Flourless Chocolate Cake for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day: The day that separates the single people from the couples. On this day of division between those given flowers and the flower-less (I know, I know, so cynical), I bring you a dessert that unites another set of groups: those willing to go a completely different kind of flourless, and those who turn up their nose at the term "gluten-free."

Ah, the flourless chocolate cake: the dessert that Becky from The Vintage Mixer and I ordained as the quintessential dessert that everyone is not only willing to try, but eager to love.

Shaker Citrus Cheesecake Tart

As memory serves me, it seemed that winters in Upstate New York involved day after day of grey skies. The last few winters have been spent in Salt Lake City, where grey skies were replaced with sunny ones, though muddled with the fog of our dreaded January inversion. In times when it's difficult to find some sunny clear skies, it is comforting to know that winter's seasonal fruits are bright and sunny themselves. So, here we have it: Shaker Citrus Cheesecake Tart.

In addition to being an answer to a need for some sunshine, this dessert was inspired by shaker lemon pie. It is a thin layer of creamy cheesecake, enveloped by a spicy-sweet gingersnap crust and sugared winter citrus slices. It is just what you need in these gloomy days :)

Shaker Citrus Cheesecake Tart
Makes one 9" round tart

for the topping:
1 orange, sliced as thin as you can get it
1 lemon, sliced in the same way
1/2 cup sugar

for the crust:
6 oz gluten-free gingersnap cookies, finely crushed
1/2 cup walnuts, ground
4 tablespoons butter, melted

for the filling:
12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean powder (or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)
citrus-syrup goodness (leftover from the soaking fruit . . . you'll see)

For the citrus, place lemon and orange slices in a  shallow container and sprinkle with 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours, turning the container over once.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

For the crust, stir together crushed cookies, nuts, and butter. Press crust into the bottom and up the sides of a 9" tart pan. Bake 8 minutes.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment or a food processor, cream the cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla bean powder and heavy cream. Add the eggs, one at a time, combining in between each addition. Drain the sugar-y syrup from the container of citrus into the cheesecake batter, reserving the slices. Pour batter into crust.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and raise the temperature to 400 degrees F. Carefully arrange citrus slices on top of the cheesecake. Return to the oven and bake 15 minutes more, or until the center jiggles just a bit.

Cool cheesecake to room temperature, about two hours. Refrigerate at least one hour before consuming. Consume the WHOLE thing, even the slices-that's why you soaked them! 

Blueberry Quinoa Muffins

Things I love about very early mornings:

1. Coffee

2. Breakfast

3. Quiet

Things I hate about very early mornings:

1. Almost everything else.

Considering my list of things to love hours before the sun comes up is very short, I like to make sure I have the best of the best of all of these things. To be the best, breakfast should be both healthy and delicious. These quinoa muffins are both.

Packed with lots of protein from the quinoa and almond meal and antioxidants from the blueberries, these muffins are a fantastic way to start your day. And if you were wondering about the coffee, it's almost always the charmingly tasty Charming Beard Coffee. 

Blueberry Quinoa Muffins

makes 6 large or 12 standard muffins

1 cup quinoa flour

1/2 cup arrowroot powder

1 cup almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup applesauce

1 cup frozen blueberries

For the topping:

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats

1 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

1/4 teaspoons grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F for large muffin tins or 350 degrees F for standard muffin tins. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

Stir together dry ingredients. Make a well in the center. Place eggs, vanilla, honey, oil, and applesauce into the well and stir together. Fold into the dry ingredients just until combined. Gently stir in blueberries. Divide batter between muffin tins. Make the topping:

Rinse quinoa in cold water. Stir together all ingredients and divide topping between muffins. Bake 30-35 minutes for large muffins or 20-25 minutes for standard ones.

The Last of Fall: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

I feel like I've beaten a dead horse when I talk about how much I love fall, so I'll keep this short. Yesterday, Salt Lake was 70 degrees and sunny and looked something like this:

Today was the first snow of the season that stuck. I had to brush my car off several times, I wore leggings under my jeans, and busted out the tiny dog sweater that Lola hates so much. Usually I greet winter begrudgingly, feeling myself well up with anger when I see expensively decorated fake Christmas trees in the lobby at work and screaming "NOOOO!" at the radio when I hear Christmas songs before Thanksgiving. But this year's Fall was so gloriously wonderful and longer than normal, I think, that I will choose to accept the snow.

So, I send fall off with this recipe for soft and chewy pumpkin snickerdoodles, which taste like fall and happiness and all things wonderful. And even if the snow doesn't melt for a long while, there are glorious things in the word such as canned pumpkin so that you can have fall flavors long into the winter.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

makes about 3 dozen

adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour

1/4 cup sugar + 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cream together butter and sugar. Scrape down bowl. Add pumpkin puree. Stir together remaining ingredients (except the cinnamon sugar) and add to mixing bowl. Mix until combined. Refrigerate 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Scoop dough by the tablespoon and roll into a ball. Roll in cinnamon sugar. Place on ungreased baking sheets and bake about 12 minutes, until cookies are set but still soft. Cool completely before removing from the baking sheet.

Mini Apple Cider Donuts

I'm sure I've talked about it many times before but I LOVE fall. I love everything about it. Here are 5 things I'm loving about this month:

1. Taking walks at ANY time of the day, not just when it gets dark because that's the only time you can go outside without melting.

