Picture it, my living room, three or so years ago. I was at the tail end of an elimination diet (no sugar, dairy, or gluten), which I’d undertaken in desperation after having been told by my doctor that nothing was wrong with me. Yeah, right.

My carb-loving self was having a mean craving for anything cakey, and I didn’t know how long I’d be able to last if I didn’t get a cupcake or muffin in the very immediate future. Apprehensively, but hungrily, I made my way to the kitchen cupboard that contained my then tiny supply of gluten free baking ingredients. Having never baked gluten free before, I wasn’t sure what to make, but after flipping through my only gluten free cookbook at the time, Gluten Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts (still a favorite!), I decided on the carrot spice muffins. It’s amazing how easily I can justify eating several muffins or cupcakes in one sitting when they have something healthy like carrots in them.

I mixed up the batter, using these strange new ingredients and agave nectar as the sweetener, popped the muffins into the oven, and hoped for the best. Looking back, I think I can say that I was extremely lucky to have tried such a great recipe for my first gluten free baking adventure, because I knew after taking my first bite of that slightly spiced, moist muffin that it was completely possible to make something that tasted just as good (or better) than what I was used to in my pre-gluten free days.

As a result of my first experience baking gluten free, carrot-y baked goods still hold a yummy place in my heart, and this time around I tried the prize carrot cake recipe from Bette Hagman’s The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods, which has become another of my cookbook favorites. Though I was intrigued by the fact that the original recipe called for a healthy amount of pureed green tomatoes, they’re not exactly easy to find in a city, so I replaced them with applesauce, which provided the same moistness, as well as a little bit of sweetness. I do wonder how different the flavor would’ve been if I would’ve used the tomatoes, because I can tell you that this cake was absolutely delicious even without them. Seriously, I think that this may rank in my top three favorite gluten free recipes. The texture was amazing, and boy was this cake ever moist, even after three days (that’s how long the cupcakes lasted) and even though I used the sugar free sweetener xylitol, which tends to suck the moisture out of baked goods.

I halved the recipe because I didn’t want to make a full cake, but you can double it if you want to make a three layer cake, which is what the original recipe made.

Having an ice cream maker at your disposal can be a dangerous thing. I find that, every time I break out the machine to make a batch of ice cream, I have a thousand – well, at least a dozen – flavor ideas swirling in my head, and then I want to make batch after batch of ice cream. This is great for my taste buds, but not so good for my thighs.

I forced myself to put my ice cream machine back in the cupboard and out of sight, but not before I made this luscious batch of sugar free cherry vanilla. Add 1/4 cup of shaved dark chocolate for an absolutely decadent chocolate cherry combo, or leave it as I did and enjoy the classic pairing of cherry and vanilla.

I’ve been trying to make a great gluten and sugar free brownie for at least two years, and nothing that I’ve tried has been anywhere near successful … until now. Texture, texture, texture. That’s always been my problem in the past. Pasty, leaden brownies are just not good and, unfortunately, I’ve had to toss a few pans of them because they were simply inedible. I really hate wasting food.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with an ingredient called inulin, which has been incredibly helpful in giving my baked goods a texture more along the lines of something made with sugar. Inulin is one of the key ingredients in this brownie recipe.

So, what in the world is inulin*? It’s a subtly sweet fiber (about 1/10th as sweet as sugar) that can be used to replace sugar, fat, and flour in recipes, and has been shown to help the body absorb calcium and possibly magnesium. Inulin is also sometimes referred to as a prebiotic, which means that it helps promote the growth of intestinal bacteria (the good kind). So, it’s both helpful and healthful! I purchase my inulin at Whole Foods, where it can be found in the aisle with all of the sweeteners. It’s rather pricey, but it’s been more than worth it to me to get back some of the fudgy, chewy, gooey texture that is lost when I bake with my regular sugar replacements.

Okay, so these brownies are magnificent. I love them, and I don’t think that it would be an understatement for me to say that I love, love them. This is the texture that I’ve been after for so long — oh so fudgy. I think I may have even teared up a little when I tried the first one because it made me that happy. And I topped them off with a bit of flaky sea salt, which made for a fantastic, salty-sweet experience.

* If you have a sensitivity to fiber or have gastrointestinal issues with high fiber intake, please watch it with the inulin. I’ve read that it can have some pretty unpleasant side effects. Thankfully, I don’t seem to have any issues with it, though I do try to use it as sparingly as possible in recipes, just in case.

Glazes, drizzles, and any confectioner’s sugar based frostings have become the bane of my sugar free existence, so we’re just going to ignore the fiasco of an attempt at an orange glaze on what is otherwise a very nice cake. Okay, now that we’ve gotten that unpleasantness out of the way (and, hey, if you’re on a sugar free diet and have come up with a nice glaze or drizzle recipe, I’d love to hear it!), I want to talk about my new favorite flour blend.

