holiday baking

Gluten Free Upside-Down Double Apple Coffee Cake

It is Thanksgiving week, have you finalized your meal plan? Not yet? Did you get a last minute invite and need something to bring? I’m here to help with a Gluten Free Upside-Down Double Apple Coffee Cake that is perfect for Thanksgiving. It is easy to make but it will look like you spent hours on it. I discovered the recipe this month while working on Mott’s recipes for Allrecipes. The original recipe needed some tweaking but the tweaks produced a wonderful cake that is perfect for any holiday dessert table.

Upside-Down Double Apple Coffee Cake | Country Girl Gourmet

 

Applesauce is used in this cake to replace some of the fat. Have you ever tried using applesauce in place of oil or butter? I am a long time applesauce user in baked goods. It works well in quick breads, muffins and cakes. I always use it in my carrot cakes and zucchini bread so using it in this recipe was nothing unusual for me. Need some more reasons to use applesauce when you bake?  Applesauce dramatically reduces the calorie count in your baked goods and an added bonus it can add must needed moisture. You can substitute 1:1 with typically no issues  but if you are worried about the texture you can switch to a half applesauce/ half fat (oil or butter). I like to keep the single serve cups on hand just for baking. Each applesauce up is 1/2 cup, perfect for baking!

So what do you think? Ready to try out this recipe for Gluten Free Upside-Down Double Apple Coffee Cake? A beautiful, healthier cake on Thanksgiving. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Upside- Down Double Apple Coffee Cake | Country Girl Gourmet

 

Gluten Free Upside-Down Double Apple Coffee Cake
 
Author:
Recipe type: Cakes
 
A easy to make beautiful and delicious gluten free apple- cranberry upside down cake.
Ingredients
  • ¼ cup Mott's® Natural Applesauce
  • 1 medium apple
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • ½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries
  • ¼ cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup plain greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1¾ cups gluten free all-purpose flour blend
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut apple in half and remove core. Cut each half into slices approximately ⅛-inch thick.
  2. Stir together brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and water in medium saucepan. Add apple slices. Cook, stirring gently over medium heat, until apple slices are softened, about 5 minutes.
  3. Sprinkle cranberries in bottom of nonstick or greased springform or 9-inch cake pan. Arrange apple slices over cranberries, drizzling with brown sugar sauce. Set aside.
  4. In large bowl or mixer, beat butter with granulated sugar until thoroughly combined. Add apple sauce and egg. Mix in greek yogurt and vanilla extract.
  5. In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum,salt and cinnamon. Gently blend into apple sauce mixture. Spoon batter over apples and cranberries, spreading evenly.
  6. Bake 40-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes before turning cake out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Upside- Down Double Apple Coffee Cake from Allrecipes.com

Cherry Cheesecake Brownies -Gluten Free

Cherry Cheesecake Brownies -Gluten Free | Country Girl Gourmet

Valentine’s Day, a holiday celebrating love or just a commercial holiday. How do you feel about it? Once upon a time I was the hopeless romantic and loved Valentine’s Day but then I got married. My husband is rarely home on Valentines Day. He is usually deployed or away training, it is always something. It is ok, we are used to it. I make they day special for my kids. I make heart shaped food, cupcakes and even more cupcakes for class parties and a special Valentine’s Day dessert with dinner. Simple and sweet is how we celebrate the day.

This year I have decided to try a Gluten Free diet. Not to lose weight or any nonsense like that but to see if it would help with some autoimmune issues I have. I have done pretty good so far. Just a minor blip where I had to stop for a few days. The blip showed me that yes, my body does react to gluten. I could feel the difference when I had eaten gluten and I was determined to get back to my gluten free lifestyle.

 I do get cravings for all the sweet gluten filled treats like for cookies, cupcakes and brownies from time to time and I have been determined to figure out gluten free baking. I bought some King Arthur Multi Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend a couple weeks ago and a craving for brownies seemed like the perfect time to try it out. I didn’t make just plain regular brownies though. I kicked it up a notch and made Cherry Cheesecake Brownies.  Oh my goodness is all I could say! They were delicious! I fed them to my family and they loved them and none knew they were gluten free. We tried them warm and later after being in the fridge a few hours. They were great both ways but especially cold. I think I have our Valentine’s Day Dessert!

Cherry Cheesecake Brownies -Gluten Free | Country Girl Gourmet

Cherry Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients

for the brownies-

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2t vanilla extract

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 cup gluten free multi purpose flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2t baking powder

1/4t salt

for the cherry cheesecake mix-

1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

1 21oz can of cherry pie filling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 9×13 pan.

2. In a microwave safe bowl melt butter, once melted stir in sugar and then cocoa powder. Then mix in eggs and vanilla and then finally beat in remaining dry ingredients, flour, salt, xanthan gum and baking powder.

3. Pour and spread batter into prepared 9×13 baking pan.

4. In another bowl use an electric mixer or whisk, beat together the cream cheese, egg and sugar until smooth.

5. Dollop the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter.

6. Dollop cherry pie filling (focusing on the cherries not the cherry gel) on top of cream cheese mixture.  Note- some brands are more cherry gel than cherries, you want more of the cherries than cherry gel. Leftover cherry gel is ok.

7.Swirl together using a knife.

8. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until brownies are set and pulling from the sides of the pan. If checked with a toothpick  it will come out with fudgy crumbs.

9.Cool thoroughly, then cut into bars and serve warm or cold. Store in the refrigerator.

***NOTE- These can be made with regular All Purpose Flour instead of Gluten Free Flour Blend if desired***

Cherry Cheesecake Brownies -Gluten Free | Country Girl Gourmet

Are you making something special for Valentines Day? What are you making?

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut Butter Blossoms are another must have Christmas treat for my husband. They are delicious peanut butter cookies that rate rolled in sugar and when done baking they are topped with a hershey kiss. I like to add Reeses peanut butter cups also.  Peanut Butter Blossoms are the perfect addition to any Christmas cookie plate.
Peanut Butter Blossoms

Peanut Butter Blossoms

From Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

  • 1 cup shortening (butter may be used… I use butter in mine)
  • 1 cup peanut butter (remember good quality!)
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup white sugar for decoration
  • 2 (9 ounce) bags milk chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped (and I like to freeze mine)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2.In a large bowl, cream together the shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and stir in the milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

3.Bake for 10 to12 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from oven, and immediately press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Allow to cool completely; the kiss will harden as it cools.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Great Grandma Freda’s Apple Cake

After my grandma passed this summer  I took her cookbooks so I could type up her recipes and my hope is to create a family cookbook.When I saw this recipe for Apple Cake it caught my eye and now that it is apple picking season what better time to bake it up!

Start with some nice baking apples. These are Gala’s. Granny Smiths would work well also. You want a nice baking apple.
IMG_4249

Now Chop them up
IMG_4251Set these and the chopped pecans aside. I used already chopped pecans. I am thankful for that option. I remember picking pecans for my great grandparents as a kid and cracking them. It is a ton of work.

Next we make the wet ingredients nice and fluffy.
IMG_4254Then add the dry ingredients.

IMG_4255I did reduce the salt to 1/2 tsp and upped the cinnamon to 2 tsp.

Mix it up until it looks a little something like this:
IMG_4257and then add apples and pecans.
IMG_4259

Add it to a bundt pan
IMG_4261and bake for 1.5 hours at 300 degrees.
IMG_4265

Then enjoy!

IMG_0224We topped it off with a yummy caramel sauce and it was delicious!

I hope you like it!

Apple Cake

3 cups apples, peeled and chopped

1 cup pecans, chopped

3 cups flour

1t nutmeg

1t cinnamon

1t baking soda

1t salt

1 1/3 cup Wesson oil

3T vanilla

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 300*

1. Peel and chop apples and nuts – set aside

2. Beat oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamy

3. Add all the other ingredients and put in 10″ tube pan

4. Bake for 1.5 hours