Gluten-Free and Vegan Holidays: Recipes From The Book

Gluten-Free and Vegan Holidays: Celebrating the Year with Simple, Satisfying Recipes and Menus. I liked Jennifer Katzinger’s first cookbook, Flying Apron’s Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book, so I was excited to try this one out. (I reviewed it here.)

A pretty book that I am on the fence about. It has a lot of potential, lush photography and interesting recipes but my first venture into it was met with questionable results – and looking at reviews of the book after I made the cookies I realized I wasn’t the only one to have issue with the Cookie-Cutter Vanilla Cookies on pages 44-45.After mixing the cookies up the dough was wet, really wet. I salvaged it by adding about another cup of brown rice flour and letting it sit, it formed up enough to drop balls of cookie dough and they baked fine. But my hope to have a rolling-out dough was thwarted. The cookies are not overly sweet either. Which if one did frost them as suggested, would make up for it. My thoughts are that the non-baking recipes (ie..not cookies, breads, muffins) are the ones to use. They are solid and well thought out. The cookbook has many wonderful ideas for meals to serve on special occasions or parties.The salads, side dishes and vegetable dishes do work. The almond nut cheese is fantastic!

Gluten-free baking is tricky enough and I find it a mine field of success and fails. There is rarely any rhyme or reason why some turn out and others don’t. At least for me.

Walker and Kirk did like the cookies, so it wasn’t a waste in the end. Walker happily munched on them:

(That is Daddy’s second Kayak, The Big Tuna, that is our family rig)

Gluten-Free and Vegan Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
• 1½ cups water
• 3 cups Brown Rice Flour, plus more as needed
• 1 1/3 cups Garbanzo Bean Flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil, such as sunflower
• 1 cup sucanat or organic granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Soak the chia seeds in the water for at least 15 minutes or longer.

Preheat the oven to 350°, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl whisk the rice flour, garbanzo bean flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, thoroughly combine the oil, sugar and vanilla on low-speed. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the chia seeds and their soaking liquid, until the dough has attained a smooth consistency.

Drop by 1 Tablespoon Disher on the lined baking sheets, bake for about 15 minutes. Let rest for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Makes about 4 dozen.

Almond Cheese (From page 33)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw almonds, soaked for at least 4 hours to 10 maximum
• ¼ cup fresh thyme leaves
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients except for the pepper in a food processor. Process until the cheese has attained a smooth, creamy texture. Season to with the pepper and more salt, if desired. Place the cheese into a plastic wrap lined container, refrigerate until ready to serve. Turn out and serve with cracker or spread on bread.

Note:

The recipe calls for soaking the almonds for 10 hours (overnight). I find you can shorten the soaking time if need be by even half the time.

~Sarah