Bite into Bliss

How do I say this without sounding cocky? I think I've concocted one of the most amazing, gluten-free baked good in the history of gluten-free baked goods. Obnoxious? Full of myself? Ya, ya, I've heard it before and besides, I've been called worse.

Gluten-free baked goods are often dry and crumbly, but not these moist, tender lovelies. Mexican chocolate, browned butter, cinnamon, sugar. Have I got your attention yet? Make them for yourself and then tell me they aren't pretty damn fab and worthy of such bragging.

Mexican Chocolate and Browned Butter Bliss Cakes

2 cups brown rice flour

1/3 cup tapioca starch

2/3 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 tablespoon gluten-free baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

8 grated tablespoons of Abuelita Mexican Chocolate

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter, softened

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients, except for the grated Mexican Chocolate and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredient mixture a third at a time, adding one third of the milk between each addition until all ingredients are just barely incorporated. Mix in the Abuelita by hand until well incorporated.

Spoon the batter into muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes. I use silicone muffin pans, so I don't need to butter the pans, but buttering metal pans would likely be necessary and you may need to adjust the baking time with metal pans. Cakes are done when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Here's where it really gets interesting....

While the cakes are baking, mix 1 cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside. Melt 1 stick of butter over medium heat until it starts to turn golden brown. Be careful because the point in which it's lovely, fragrant and has a slightly nutty, rich flavor and is just starting to brown and the point in which it starts to burn is mere seconds apart, so don't walk away from the stove! Set your browned butter aside.

Once the cakes are baked and cool enough to release from the pan and handle, dip them in the melted, browned butter and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Eat them while they're still warm and then die and go to heaven. Yes, they are that good. Makes 16 blissful bundles of fabulousness.

Afterthoughts: These really are best served warm, so dip them in the butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture just before serving. If you're not serving them straight from the oven, wrap the naked cakes in foil and reheat them in the oven for a few minutes. Make the browned butter as needed and dip the warm cakes in the cinnamon sugar mixture right before serving.

Oooh la la!

A few months ago, I started a cooking group with some fabulous foodie friends. We rotate homes, meeting once a month, to feast on amazing dishes based on a theme. So far the themes have been Chinese New Year, North African Cuisine, Childhood Favorites and World Cup Soccer. Say what? Soccer? We're a creative bunch...the idea was to choose a dish from one of the teams in the playoffs. Germany, Italy, Japan, France and the U.S. were represented.

I was Team France. We were encouraged to wear soccer jerseys or at least don the team colors. I showed up in a French maid's outfit. Yes, I'm that kind of girl. ;0)

My culinary contribution was chocolate crepes filled with strawberries. I bought a wonderful, 8", blue steel crepe pan and perfected a great gluten-free recipe. The base is buckwheat flour. While buckwheat sounds like something we groovy gluten-intolerant people shouldn't eat, it's actually not related to wheat at all. It's a pseudocereal in the family of amaranth and the much loved (at least in my kitchen) quinoa.

That pan has been getting a lot of use in the last week...chocolate crepes for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Oooh la la, indeed!

Chocolate Crepes with Grand Marnier Strawberries and Vanilla Whipped Cream

Grand Marnier Strawberries (aka Boozey Berries)

Wash, dry and chop at least a pound of strawberries. This will be enough for about six 8" crepes. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle them with about a tablespoon of sugar. This is called mascerating and the sugar will mix with the juice from the berries and create a very flavorful strawberry, simple syrup. If you have Grand Marnier in the house, reduce the sugar by about half and pour in a splash or two of the Grand Marnier onto the strawberries and mix well. If you don't have Grand Marnier in the house, put on your shoes, go to the liquor store and buy some. ;0) Set the berries aside to mascerate at room temperature for at least an hour.

Crepe Recipe

2 eggs

2 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup (minus 3 tablespoons) buckwheat flour

3 tablespoons good quality dutch processed dark cocoa

4 teaspoons pure cane sugar

Whisk the ingredients together, cover and let the mixture rest in the refrigerator for at least fifteen minutes.

Vanilla Whipped Cream

Whip the heavy whipping cream with good quality vanilla and a little sugar, both to taste. Did you know that if you chill your mixer bowl and beaters or wire whisk attachment in the freezer before use, you'll get a stiffer whipped cream?

Once the berries are nice and syrupy and the crepe mixture has rested a bit in the fridge, stir the mixture well before use. Brush your crepe pan with oil. Grapeseed oil is perfect for crepes because it has a high smoke point and you need the pan good and hot. Also, grapeseed oil is virtually flavorless. Olive oil wouldn't be a wise choice for a sweet dessert crepe like this because of its strong flavor. It could work for a savory crepe but may smoke, so grapeseed oil is my favorite all purpose oil.

Set your burner on medium and after a few minutes if a few drops of water sizzle when dropped on the pan, you're good to go. For an 8" pan, you need exactly 4 tablespoons of crepe mixture for a crepe that's not too thin or too thick but, as Goldilocks said, just right. Play around with the utensils in your kitchen beforehand to find a small ladle or tiny sauce pitcher or such that can hold 4 tablespoons, as you'll want to pour that amount in all at once and quickly swirl the pan for even coverage. Keep the pan on medium heat and don't walk away from the stove. Once the edges start to firm up and get crispy (after approximately two minutes) you'll want to carefully flip the crepe by using a small spatula to pry the crepe up a small section at a time. Cooking time really varies by stove and you'll get the hang of it, even if you botch up the first crepe or two. The recipe makes at least 10 or 12 crepes, so you have plenty to experiment with.

Fill the crepes with your wonderful, syrupy, boozey strawberries and top with whipped cream. A drizzle of chocolate sauce across the top wouldn't hurt either. Bon appetit!

Afterthoughts: The crepe mixture will keep in the fridge for two to three days in a covered, airtight container. The mascerated strawberries breakdown after several hours and get mushy. Pick up an extra pound of berries and prepare as detailed above right before use or try raspberries or some other fabulous concoction to go with the second round of crepes.