Pinterest Project: S'mores Muffins

S'mores Muffins.   We found these to be a decent gluten free treat.  They were a little dry, however, they did taste like s'mores.   I think I needed to be a little more generous with the chocolate and make sure I use little mini marshmallows... The big ones were difficult to cut and wrap the dough around to bake.  The mini muffin tin was much better than the larger muffin tin.
  Perhaps using applesauce as the moisture agent would help?   Gluten free baking is a whole new world....

Pinterest Project: Chocolate "Munchkins"

For those of you who have never heard of a munchkin, it is a small donut hole...or the center part from a regular donut :)    They are quite tasty and little man used to refer to them as balls...(made for some entertaining car rides).   Basically these are just a no-bake cookie.  Not bad, but may not be made again...we'll see.

These were easy to make although I used too much vanilla *my not using a measuring spoon, sometimes ends up with too much used*.   I also ran out of coconut flakes.   Little man did not like the plain munchkins, he much preferred the ones with "stuff" on them.    Kevin and I both felt that they were a little rich and not enough chocolate for our taste.

Pinterest Project: Cheesy Brazilian Bread

After discussing this recipe with my coworker, I was determined to make it.   I found the ingredients and went to work.   Making these cute little bread puffs.    Interestingly enough, my coworker makes them less puff-y and more dense...also learned the type of cheese makes all of the difference (apparently there are many recipes for this particular speciality).    Note to self: use a saltier cheese... better flavor than our boring cheddar.   Also, these melt in your mouth and are quite good :)

Pinterest project: shower curtain map

There are some days where different ideas get pinned a bunch of times and if you are following enough people you see it a lot. This was one of those. The claim was if you take a shower curtain from the dollar store, you can use permanent markers to make a street. I attached the markers to a small plastic cup with duck tape to keep the streets even. Little man and I then made a town. It has a gas station, garages for tow trucks, a library, our church, one of our favorite grocery stores, Trader Joe's, and a slew of other things every town needs (the ocean, a beach, a zoo...). We used crayons and markers to color it in. Crayola crayons and markers worked best however we found that both tend to rub off after a while.

Pinterest Project : Pancakes (coconut flour)

Coconut flour pancakes are delicious.   As noted in the Banana Bread post...the coconut flour will cause the batter to thicken...let it sit for a few minutes after whisking, you'll see.  Coconut flour is an entity unto itself.  I have read many places that when something calls for coconut flour you really cannot substitute anything else for it. (Something about the weight of the flour and the consistency). [sidebar: thinking about purchasing a food scale, many gluten free recipes are done in grams]  The flavor is not super-coconutty-- however, if you use the coconut oil, it does up the coconut flavor.  These pancakes are very rich in their flavor and nice and fluffy.  I did cook them a little long, I also feel like the coconut oil is hotter than butter,... but it didn't change the flavor.  :)    I think I will cook these again... so much better than my first time cooking gluten free pancakes.