Sunbutter Puppy Chow (peanut free)

Being cursed with a peanut intolerance has been a pain in the fanny. I used to eat peanut butter every morning, would take spoonfuls at night, and some of my favorite treats involve peanuts/peanut butter (PB balls, PB cookies, Puppy Chow, pad thai, etc).

Well, when life hands you lemons… Screw the lemons and bake! 🙂

I have found that most of my favorite treats can still be made using SunButter. SunButter is made out of sunflower seeds. I like both the creamy and chunky varieties. I prefer this type of nut butter to almond butter because it is sweeter and less gritty.

SunButter Puppy Chow (peanut free)
Whatcha need:

1 box of Honey Nut Chex
1  1/2 c of chocolate chips (use dairy free ones- like I did- if you need to)
1/2 c sunbutter (I used 1/4 cup creamy and 1/4 c chunky)
1  1/3 c powdered sugar

Using a big microwave safe bowl, dump in your chocolate chips and microwave for 1.5 minutes. Stir the chocolate chips. Pop them back in for 45 seconds. Stir… continue at 30 second intervals until the chocolate chips are all melted. DON’T over heat them or they will burn.

Add your sun nut butter and stir until completely incorporated. You could add a tspn of vanilla at this point if you had some- but I was out!

Carefully dump in half of your box of Honey Nut Chex. Stir until all the Chex are coated. Add the rest of the Chex and stir again. Easy, right? Once all the cereal is coated, let the mixture sit for a minute or two to cool a little. Not too long or the chocolate will harden, but just enough so the chocolate doesn’t melt the powdered sugar.

Finally put about half of the powdered sugar into a giant ziploc bag. Dump in the chocolate/nut butter coated cereal. Add the rest of the powdered sugar. Zip the bag and shake it… like a polaroid picture.

Shake the bag until all of the cereal has been coated. Then empty the delicious-ness onto a giant cookie sheet to cool.

Store in an airtight container or eat it immediately. I made mine for a party tomorrow night and have already demolished a good portion… Oops!

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Sugar Cookies: gf, df, vegan

A good sugar cookie is hard to come by. You know the kind… Chewy  with a crunchy edge. Mmmmm.

It’s nearly impossible if you’re gluten free, dairy free, and egg free. I will tell you right now, that these sugar cookies are perfection. They fool even the “normal” cookie eating folk. My hubby will eat at least 5 straight out of the oven… I won’t tell you how many I devour. I also won’t tell you how many times I’ve made these beauties in the past few months. It’s shameful.

I adapted this recipe out of my Better Homes & Garden cookbook. It is actually supposed to be a recipe for snickerdoodles, so if you prefer cinnamon to sugar- roll these bad boys in a cinnamon sugar mix before you bake them (and add 1/4 tspn of cream of tartar to the dry ingredients).  I’ve done them both ways.

I almost forgot: I did not make these vegan because I used regular sugar, which is not vegan. If you are so inclined, use vegan sugar!

Sugar Cookies:
whatcha need
Preheat the oven to 350 F

1/2 c butter (dairy free), softened
1 c sugar
1/4 c applesauce
1/2 tspn vanilla
3/4 c asian rice flour
1/2 c brown rice flour
1/4 c sweet rice flour
1 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn xanthan gum or guar gum

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients. Set aside.

Using a handheld mixer, beat your (dairy free) butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. I used df/sf butter (me +soy=blah).

Scrape down the sides of your bowl and beat in your applesauce and vanilla.

Once again, scrape down the sides of your bowl. Carefully dump your dry ingredients into your wet. Mix well until everything is incorporated. I chill my dough into the fridge for about 30 minutes.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, scoop dough and roll into balls (I just use a cookie dough scoop- a little less than 2 TB- and don’t worry about rolling them) about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten the tops a little and put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes. You want them to look lightly browned and not gooey.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with sugar or sprinkles. Let them sit for 3 minutes on the baking sheet. Using a nice spatula (I use stainless steel) put them on a baking rack to cool. If you don’t have self control (raises hand…) try one when they’re still warm and gooey. Otherwise you can wait for them to cool.

If these last more than a day, I store them in Tupperware at room temperature. This has only happened once. 🙂

Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes (gf, df)

I’m sorry for slacking the past few months… School has started, I had to close up my bakery, AND I got married (3 months after getting engaged)…. I meant to post this back in March but it never happened. Here it goes. This is a recipe I used to use for my bakery. It’s my most requested and is absolutely delicious….

