The Dessert Results and a Recipe

Laura Hunter won the grand prize with an international suggestion (her mother-in-law, Sue, lives in England and is new to the GF diet) for dessert. Laura is a foodie, blogger, and photographer, and her recipes are creative and delicious. Thanks for sharing Laura!

Kassi Blanchard has been intrepidly exploring brownie recipes to keep her sanity in the kitchen. Kassi has worked as the Operations Director for Day by Day Gourmet and is getting ready for a trip to Europe next year. She knows the challenge of cooking healthy, allergen friendly meals and has bravely tasted a gluten-free muffin flour experiment that I did last year. She’s a brave woman.

Connie Haedener challenged me with a gluten and dairy free Cremeschnitten – Cream Napoleon, which is going to be a challenge to be sure! I have to look up a recipe for the original first. If you’ve enjoyed this dessert, can you tell me about it?

Thank you to Rosette Pambakian and the staff at Pamela’s Products for the donation and freebie! I have found the staff at Pamela’s Products to always be friendly and supportive of ideas. They donated product to a cooking class I held when I ran Thrive Lifestyles, and they donated product to the Junior League of Pueblo when we did Kids in the Kitchen at the Pueblo Health Expo. Thank you!

Pamela’s Products is hosting their annual dessert contest now. If you were inspired by ideas on this blog, then go over to Pamela’s for a new contest. I entered last year, and I am definitely entering again this year. Check out the recipes page they have, and get baking!

Are you looking for a gluten-free dessert that’s not quite as indulgent as those listed above? Summer is almost breaking in Seattle, so you’re probably trying to get your figure tank-top ready. Well, how about checking out your local farmers market for some fresh fruit to make a light dessert?

In Pueblo, CO, there is a peach stand that gathers peaches from Palisade and nearby regions and sets up every Tuesday and Friday morning at the Pueblo farmers market. I used to go early in the morning and help him set up the stand for a generous payment of 1-2 baskets of peaches ($14 worth). Totally worth it. You could eat those peaches straight, but I also sliced them and served them with vanilla ice cream. They were perfect for cobblers, and because we had so many, I sliced them and froze them for snacks through the fall. They create quite a bit of juice, but they’re so good! You can check out the Farmers Market on Thursdays, too.

In Seattle, I look to Kayli McIntyre for inspiration from Wheatless in Seattle. She makes incredible and indulgent desserts regularly. My go-to dessert is the lemon bar, which is moist and decadent.

For Mother’s Day, I made Cream Scones from JoyofBaking.com, which is one of the best resources of regular baking. I easily convert the recipes there to gluten-free versions using a blend of Pamela’s GF baking mix and bread mix.

2 cups flour mix

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Baking Mix, which contains leavening)

1/4 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)

1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or a fork. (“Mash” the butter into the flour with the fork tines until the large pieces are broken up and most of the flour has a little butter stuck to it and resembles clumpy flour or coarse crumbs). Combine the egg, cream, and vanilla. Stir the liquid into the flour mixture and mix with a fork until just combined. Scrape and dump the dough onto a clean, floured cutting board or counter surface. Fold the dough on top of itself and press down with your palms, pressing the lumps together. Rotate the dough and repeat three times. (The original recipe calls for kneading the dough lightly)

Instead of rolling the dough and cutting out the scones, I patted the scones into a single large loaf, placed it on the parchment-lined baking sheet, and sliced it into 16 even slices and left the scone loaf together. When I removed the scone loaf from the oven, I simply pulled the pieces apart. It’s much cleaner, and the scones triangle shape is preserved.

I topped these scones with a cooled, fresh strawberry sauce that I made from cooking mashed strawberries, orange juice, and a little bit of sugar together in a saucepan and simmering about 5 minutes. Add a dollop of fresh whipped cream, and you’ve got a gourmet dessert!