Cinnamon-Sugar-Crusted Almond Popovers

February 9, 2010 · Filed Under Suite of Sweets, Valentine's Day, What can I eat ..., bread, breakfast, dessert, easy, gluten free, recipe · 29 Comments

This recipe is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays at Blessed with Grace and What can I eat that’s gluten free? over at Linda’s The Gluten-Free Homemaker.

It’s day two of SSS … a Suite of Sweets for Sweethearts. With that wintry stuff moving into our area again, I thought I’d share this recipe for melt-in-your-mouth breakfast (or dessert) popovers. These can surely make your forget about your “I’m over winter” blues. They would also be ideal for breakfast on Valentine’s Day morning … or brunch … or afternoon tea. Frankly, I can’t think of any time these popovers wouldn’t be good. I adapted this recipe from David Lebovitz’s Sugar-Coated Popovers recipe (an adaptation of an earlier recipe of his shared both in the New York Times and this Maida Heatter cookbook).

Each time, I’ve made these popovers, if there were more than two of us eating them, they disappeared in mere minutes. These popovers even inspired Mr. GFE to suggest that there should be a special feature here on gfe—Mr. GFE’s Recipe Pick of the Month. Of course, this recipe would be his first pick, he said. Son proclaimed these popovers to be the closest thing to a cinnamon bun that he has eaten since going gluten free. (The cinnamon-sugar mixture I always use is very heavy on the cinnamon.) Then Son ate four, in fairly rapid succession … even after he’d stated that he was only going to eat half of the fourth one. Maybe this recipe should be called Mr. GFE’s Top Pick Willpower-Busting Popovers. These popovers were a family collaboration of sorts. It was Son’s idea to prepare a little honey butter (using raw honey from our bees) for topping these popovers. That was a brilliant idea!

I’ve added almonds to my recipe, which Mr. GFE and I love. For those with nut allergies, skip the almonds and you will still have delightful popovers.

Cinnamon-Sugar-Crusted Almond Popovers
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

For the popovers:

2 tablespoons butter, melted (non-dairy should work)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup milk (whole, 2 %; non-dairy should work)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup gluten-free flour mix (I used my gluten-free flour mix*)
1 tsp xanthan gum

For the topping:

about 1/3 cup of sliced almonds

For the sugar coating:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (more or less depending how much you like cinnamon) (UPDATED: I just made the popovers again and made a new batch of cinnamon-sugar. One tablespoon of cinnamon was too much. Start with 1 teaspoon and add more if necessary after taste testing your popovers.)

For dipping:

1/4 cup melted butter in small bowl

Softened butter, for greasing the pan (I always just use a butter wrapper.)

1. Preheat the oven to 400º F. Grease a nonstick popover or muffin pan (with 1/2-cup indentations), with softened butter.

2. For the popovers, put the 2 tablespoons melted butter, eggs, milk, salt and sugar in a blender and blend for a few seconds.

3. Add the flour and blend for about 10 seconds, just until smooth.

4. Pour into 9 greased molds, filling each about 2/3 full.

5. Sprinkle each with about a teaspoon of sliced almonds.

6. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the popovers are golden/deep brown. (I do my usual toothpick doneness test.)

7. Toward the end of the baking time, you’ll want to get ready for the popovers by creating a little assembly line for final processing. Melt butter in a small bowl and place on your work space. Mix cinnamon and sugar in another small bowl and place to the right of the butter. Place plate or napkin-lined basket to the right of the cinnamon-sugar bowl.

8. Remove popovers from the oven. At this point, you can wait a few minutes until they are cool enough to handle or you can do what an impatient person (that would be me!) does. I stick a toothpick in each popover, remove it from the pan and follow an assembly line process. Dip the popover in the bowl of melted butter rotating until bottom and sides are buttered. (Alternatively, you can brush the butter on the popovers using a pastry brush.) Keep the popover on the toothpick and dip into the bowl of cinnamon-sugar. Roll bottom and sides into mixture. Place on plate or in napkin-lined basket. Each one is a warm, buttery, cinnamon-sugar bundle of goodness ready to eat!

Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz

*I can’t tolerate many of the healthier, gluten-free flours; e.g., sorghum, buckwheat. Therefore, my gluten-free flour mix is 3 parts Asian white rice flour and 2 parts cornstarch. I gently mix three one-lb bags of the Asian white rice flour and two one-lb boxes of cornstarch in a very large bowl and then store the mix in several airtight containers (like large glass jars). No refrigeration is needed. If you’d like to learn more about how to select the right gluten-free flour for all your recipes, you’ll want to check out Amy’s (Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free) current series on Understanding & Choosing Gluten-Free Flour—Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Shirley’s Notes: That last photo is actually of recovered, “mistake” popovers that I made during our last snowstorm. As soon as I popped the muffin pan into the oven, I saw the bowl of melted butter sitting on the counter. I had gotten distracted by a couple of ”brown-outs,” while preparing the batter. Long ago, I might have scrapped the whole batch and started anew. Not any more … I set the muffin pan on the stove and spooned a little melted butter into each muffin cup and gave a tiny stir, then replaced the muffin pan in the oven and baked per usual. As you can see, the popovers suffered no ill effects. I also had forgotten to allow the eggs to come to room temperature. No worries … the recipe still worked fine. The popovers might have turned out a teeny tiny bit better if the eggs had been at room temperature, but we certainly didn’t find anything to complain about.

Enjoy, and if you’re on the snowy East Coast of the U.S., stay safe. These popovers will take care of the usual, second part of that parting statement— ”stay warm“—at least for a bit. They’ll warm your tummy and bring some sunshine into your life. Later, you can enjoy yesterday’s SSS offering … Surprise Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, because at this point, I really don’t think you want to be eating that snow cream. Just sayin’.

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

Tags: almonds, bread, breakfast, GFE, gluten free, honey, nuts, popovers, recipe, Valentine's Day

Popover Pizza with Baby Bellas

June 6, 2009 · Filed Under Friday Foodie Fix, breakfast, entree, gluten free, recipe, vegetarian · 25 Comments

… Plus Caramelized Onions and Sweet Peppers

First things first … Mr. GFE says that it’s really not accurate to call this a pizza. I will continue to call it popover pizza, but I’ll add the disclaimer that some folks call it a pizza “casserole” and others call it “upside down pizza.” I’ve been making this recipe for years, so I think his comments “stemmed” from this particular version of this pizza—a vegetarian one—not the popover pizza in general. And, the fact that I added caramelized onions might have put it over the top for hubby. (It’s definitely not a manly, man recipe like Carol is seeking in this month’s Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free theme. ) Another factor might have been that the cheese does not stand out in this recipe. It plays an important role in holding the ingredients together, but you don’t get that super ooey, gooey texture that’s sometimes present in pizza dishes. The vegetables and sauce are definitely front and center, supported by the very nice popover crust.

About the popover factor … loyal readers already know that I am a self-confessed popover lover. Early on in gfe’s history, I shared my recipe for popovers as my favorite gluten-free “bread.” Then, I posted the recipe for the fabulous volcano pancake, which is the equivalent of a popover in pancake form. Now, I’m sharing popover pizza. (Look at the photo below of it right out of the oven to see the popover effect! Ignore the slight “leakage” of the sauce.) This is a recipe that’s all over the web. I just adapted it to be gluten free. Usually I make it with ground venison as the “topping.” But, this time I wanted to use mushrooms for Diane’s Friday Foodie Fix at the The Whole Gang. I could have just added mushrooms to the meat sauce mixture I generally use. However, because I was going for a real veggie taste, I skipped the meat and along with the mushrooms added caramelized Vidalia onions and yellow and red sweet peppers. The results are a sweeter version punctuated with the meat-like flavor of the baby bellas.

It’s important to note that the dough of this popover pizza will taste significantly better and allow for an easier, “prettier” flip if it is allowed to cool/set up for several minutes. A 10 – 15 minute wait works well. However, at our house, we can’t always wait that long. Sometimes we don’t get to appreciate that fact until we cut our second piece of popover pizza!

I gave this version the ultimate test by eating a piece cold for breakfast. It passed with flying colors! I will make my traditional version for Mr. GFE soon and share with you all. Plus, I’ll be sharing my flourless pizza recipe soon (you won’t believe that this pizza contains no flour). For now, I hope you’ll enjoy this popover pizza with baby bellas, caramelized onions, and sweet peppers. As always, feel free to modify the ingredients to what you have on hand and to your liking … that’s really what being gfe and being happy in the kitchen are all about!

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Popover Pizza with Bellas, Onions, and Peppers
(Click here for a print version of this recipe.)