Alcohol + Cupcakes = Pure Awesomeness

I posted the recipe for my Tequila Lime Buttercream almost two summers ago, and it is one of the most frequented pages on my blog. What’s not to love above alcohol infused frosting? Exactly.

Tequila is my alcohol of choice. That and gin, but noone wants a pine scented cupcake… or do they? Maybe for Christmas. 🙂

I made these bad boys for Cinco de Mayo, I thought I’d share my recipe for my favorite Margarita cupcake. It’s perfect for everyone 21 and older.

I used my own gluten free version of the Sprinkle’s Strawberry cupcake as the base for this cupcake and topped it with a strawberry margarita buttercream. If you want a non-alcoholic version of this cupcake, you can just omit the tequila and it will still be a hit. Light and summery.

Strawberry Margarita Cupcakes

Whatcha need:
Preheat oven to 350

• 1/3 cup of pureed frozen strawberries (defrost about half of a bag of frozen strawberries and puree them in your food processor- save the leftover puree for your frosting!)
• 1/2 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup soy milk, or your favorite milk (dairy or non)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) non dairy butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 c tequila (for an alcoholic version)- for after they are done baking
• 2 Tablespoons lime juice

Prep a muffin/cupcake tin with cupcake liners. This recipe will make about 14-15 cupcakes.

In a small bowl, mix together your tequila and lime juice. You will baste this mixture on your cupcakes right when you remove them from the oven.

Whisk together your dry ingredients (brown rice flour through the salt). Set aside.

In a different small bowl, mix your strawberry puree, soy milk, and vanilla. Set aside.

Yea, I know we’re using up all of your bowls, but…. In a different large bowl, with your hand held mixer cream your butter and sugar (about 2 minutes) . Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything mixes together.  Add your full egg and beat until incorporated. Scrape your bowl. Beat in one egg white until incorporated. Add your last egg white and beat until it’s incorporated. Scrape down the sides of your bowl.

Remember the bowl of dry ingredients and your bowl of strawberry mixture? We need those now. Carefully mix in half of the dry mixture into your sugar/butter/egg mixture. Make sure it is fully incorporated. Mix in the strawberry/milk mixture completely. Then, add the remaining dry ingredients.

Once everything is mixed together, scoop your batter into the prepared cupcake liners- about 2/3 full. Bake for 15-19 minutes. In my commercial kitchen, it takes almost 19 minutes but at home it only takes 17. Clean toothpick= perfection. Don’t overbake or the bottoms will turn brown.

Remove the cupcakes from the tin after a couple of minutes, and put them on a cooling rack. Immediately use your basting brush and baste the cupcakes with the tequila/lime mixture. Don’t drench them, but be liberal enough with the mixture so that it soaks into the cake a little bit. Yum!

Let your cupcakes cool and then top them with your favorite frosting (the strawberry margarita frosting ROCKS, recipe below)

Strawberry Margarita Frosting:
1 stick (1/2 cup) of dairy free butter, softened
Scant 1/2 cup shortening
1-3 Tablespoons of strawberry puree
1-2 Tablespoons of lime juice
1-2 Tablespoons of tequila
Powdered sugar (1/2 to 3/4 of the bag)

Now, I’m sorry that my measurements aren’t exact. However, this recipe is fairly flexible and you can make it to suit your taste.

Start by creaming your butter and shortening in a stand mixer. Let your mixer run on high for 1-2 minutes until the butter and shortening have creamed together and look smooth and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and make sure everything is fully incorporated and whipped together. Noone likes chunky frosting people!

Turn your mixer off and add a little less than half of the bag of powdered sugar. Here is the only tricky part: it’s better to add a little at a time (powdered sugar, then liquid, then powdered sugar, then liquid… etc) so that the frosting doesn’t separate.

Turn your mixer on low and let the butter/shortening mix with the powdered sugar. It will be very dry, but let it mix the best it can. Keep the mixer on and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the strawberry puree. Mix it on medium. If the frosting is still really dry, it’s okay to add some of the tequila and lime juice. Start with 1 tablespoon. Mix on high. The goal is to whip everything. Taste your frosting. Not sweet enough? Add more powdered sugar. Not enough tequila or lime? Add more. Just make sure that before you add more liquid, your frosting is dry enough to handle it.

I love to whip my frosting for 2-5 minutes so that it’s nice and fluffy.

Pipe it onto your cooled cupcakes. Decorate accordingly.

Bonus points if you create fondant sombreros. 🙂

PS: If you don’t want alcohol in your frosting, then just use the strawberry puree, lime juice, and you could also use a little soy milk instead of tequila.