Lemon Lavender Tea Cakes

Last week I posted a request for flavor ideas on facebook. There were a few really awesome flavor ideas, but no one voted on anyone else's ideas!! So we drew out of a hat :) 

Lucky me! It was one of the ideas I was really excited about: Lavender. I'm a life long lover of lavender, (Wow, say that 3 times fast...) and have wanted to test it out in some baked goods. BUT as a first time baker using lavender, I was hesitant to let it be the leader in the cake. And what screams spring more than lemon??

The colors and flavors of this treat are perfect for spring. They brighten up the cloudiest of days, and would be an awesome dessert for a picnic at the park.

Give them a test! I really like them! They're light and airy, a little sweet, a hint of lavender. 

Lemon Lavender Tea Cakes

1/2 cup melted Earth Balance

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract (I recommend making your own!! Post coming soon)

2/3 cup applesauce (unsweetened)

1 1/2 cups almond meal/flour (I use Bob's Red mill)

1/2 cup All purpose gluten free flour mix (also used Bob's Red Mill)

Xantham gum (follow directions on your all purpose blend bag)

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender (I ground them up with a mortar and pestal, could use extract instead)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 teaspoon fine lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350.

Beat margarine, sugar, and lemon extract. Add applesauce, and mix well. In a seperate bowl, blend all dry ingredients. Slowly add dry mix to wet mix. After well incorporated, add lemon juice and zest. Mix until juice is well incorporated. 

I used a petit four pan I recently snagged from Sur La Table. You could do these in cupcake tins, or any fancy tea cake tins you find. (Yard sales and thrift stores have some really cool ones!)

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. (Depending on the size of your pan)

As always, thanks for reading. 

Let me know what YOU thought!

Amanda Overfield

GFGP

Breads

If you follow us on Facebook, you've already heard that I had a gluten free bread test run yesterday. 

I had found a French bread recipe on Pinterest that looked really yummy, and I had to try to de-glutenize it. Additionally, I had two perfectly ripe bananas, so of course I needed banana bread, too. 

 

Here is the original recipe I found on Pinterest: http://www.dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post_09.html?

Super simple recipe, right? I love basic. Here's my gluten free version of that recipe:

French Bread 

2 1/2 c. warm water

2 Tbls. yeast

3 Tbls. sugar

2 Tbls. apple cider vinegar (I prefer apple cider vinegar, white vinegar works as well)

Add the above ingredients together and let sit until bubbly (about 3-5 minutes). (So far everything is the same as the original)

Then add:

1 Tbls. salt

1/3 c. oil (I also used Canola)

About 6 c. flour (or a little more if it's too soft), one cup at a time--add enough until the dough is soft, but firm enough to mold into dough loaves. 

A NOTE on flour: I've personally found that as much as I love Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free All Purpose flour mix, it's just a bit too dense for breads. I like to use a blend of white rice flour, potato starch, and tapioca flour. This will make a nice white bread. There are tons if pre-blended mixes that have these, plus include either xanthan or guar gum. If you decide to blend your own, it's important to remember to add either xanthan or guar gum. These are what give the "glutinous" texture. 

I hand kneaded mine for 3 minutes on a well floured counter (used the same blend). 

I followed her directions to put the mixing bowl in the oven with boiling water next to it. I didn't work for me. Instead, I turned the oven on, left it open a crack and set the mixing bowl on the stove so all the warmth would help it rise. I only punched the dough down twice. With gluten free breads, you want to be super careful nor to over work your dough. 

After this, we sprayed a cookie sheet with canola oil (skipped the corn meal) and divided the dough in two. Rolled out and scored as in the original recipe. 

We let ours rise for 30 minutes on the counter, or she recommends to "put them in your oven at 170 and wait until they are the size you want to cook them at. Once they are to the right size, turn up your stove to 375 (without opening the door!) and let them bake until done." 

We did do the egg wash over ours right before putting them in the oven. (I know, not vegan. But you could try using a nice olive oil instead.)

While rising, I preheated the oven to 375. The original recipe says 30 minutes, but we needed another 5 minutes for ours to brown nicely. 

