mistakes in this experiment.  

Major Problem #1: Substitution Extravaganza

I started with a recipe that wasn't my own and wasn't originally gluten free.  I then substituted so many of the ingredients that I think the chemistry was off. The biggest problem was in the consistency of batter.  In the original post, the chef remarked that the batter would be lumpy. But mine was more of a dough and less of a batter.  It was dry yet incredibly sticky.  You see, when you substitute agave for sugar in recipes, you are supposed to lessen the liquid. Normally, this works; however, this time, the batter just seemed too dry and dense.  I think the next trial will include the full amount of milk AND 1/4 cup more pumpkin.  

Original Recipe from 1Steve at Recipezaar.com:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup raisins

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup vegetable oil

What I did:

1 1/2 cup GF rice flour blend

1/3 cup agave

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp spice blend

1 egg

1/4 cup + 4 tbs milk (I use lactose and fat free)

1/2 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup apple puree

1/2 cup low sugar, soy free mini chocolate chips

Major Problem #2:  Evil Oven

I'm convinced that the oven in my rental flat may be possessed by the devil. First it wouldn't turn on.  Then it wouldn't heat up for ages.  Then it heated up so quickly it started to cook things fast; we're talking supersonic cooking times folks.  The best was when it decided to randomly shut off when I was making dinner last night and not turn back on.  That was awesome.

In the original recipe, the muffins are supposed to cook for 20 (okay?) 20 minutes at 400 degrees F.  I had my muffins at the Celsius equivalent for 6 minutes when they started to burn a bit on top.  That's right folks.  My muffins went straight from raw to almost burning in 6 minutes out of a 20 minute suggested cook time.  I'd say that's light speed.  It's also another reason why the muffins were a bit spongier and more rubbery than desired.  As well as lightly charred in places.  Lightly charred pumpkin.  Yum, yum.

I'll post the recipe below anyways.  They're not the best muffins in the universe, but if you're on a low everything diet, they're a fairly decent snack choice with a low GI (minus the chips), no gluten and if you add fruit instead of chips or don't add anything, they're nearly fat free and super low cholesterol.  

Nearly Free From Everything (Including Awesome Flavor) 

Pumpkin Muffins aka PM Trial #1

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup GF rice flour blend of choice

1/2 cup agave nectar

2 tsp GF baking powder

2 tsp spice blend or pumpkin pie spice

1 egg

1/4 cup + 4 tbs milk (I used lactose and fat free)

1/2 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup apple puree or apple sauce (which will add more liquid than the puree)

1/2 cup low sugar, soy free mini chocolate chips (or addition of your choice)

Directions (according to how my oven cooked it, adjust accordingly):

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Place parchment paper liners in a 12 muffin pan.  Do not grease; it's parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift all dry ingredients together.  

Add all wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well, careful to not over-mix.

Drop sticky batter into 12 liners and bake, watching carefully until muffins brown (this trial, it took about 5 minutes but I have a feeling it takes more time in less demonic ovens)

Remove and cool.

Remember, this was only the first trial.  Check back next week for the second trial which I have a feeling might be pretty successful.  The suspense is just killing you, isn't it?  Better the suspense kills you than the muffins kill you.

Oooo, Is That Cake?

Since you've seen my remark about not having a kitchen, let me put up this fab-u-lous bundt cake I made when I first started experimented with GF baking.  You see, I wanted to make a lower-fat, moist GF cake that cooked all the way through, but I kept getting baked sides and an unbaked center.  Oh, GF baking, why do you taunt me so?  

I asked for help.  And my generously genius friends at Recipezaar on the GF community board gave me suggestions.  One of them brilliant:  if your center won't cook, why not use a bundt pan and eliminate the center.  And did it work?!  Not only did it come out cooked, but I got some rave reviews on the 'zaar that totally pumped up my confidence.  You can see the recipe in all it's glory here, but I'm also re-posting it, just for you!  Sadly, there are no pictures :(

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Applesauce Bundt Cake*

*Note: this was made during days when I wasn't following a low-oxalate diet.  Beware; there's a decent amount of sugar and flour involved

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin

1 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

1/2 cup canola oil

4 eggs

2 cups gluten-free rice flour mix (I use this one)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat eggs until fluffy.

Blend in sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, and oil by hand or with a mixer on low just until combined.  Do NOT overmix!

Add all dry ingredients, one at a time, blending together.

Pour batter into a greased, large bundt pan and bake for 1 hour.

Check with a toothpick/knife to make sure it's cooked through, cool, and enjoy!

Don't forget to freeze left-overs, wrapping in wax paper, then foil.