Gluten Free Thanksgiving Recipes

I have it easy this Thanksgiving, I am making a couple of side dishes and a pie. My mother is in charge of the rest. She found a turkey, Shady Brook Farms, from her local grocery store that says gluten free right on the package, she was so excited!

There are so many posts about eating gluten free at Thanksgiving, look at the links to other blogs in my sidebar, and you will find many more options and ways of cooking. Here are a just a few things that I have made for that would be great for Thanksgiving.



Desserts ~

Rustic Apple Pie with Gluten Free Pie Crust Recipe
Maple Pecan Pie with Gluten Free Oat Crust

Side dishes ~

To Die For Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole
Brussels Sprouts with Maple Syrup Glaze
Gluten Free Popover Recipe

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Cheers!!
Danielle

Brussels Sprouts with Maple Syrup Glaze

I love brussels sprouts. I crave them. I know, some people think that I am weird in that way. Judge after you make this recipe, and you will join me and start craving brussels sprouts too.

This is a great side dish for any meal, Thanksgiving, holiday, or weekday. ( I am making this as a side dish for our Thanksgiving meal.) If I am running to the grocery store, and the sprouts look good, I will pick them up and make these for my lunch. Don't cut out the garlic, it seems like it wouldn't go with this recipe, but it isn't as good without it. I just had them (again!) yesterday, and just typing and talking about them makes me want to have them today...

Update: There was a query about how to make a bunch of this for a holiday party without having to make several batches in a skillet. I experimented today, and the alternate cooking method is below.

Pan-Browned Brussels Sprouts with Maple Syrup and Walnuts

15 brussels spouts, washed and sliced in half
3 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tablespoons butter (to make dairy free, omit and use more olive oil)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon butter (omit for dairy free)
walnuts, optional to taste (I use a small handful)
salt, optional, to taste

Warm olive and and 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over low heat. Add sliced garlic cloves. Stir the garlic and remove as they are turning light brown and reserve. Lay brussels sprouts in pan, cut sides down and cover. Cook approximately 15 minutes or until tender.

Mix maple syrup and tablespoon of butter, melt on stove or in microwave. Add walnuts. Add syrup mixture and garlic to brussels sprouts in the pan and toss to create a glaze, OR remove brussels sprouts, add the cooked garlic and maple syrup mixture and toss in bowl.

Alternate cooking method for larger batches, and making ahead:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. As oven is warming up, put butter, olive oil and garlic slices (make sure to up the amount of each depending on how many brussels sprouts you are using), on a cookie sheet to melt the butter and to lightly cook the garlic. Remove the cookie sheet when the garlic just starts to turn golden brown. Put the brussels sprouts cut side down on pan on middle shelf. Cook approximately 10 minutes, checking to make sure the tops don't burn. Add the cooked garlic back in and stir. If making the night before, after you lightly rewarm, mix maple syrup and the additional butter, melted, pour over the sprouts. Add the walnuts right before serving.

Cheers!
Danielle

Cookies I will be making.

I have been compiling my own list of cookie recipes for this Christmas. I have been saving them on bookmarks and thought that others might want access to it. So, I just threw this list out there, and now I have it handy for myself as well. There are naturally gluten free cookie recipes I have found that I am going to make this year as well recipes that have been re-modeled to be gluten free.

I started my search with my heritage; I am Italian-American and I knew of a couple of recipes out there that I thought were gluten free, and I was rewarded with a couple of recipes. There are also some recipes from fellow bloggers in there as well. I love the recipes that are designed to be gluten free all on their own.

But I also want some of my favorites, so I included those re-made recipes in here. Now, I haven't tried them, I am planning on baking some, but I am not going to stress out to make a bunch of cookies; I plan on enjoying my Christmas season.

If you make any of these, let me know how they turned out. I don't know when I will be making these. I will fit baking between things, or do it with my children for fun.

There is going to be a mega-list of cookie recipes from Carrie at her Ginger Lemon blog on the 17th. I will post a link here when it's up. I also may be adding to this list, I haven't had a chance to re-find every recipe that I was thinking about.

And, since commercial almond paste usually contains gluten, here is one site that I found that has gluten free almond paste, Love n Bake, make sure to check all your ingredient labels!!

Happy Holidays!!

Christmas Cookie Lists

Naturally Gluten Free

Pignoli Cookies
Amaretti
Hazelnut and Almond Cookies
Cinnamon Stars
Peanut Butter Kisses
Peppermint Fudge
Honeycomb Candy


Recipes remade Gluten Free

Brutti Boni (these have 2T flour, I plan on using sorghum)
Fruit and Nut Cookies
Rosemary's Christmas cookies
Ginger Snaps
Gluten Free Layer Bars
Chocolate Financiers



Cheers!!
and happy holidays!

Maple Pecan Pie with Oat Crust Gluten Free

This pie was so amazingly fabulous. And the crust!! Words cannot describe how good this pie was. I would proudly carry it anywhere, knowing it would hold it's own against any other pie - even our now famous benchmark - gluten ones.

I was never a huge fan of pecan pie before, but this is now a staple for me. It was not as sweet as pecan pie usually is and so flavorful. Thank goodness I have a couple of pieces left in the fridge, otherwise I would have to make it again. (Here is the original filling recipe for the Maple Pecan Pie .) I made a simple sugar instead of corn syrup, I thought it was perfect. You could use corn syrup, brown rice syrup, or whatever else makes you happy.

The crust is made of gluten free oat flour, so if you can't do oats you will have to substitute. And it is a bit of a heartier crust, but still flakes a bit. I might add a tiny bit more butter next time, but it was so good, I really might not change a thing too. The only things I changed was to add about 1/8 cup skim milk to the crust for moisture, I think it really needed that, and I used vinegar instead of lemon juice. Here is where I got the original oat flour pie crust recipe. It makes one crust. Amazon.com is now carrying Cream Hill Estates Lara's Oat Flour, you can go directly there, or here for the oat flour.

Crust

1 1/2 cup oat flour (make sure certified gluten free)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup salted butter
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cider vinegar
skim milk

Whisk oat flour, tapioca flour and sugar into a large bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with fork, two knives, pastry tool, or food processor.

Add the egg yolk, vinegar, and milk to the flour mixture. Mix together until the mixture begins to hold together. Put in refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Form into ball and roll out dough between two pieces of wax paper. Place in pie plate. And bake pie according to directions.

Maple Pecan Pie Filling

3 large eggs
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

Put prepared crust in freezer while preparing the ingredients (no more than an half hour). Preheat oven to 350.

Make simple sugar. Put 1/2 cup sugar and 1/8 cup water cook until sugar dissolves and it's a bit thick. I threw the butter in here to melt while I got the other ingredients ready.

Whisk eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, the sugar/butter mixture in bowl. Add chopped
pecans.

Put pie in oven and bake about 40 minutes, or until pie is set.

Cheers!!!