Favorite Things Friday - Home Baked Goodies!

I have always loved baking.  When I was a child, I used to page through my mom's 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, drooling over the mouthwatering pies, cakes, and cookies.  

Mom's baking of sweets was usually centered around the holidays or birthdays, and her ordinary baking usually involved things like biscuits for breakfast.  I would watch intently as she'd pinch off a piece of soft dough and coax it between her palms into a round, somewhat flattened shape.  She would then place these in a circular pattern of about eight, in a round cake pan or pie plate, into the oven to bake.

The first cake I baked from scratch was when I was nine years old.  I had found a recipe for chocolate cake (I don't think it was in Betty Crocker but probably one of the other cookbooks in her library) that didn't seem too difficult.  I remember it called for a cup of boiling water, among other things, of course.  At any rate, mom let me have at it 100 percent on my own, and it turned out great!  A few weeks after that, she asked me to make that chocolate cake again and take it over to the neighbor, whose husband had passed away, for the funeral dinner.  Having my mom's endorsement on that occasion went a long way toward bolstering my baking confidence.

Fast forward almost four decades, when I found myself having to learn some new baking skills to accommodate a diagnosis of gluten intolerance.  All I can say is thank heavens the internet was invented in the meantime!  People like Karina at Gluten-Free Goddess and Shauna at Gluten-Free Girl became my new Betty Crockers.

I still love to bake, but it's now equally out of necessity as it is for the simple enjoyment of it.  If I'm craving a cookie or muffin, I can't just stop at the corner Kwik Trip and pick one up.  If I'm going to an event where there will be celebrating with a cake, I have to bring my own or sit out dessert (and who wants to do that?).

Today I baked one of my favorites, Maui Wowee bars.  (Having come of age in the 1970s, that would have had a whole different meaning then, but rest assured there is no secret herbal ingredient here.)  You can find the recipe at Gluten-Free Goddess (click the link above to be taken right there).

Here are the ingredients.  I used four different gluten-free flours blended together.  Why so many flours?  Why can't you just substitute one of them?  Well, because no single gluten-free flour can replicate the flavor and texture of wheat flour in baked goods, so you have to use a combination of them and add xanthan gum as well in order to get reasonably close.  Otherwise, you will end up with a gritty, tough, flavorless mess.

Here I'm using 1/3 cup each of tapioca flour, brown rice flour, sorghum flour, and buckwheat flour (which is not wheat at all, but related to the rhubarb and sorrel family of plants).

Here it is going into the oven...

And here it is coming out!

Sweet, chocolate chip and coconut goodness in an ooey, gooey bar.  I wish I could share these with you!

For more Favourite Things Friday, visit the links at Quilting In My Pyjamas.

Have a great weekend all—and remember to save room for dessert!