No Bake Cheesecake - GF

The original recipe: Rich No Bake Cheesecake

I replaced the whipping cream with sour cream, orange juice for the water in the filling.  The crust I made with cocoa butter (didn't have any butter) and chopped, dried coconut instead of crumbs and I added a little homemade baking powder. Oh and a little salt and cream of tartar, well, because I add it to almost everything.

Ingredients:

.5 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar
2 TBS unflavored beef gelatin
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 TBS cream of tartar

Dissolve gelatin in OJ, then add the rest of the ingredients from the above group.  Heat, while stirring, until the liquid become translucent.  Let cool a bit.


16 oz cream cheese (softened)
8-16 oz sour cream
1-2 TBS coconut oil (optional)
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the above ingredients in a blender or food processor, then add orange juice mix.

Crust: (Optional)
2 cups dried coconut, chopped fine in blender or food processor
1/2 cup cocoa butter
1 TBS arrowroot powder (optional?)
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda

The To-Go Version

 Chop coconut as small as you can, then add in cocoa butter, then the rest of the ingredients.  Fill pie pan or spring form pan and bake at 350* F for 5 minutes.  Let cool completely. (If you make the crust first, you can stick it in the freezer to chill while prepping the filling.)

Put filling in crust and chill for about 2 hours.  The filling makes 1 large cheesecake in a spring form pan or 2 pies....or 1 pie and 4 individual serving sized crust-less cheesecakes for "To Go" food.

Future variations:

• Using baking chocolate in place of some of the fat in the crust, perhaps with butter.  The crust had an awesome flavor and texture, but was a little bit firm for cutting a bite off.  (The first piece I thought I cut lifted the WHOLE thing out of the pan.)  Butter would be a softer fat when chilled.
• Using rice flour in part or instead of coconut.  Every once in a while, the dried coconut taste was too strong or slightly "twangy."
• Omitting or reducing the sour cream to make a summer weight cheesecake.  The flavor was spectacular, worked well, but I wanted a little more "cheese" in the cheesecake.
• Cherries! (Does that really need explanation?)

UPDATE:
This makes a fabulous brownie topping at room temperature, just add extra OJ. Seriously, it's good.

See Ya In The Gumbo

First Homemade Pizza (including GF crust)

I give this a B+. This was really easy to make...until things went wrong....mostly due to inexperience.

I had problems with wetness while mixing and stickiness after rolling  trying to get it off the rolling surface onto the pizza board and again off the board and onto the pizza stone in the oven.  It looked and tasted yummy enough to try again though....otherwise, I would be sticking to the occasional English Muffin Pizza. ;)

My surface area for rolling was too small, in hindsight, I should have divided the dough into 2 pizzas....or used less liquid?  I ended up adding a LOT of extra flour correcting the original wetness.  As it was, the dough when cooked was THICK, too much bread for my liking.  It held together very well though...only breaking where I ripped it trying to transport.

I don't know about you, but I try to avoid gums....guar gum, locust bean gum, xanthum gum.  Quite honestly, my digestive system can handle wheat on occasion BETTER than the gums.  The gums aren't just in gluten free baking products/flours, but in dairy, coconut and other products you wouldn't think needed "gluing."

Ingredients
2 tsp yeast
1 cup warm milk
1 egg
2 cups rice flour
2 tsp cane sugar
2 tsp gelatin
1 tsp sea salt
2 TBS coconut oil
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda

(Added to correct too wet dough)
1/2 cup corn masa, white or blue
1/4 cup arrowroot or tapioca flour/starch
2 tsp coconut flour (optional)

Mix yeast into warm milk first in a separate container.  Add egg to mixer or food processor and whip.  Add other ingredients in order a little at a time, blending as you go.

Flour your rolling area well, I used additional corn masa flour.  My dough stuck where I missed a few spots. This amount of dough will make a very large pizza or 2 smaller pizzas, so adjust accordingly. ;)  Roll in thin as the dough will double, at least, in thickness.  Based on my experience, I would flour the paddle as well.

Cook crust for 10 minutes at 425* F.

Add desired toppings and bake for an additional 15 minutes or so.

The pizza pictured above is a freshly shredded Mozzarella/Parmesan blend  with dried basil and red pepper flakes.  We let is sit for about 15 minutes on a cookie rack before cutting.