Cranberry Cheese Braid (gluten-free)

December’s Improv Challenge ingredients are cranberry and orange. There were sooooo many directions I wished to go with them, but finally settled on baked goods. I was wishing to try Pamela’s® Bread Mix, and here was my opportunity…
I’d made the cranberry sauce to go in a cream cheese schmear for Thanksgiving, so it was just sitting in the frig waiting for baking day.
Because I was multi-tasking, I tossed the dough ingredients into the bread machine:

• 1/2 c. warm water
• 1 T. yeast
• 1/4 c. honey
• 1 t. Kosher salt
• 1/2 c. yogurt
• 1/2 c. softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 T. fresh orange zest
• 4 c. Pamela’s® Bread Mix

When it was finished with the first rise, I divided the dough in half then rolled it out onto silicone baking sheets.Down the middle third I spread half this cream cheese mixture:

• 16 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 c. honey
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1/4 c. Pamela’s® Bread Mix

The two side of dough needs to be slashed about every inch, or so.
On top of the cheese I spooned 1/2 - 2/3 cup of the cranberry sauce. Then the strips of dough were crossed to form the braid.
(Of course, all this is repeated with the other half of the dough…)
The braids were covered with plastic wrap & let raise for an hour. They were baked in a pre-heated 350° oven for about an hour until they were nice & browned.
As they cooled, I prepared the vanilla cream glaze:

• 2 c. powdered sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 6 T. heavy cream (or as needed for desired consistency)

This was a delicious gluten-free addition to my breakfast.(If you think I ate this only at breakfast time, you are mistaken!)(Actually, I’m eating a slice right now…)

Need holiday menu ideas? Then please check out these wonderful recipes from my friends:

An InLinkz Link-up

Churros with #AngryOrchard Caramel Dip

What says “FALL” better than apples? Apple cider! And what food says “Cinnamon” better than churros? uhhhhhhh… nothing!?!
At the Improv Challenge hosted by Lesa, this month it was all about apples & cinnamon. I made the decision to create gluten free churros and an apple caramel dip. Initially I planned to juice 3 varieties of apples and make caramel from that.As “fun” as that process was, the resultant caramel came out a little lumpy & too sweet, for my taste.I’d been seeing caramel recipes made from hard cider, so decided to give that a try.

WINNER!

The flavor was fabulous and I knew this caramel would be perfect with some hot churros!
I began by making the cinnamon sugar finishing “bath”.Next I prepared my eggs so they’d be ready to add to the hot pâte à choux without any stray shells problems. I’d never prepared this with a mixer before -- I’ve always beat the eggs into the cooked flour mixture in the pan by hand. (That’s the way I learned in 7^th grade Home Ec years ago…)Next, the batter was spooned into the pastry bag so it could be piped into the oil heated in the cast iron skillet.ummmmm  -- Pretty sure I need more practice; because it was quite difficult to juggle the heavy pastry bag in my right hand and the scissors to stop the flow of batter in my left. I could not pipe a straight 6-inch line to save my life!I was quite surprised at the lovely texture of the fried dough! You would never know they were gluten free except for maybe a slight discernable flavor difference. Happily the hubs, who is by no means a donut or cruller fan, proclaimed them very tasty & even had a few with his coffee the next morning.
for the caramel:

• 1 bottle (12 oz.) Angry Orchard® hard cider
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons half & half (you could use cream )
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Boil the cider to reduce to about half. Stir in the remaining ingredients and cook until thickened. Control yourself while consuming!
for the churros:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cup gluten-free flour blend (I used Pamela’s®)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Bring the water, butter, salt & brown sugar to a rolling boil. Remove from heat. Dump in the flour all at once and beat with spoon until well-combined & smooth. Transfer to mixer and add eggs one at a time, beating until shiny after each addition. Spoon into pastry bag fitted with large star tip. Pour about one inch deep oil in skillet, and heat to 350°. Pipe a 6-inch length of dough and fry both sides until brown. Drain excess oil and shake into cinnamon/sugar mixture. Try to let it cool before you bite into it!
So, I loved the incredible apple-flavored caramel sauce and I loved the cinnamon churros ~ however, together they were much too sweet for my taste… But, try the recipes for yourself before you make that call! You should also check out the other apple & cinnamon creations from my friends via the following links.

If you don’t mind, I would like to leave you with one last picture & ask you to pray for a sweet boy from our church. Nick is battling a nasty, terrible, ugly monster named Osteosarcoma. You can attribute this churro to my poor piping skills, but as I was emptying the last of the dough from the tip, this came out. I was touched in my heart, because I had spent the morning praying for Nick & his family.

An InLinkz Link-up

chocolate “chips” & peanut butter dip

Get your mixing bowls out -- it’s #ImprovCookingChallenge day! October’s challenge ingredients are peanut butter & chocolate. Of course I decided mine would be gluten-free…The peanut butter dip recipe was developed from thoughts in this post last year; but my “chips” were somewhat inspired by Mary’s recipe here.I was very pleased with the performance of Pamela’s® Artisan Flour Blend in this recipe. My chips baked up nice & crisp!It was my intention to use cream cheese in the dip. However, at Costco the price of that was more than twice the price of ricotta! Delicious dip, nonetheless…Tried it with a Honeycrisp apple ~ ♥!

Enjoy!

To see some more delicious peanut butter & chocolate recipes, follow these links:

An InLinkz Link-up

tres leches con miel

The two ingredients for September’s Improv Cooking Challenge were milk & honey. Since I’ve been “itching” to try my hand at a gluten-free tres leches cake; I decided to combine efforts with this month’s challenge.
Sweetened Condensed Milk is a major component of this cake. I made my own with honey. I followed Tiffany’s recipe here.
After whisking this with whole milk & yogurt mixture, my “milk syrup” is now ready for after the cake cools!
Sponge cake has never been my forte -- so I was taking my chances “de-glutening” it… Therefor, instead of whipping up my own gluten-free flour science experiment concoction, I decided to try Pamela’s® Artisan Flour Blend which I’d seen some friends use in their dishes with great success.I wanted the recipe for the cake to be “authentic,” so I used this one from Pati’s Mexican Table. Here it is with my modifications:
The egg whites whipped up so nicely. I desperately wished to use honey instead of sugar, but all my research indicated that the whites would not loft correctly.I don’t remember ever beating yolks for this length of time, so I was amazed at the color they became.
Every time I bake with egg whites, I cringe at the “snap - crackle - pop” sound with every stroke I use to fold the remaining ingredients. I guess I need more practice! The finished cake appeared to be quite dense and almost resisted the milk syrup being poured over it. (Don’t know if it would have helped if I added a gum to the flour?)After (somewhat) soaking in the milk syrup overnight, it was time to trim the cake to fit my platter and frost with the honey-whipped cream. I found that most of the syrup had gathered on the top, sides & bottom of the cake. (Perhaps I should’ve used a spoon handle to poke holes?) Well, the way I figure, a good whipped cream covers a multitude of mistakes!The flavor, however, did not disappoint!
It was a moist, delicious cake. But the true test will be after my fellers have it for dessert tonight…

If you’d like to catch what the other Improv peeps created with milk & honey, check out these links:

An InLinkz Link-up