Black Bean Crackers with Jalapeño Popper Dip

That game above all games is set to be played in a couple weeks. My f.i.l. purchased a new TV before Christmas, anticipating his team being there.
Since I wouldn’t desire to be anywhere near MetLife Stadium in February, we will do our tailgating indoors!
What better time, Kristen, to try out new Cheese & Cracker recipes, huh?
As I was serving a crock of slow-cooker black beans to my sons the other day, I told them not to eat it all because I needed a little for the crackers I would be making with roasted red peppers. My youngest exclaimed, “You will be adding roasted garlic, right?!” So… credit given for inspiration, Harrison!For the crackers you can use a food processor to whirl all but the rice flour, then transfer to saucepan to heat. I thought it would be much simpler to just toss everything into my little pan then use the hand blender to chop.After the rice flour is stirred into the boiled ingredients, it’s time to roll the crackers out on the silicone baking mat. (or however you’ve prepare your pan)I simply score the dough with the pizza wheel before transferring pan to oven.After baking 15-30 minutes (it really depends on how thin you want to roll them & how crisp you wish the crackers to be) they are turned into another pan and toasted for about 5 minutes.
I love this dip/spread. Next time I have been requested by the hubs to use more jalapeños – I just didn’t want to offend anyone’s palate this first try…This topping is quite delicious! I will have to try it as a breading for something fried one of these days.
I will probably double this recipe next week; and prepare but freeze for baking just before the BIG GAME.Oh! and next time I bake crackers I’ve been requested to add chipotlé.
Such a delicious combo!Please check out some other cheese & cracker participants:

Lime Crêpe Cake (with White Chocolate Pastry Cream) GF

Ah, Kristen! As if I didn’t have enough sugar being thrown around my kitchen already… Despite the busy-ness of the season, it is fun to participate in the Challenge! Lime & White Chocolate are quite the festive combo – anyway.After a recipe for crêpe cake caught my eye, I decided to make one that was gluten free. And lime. With some creamy white chocolateness slathered between the layers.
I wanted to try a new process for pastry cream that I’d been reading about. (I figured if it “lumped” too much, I could always blend it smooth with my Cuisinart® Smart Stick, right?)
I mixed all the pastry cream ingredients {{gasp}} except for the butter & chocolate pieces into the saucepan. I whisked until all was smooth; then heated & whisked until the mixture thickened. Removing from the heat, I stirred in the butter & chocolate. Total delicious smoothness! Not a lump to be sieved out before cooling!I had to make a special trip all the way outdoors to our Mexican Lime in the back yard. I had worried that our little freeze last week might have damaged some of the year-round fruit and/or blossoms. But everything appeared to be well.I blended all the crêpe ingredients and then let the mixture set in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. In the meantime I had my tallest son retrieve my vintage M’sieur Crêpe (first revealed here) from the upper cabinet.I set up my work station and got busy! Had a bit of trouble with the pan releasing the crêpes without cracking. Nevertheless, I stacked them on a plate with about two tablespoons of the white chocolate cream between. It was then that I found (in the cooled pastry cream) that I hadn’t either a) chopped the chocolate fine enough, or b) thoroughly whisked the chocolate enough before cream cooled. (I have a feeling the answer is c) both of the above!) Ah well – it tasted lovely!As I placed the final crêpe atop the stack, I decided to make a ganache to finish it all off. Here I ran into two problems: 1) I had no more white chocolate, and 2) I wished to impart a little lime flavor to the topping. How I solved my problems also became a bit of a problem: I 1) decided to use white chips instead of chocolate, & 2) decided to use lime juice to try to cut said chips awful sweetness.I also elected not to go to the bother of retrieving my double-boiler from the bottom of the back of the corner cupboard. I gently heated the half & half in a saucepan over a low burner. The chips blended tolerably, but certainly tried to seize as I mixed in the fresh lime juice.Here is the recipe:
What matters to my guys, ultimately, is how does it taste?They really could care less how beautiful, or otherwise, a dessert looks.Check out the links below for some more lime & white chocolate recipes:

Happy Birthday, Harrison!

My baby turned 14 the other day. Overnight he also grew enough to make me the shortest one of the family. We held a family celebration after church. We had Mediterranean chicken in the crockpot waiting when we got home.The birthday boy always gets to choose his cake for dessert. H specifically asked for peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate crust and caramel topping. I knew I could oblige him, and make it gluten free in the process.

