Gluten Free Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Glazed Donuts

For the longest time I've had my new donut pans...but it wasn't until I found a great sale on pumpkin that I decided to give them a try. I made these cake like pumpkin donuts with glaze and pecans. Ohhh were they delicious! So delicious, they didn't last the day with my family.

I did try out my mini donut pan, but found this batter to be too thick to put in a tiny space so I much preferred to use my bigger pan.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Glazed Donuts
Makes about 18 regular sized donuts. Adapted from Food by Teva and Pure 2 Raw

2-1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (such as this one)
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup canola oil
1 (14-oz) can pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Lightly oil a donut pan and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt and spices.
Add in the eggs, oil, pumpkin and vanilla. Beat well for two minutes. The batter will be smooth and a little sticky.
Spoon the batter into the donut pan, filling almost to the top. Smooth the tops with wet fingers. Bake in the center of the oven for 18 minutes, until firm but slightly springy to the touch.
When the donuts are cool enough to handle, loosen the sides and remove from the pan. Place the donuts on a cooling rack. Glaze and sprinkle with nuts.


Glazed Pecan Topping

1 Cup pecans, ground

Cinnamon Sugar Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place on cinnamon sugar glaze into a bowl and stir till combined. Grab a donut and dip into your cinnamon glaze then sprinkle with pecans. Allow to dry.

 enjoy,

Almond Roca Bark

Another treat I made during Christmas was this Almond Roca Bark. If you like those Heath bars, you'll LOVE this recipe. I promise it tastes just like it, but with almonds. I went to add a white chocolate drizzle on top by my bag busted open spilling all over so I turned it into a marbled bark.This stuff is SO good, it probably won't wait until Christmas time to be made again.


Almond Roca Bark
from Barefoot and Baking

3/4 cup toasted, chopped almonds*
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
6 oz (about 1 cup) milk chocolate chips

Butter a 7x11 inch pan. Sprinkle half of the almonds on the bottom of the pan.

In a heavy sauce pan, over medium high heat, melt the butter and then add the brown sugar. Stir gently until boiling. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling until the temperature reaches 300 degrees (hard crack stage). The best is to use a candy thermometer, doing it with timing can be tricky, especially if this is your first time making this. If it gets higher than 320 it will NOT remain solid.

Pour the hot mixture over the almonds in the buttered pan. Pour the chocolate chips over the top and let them sit for a minute or two to melt. Once they are melty, use a spatula to spread them evenly over the top. Sprinkle the remaining chopped almonds over the melted chocolate. Let the whole thing cool until the chocolate has set. Use a sharp knife to break the almond roca into pieces. Store in an air tight container.

*to toast almonds spread them in a dry skillet and cook them over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until they begin to lightly brown and you can smell them. Let them cool completely. Toasting nuts gives them a much crunchier texture and a richer flavor.



waiting and waiting for the candy mixture to come to temp.(I lost the clip so I have to hold it!)

oops, my white chocolate drizzle bag busted, turned it into marble bark


christmas treats ready for gift giving


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enjoy,

Candied Nuts

 

This year I made various candies/treats to send out as gifts. These candied nuts were included. These were soo good and almost didn't make it into the goodie bags, that I decided I needed to make ourselves a batch! Well I sort of forgot with all the Christmas rush, that I made them for New Year's. I especially liked how light and crunchy the pecans came out. These will be a keeper all year round, try them I bet you'll enjoy them as well.

Candied Nuts

 from My Baking Addiction

1 egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water
1 pound unsalted almonds or pecans (I do 1/2 pd of each)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons fine grain sea salt

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
In a large bowl, combine egg white, vanilla extract and water. Beat mixture until frothy. Stir in nuts and mix to coat.
Gently combine sugar, cinnamon, and sea salt and stir into almond mixture, thoroughly coating all nuts.
Evenly spread nuts onto prepared baking sheet and place into oven.
Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
When cool, enjoy!


ready to bake

 
our new year's treats 


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N'oatmeal for Breakfast

Whoo hoo! I have missed oatmeal since going gluten free one year ago (yes I know there are GF oats, but I've sort of gave up oats for the most part). I came across this N'oatmeal breakfast on Instagram, and found there are quite a few different recipes. I found this recipe and loved it the most. It's not thick and clumpy like oatmeal, it's more like a creamy hot porridge like cream of wheat (we called it mush growing up lol). It will make enough for 2 breakfasts, I can quickly heat up a leftover one before a workout if I want.
Check out the Pumpkin N'oatmeal I made also, which reminded me more of a warm pumpkin custard.


N'oatmeal
adapated from Mark's Daily Apple

1 small handful of walnuts
1 small handful of almonds
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch of ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon almond butter
1 banana, mashed
3 whole eggs
1/4 cup coconut milk (I use canned)
splash of vanilla
2 teaspoons chopped nuts
1 handful fresh berries or fruit

Add walnuts, almonds, flax seed and spices to a food processor and pulse it down to a course grain, making sure to stop before it’s totally ground into a powder. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together eggs, coconut milk and vanilla until the consistency thickens a little bit into a loose custard. Thoroughly blend together the mashed banana and almond butter and add it to the custard, mixing well. Stir in the nut mixture. Heat over medium heat, stirring until the “no-atmeal” reaches your desired consistency; this should only take a few minutes. Sprinkle additional nuts and berries on top. Add more milk if you want.