2. LEAVES! The leaves are just starting to change down here in Salt Lake but if you drive up any canyon, the leaves are all sorts of Fall colors! And in just a couple of weeks, I'll be heading "home" to upstate New York where the leaves are practically legendary. Seriously, Utah wins weather-wise for every other season, but it's got nothing on New York in the fall.

3. Fall weather fashion: tights, boots, sweaters (which means I can eat more cake like this because I'm wearing sweaters like this).

4. A lot of wonderful things happen in October. This year (today, actually), my parents' 29th wedding anniversary (awww), Halloween--which I've always loved--and, my birthday. Which I don't love due to the whole getting older thing, but usually get to spend with my wonderful friends, and that is something to be thankful for.

5. Fall flavors. As much as I'm going to miss all of the fresh berries and other produce of summer, there's something about the crispness of the air that makes me crave all things spiced. Which brings me to this recipe for mini apple cider donuts:

These donuts have all of the wonderful flavors of fall (try to find fresh apple cider if you can get it locally!) in a tiny and adorable little bite. Bonus: they're easy peasy to make and can be made vegan super easily. So welcome Fall, with a handful of the sticky and sweet little donuts.

Mini Apple Cider Donuts

makes about 4 dozen mini donuts or 1 dozen standard donuts

Donuts:

1/3 cup butter, melted (or coconut oil if you want them to be vegan)
1 cup sugar
1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal/flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons vanilla
1/4 cup apple cider

Glaze:
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease 48 mini muffin molds or 12 standard ones.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all donut ingredients until fully combined. Portion batter into prepared donut pans (this is most easily done by piping it through a bag), filling each mold about 2/3 full. Bake about 10-12 minutes (or about 20 for larger donuts), until the donuts spring back when poked. Remove from oven, waiting about 5 minutes before glazing.

For the glaze, bring apple cider to a boil over high heat in a small saucepan. Reduce heat to medium and cook until cider is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Remove from heat and whisk in powdered sugar. Allow it to cool before glazing the donuts.

To glaze the donuts, place donuts on a cooling rack over a pan and pour glaze over them, coating them well. Allow glaze to set before serving.

The Brass Ring: Gluten-Free Biscuits

Some days, I want nothing more than to make something comfortable, something I've made 1,000 times before that turns out perfectly. And then there are some days when I feel like kicking some gluten-free baked good ass. These biscuits are a result of one of those days.

I woke up one morning recently thinking about biscuits. And then I realized that biscuits may not be a possibility, which made me angry. I tend to stay away from anything that is so intensely flour-based and have few other ingredients to rely on (puff pastry, croissants, etc.). But this day I was feeling determined. 

I did a lot of research on biscuits, both gluten-free and not, and found that every gluten-free recipe contained eggs as a binder. I wanted to stay away from eggs because of a friend with the allergy. So, I decided to pull out my favorite Martha Stewart Cookbook, and high-quality gluten-free flour (I used Cup4Cup) and got mixing, hoping for the best. Instead of using buttermilk, I used a thicker kefir, which gave both great flavor and enough moisture to keep them together.

When I pulled them out of the oven and saw the perfectly fluffy layers, I knew that I had obtained the brass ring, achieved a master feat: I had made lovely and delicious gluten-free biscuits. And I was thrilled.

Gluten-Free Biscuits

adapted from Martha's American Food

makes about 12

2 1/4 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour (Cup4Cup works best here!)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold salted butter + 2 tablespoons melted butter to use after baking

1 cup kefir (You can also use buttermilk or greek yogurt whisked with a small amount of water)

rice flour, for rolling out dough

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet or lay a piece of parchment on it.

Stir together the dry ingredients. Cut butter into small cubes and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter (seriously, use a pastry cutter. You don't want the butter to get too warm). Work in until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in kefir or buttermilk by hand.

Dust clean surface with rice flour (you can also use GF AP flour but rice flour is cheaper). Roll out dough into a disk that is about 3/4 in thick. Cut out dough with a 2-in round cookie/biscuit cutter and place rounds on prepared baking sheet.

Bake biscuits about 12 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter. Serve warm (preferably with a bit of jam or honey).

Bake Break, Days 7+8: Showing Up Empty-Handed

Days 7 and 8 have included a lot of events . . . events to which I normally would have brought dessert. It's become a habit of mine, you see, to show up to dinners, meetings, etc. baring some sort of baked confection. This little habit of mine is one that I developed when I moved to Utah.

When a new church starts, there are a lot of potlucks and small gatherings. And when you tell people you bake all day long, it is kind of expected that the thing you'll bring is dessert. When the potlucks stopped, the baking increased. As my love and passion for creating recipes grew, so did this idea I'd created that people expected dessert whenever I showed up some place, even if it was just to someone's house for a chat or to have dinner.

This habit of mine developed into an obsession to never show up anywhere that I'd be getting something out of my interaction without holding some sort of baked good. But, as I have learned, people are probably willing to talk through something with you or have you over for dinner simply because they enjoy spending time with you, and not because they expect you to have brought them cookies. I'm not saying that you can't ever bring cookies to your neighbors again, just that there is a balance between serving others and allowing them to serve you . . . a balance I am myself just working out.

Not being able to bake for the past week has not stopped the dinners, parties, and get-togethers. So, in that time, I have had to try to be okay with allowing others to serve me by inviting me into their homes, with out the presence of a cake box in hand. And, even though the Bake Break will be over in a couple of days, I have a feeling that the discipline of showing up empty-handed will be one that extends far further than the confines of these 10 days.