I really enjoyed this bread. (So glad it made two loaves!) It wasn't what I remember as French bread, it doesn't have that gorgeous, crunchy crust like what you would get from a bread bakery. That being said: this bread would be awesome as a grilled garlic bread. Or next to soup. I'm thinking French toast. Yumm. 

What I would do differently next time: I didn't roll the loaves as tightly as I should have, so my loaves spread to the sides as they rose. (Meaning my slices might not be perfect for French toast this time.)

Overall: I like this bread a lot. It's cheaper than buying a loaf of gluten free bread (and you get 2 when you you make it!). Good for a quick at home bread. I'm still working to get that perfect crunchy, french bread for the bakery; I don't think this one is it. BUT: It was so, so fast for bread. I think it only took me 2 hours total to make these two loaves AND the banana bread. Like I said earlier: perfect for at home. Anyone can make this bread!

Speaking of banana bread, I'll share the one my family uses. (Not sure where this originally came from, but my dad has been making this since I was a kid.)

Banana bread

Preheat oven to 350. 

1 1/2 c bobs red mill all purp. mix (don't forget xanthan or guar gum!)

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 Tbl. Canola oil

1/3 c soy milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 mashed bananas

(We only had 2 bananas so I added an egg. You could also try using some flax)

OPTIONAL: 1/2 c chopped nuts. (I was spacing out and forgot to add walnuts to mine!)

Mix all these together, and grease only the bottom of a bread loaf pan. 

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

I'm not going to "review" my dad's bread. Obviously, I love this bread. I've been eating it since I was a kid. Instead, how about you guys try it out and let me know what you think? 

Thanks for checking the posts! Keep checking back, we should have bakery updates in February!

Kneading in Nebraska,

Gluten Free in the Great Plains

Super fast update! And something you should check out!

Hey all! Just a quick note to let you know we are still working in the space!! Things are coming together, and we are hoping to have a soft open sometime in November. We are pushing really hard to be open in time for the holiday (cookie) season.

ADDITIONALLY: On September 23, there will be a Gluten Free Expo at the DC Center!

Here is a link: http://omahaglutenfreeexpo.blogspot.com/

We are not participating as a vendor (my commercial kitchen isn't up and running, so it didn't seem right) but we will be attending! It'll be a great learning experience.

OK. Sorry this is so short, but I'll be posting more now as it is fall and I love fall flavors!

XO.

Amanda O.

GFGP

Just a quick update on the bakery

Hey all! We are still working on the space. It's got a lot of history to it (Literally! The workers found political posters from the 1930's in the floor!!) I am so in love with the idea of the buildings lifetime and I'm working hard to keep the history around and work it in to the bakery.

We have contractors in there now doing plumbing and all the adjustments we will need to meet city requirements, hopefully next week we will be working on finishing the floors, then it's on to painting!! 

I haven't shared many pictures of the space yet, but as soon as things are starting to look more like a bakery, I promise you tons of pictures. In the meantime, here is a beautiful antique baker's rack we purchased for the space. It was made somewhere between 1860-1910 right here in Omaha, NE at the Beebe and Runyun Furniture Company. Ah! History!

We are super excited to have things up and going, and we will try to get an exact opening date soon.

Thanks for your love and support, and I can't wait to open my doors for you!

Plannin in the Plains,

Amanda

GFGP

It's JUNE!

This year June is HUGE for me. It's my birthday (very important, right? Ha.). To top that off: I have a very exciting announcement.

It's the announcement you all have been waiting AGES for. (Me too!)

I'm am so excited to say Gluten Free in the Great Plains has found itself a home!!

We will be located at 4963 NorthWest Radial Highway.

We have some work to complete in the space, but we are hoping to open July/August time. In the meantime, we will be keeping you all up-to-date on what we are working on!

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement. Keep an eye out, I'll be posting our video blog shout out for all our kickstarter supporters really soon (now that we have our space to use!).

Keeping this short and sweet, as I'll be posting all the time now.

Best from Benson,

GFGP