The day before I baked the cheesecake, I made Fauxreo cookie dough. (I cannot emphasize enough how i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. these were!)I did not bake the cookies for a crumb crust – I just made the crust with about 2 cups from that recipe.(I made sure my pan was ready for the coming water bath! I had lined it with parchment and wrapped the bottom with foil.) Pre-baked the crust for 15 minutes in 350° oven.To my 24 oz. of softened cream cheese I added 1&1/2 cups creamy peanut butter and 1 cup honey. Whipped it for about 5 minutes.It tasted wonderful (and I’m thinking about using it for an apple dip for Thanksgiving!)Added 3 eggs.Stirred in 1 cup mini chips.Baked it in a water bath at 300° for about 75 minutes. (Bake until filling is set.)

I topped it with a honey caramel:

• 2 c. sugar
• 2 T. honey
• 1 c. cream
• 4 oz. butter
• 1 T. vanilla extract

and topped that with chocolate ganache sprinkled with Snickers® chunks.Here’s what it looked like just before slicing:

…and here’s a piece just prior to devourment:(Yes, that is a paper plate. I was sick & had a houseful of guests – don’t judge.)

Brick Cake (heirloom Red Velvet)

When I was 8 or 9 years old, my aunt brought to a family dinner the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted. My siblings & I dubbed it “brick cake” because of its appearance when we were served a piece flat on the dessert plate.That incredible cake graced a good many happy family dinners in the years that followed. (A couple times my mom substituted green food coloring for St. Patty’s day… )

My first solo attempt at this dessert masterpiece was as a newly-wed wishing to impress my husband & family for his birthday. The cake was a triumph; alas, the frosting was not. It looked something like this:Remember: read recipe thoroughly & follow each direction. (…or you might end up with a hot roux melted butter mess…)
When I first went gluten free, I made these Red Velvet cupcakes. But, I’ve been craving the flavor of Aunt Ruth’s authentic recipe; so when Kristen announced that October’s Improv Challenge would be CAKE & FROSTING, I knew I had to challenge myself to make a genuine Red Velvet tastefully gluten free. (I am not going to go off on the ubiquitous boxedmixwannaberedvelvetsomethingfrostedwithcreamcheeseicing…)
First thing I did was to call my cousin and beg for pictures of her mom’s recipe card. (So love seeing Aunt Ruth’s writing in green felt-tip pen. Can you tell she was a teacher?)(OH! And thank you, Laurel!)
Next I did a bunch of research on flours, their weight and protein content. I detailed that thought-process in a blog post here: (well… it will be as soon as I finish it…)

¡voilà! My recipe for you:

 (I realize the format looks a little strange, but it helps me see how the individual steps work together.)

Rounded up the ingredients, then prepped my pans…

So thankful to have Colby (our cobalt KitchenAid) fully functional thanks to my resourceful daddy. This recipe would’ve been difficult to manage “by hand”.

After the initial “wet” ingredients were mixed, I weighed my flours.

The batter was a little thick going into the pan…

but baked with a decent rise.

Frosting attempt was next.

Here’s my obligatory steam shot.

The rice flour thickened the milk quickly.

I managed to split the layers, but could tell I was going to have to work around a lot of crumbs.

Took me so long to frost that the butter started melting.

Glamor shot:

Aside from the frosting looking slightly lumpy (it actually felt fairly smooth in the mouth...) I was pretty pleased with my final product.

…except for the taste.
My guys all loved it (but they’d never had a chance to sample Aunt Ruth’s stellar cake). There was just something lacking for me in the flavor department.

So I baked another one this morning. I decided to ditch the brown rice flour and use more of the sorghum, some tapioca starch plus a little potato flour.
The texture seemed right & the batter tasted pretty good; but the cakes didn’t have much rise. The texture was finer, but the layers didn’t split well.Thus, I didn’t frost them & am “forcing” myself to eat them in pieces. Actually, I do like the flavor much better and the texture appears to be the right density so I’ll be working the balance of ingredients to see if I can’t get some better loft next time I bake Red Velvet.
My Improv Challenge companions would love it if you would check out their cake & frosting links here: