This is a fun modification on one of our favorite naan bread recipes - a perfect use for the late summer/early fall peppers and tomatoes.  A bit of extra garlic added to these is delicious!  You can easily adjust the amount and types of spicy peppers you use depending on your preferred level of spice.  The seeds are the spiciest part of hot peppers, so make sure to remove those if you want less spice.  Enjoy! 

Fresh from the oven - delicious garlic-y naan topped with spicy peppers and thinly sliced tomatoes. Yum!

Fresh tomatoes and spicy peppers, ready to be used for the naan! 

Naan with Spicy Peppers and Tomatoes

Makes 12 small/medium sized ovals of naan

Preheat oven to 475 F (450 F convection).  Line 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Slice and set aside: 

3-5 hot chili peppers, variety, thinly sliced (remove seeds for less spice)

~4 small/medium or ~12 cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced

In a mixer combine:

3 cups Kristin's Gluten-Free Flour Mix

2 tsp xanthan gum

1 Tbsp rapid-rise (quick) yeast

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried coriander (optional)

1 tsp baking powder

Add and combine:

2 1/4 cup milk (lactose or dairy-free works well, room temperature is ideal)

2 eggs

1-2 tsp fresh minced garlic

Beat 3 - 4 minutes, until nice and smooth.  

While the bread is mixing, in a small bowl melt:
1/2 cup salted butter

Spread four ovals of naan bread batter on each of the three parchment paper using a spatula, making 12 small/medium sized oval naan breads.  

Spreading while holding the parchment can be a little tricky, but this is the look you're aiming for! 

 Divide the hot pepper and tomato slices evenly on the naan bread.  If desired, sprinkle some fresh ground pepper over the bread.  Brush the tops of each with the melted butter (~2 tsp butter per naan works great).   You can let the breads rest for 15-20 minutes, if you want slightly puffier bread, but it's not necessary.  I usually cook one pan immediately while the other two rise, since I can only put 2 pans in the oven at a time. 

Naan topped with tomatoes and peppers, ready to be brushed with butter. 

Bake the naan at 475 F for ~12-15 minutes until nicely browned and bubbly.  (Lightly browned naan will result in the bread sinking and not retaining it's nice bubbles after removal from the oven, so make sure it's nice and dark golden brown).

Fresh from the oven!  It's SO delicious. 

If you don't want the peppers or tomatoes on your naan, this recipe does work well for smaller garlic naan breads, as well.  Just brush with butter and bake.  

Naan with Spicy Peppers and Tomatoes Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

I have quite a few donut hole and fritter recipes posted, some yummy fry bread, and even funnel cakes.  But, I hadn't gotten around to making traditional raised donuts - donuts that use yeast and sit and rise before frying.  After a bit of tweaking (sadly we had to keep taste-testing donuts), I am happy to share this delicious and easy raised donuts recipe. I believe we will need to make it again this weekend to celebrate school starting. Enjoy!

Someone taste-testing...

Yum! Freshly dipped donuts! 

Raised Donuts with Glaze

Makes 24 donuts

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper cut into 12 pieces (for piping donuts).

Mix together in a mixer: 

1 cup white rice flour

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup potato starch

1/4 cup arrowroot starch or cornstarch

1 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp rapid-rise/quick yeast

1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

Add, then beat until nice and smooth, 2-3 minutes: 

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk, warmed

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla bean paste OR vanilla extract

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Put batter into a large freezer ziploc.  Snip 1/2" off one corner.  Pipe donut rounds onto each of the pre-cut pieces of parchment paper.  Lightly smooth the piped donuts with water, as needed.  Let rise in a warm location for 20-30 minutes.  

Piping each donut onto a separate piece of parchment paper makes it easy to lift and lower into the oil.

Frying the donuts. Once they've puffed up and the bottoms are darkened, you can flip them. 

While donuts are rising, you can heat your oil.  I like to use avocado oil for frying, but you can use canola or whatever kind you prefer for frying.  Heat to ~165C - 170C / 325 F - 338 F.   Using the pieces of parchment paper, gently lower the donuts into the oil in small batches (this depends on the size of your fryer or pot used for frying - I can usually fry 6 at a time).  The donuts initially sink, then will bob back up, and you can use tongs or chopsticks to grab the pieces of parchment paper and pull them carefully out of the oil.  I put the donuts in with the parchment paper on the bottom side, which I find makes it easier to slide away from the cooking donut. Cook 2-3 minutes per side, until nicely golden. 

Remove donuts from fryer and place on a paper towel-lined pan.  

Freshly out of the fryer, and ready to glaze.

Whisk together the following, and dip the top of warm/hot donuts into the glaze: 

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

cold water, to a thin dipping consistency

Put dipped donuts on a fresh parchment-lined pan.  They're ready to eat!  You can eat them hot or let them cool.  Cooled donuts can be frozen in a freezer ziploc and thawed/heated to eat anytime.  Enjoy!

Glazed donuts! Yum! 

Raised Donuts with Glaze Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free! 

 Garlic-y grilled cheese - a perfect birthday lunch when my brother visited (he's a huge fan of both cheese and garlic).  Homemade bread with a homemade mix of garlic butter.  Yum! 

Birthday Garlic-y Grilled Cheese!

Garlic-y Grilled Cheese!

Garlic butter makes ~8 sandwiches, so you can make more, as needed. 

Make in advance, so it can cool an hour or two before slicing: 

Delicious French Bread-Style Family Loaves  I used all eggs instead of only egg whites for these grilled cheese sandwiches when making the bread and make a 4 loaf batch of bread for taller sandwiches.   

Mix together garlic butter:

1/2 cup softened butter

~1 Tbsp minced garlic

1-2 tsp garlic powder

3/4 tsp parsley

Slice cheese for your grilled cheese, some nice options are: 

old cheddar, gouda, swiss, marbled

Heat a cast-iron or similar pan over medium-low heat.  You want these grilled cheese to cook slow enough for the cheese to melt in the center, while nicely toasting the exteriors.  

Layer in your pan a slice of garlic-buttered bread, 2 layers of cheese, topped with another layer of garlic-buttered bread.  

Buttered bread, ready to make the sandwiches!

Cooking on the cast iron.

Cook until nicely browned on both sides.  You can flip these a few times to make sure they're evenly cooked and the cheese is nicely melted.  Serve immediately! Enjoy! 

Yummmmm.! 

Garlic Grilled Cheese Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

 My youngest loves planning baking experiments with me.  We saw GF lemon loaf in the freezer at the grocery store, and decided to grab ourselves two fresh lemons and whip up our own loaves!  Then we loved it so much, we made it again... then again.  You can make them as two large loaves or 6 mini loaves. Personally, I love the mini loaves, but both are great. Yum! Absolutely delicious! And we added a little lemon glaze to the top which is just lovely. Enjoy!

A tasty slice of GF lemon loaf

Large lemon loaves, glazed and ready to eat!

My mini-me -  mixing together the glaze on top.

Lemon Loaf (mini or large size GF lemon bread loaves)

Makes 2 large or 6 mini loaves

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line bread pans with parchment paper. 

In a mixer, combine: 

1 cup brown rice flour

3/4 cup white rice flour

1/3 cup arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)

1/4 cup tapioca starch

1/4 cup potato starch

1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

Add and beat slowly, then increase speed to medium/medium-fast for 3 minutes: 

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

2/3 cup sour cream

4 eggs

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

zest 1 lemon

3 drops lemon essential oil (or extra Tbsp of lemon zest)

Batter is ready to fill the pans!  She was so excited to help make this yummy bread.

Divide between 2 large bread loaf pans or 6 mini loaf pans lined with parchment paper.  Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes for mini loaves and 45 minutes for large loaves.   Remove from oven and mix together glaze while your loaves sit 3-5 minutes in pan. 

I usually fill the pans ~2/3 full.  Here are the large loaf pans before baking.

And the large loaves after baking! They smell delicious!

Mini loaves after baking.

Mix together glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

zest 1 lemon 

Remove parchment paper and loaves from pan, *keeping parchment paper underneath each loaf to help catch excess glaze.  Spoon and spared glaze over each loaf.  Enjoy warm or cooled.  Cool loaves can be sliced and either refrigerated or sliced and frozen for later!

Large loaves, glazed and parchment paper under to catch any excess glaze.

Mini loaves, being glazed - I like to leave the parchment to help catch excess glaze.

A large loaf sliced.

We served the mini loaf slices with fresh strawberries. Yum!

Lemon Loaf (mini or large size GF lemon bread loaves) recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

 My husband's favorite fruit is blueberry, so every summer we make something blueberry-filled to celebrate.  One of the favorites has been the little blueberry-banana cakes - or sometimes we go for lemon-blueberry or just straight blueberry flavors, but this summer I got to thinking that chocolate covered blueberries are tasty - so why not make a chocolate blueberry birthday cake!  This uses the blueberry filling from our favorite blueberry cream cheese pie, then has layers of a light spongy chocolate cake and chocolate ganache.  Yum!  It was absolutely delicious! And it slices up beautifully, too! Enjoy!

Blueberry & Chocolate Birthday Cake, ready for the ganache writing on the top!

Fancy ganache writing on top - if you time it right, the ganache just barely melts into the top layer, creating a beautiful look.

A slice of blueberry chocolate cake! 

Blueberry & Chocolate Birthday Cake!

Blueberry Filling:

In a medium saucepan, combine and heat over medium heat: 
300 g (11 oz) frozen wild blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
pinch of salt
Let cook, stirring occasionally, until boiling.

Whisk together in a small bowl:

2 1/2 Tbsp water

2 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

Add cornstarch mixture to boiling blueberries, stirring constantly.  Bring mixture back to a boil and let boil a few minutes until mixture has thickened (keep stirring).  Remove from heat and add: 
1 1/2 - 2 tsp butter

Scoop into a wide, low bowl and cover with plastic wrap on surface.  Set aside to cool.  

Chocolate Sponge Cakes:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Butter the edges and line 2 quarter sheet baking pans with parchment paper (quarter sheet baking pans are approx 8x12 inner dimension or 9x13outer dimension metal cookie sheets - I LOVE this size.  Perfect for the toaster oven, and perfect when you have multiple things you want to roast separately in the regular oven, and of course, opera-style cakes!)

Melt together, then set aside:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

In a small measuring cup, combine to make a "buttermilk": 

2 Tbsp white vinegar

milk to equal 1 cup (lactose-free or milk substitutes work)

In a large bowl, whisk together: 

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder (extra dark works nicely in this recipe)

1/4 cup white rice flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Add and whisk in until smooth: 

1 cup buttermilk, from above

melted butter & dark chocolate, from above

1/4 cup oil

6 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Batter whisked and ready to put into the prepared pans.

Divide between the two parchment-lined pans.  Bake at 350 F for approximately 15-18 minutes.  These are nice and thin, so they cook quickly.  They should look nicely dried, but not burned or too dark on the edges. They should look no longer wet in the center.  Depending on your oven, they may need an extra minute or two.

Batter divided and ready for baking.

Out of the oven.  You can see how it's nicely dried out. Chocolate cake always smells so good. 

Remove from oven.  Let rest 5 minutes before flipping onto cooling racks to cool.  Once cool, carefully slice each cake in half so you'll have four even layers for your cake. 

When the cakes and blueberry filling are just about cooled, prepare the ganache. 

Chocolate Ganache

In a small frying pan, heat over medium heat until just starting to bubble nicely: 

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

Remove from heat and pour over (in a bowl): 

5 oz high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips

Stir until ganache is smooth.  Let cool ~5 minutes before assembling cake.  

Assembling Cake

Layer cake in the following order:

1. Cake

2. 1/3 blueberry filling, gently spread over cake layer

3. Drizzle of chocolate ganache

4. Repeat 2 times (cake, blueberry, ganache drizzle)

5. Top with 4th layer of cake

6. Spread most of the remaining ganache gently over the top, reserving some for decoration

Chocolate cake, a layer of blueberry filling, and a drizzle of chocolate ganache. 

Repeated for each layer.

Finally, topped with the final layer of cake and drizzled with "most" of the remaining ganache - saving a bit for the final writing on top!

Let remaining ganache cool an additional few minutes, then put it in a ziploc bag.  Snip the corner and pipe desired decoration on top of your cake.  Serve immediately, or refrigerate until ready to serve.  Let rest at room temperature 20-30 minutes before slicing to let the ganache warm a bit before slicing.

Ganache decoration on top!

Once it's chilled, it looks like this. 

Yum yum yum!

Blueberry & Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

 These cookies are what we like to call 'chocolate & mint chips being held together by a little dough.'  If you don't like a lot of chips in your cookies, these aren't for you - but if you do like chocolate chip cookies packed with chips, these will be some of your favorites. Enjoy!

