Celebrate: Gluten-Free Style! Looking for recipes and inspiration for your gluten-free Christmas breakfast? Winter solstice brunch with friends? Vegan Hanukkah guests? A romantic New Year's Eve? Some simple winter comfort food? Here is my collection of holiday friendly favorites. Browse these gluten-free wheat-free recipes (most are dairy-free as well) and create your own winter holiday menu. Celebrate gluten-freestyle. With love. Karina xo Read on for links to he recipes...
Italian Dreams. There isn't a speck of Italian blood in me. Allegedly. No blood lines (even faint ones) to trace back to Italy's flavor and culture rich boot. I claim no Italian grandmother with deft, gnarled hands who could roll out ravioli dough in her sleep. No puttering, gardening grandfather who offered me my first taste of a sun warmed tomato straight off the string-tied vine. We didn't have lasagna on our Thanksgiving table. Or baked ziti. My mother never mixed me an almond infused Italian soda after a rough day at school. So why is Italian food forever, for me, the ultimate comfort food? Hungry, angry, lonely, tired- what do I crave? Spaghetti slick with garlicky olive oil and red pepper flakes. Bubbling hot lasagna. Fresh baked focaccia. Bruschetta. Risotto with butternut squash. Baked stuffed pasta shells. All heaven. The tough part is- living gluten-free AND dairy-free can seriously crush your Italian gilded comfort food dreams. Back in the ...
Cape Cod and cranberries... The two go together like Beatles and Sunday. And I was imagining a tea bread that might work for gluten-free French toast. The sort of breakfast you'd like to wake up to on Christmas morning. Something warm with melting butter and cozy cinnamon. Something festive. You know, special. Not your average grab-on-the-go with coffee nosh. A gluten-free bread worthy of a holiday. Like Autumnal Equinox... or Thanksgiving. Or any given Sunday, actually. That's how it all started, my craving, my imagining. That's when it dawned me. Cranberry bread. Why not? It's simple. And not too sweet. It flirts magically with maple syrup. So I started daydreaming about the tart little berry that is a bog's ruby jewel. And a gluten-free cranberry bread recipe was born. Happy Cranberry Harvest, dear ones. Karina xox
Chocolate Mint Cookie Love. Okay. I'll say it up front. For all those perceptive Readers out there. This post? It's a redux slash revamp of a previous chocolate cookie recipe. Why? Because Darling, we are always tweaking and gently nudging recipes toward perfection around here. Though as you and I well know, perfection is unattainable (in the gluten-free vegan baking world, that is). But we can come close. Very close. And with this latest peppermint chocolate chip incarnation we are a good nibble closer to the best chocolate cookie yet. So of course, I had to tweak and share. These remind me of those Girl Scout cookies called Thin Mints. Except they're chubby (though I suppose one could flatten them a bit if one was so inclined). These peppermint laced fudgy sweethearts are crisp chocolate goodness. We freeze ours and serve them slightly chilled. Those of you more adept at fancy baking could try creating heart shapes. These are lovely warm from the oven with an ic...
Divine Gluten-Free Layer Bars. From my kitchen to yours. This classic style dessert is a family favorite- my chocolate-coconut layer bar recipe. Simple to make. Sweet and gooey and bliss inducing. And most important? You can offer them at any gathering without a gluten-free apology. (Would that be, Don't ask, don't tell?) Chill before serving, if you like, for a snappy, cold burst of sweetness. Cheers- Karina xo Karina's Nirvana Layer Bars Recipe By Karina Allrich Last night I made a batch of these wonderfully rich and decadent bars. Truthfully, they're more like candy than cookie. Gooey and divine, they made the men in the house simply go, "Ahhhhhhhh." "Nirvana?" I asked. "You betcha," was the lip-smacking reply. Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter (or vegan buttery stick, such as Earth Balance) 1 1/2 cups gluten-free chocolate cookies, processed into crumbs 1 cup (heaping) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips 1 cup sweetene...