6 ounces of Baby Bella (portabello) mushrooms—cleaned, sliced and cooked
2 Vidalia onions—thinly sliced and slightly caramelized
sweet pepper slices—sauteed a few minutes
small amount of oil (for sauteeing and caramelizing onions)
pinch of granulated sugar (for caramelizing onions)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (for caramelizing onions)
1 jar spaghetti/pasta sauce (I used a 24-ounce jar of Bertolli organic this time—olive oil, basil, and garlic—but I’ve tried many different mainstream gf sauces, all with great success)
2 cups (8 oz) shredded mozzarella
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 cup gluten-free flour mix*
½ tsp xanthan gum (omit if using a gf flour mix that contains xanthan gum)
¼ tsp salt
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Grease 13 x 9 Pyrex baking dish. Saute mushrooms in a small amount of vegetable oil until they release their liquid. Drain and place in single layer in baking dish. Saute peppers in remaining liquid for about two minutes; add a little vegetable oil if needed. Remove peppers with spatula or slotted spoon and add in a layer to baking dish over mushrooms. Slightly caramelize onions by sauteeing on medium heat until translucent, then adding a pinch of sugar and one teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and cook until browned and fragrant (a few more minutes). Remove onions with spatula or slotted spoon (so all liquid is left in pan) and layer onions on top of peppers and mushrooms. Heat sauce in skillet bringing to a simmer, then pour over veggies. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Beat eggs, milk, and oil until foamy. Add flour mix and salt, and beat until smooth. Pour batter over sauce/veggie mixture, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with Parmesan.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the top is puffed and golden brown. Cool a few minutes and then cut into squares, flipping as you place on plate.

*A very economical option is the gluten-free flour mix that I use most of the time. It consists of three parts Asian white rice flour (much more finely ground than typical white rice flour) and two parts cornstarch. I make 5 lbs of this mix at a time. I use three 1-lb bags of Asian white rice flour and two 1-lb boxes of Argo cornstarch. Mix well, but gently in a very large bowl and then transfer to airtight storage containers (like Tupperware). I can’t guarantee that this recipe will work with all gf flour mixes.

Shirley’s Notes: I cooked all the veggies beforehand to ensure that I wouldn’t have too much liquid in the recipe. I added the leftover liquid from my skillet to my freezer container for future use in Everything Soup. I had a little too much liquid initially as you can see from the next to the last photo, but once the pizza cooled, the little bit of extra liquid was absorbed and it was not a big deal. However, I had cooked the peppers with the sauce and I think they provided the liquid, so I modified the instructions to show sauteeing the peppers separately to prevent any extra liquid.

Shirley
Not just gf, but gfe!

Tags: breakfast, gluten free, popovers, recipe

Snowdrops … and Baked Potato Soup

March 1, 2009 · Filed Under easy, gluten free, potato, soup · 25 Comments

We have a flower bed beside our patio. Only three types of flowers grow there throughout the year. From April to October, the bed is filled with impatiens. They are the “standard issue” impatiens and the colors vary by what’s available each year. We plant impatiens not because they are our absolutely favorite flower, but because of their easygoing nature. Our house is in the woods and we need flowers that are tolerant of both full shade and low maintenance. Impatiens fit the bill, and by the end of the growing season their showy display is impressive.

However, during the late fall and winter months, this particular flower bed looks pretty sad and lonely. The fact that this bed is right beside my immediate “at the ready” firewood supply for the wood stove does not help at all … as the errant log and large sheaths of bark often find their way into the bed. The upper floor of our house is T-shaped and the patio is actually the space under the base of that T. It’s also right outside our den where our woodstove is located. (I designed our house with the openness we wanted and the ease of heating with wood foremost in my mind.) My husband keeps me well supplied with wood, which often means the wood is stacked a good 3- or 4- feet high between the columns that frame the patio. For months, I don’t usually even see the flower bed unless I go wandering in that part of our yard and woods, perhaps checking out something that the cats are up to. Right before Valentine’s Day, I walked into our woods down the hill from the patio to empty our chinchilla’s cage of its shredded pine bedding. Admittedly, it’s a task I often relegate to my husband when he’s out in the yard refilling the birdfeeders, but this time I was working on my “to do” list for the party and the timing was off to make it one of his collateral duties. Coming back up the hill, I was rewarded by the lovely sight of more than a dozen snowdrops in the flower bed. I stopped and smiled and thought, yep, it’s that time again. Every single year, without fail, I am joyfully surprised by the appearance of snowdrops. :-)