Mint & Chocolate Chip Cookies - yum! 

Chocolate & Mint Chip Cookies

Makes ~48 cookies

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon liner. 

Whisk together in a bowl, then set aside: 

1 1/2 cup white rice flour

3/4 tsp xanthan gum

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

Cream together: 

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

Add: 

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Add flour mix from above, and mix in, just until combined. 

Add and mix in gently: 

1 1/2 cup semi or dark chocolate chips

1 1/2 cup mint chips

A pile of chips, held together by some batter.

Scoop heaping 1 Tbsp scoops onto the prepared pans.  I aim for 12 per pan.  Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes.  Let rest a few minutes on pan before removing to cooling racks.  Leftover cooled cookies can be frozen for later.  Enjoy!!! 

Scooped and ready to bake!

Fresh from the oven!

Chocolate & Mint Chip Cookies Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!

 Oh my goodness, I love bagels.  I've shared many of my favorite bagels, but I'm always interested in trying new things and coming up with fun new twists.  While these may look like pumpernickel and rye, these are, in fact, chocolate and vanilla swirl bagels.  Absolutely delicious toasted with cream cheese.  They're a bit tricky to pipe, but not too difficult.  And you end up with such cute bagels at the end of it! Yum!  Enjoy!

Swirled GF chocolate-vanilla bagels.  

These are so fun and delicious - and they only use honey plus the little bit of sugar in the mini chocolate chips to sweeten. Bonus! 

Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl Bagels

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Mix together gently, and set aside to rise until puffy:

1 1/4 cup warm water

6 Tbsp honey

1 Tbsp rapid-rise/quick yeast

In a large bowl, whisk together: (It's important to mix dry ingredients separately in GF baking to avoid clumping)

2 cups tapioca starch

1 1/2 cup brown rice flour

6 Tbsp potato starch

1 Tbsp xanthan gum

1 1/2 tsp salt

In a mixer combine: 

3 eggs

6 Tbsp oil

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

yeast mixture, from above

flour mixture, from above

Beat on low, just to combine, then beat on medium to medium-high for 2-3 minutes, until nice and smooth.  

Remove half the batter, and put it in a large freezer ziploc.  (If you feel confident, you can try to place the dough along one half of the ziploc, and then you'd add the chocolate dough along the other side.  You want to end up with half and half batter in a large freezer ziploc.  The method I describe here uses extra freezer ziplocs to more confidently ensure you have the batter half and half in the final bag before piping your swirled bagels.) 

In the remaining batter, add and mix 45-60 seconds, scraping down the mixer a few times: 

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

1 Tbsp milk or water, to help thin the batter a bit since you're adding cocoa powder

Place the chocolate batter in another freezer ziploc.  

Snip the corners ~1" off each of the bags.  Place them side by side into corner of a new large freezer ziploc.  As evenly as you can, squeeze the batters into the new freezer ziploc so you have a half and half bag of dough.  Cut 1/2" - 1" from the corner of your new bag.  

Half and half batter, ready to pipe swirl bagels.

Pipe the swirl bagels onto the prepared parchment paper, twist/turn your ziploc bag as you pipe each circle, to help get add more swirl into your half and half bagels.   The batter is thick to pipe, so be patient.  You may find it's helpful to double bag your batter if your bags aren't strong.  

Piped onto two trays.You can see some messy piping, but that's okay, because you can smooth it out with warm water. 

You can use warm water to help shape and smooth the tops and sides of your bagels. I usually stretch them out a bit.

Use hands to brush/wipe warm water onto the bagels.  You can also help reshape them or smooth them, as needed.   Let the bagels rise ~30 - 40 minutes in a warm location, until puffed, but not quite doubled.  I find I usually end up piping 2 trays of bagels with approx 10 per tray.  It's not an exact science and making GF bagels is definitely a bit more finicky than when you can roll and shape by hand.  

Risen bagels!

Ready to bake!

Bake bagels at 350 F for about 25-30 minutes, until the vanilla part of your bagel is a nice golden brown.   Remove to cooling racks.  Enjoy with cream cheese for a yummy treat!

Bagels once cooked - the vanilla sides will be nicely browned. 

Tray number 2, ready to move to wire racks.

Once they're out of the oven, remove to a wire rack to cool.

They slice open neatly once cooled - and toast up nicely.

Topped with cream cheese. Yum!

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Vanilla Swirl Bagels Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!