Late last year, I picked up a copy of Elana Amsterdam’s The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook (her chocolate chip scone recipe is a must try!). I’ve been using almond flour in my baking for a couple of years, but this cookbook has taken my interest to the next level. I’ve been blending almond flour with my other new favorite flour, coconut flour, and a bit of a starch like cornstarch or arrowroot starch with great results!

This orange poppyseed cake is a new favorite. The crumb is fantastic, and it stayed very moist for at least four days (that’s how long it lasted before we gobbled it all up). It’s a dense cake, like a pound cake, but it’s not heavy. In other words, it doesn’t sit in your stomach like a brick, which is a very good thing.

At the last minute, I decided to add almond extract to the batter because I’ve been hoping to recreate the taste of these yummy almond poppyseed muffins that I had years ago (in my pre-gluten free and sugar free days) at an office potluck, of all places. I think I came pretty close to the flavor with this cake, but unfortunately the almond sort of overpowered the orange, so if you want an orange-ier cake then you can leave out the almond flavoring. And, if you’re not sugar free, you should be able to substitute table sugar 1 to 1 for the xylitol with no problems.

This was my first adventure in molded candy land, and though I made a mess with the chocolate because I’m impatient, these sunbutter cups still turned out quite well.

From start to finish, which includes making the sunflower seed butter, the entire process only took me about 45 minutes, so this is a pretty quick food project, too. You could also fill these with peanut butter, almond butter, marshmallow, or a little jam. Or you could do a combination of two fillings, like peanut butter and jam or jam and marshmallow. The possibilities are endless!

In this recipe, I use mini candy bars from Hershey’s sugar free line. Ideally, I would’ve made my own dark chocolate from scratch, but I haven’t quite perfected this yet, and the Hershey’s bars will do in a pinch. Just be sure that you eat these in moderation if you use the Hershey’s sugar free bars, as they’re filled with sugar alcohols, and the situation could get ugly if you eat too many.

Sun Cups
makes approximately 18 individual cups using Wilton’s Peanut Butter Cups candy mold

Notes: If you’re not on a sugar free diet, you can substitute sugar 1:1 with the xylitol and use any milk, dark, or semi-sweet chocolate that you like.

Ingredients

1 cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds
1 Tbsp. canola or vegetable oil
3 Tbsp. xylitol
16 Hershey’s Sugar Free Special Dark Mini Candy Bars (or equivalent), about 1 1/2 bags

Instructions

1. Add the sunflower seeds to the bowl of a food processor. Process until finely ground, about 2-3 minutes. Add the xylitol and canola oil and continue to process for 1-2 minutes, or until the mixture forms a thick paste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Unwrap the candy bars and place them in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high in 30 second increments until almost completely melted, about 1 – 1 1/2 minutes total. Stir the melted chocolate until smooth.

3. Dip a pastry brush into the melted chocolate and use it to coat the inside of the individual molds, making sure not to coat them too heavily. When you’re finished, tap the mold repeatedly on a hard surface until the chocolate is more evenly distributed. Place the mold in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, or until the chocolate is set.

4. Remove the sunflower seed butter from the refrigerator and add approximately 1 teaspoon of the butter to each individual cup. I rolled mine into balls and flattened them before placing them into the cups, but this isn’t necessary.

5. Spoon the remaining chocolate over the top of the sunflower seed butter, spreading it around until the top of the cup is completely covered. Tap the mold on a hard surface to redistribute the chocolate, if necessary. Place in the freezer for another 10-15 minutes, or until the chocolate is set, and pop the finished cups out of the mold. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

This scoop of cinnamon ice cream was supposed to be sitting on top of a lovely gluten and sugar free apple pie. Alas, I have not yet mastered the art of making an apple pie. The pie tasted great, but I baked it a little too long and the apples were mushy, so I’ll have to try again and will hopefully be posting the apple pie here soon. Now, about the ice cream…

There’s just something about cinnamon ice cream – when I have it on top of apple pie, I’m transported back in time to high school evenings spent catching up with friends at King’s Restaurant, a hangout which may be familiar to you if you’re from somewhere in western Pennsylvania. Warm apple pie with cinnamon ice cream is the restaurant’s trademark, or it used to be, and sometimes I wanted to go to King’s just for this. No appetizer, no meal, just the apple pie a la mode with cinnamon ice cream. Probably not the healthiest thing, but I wasn’t really thinking much about nutrition when I was a teenager. Boy, do things change!

Instead of using arrowroot starch to thicken the base, as I did with my original sugar free ice cream recipe, I went back to xanthan gum, which was my first choice in the ice crystal formation prevention department when I still used agave nectar as a sweetener. I had some concern that the texture wouldn’t be as nice as it was in combination with the agave, but I guess that the agave wasn’t as much of a factor as I thought it was because I was very happy with the result. I used half dairy cream and half lite coconut milk, and the finished ice cream was scoopable, with a great texture. It tasted pretty awesome, too! And the xanthan gum is a much better option for those of you counting carbs. Both arrowroot and xanthan gum have 7 grams of carbs per tablespoon, but instead of the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot starch that I used in the original  recipe, I only use 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum here with very similar results.