It's J'ess pie.

Supposedly that's what a modest baker responded with when asked by friends what kind of pie they had brought to the party. Or, at least that's my favorite version of how Chess pie got its name. No one really knows for certain how this decidedly southern treat was named or what exactly it has to do with the contents of said pie (the variations of this pie are vast). What is agreed upon is that it is pretty tasty.

Before you set out to make this pie, go ahead and get your crust ready. A quick Canola Oil crust makes this pretty easy, but word on the street is that Whole Foods also makes pre-made GF crusts.

I tried the following recipe on my family and it went over really well. My mom is currently eating her second piece as we speak (she's claiming this is now her new favorite pie) and my Dad (the pickiest of eaters) even gave it a resounding, "That's a pretty good piece of pie." Personally, I found it a little dry and the middle a touch grainy. I'm going to try it again when it cools a bit more (I've a terrible habit of trying food before it cools fully. I've never been the most patient of people).

Old-Time Chess Pie

Ingredients
1 9" pie pan and crust
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons brown rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp arrowroot
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten well
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place your pie pan and crust onto a baking sheet*.

In a large bowl combine the sugar, flour, xanthan gum and arrowroot**. Stir with a fork to mix them well. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Using a fork or a whisk, stir well to combine everything into a smooth, thick filling. Pour the filling into the pie crust.

Place the pie on the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.

Lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake until the edges puff up and the center is fairly firm -- wiggling a little is okay. 30-40min depending on oven. The top should be a nice golden brown without looking/smelling burnt. If you're concerned about burning the edges of your pie crust you can take a piece of tin foil and cut it out in thin circle to cover the edge of your pie but leaving the center open. This will allow your crust to cook but prevent it from burning while the rest of your pie bakes.



*If you use aluminum pie pans instead of hard tin or glass ones, I find that putting it on a baking/cookie sheet will prevent you from spilling the contents all over the counter.

**Part of cooking GF is playing detective. In a recipe that usually only contains 2 tbsp of flour for the normies, what does that mean to those of us that eat alternatively? The best Chess pie, in my opinion, has a thick and creamy middle. And since GF flour doesn't thicken the same way that traditional flour does, this calls for us to put on our experiment hat. I've found that arrowroot acts a lot like cornstarch and will thicken up just about any recipe nicely if you use it in moderation.

Things that are Awesome

My Kingdom for a Curry

Tonight, my friends, I have sunk to a new low. Tonight I made brownies from a bag. This after not having so much as touched the oven for more than tea for weeks. This, I feel, more than anything points to how much grad school is addling my brain. But there is one week left in the whirl-wind quarter and I plan to use the following three week break to my benefit.

I'm trying my best to be optimistic about the brownies. I picked up the Namaste brand when I was in Whole Foods awhile back on a whim. It was the first time I saw a package that was soy AND corn free in addition to gluten free. My thought: Why the heck not? Every girl needs an emergency stash, after all. The package does call for 3 eggs and a half cup of oil. I used Ener-G Egg Replacer and coconut oil instead of olive oil.

Batter taste test was....not promising. Grainy. Bitter. Upon further examination my guesses were accurate: Brown rice flour. I've been spoiled with my flour templates. But! Maybe I'll luck out and have brownie soup. That's good even if it's gritty.


Lord. This quarter needs to end so I can stop living off M&Ms and bad california rolls.

So We Meet Again. . .

I have never been what you might call a 'muffin person'. My personal opinion in the great kitchen debate is: Why bother with muffins when you could have cupcakes? Cute + Edible + Frosting = Win in my book. It seems a fairly simple equation.

But, I'm afraid that my hatred of all things muffin did not come about in a natural means. Once upon a time muffins and I were on civil terms. There was no cringing at the mention of their name and the doughy, slightly moist smell that inevitably comes along with them didn't make bile rise up into my throat. I could even walk into the complimentary breakfast at hotels and think: MMMM, Muffins! Not my favorite food, perhaps, but still a viable alternative to cold cereal.

It turns out that I have problems with moderation.

