It’s in weeks like these – stuck at home, always slightly on edge worrying about family members who we may not see for a few more months depending on shelter in place guidance – that the dreaminess of coconut can work some extra magic on our comfort-food-demanding diets. Now, I know coconut can be a divisive topic: texture-wise it’s one of the more controversial dessert ingredients, but you’ve gotta admit, creamy dreamy coconut frosting sounds like the tiny tropical note we need now (unless of course you actually live in a tropical location in which case you might be craving something totally temperate. If so, we’ve SO got you covered…
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Gluten Free Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes
A wise old wizard once said, “happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light,” and that classic Dumbledore quip seems especially pertinent now. These are uncertain, dark times, and it’s imperative that we all remember to turn on the light whenever we can. These gluten free lemon ricotta cupcakes were some of the most fun to make and photograph (and eat, of course) because they really are quite sunny, and in a regularly-gloomy city in a particularly gloomy time, they brought at least a bit of light into my dining room, and to the few friends who got special…
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Gluten Free Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream
For all of you who are staying close to home, for work, for safety, and for social distancing as is our collective responsibility, the days can sometimes stretch into forever as we look out onto quiet streets and wonder when life might inch back towards “normal.” I was feeling this intensely yesterday and really needed something sweet and indulgent to pick me up mid-week and mid-shelter-in-place-slump, so, of course, I turned to baking. Full disclosure – I don’t actually drink coffee (I never have, remarkably), but I LOVE coffee-flavored sweet things. Give me a pint of coffee ice cream or coffee panna cotta or a great coffee flan I had…
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Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In uncertain times, traditions (at least ones that still allow for responsible social distancing) are often my go-to to stay comforted. Chiefly among those various traditions is food: in all forms, from family, from holidays past or from more recent gatherings of roommates or coworkers or long-distance friends. Maybe now is even the time to create some new traditions that stabilize the uncertainty or ground us in delicious and memorable moments. One of the more holidays long-past traditions for my family is a big ol’ feast on St Paddy’s day, complete with hunks of corned beef, buttery cabbage, perfectly-roasted carrots, and even more buttery potatoes. For…
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Gluten Free Strawberry Rose Cream Tart with Pistachio Crust
Amongst the anxiousness and worry that abounds in every city across the globe this weekend, let us eat things that make us happy, and while we’re at it, spend time making creative baked goods that do the same (and then, eating those too). After making a tough call to not to do our first farmers market booth as Sisters Sans Gluten (live! out in the real world!) in an effort to keep those most vulnerable around us safe, I realized today is/was Pi Day, and that was definitely something worth celebrating. Next, I realized that if I were to exit our downtown San Francisco apartment and make my normally-easy trip…
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Gluten Free Matcha Tres Leches Cake
My first big-city job in San Francisco, right out of my masters program, was the perfect chance for me to indulge in all of the cliche offerings of city life. After an 80 minute commute – an hour on the CalTrain (aka “nap time”) and a 20 minute walk up 8 long city blocks, I started frequenting the corner Starbucks to pick up what quickly became my absolute favorite drink: a grande matcha latte with coconut milk, lightly sweetened. I know, I know, complicated Starbucks order (another cliche I got to add to my list!), but it certainly made those sunrise wake ups and long commutes a bit sunnier as…
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Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Drizzle Cake with Lemon Glaze
After more than my share of work travel over the past few weeks, it’s been lovely to be in one timezone and one season for more than five days, and this one, the home one, has spring juuuuust about poking through the San Francisco fog. In a minor celebration of the single ray of sunshine that dared trouble Carl (if you’re from out of town/country, SF named its fog…), I decided that lemon was the word and poppyseeds might as well tag along. This fantastic combo isn’t new, but boy is the fluffiness and moistness (sorry) of this delightful gluten free lemon poppyseed drizzle cake making it’s debut on the…
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Gluten Free Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
I gotta say, getting a good, chewy, gluten free cookie is a science. Definitely a science worth studying and perfecting, but who has that kind of time? I certainly didn’t until this three-day weekend and a full day of recipe research, development, taste-testing, and finally, resulting trays upon trays of what I’m now calling a scientific breakthrough: the perfectly chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. We’ve done it, ladies, gentlemen, and persons of the gluten free world, you can all go home and make yourself a batch and be thoroughly glad that you did. These cookies are BIG, BOLD, and BETTER than anything you’ll spend $7/cookie on in stores. They’re studded…
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Gluten Free Jammy Strawberry Brownies for Valentines Day
Food is a love language. And in the full spirit of Valentines Day, here is a pan full of the most decadent love language gluten free brownies around: jammy (with actual cherry and raspberry jam), bright with fresh strawberries, and deeply, darkly chocolate with, well, chocolate. Lots of it. I usually just toss together a quick pan of plan brownies (which are, by themselves, pretty darn wonderful too, so no need to add the topping here), and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but this week felt like it needed a bit of extra love, berry-style. It just so happened that I had two jars of my new…
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Gluten Free Raspberry Glazed Shortbread Cookies
That special day is right around the corner, and no matter who or what you spend it with (a partner, a puppy, a good book, or just yourself!), you most certainly deserve something packed with punchy raspberry notes and crumbling with browned butter and sugar. And in that spirit, here are probably the cutest cookies I’ve made thus far. I’ve never been a big sugar cookie person, and definitely not a glazed sugar cookie person, though I’ll admire the handiwork of a good glazer any day. Despite what I deemed a lackluster appeal of these simple cookies, they’re absolutely worth having in your repertoire and are sometimes the perfect pick…
