Gingerbread Buche de Noel—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi

Wait—before the year is over, I must post about this Tuesdays With Dorie recipe we made in the group over Christmas!  I’m a little late on posting it.  The date was for the Tuesday before Christmas, but I wanted to make it for Christmas Eve, so didn’t get it posted—until now—all the sudden it’s New Year’s Eve!  I did make this for Christmas Eve and I must say, though it was a huge labor of love and there were many steps to follow, I have learned that with Dorie’s recipes, if I do just that—follow all directions, the recipes always turn out great.  That said, I followed all the steps perfectly, except I decided to try making it gluten free and used organic cane sugars. 

Oh, look, two skinny little ends cut off.  I had to taste them for quality control!

I had high hopes that since the cake only called for 3/4 cup of flour that changing it to a gluten free flour blend would probably be okay.  I was going to retype the recipe as I made it, but I really didn’t change anything except the flour (I happened to have some Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking Mix, so that is what I used) and I used organic cane sugar and organic brown sugar.  All the many involved steps to the recipe were not changed at all.  And though I say it was a labor of love and there were what seemed like many steps involved, it was SO worth it.  I would certainly make this cake again for a special occasion.

The gingerbread flavor was not too strong, so I think this cake could be made year round.  And even if it was a strong ginger flavor, I would not be against making this in the summer if I really felt like it.  ; )

The cake roll worked perfectly—that’s always a worry that it will not roll up nicely.  This rolled perfectly with not even any cracking.  The filling is a nice cream cheese/butter filling that isn’t sweet at all and then the delicious egg white/sugar syrup frosting is a perfectly sweet addition to the cake.  Also loved the pecan praline crunch that was in the filling and on the top of the cake. 

This cake was my big holiday splurge and I won’t tell you how many pieces of it I ate (not all in one sitting).  I took the cake to a family Christmas Eve celebration and it was well liked by everyone who ate some of it.  Nice thing about those big family get-togethers—so many desserts that I was able to bring a little bit of the cake home to enjoy later.

I wish you all a wonderful, Happy New year!  Thanks for still sticking around here with me.  It’s almost been seven years since I started my blog and while I’m not in it for the fame and money, I love sharing with my readers the happiness I get from baking and sharing with all those around me.  While how often I blog has changed over the years and even the kinds of things I blog, I’m happy you’re still here.  I wish you all health and happiness in the new year!

You are in luck if you want this recipe, it can be found on the internet from some of the promotions done with Dorie’s new book.  You can find the recipe HERE.  I think you should just get Baking Chez Moi!  My link at the top for Tuesdays With Dorie has everyone else in the groups’ posts for their Buche de Noel cakes.  Check them out!  We’ll be starting the year out more healthy with some granola bars, coming soon! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Gingerbread Buche de Noel—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi

Just a quick note—Today for Tuesdays With Dorie  the recipe is Gingerbread Buche de Noel.  I plan to make it tomorrow for Christmas Eve, so my post won’t be up today, but I’m looking forward to making it! 

Stay tuned and in the meantime, check out the link for others in the group who have already made and posted about their cake!

Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking Chez Moi--Gingerbread Buche de Noel links

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY

HOLIDAYS!

Grain Free Gingerbread Blondies with Chocolate Chips (also refined sugar free)

Probably the last thing I’m able to get posted before Christmas, sure wish I could get to posting more often like I used to.  Someday.  I’ve missed it.  But here we are, the last week of December, Christmas Eve tomorrow and the year is gone.  2013, not my favorite year, we’ve sure had our fair share of trials in our family.  Bring on 2014!  I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a great coming new year as well!

I haven’t been making as many treats as I’d like.  Just haven’t had the energy to do so.  Bums me out!  But I did make a few things worthy of getting posted, so here’s one.  I took a few ideas and recipes that were grain free, refined sugar free and made these blondies.  I’ve been craving gingerbread like crazy and these have really hit the spot.  I do like gingerbread without chocolate, but for some reason I prefer it WITH chocolate—go figure.

These are simply made with almond butter and coconut sugar for the sweetener.  There is a little coconut flour in them as well as some molasses and those wonderful spices that make gingerbread so good.  I have really enjoyed them slightly heated up with a few more chocolate chips on top—they get all melty and add a nice topping.  They are just find without the extra chocolate.

Grain Free Gingerbread Blondies with Chocolate Chips, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 cup almond butter (I made my own with almonds I roasted)

2 tablespoons unsulphured blackstrap molasses (It doesn’t have to be blackstrap)

2 large eggs

2/3 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/3 cup Organic Fair Trade chocolate chips, more for topping if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line an 8 inch square baking pan with nonstick foil (or grease with coconut oil).  Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the almond butter, molasses, eggs and coconut sugar.  Whisk together until well mixed.  (This can all be done by hand or with an electric mixer.)  In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Spread the mixture evenly into the baking pan.  Bake for 12-15 minutes.  Let cool then remove from pan by lifting the edges of the foil and cut into squares. 

Put those few extra chocolate chips on top of a piece of the blondies and  warm it up for 15-20 seconds.  Then let it sit for a minute.  The chocolate will melt a little, then just spread it over the top, it wasn’t all that pretty when I did it that way late one night, so I don’t have a photo, but it sure tasted great!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!  So grateful for all who read my little ol’ blog.

Grain Free No Bake Gingerbread Cookie Balls, also Gluten Free, Vegan and Refined Sugar Free

Yesterday I made two batches of cookies and some Gingerbread Cookie Bars (I mentioned them on Facebook, they are from Six Sisters’ Stuff).  I love baking.  But I am SO happy to know that I can still have yummy, much-healthier treats, too, even though I am  no longer eating gluten or refined sugars.  Here’s the link for the Salted Caramel Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookies I posted recently.  I made two kinds of them, some had white chocolate chips and coconut and some had semi sweet chocolate chips and M&M’s, the caramel is the sticky star of these cookies, and the flavor and texture from the cream cheese in the cookie dough. 

These Grain Free No Bake Gingerbread Cookie Balls from Beth at Tasty Yummies hit the spot and are delicious!  They are super easy to make, have just a few ingredients and those delicious holiday spices that I was going crazy over smelling while I made the Gingerbread Cookie Bars. 

Simple and great and they do not even any oven time, I didn’t change a thing from Beth’s recipe—so go there now and make these.  They are a perfect treat for when you’re in the kitchen baking away other goodies for people and wish you could have just a little something.  They would also be great to give away to others.  I love all the no-bake treats out there, especially the ones like these with no refined sugars! 

That MIGHT be enough for me to snack on for a few days.  They are made with nuts and dates, a little molasses (unsulphured organic) and yummy spices.  They are rolled in unsweetened coconut, but they wouldn’t need to be and I think I’ll leave them “plain” next time I make them (in a few days).  One more photo, since you need to see them again and since I’m not posting the recipe.  Go to the link above for Beth’s recipe.

Spicy Gingerbread Twigs

Today was Tuesdays With Dorie.  I’m a flake.  Sort of.  I made the Gingerbread Baby Cakes, but did not like them, so I decided not to post them.  The recipe (for me) has WAY too much molasses.  So all I could taste was molasses and not the spices.  Mine turned out a little too fudgy (maybe not baked long enough) and the centers sunk, which always annoys me with cakes.  I only made half the recipe and it still had one cup of molasses in it.  I knew it would be too much for my liking, but made it anyway.  I’m not bitter or angry.  I actually recently saw the episode on Baking With Julia on my PBS station where these were made.  After baking the cakes and smelling that great gingerbread smell, I was wanting something with ginger. 

Just happened to be reading the current issue of Better Homes and Gardens and saw these Spicy Gingerbread Twigs and they intrigued me enough that I made them today.  I love biscotti and have made gingerbread biscotti before, so I knew a crunchy cookie with gingerbread flavor would be good, well, that and who doesn’t like gingersnaps (besides my husband)? ;)  It was simple to follow the recipe and I only changed one thing—since we don’t drink or use coffee and this recipe had a quarter cup of brewed coffee in it, I got a quarter cup of warm water and added one tablespoon of cocoa powder to it.  Nothing like substituting chocolate for coffee!

After making the dough, which was really easy to make with melted butter, molasses and my “coffee” combined together and adding it to the dry ingredients, it was ready to divide in half and roll in to the suggested 6 x 12 inches.  “Twigs” were then cut with a pizza cutter and it was baked.  Much like biscotti, after the first baking, the temperature of the oven is turned down, the cookie twigs were spaced apart and then baked again.  Before baking, the dough was sprinkled with coarse sugar.

I hadn’t yet made the cut down the middle for this photo so they weren’t so long, but they are about six inches long.  The magazine recipe suggests cutting them in the short direction, but it comes out the same when it is then cut down the middle.

Get the recipe on the link above, since I didn’t change much, I’m not going to re-type it.  Oh, the recipe also had some optional cayenne pepper, which I decided to leave out so I could really taste the ginger and because I’m a wimp. ;)

Kevin’s UVU department Christmas party is at our house Friday night.  While the meal is being catered by Honeybaked Ham, I am making some desserts and think these twigs will be fun to have set out along with some other things.

Sorry about the TWD mishap, I know many loved the cakes and have seen a few that look better than mine did.  I also wonder with my sinking-in-the-center issue if it has to do with the high altitude and I should have adjusted the recipe a little. 

If you’re looking for a great gingerbread cake, try this one, from my friend, Paige at For Love of the Table.  I think I’ll make that one—soon—maybe for the Christmas party on Friday.  It has chocolate—I love chocolate and ginger.