I'm a gung-ho sort of girl and when it comes to food it's no different. Add to that a week long theatre conference, limited funds, and a Sam's Club membership. Did you know that Otis-Spunkmeyer Muffins come in giant palettes? I must have eaten forty of those awful things. ugh. Not exactly my brightest moment.

That said, it has been a good 4 or 5 years since I took leave of my senses and have decided to give them a go again. This time I have Erin McKenna on my side and I feel I have a good ally in her. The product is fairly tasty (Maybe in future trials I shall use more spice

. Mine came out too cinnamon and not enough ginger.), but I must say that even so I would take a cupcake any day.


Ingredients

• 2 Cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour*
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon Ground Ginger
• 1 1/2 Cup Coconut Oil, plus more for the pan
• 2/3 Cup Agave Nectar
• 2/3 Cup Rice Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Pure Vanilla Extract
  
• 1 1/2 Cups Canned unsweetened Pumpkin Pure**
  
• 1/2 Cup Hot Water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and prep your muffin tins by either greasing (Coconut Oil is fantastic and I find it to work way better than Pam or Olive Oil. It's also healthier for you, I'm told) your pans or putting your paper liners in place.

In a large bowl mix together your dry ingredients. Once everything seems to be evenly mixed start to add your wet ingredients in the same bowl. Save your hot water until the very last because it's going to help break down the coconut oil while it is in a solid-ish form. Stir everything until you have a good consistency. You don't want it too runny but you don't want it too difficult to stir, either.

Fill each cup 2/3 of the way full with batter and place in the center of your oven and allow to bake for a total of 22minutes. After the first 10 minutes you should rotate the tins 180 degrees to allow to cook evenly. Finished muffins will be soft to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center should come away clean.

*I am unable to eat the Bob's baking flour because it contains corn so I use the following flour mix template, which makes 3 cups:

• 1 1/2 Cups Sorghum Flour
• 1 Cup White Rice Flour
• 1/2 Cup Tapioca or Potato Starch
  
• 1 Tsp Xanthan Gum

**The whole foods here was out of the puree so I used a can of spiced pumpkin pie filler and it seems to have turned out alright.

Tastiest Snickerdoodles EVAH!

Do you ever have one of those nights were you're like "OMG IF I DO NOT HAVE SOMETHING SUGARY AND AWESOME I AM GOING TO STAB SOMEONE IN THE FACE!?" Well, I do. Frequently. And it often leads to conversations like this:

Me: I wanna milkshake.
Dave: You can't have that.
Me: I wanna cookie.
Dave: Becca-cookie?
Me: COOOOKIE. *stabbity look*
Dave: Let's get you some cookies.

And so, lacking all the crazy ingredients that many GF / CF cookbooks request I went to the internet and did a quick google search for some 'real' cookie recipes. Now, I have had a long standing love of The Joy of Cooking for a long time and they have a companion book called The Joy of Baking. As luck would have it, they also have websites! Below I've included the (altered) recipe that makes this Becca-friendly. And, hopefully, friendly to you as well.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
• 1 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 cup potato starch (you may also use tapioca starch as a sub if you have that instead)
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 cup olive oil (or oil of choice)**
• 1 1/2 cup white grandulated sugar
• 2 eggs worth of Energy Egg Replacer
• 1 tsp Vanilla

Coating

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine your dry ingredients and go ahead and stir them until combined well. Then add all of your wet ingredients, but make sure you leave your oil until very last.

**Add oil slowly waiting to see the consistancy of the dough. You want to make sure that it isn't too dry or too wet. Trust your feelings, young padawan.

Roll into small balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Use a fork to make criss-cross hash marks on the top of the cookies and to squish them down gently. If they are moist enough then they will not crumble upon smushing.

Sprinkle cookies with cinnamon/sugar mixture and bake for 8 - 10 minutes. You're looking for the edges to be lightly brown but not burnt looking. If you see them sizzling in the oven, it's okay. They're supposed to do that.

Dave's seal of approval: "When you open the oven it smells like a carnival!"