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enjoy,

Fruit and Nut Bars

 I was accepted to do a review on Tropical Tradition's Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil, and being somewhat familiar with it and knowing how good it is for you, I was excited to try it out. My good friend Faye led me to these bars from Civilized Caveman Cooking. I've been reading George's blog for a while now and knowing he's Paleo, fit and in good health and also creates his own recipes I thought I'd try these out. This coconut oil does have a coconutty scent so it's probably best used in baking (and skin care and more)and not an everyday cooking oil. You'd want expeller pressed coconut oil for that. Anyways, it melted very quickly and was great in this recipe.

They say these are similar to Lara bars. The main ingredient is dates, and their stickiness helps keeps these bars together. Try to use unsweetened dried fruits, the dates are sweet enough. I pressed mine into a 9x9 pan and cut in rows of 4x4 then wrapped each piece up to have throughout the week. I have to say, these are pretty good. I usually have one after my workout. I didn't add much cinnamon and the flavor got lost in the coconut flavor, so add more if you like, or other spices. Play around with dried fruit and nuts, whatever you like.


Fruit and Nut Bars
adapted from Civilized Caveman Cooking
2 Cups Dates, pitted (about 12 oz)
3/4 Cup Raw Almonds
1/4 Cup Dried Apples
1/4 Cup Dried Apricots
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut (Bob's Red Mill)
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil, melted
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon (more to your taste)

In a small skillet roast almonds, stirring until just golden, you can hear them start to sizzle and smell when they are about done. Watch you don't let them burn.
Place your dates and 1/2 C. almonds in a food processor. Pulse until they are in small chunks or how you prefer and transfer to a mixing bowl.
Add you 1/4 Cup almonds, apples and apricots to the processor and pulse until you have small chunks. Add to the mixing bowl.
Add all remaining ingredients to your bowl. Using your hands mix well to ensure an even coating of everything.
Once mixed, line a 8x8 baking dish with parchment and add the fruit and nut mixture. Flatten out then place in refrigerator to cool, cut and enjoy. Wrap the remaining pieces in plastic wrap and keep chilled for later.

I pulsed mine pretty good.

chunks of apple and coconut can be seen

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enjoy,

Homemade Banana Pecan Praline Ice Cream

Summertime...time to break out the ice cream machine. I have quite the stock of frozen bananas so I asked on Facebook what I should make. Ice cream came up, so that's what I made. But for this recipe I used fresher bananas, not my frozen mushy ones (which means I still need to make something of them lol). Anyways I decided to make this like a pecan praline ice cream with homemade candied pecans and caramel sauce mix through, BUT the caramel seized  up and froze when I was churning it lol. So I also drizzled it on top. Whenever I make ice cream, I allow lots of extra time to let it freeze through (24 hrs) or it'll be too soft and melt too fast. This came out great though, it reminded me of a fried ice cream dessert with the cinnamon in it. Delish.

Homemade Banana Pecan Praline Ice Cream

Recipe for ice cream from Our Best Bites

4 bananas, sliced into 1/2-1" segments
1/4 C brown sugar
1 T real butter, melted
1 t cinnamon
2 C heavy cream
1 C whole milk (vit D milk)
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 t salt
2 t vanilla
*candied nuts and caramel additions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. (I used a 375' convection setting)
Line a 9 x 13" baking dish with foil and place bananas in it. Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter over bananas and toss well with hands. Spread bananas out in a single layer.
Bake bananas for 15 minutes. Stir, and bake for 15 more. Remove from oven and cool on counter top. By this point you will have a scrumptious, thick syrup in there too.

While bananas are cooking combine cream, whole milk, white sugar, salt, and vanilla. Whisk until sugar is dissolved. Set in fridge to chill.

When bananas are completely cooled, puree them in a food processor* until completely smooth. Using a whisk, stir them into the milk mixture until combined. Chill entire mixture.
Churn in an ice cream maker (add nuts and caramel while churning) and transfer to an air tight container in the freezer to set up. Makes 1 1/2 quarts.
They note: *If you don't have a food processor, you can use your blender. If you choose to do so, leave the whole milk out of the original milk mixture and use the milk to puree with the bananas. Don't put the cream mixture in the blender after, make sure to whisk them both together by hand.

Note: The roasted bananas in this recipe make the ice cream incredibly soft and smooth, but it may be softer than usual when coming straight out of your ice cream maker so it's important to plan ahead with enough time to let the ice cream set in the freezer for several hours before eating.

Candied Nuts
(can be found on pg 469 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours)

1/3 C sugar
3 TBL cold water
1 1/2 C nuts
splash of vanilla

Caramel Topping
(can be found on pg 264 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours, makes lots!)


2 C sugar
1/2 C water
1 1/2 TBL light corn syrup
2/3 C heavy cream
2 TBL unslated butter

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enjoy,