Snowdrops are aptly named because they show up at the time of year when snow is in the forecast and can often be seen peeking through snow. When your are dreaming of seeds and bedding plants in a few months and your only expectations of fresh flowers are from the florist, suddenly, there they are for you. Today’s forecast is for several inches of snow. So, this morning out of curiosity, I purposely stepped around our firewood “fortress” to see how many snowdrops remained. I saw three and they looked as pretty as ever, no worse for wear from rain and sleet the last 24 hours. One was actually outside the confines of the flower bed—on its way down the hill—but still standing proud and pretty. (Its location was a nicer reminder than the stack of landscape timbers off to the side of the patio that we need to re-do the flower bed, since the timbers have fallen away due to gravity and time.) The funny thing about snowdrops is they look so delicate and fragile to me, much like lilies of the valley in their fragility and whiteness fringed with green. I wonder how they can survive the cold and snow and remain so intact and beautiful. Yet they do, year after year. Best of all, they are another sign that spring is coming. When my prolific blue star flowers (sometimes called Star of David flowers), the third type of flower that graces this bed, follow in a few weeks, I will know for certain winter is behind us.

Photo below by dawnzy58

However, today winter remains and with the snow soon to make its appearance here, a suitable dinner is needed. You guys already know I’ m a soup kind of girl! Well, the opposite of delicate, but still as suited to a snow day as the snowdrop, is a hearty, flavorful soup. What kind of soup recipe do I turn to when I am otherwise occupied (e.g., doing taxes today) and don’t plan to be in the kitchen enjoying the soup “process,” like I do with my Everything Soup? Well, I have a couple of quick soup recipes I rely on … like this Hearty Baked Potato Soup recipe. It was shared on J.D. Roth’s personal finance blog, Get Rich Slowly. (I am nothing, if not a girl of many interests.) His wife, Kris, is the mastermind behind this very simple and easy, yet wonderfully tasty soup. It’s pretty frugal (always important, but especially appreciated these days) and it’s made from ingredients that almost everyone has on hand. That latter fact makes any recipe a winner for me, but especially on a snowy day. (The snow just started coming down!) After all, you don’t want to go to the grocery store and face the “snow is coming and, oh, no, I might run of of TP, milk, bread, or junk food” crowds, do you? I didn’t think soooo! (Of course, that might only be in Virginia where that particular phenomenon occurs. Do tell.) Finally, this recipe is naturally gluten free, so it’s GFE! Love that, and love this soup!

Do you have a food or recipe that you call on when snow is imminent or already falling? One that warms your body and your soul perhaps. Tell us about it. Perhaps you have your own “must have” ptoato soup recipe … we’d like to hear about that, too!

Baked Potato Soup

– 3 large russet potatoes, cleaned (but not peeled), skins pierced 3-4 times with a fork (you can use about 6 smaller potatoes, and I’ve used white potatoes before also; with a large crowd you can use a large stockpot and double the recipe)
– 1/4 cup butter or margarine
– 1 small yellow onion, chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, minced
– 1/4 cup GF flour
– 2 cups GF chicken broth (or one 14-ounce can, I make my broth from Better than Bouillon chicken base)
– 12 ounces evaporated milk
– 2 tsp seasoned salt
– Optional toppings: shredded cheese, diced ham or crumbled bacon, chives or scallions, Tabasco sauce, GF croutons

Microwave the potatoes 8-9 minutes until baked through. Set aside to cool slightly. Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat and add onion. Cook 6-7 minutes until softened. Add minced garlic and cook 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add flour and stir several minutes to make a thickened roux. Gradually stir in evaporated milk and broth. Scoop the pulp from one potato, mash it slightly and add to soup. Cook soup on medium to bring to a boil. Add seasoning salt (to taste). Dice the remaining two potatoes and empty skin of the third potato. Add to soup and heat through.

Serve alone, with GFE popovers or my cornbread, or your other favorite bread or cracker.

Notes: Adapted from Kris Roth. This recipe is also great to turn to when you have a couple of potatoes in your pantry that will soon be sprouting offspring (if enough dirt gets thrown their way!). It’s very well received when shared with others, too—it looks very appealing in a canning jar. If you’ve always shied away from potato skins in recipes, don’t this time. The skins give a nice heartiness to the soup and add more nutrients as well. Finally, I think this could be made dairy free using a dairy-free equivalent for butter/margarine and, perhaps, coconut milk for the evaporated milk. Might take some playing around to get the right thickness and richness, but I think the modifications should prove fairly easy.

Shirley

Not just GF, but GFE