Light Summer Dinner

Tonight Mama made such an easy, tasty meal that I felt I absolutely had to share it. Summer squash (both yellow and zucchini) has got to be my favorite form of the versatile veggie.

Ingredients

• 3 zucchini
• 3 yellow squash
• 1/2 med white onion
• 1 tomato
• basil
• salt
• 1 tsp arrowroot
• 1 lb of de-veined, uncooked shrimp
• 1 bag of success rice (or rice of choice)

Pour just enough oil in the bottom of your sauce pan to coat (olive or canola work fine, though we used olive) because you don't want your veggies drowning. Likewise you don't want any angry oil surging up at your face due to any residual moisture from rinsing your veggies.

Slice the zucchini, squash and onion to toss into the pan along with the oil. There you can let it sit while you add a little salt to taste and a liberal basil. We didn't actually measure this part but just added until it felt right. Use your common sense. If you are fond of Basil feel free to add what you feel is a good portion. Because this sort of meal was about being quick and simple we used a dry form of the herb. You want to keep your eye on those veggies while you're dicing your tomato. Before you add it to the mix make sure that the squash and zucchini are nicely browned (not burned).

It's about this time that you should be adding your bag o' rice to the pot of boiling water so that it'll come out at the same time. Or if you have a rice cooker or some other method/rice of choice feel free to go with that. We decided on plain ol' white rice: a tasty, under appreciated staple.

Now go ahead and add that tomato.

In a little cup or bowl put about a tsp of arrowroot and then add a little bit of water to mix it in nicely. This is going to thicken up water that's cooking out of your veggies. For those of you who make roux out of cornstarch, this is the same thing except corn free. Pour it over your vegetables. Keep in mind that you do not want the things in your pan drowning. Just add enough so that they're simmering nicely and not sticking to the bottom.

Add your shrimp to the mix and cook until pink. And there you go! Put this over your rice and you'll have enough to feed four people easily with possible left overs for later.

Enjoy!

Embracing Simplicity

Isaac Newton once said that "Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things." I find that also to be true in baking (as in most things). Minutes ago I finished what is possibly my most successful cupcake adventure to date. The slightly lemon aroma of warm bread in cupcake form is insidiously taking over the boys' house and while I am pleased I keep wondering if they are going to come in one day and throw up their arms in exasperation only to tell me "THAT IS ENOUGH!" To be honest, I thought Jamie would have done that back in November when I baked an inedible, oily brownie brick into one of his nice glass casserole dishes. But I am a scientist (!) and cannot be stopped by such a paltry thing as failure (or kitchen fires, as it turns out).

That said, I really want to share this recipe with everyone. I cannot take credit for it as it comes from the Babycakes cookbook by Erin McKenna. I'm systematically working my way through that little wonder and so far there is absolutely nothing bad in it yet! Granted, it might be a little more work than anyone without allergies may wish to do, but for those of us who lead lives without it's a God-send. These little babies will melt in your mouth. Whoever said that vanilla had to be plain or that simple was boring?


Ingredients

• 2 Cups Garbanzo-Fava Bean Flour
• 1 Cup Potato Starch
• 1/2 Cup Arrowroot
• 1 Tablespoon Plus 1 1/2 teaspooons Gluten-Free Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspon Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
• 2/3 Cup Coconut Oil (may substitute canola, grapeseed, avacado, etc if you'd rather)
• 1 1/3 Cups Agave Nectar
• 3/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 3 Tablespoons Gluten Free Pure Vanilla Extract
• Grated Zest of 1 Lemon
• 1 Cup Hot Water (likely not needed if you do not use coconut oil)
• frosting of choice (I used dairy-free cream cheese)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, applesauce, vanilla, and lemon zest to the dry ingredients and combine. Stir in the hot water and mix until the batter is smooth.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into each prepared cup, almost filling it. Bake the cupcakes on the center rack for 22 minutes, rotating the tins 180degrees after 15 minutes. You know your oven best, so keep an eye out on them in case they are cooking a little fast or slow. The finished cupcakes will be golden brown and will bounce back when pressure is applied gently to the center.

Let the cupcakes stand in the tins for 20 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely. Frost and enjoy!