Holiday Food Brainstorm - Page 2

[FireWithin]

Here is my sugar cookie recipe that works really well.  It is from a site called Gluten Free Gobsmacked.  She has really good egg roll recipe too.

From Gluten free gobsmacked

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups GF flour mix **
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2-3 tbl milk

preheat oven to 375*

cream shortening and sugar.  add egg and beat together well for 2-3 min.

whisk dry ingredients together in separate bowl

add to creamed ingredients and mix

add 2-3 tbl milk until perfect, non-sticky cookie dough is achieved

roll out to 1/4 - 1/3 inch thickness

bake 6-7 min

**this mix should have some kind of binder (gum)

Edited by FireWithin - 12/19/10 at 11:41am

[philomom]

I make this one a lot... high on fat but no wheat or eggs. My son loves these.. he's my wheat sensitive fellow.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1722,129186-241195,00.html

I use regular milk but the rest of this recipe is just as my mom made it in the 1960's.

[Theloose]

a whole date stuffed with a pecan is pretty yummy, too :)

[philomom]

Originally Posted by Theloose 

a whole date stuffed with a pecan is pretty yummy, too :)

No, stuff them with feta... they are so-oo good!

[menomena]

 Dairy-, soy- & egg-free, Grain-free thumbprint cookies - contains almond flour, but could probably be subbed for sunflower seeds or rice flower. http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2010/12/scandinavian-thumbprint-cookies-gluten.html

Dairy-, soy-, egg- & nut-free, Grain-free St. Lucia Buns http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/2009/12/santa-lucia-day-lucia-saffron-buns.html

Peppermint bark - calls for white chocolate & cream, but I wonder if dark chocolate & coconut milk (or other creamy milk sub) would work? http://orangette.blogspot.com/2008/12/look-at-that.html

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by tanyalynn 

So I'm looking at The Garden of Eating for inspiration for easy snacks for a friend who just had a baby, and I'm realizing I've never worked with dates.  I was walking past a display at the store and I stopped to try to figure out what these things were, turns out they're coconut date rolls, basically just chopped dates and shredded coconut rolled together, and it sounds like people do all sorts of variations--rolled in coconut on the outside, toasted nuts either inside or rolled on the outside.  And so it was funny to find several date recipes in this book, this is one variation that I'm going to try today (and if it works, I need to go buy more dates!).

One variation is: 1 cup pitted dates, 1 cup toasted nuts, 2T hot water (up to 4T total may be needed), 1/2 tsp cinnamon or apple pie spice (I don't know what that is), 2 tsp orange zest, and 1/4 c shredded coconut.

Grind nuts finely, put aside.  Use a food processor to combine dates, 2 T water, spices and orange zest.  Add the extra 2 T water only if it's needed, then add the date mix to the nuts.  Once mixed, use wet hands to make balls about 1 T size and then roll in shredded coconut or anything else yummy. 

Works with other dried fruits too (apricots or figs were suggested, but it seems like a lot of things would work), and whatever nuts you like. 

So I made that (dates and toasted walnuts, cinnamon), and I liked it, but it wasn't super-sweet like may be expected at this time of year.  Compared to real food it's sweet, but compared to typical sweets at this time of year, not so much.  I'm considering trying it with a mix of dried tropical fruit, may work nicely with the coconut.  Not sure what spice I should use--ginger maybe? 

Our oranges are very organic--some people could say neglected since we haven't cared for the tree at all this year--and some local animal has decided that the tree is a perfect place to get dessert.  Maybe a quarter of the oranges have had a circle taken out and all the fruit that's reachable to this animal (a bird?  maybe a rat--the oranges are still on the tree) has been eaten out.  Strange to look at. 
 

Originally Posted by tanyalynn 

And I'm going to pop over to WF to get some hulled sesame seeds and make a batch of this....

http://nourishedkitchen.com/sesame-honey-candy/

though I may try the variation by one of the commenters and add 1/4 cup toasted nuts (I've been craving pecans but we don't have any in the house) and some coconut.  Or maybe half original and half with the nuts/coconut addition. 

I made it and I like it--I like the version with toasted pecans and coconut better.  Maybe it's the humidity though (we've been having wild swings of dry/cold-ish and wet and warm) but it didn't dry/solidify well.  It's good from the frig though.  It's so warm here, that the holiday party today consisted of the kids running in and out of the back door of a friend's house--door open almost all the time--and half the kids running around barefoot.  Our activity for them?  A whipped Ivory soap-water concoction that fluffed up into something that looked like meringue but dries on windows like snow, the kids drew all over the windows and made it feel winter-y. 

ETA: Duh, the thing I've enjoyed most is sugarplums.  I used Alton Brown's recipe because we watch Good Eats regularly...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugarplums-recipe/index.html

except I had/used dates, golden raisins and figs. 

Edited by tanyalynn - 12/17/10 at 3:48pm

[lil_miss_understood]

Rats are notorious for eating the flesh out of oranges while they're still on the tree (or so I've heard).

[Brees_Mama]

Any dairy/corn free recipes?

[Brees_Mama]

Side note: we watch Good Eats a lot too, my kids love him and his turkey recipe is delicious!