chocolate sauce

Yesterday I wrote that I would share the chocolate sauce recipe that I use for anything chocolate sauce.  Yesterday was roasted bananas but it could be ice cream or smoothies or cake or anything that you would put chocolate sauce on.

Chocolate Sauce

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 cup cocoa (the better the cocoa, the better the sauce)

1 finger pinch of ground ancho

1 finger pinch of ground chipolte

2 finger pinch of cinnamon

In a pan, put the water and sugar.  Bring to a boil and let boil one minute.

Turn the heat off.  Measure out the cocoa and whisk into the sugar mixture.  Be careful that it does not boil over the pot.  Add the ancho, chipolte, and cinnamon.  Whisk well.

Pour the goodness on roasted bananas or dip bananas into it or use it in a smoothie or.....

I store it in the refrigerator once it cools.

roasted bananas

We had dinner with our Tall Short person last night.  Life has not shown her the straightest path lately and she needed some comfort food.  For us, that was Japanese.  My Beloved decided that he needed dessert and had something called Monkeys Gone Crazy.  It had bananas, chocolate, and ice cream.  I decided I wanted to make a dessert based on the banana and chocolate bit.  This is what happened:  roasted bananas with chocolate sauce.  I would have sworn up and down that I had already posted the chocolate sauce recipe but I could not find it when I searched so I will post it tomorrow.  But first, the roasted bananas.

Roasted Bananas

2 bananas

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In an oven proof skillet, put the butter and melt over medium heat.  When melted, slice the peeled banana into it.  Add the brown sugar and cinnamon.  Stir a bit.  Put in the oven for ten minutes.  Pull out and stir.  Put back in the oven for another ten minutes.  

It should be all bubbly and fragrant.  Take out of the oven.  Split between two bowls.  Add chocolate sauce.

Incredible decadence!  

If you ate a big dinner, I can see where one banana would be enough for two.  We had my easy macaroni and cheese so we each had a banana to ourselves.

yumminess!

gluten free blondies

Blondies worked!  These are not vegan but they are gluten free and the gluten free flours I used were whole grain.  I started with the blondie recipe from Smitten Kitchen.  I liked how few ingredients there were.  I find that I have the best luck with changing something to gluten free when the recipe is simpler.  My Beloved likes the protein count in these as well.  The flours add a bit.

Blondies

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground flax (as fine as possible)

1 tablespoon boiling water

1/4 cup arrowroot flour

1/4 cup almond flour

1/4 cup brown rice flour

1/4 cup sorghum flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Butter and "flour" a 8 by 8 inch pan.

Mix the butter and brown sugar together.   Really cream well.  Mix in the egg and vanilla.  Mix the flax and boiling water together in a small bowl.  Add to the sugar and butter mixture.

Add all the flours, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Mix well.  Pour into the prepared pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.  

Cool if possible!  They will come out of the pan easier.

These were good.  Not too overwhelmingly sweet but I think a bit of that is the whole grains.  I think they are lovely.  My Beloved makes them disappear.  It will be interesting to see how long they last (grin)

failed experimentation

This morning I offered my Beloved an option of a sweet after dinner.  He chose blondies.  I have only every made blondies from a mix so this was new ground.  The other part was that they needed to be gluten free.  Oh, and by the way if they could be vegan as well that would be great because then all the food sensitivities would be met.  

I got out cookbooks.  Read recipes.  Decided that tofu was not even a consideration due to food allergies.  I got out butter and sugars, different flours, hempmilk, and flax seed.  Mixed and poured into a pan.  The batter tasted yummy.

 

As my Beloved said, this is liquid hot magma but yummy.  It never hardened up but there were a few crispies but mostly it was goo.  Yumminess in goo but goo.  It will eventually become a true blondie.  Bar form and everything.  But currently it is goo.  It would probably taste very good on vanilla ice cream but we only have sorbet in the house.

More experimentation needed.  I noticed I am going to need to restock the gluten free flours too.  No rest for the weary (laughter!)

not the swedish chef doughnuts

I introduced my Beloved to the Swedish Chef a while back.  He was never one of those kids who sat much.  Outside and playing was his choice so he never saw the Muppets.  He now quotes the doughnut skit often.  But he has decided to go gluten free again because it makes him feel better.  And I wanted a doughnut pan.  What does that mean?  Gluten free doughnuts!

I took the recipe for Old Fashioned doughnuts by Lara Ferroni in her book Doughnuts:  Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home and made it gluten free and modified it to what I had in the kitchen.  It was very easy.

Gluten Free Old Fashioned Baked Doughnuts

1/4 cup arrowroot flour

1/4 cup millet

1/4 cup sorghum

1/4 cup almond flour

1/4 cup corn flour

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup yogurt

1 egg

1 tablespoon butter or shortening

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together well.  You want them to be very well mixed and light.  Add the egg, yogurt, and butter.  Mix until everything is combined.

I purchased the Wilton doughnut pans that have a very nice non-stick finish.  The mini pan I would probably grease but the regular size I did not have to.  I also over filled the pans so less full then you see above

Bake 6 to 10 minutes.  Let cool a bit before you remove them from the pan.  Glaze.

These are pretty fabulous.  Also, if you have problems getting them out of the tin, they would make lovely cake balls!  The Tall Short Person came through and kept munching.  She did not even realize they were gluten free!  How amazing is that?  She has come to be more adventurous in her old age but she is still fairly picky.  A lot of picky has to do with texture so these were really spot on.

One caution:  Do not eat them all in one sitting (smile)