Making Your Own Gluten Free Crepes

While we can't all get to a creperie whenever we want, we can make our own crepes at home.  

Metro grocery stores carry their own Irresistibles Gluten Free Pancake Mix that can be pretty plain on it's own, but it is all in what you do with it. You can change the gluten free pancake mix into a crepe mix with one simple step. All you need to do is cut the pancake mix in half when following the recipe on the back of the packaging. Using a pancake mix can make the art of crepes a very simple thing.

Metro Pancake Mix to Crepes Recipe

1/2 cup Irresistibles Gluten Free Pancake Mix

1 lg egg

9/10 cup milk

2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil

1 tsp pure vanilla extract (optional)

butter for frying (I always use butter for crepes, pancakes or french toast)

1. Preheat crepe pan or skillet over med-high heat or electric griddle to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease pan or griddle.

2. Add egg to a 4 cup measuring cup, add milk until it reaches the 1 cup measure (this makes measuring the 9/10 cup of milk easier) and then add oil. Add Gluten Free Pancake Mix and whisk until completely smooth. Mixture should be thin like cream. Add more milk if necessary.

3. Pour batter from measuring cup onto griddle slowly to the count of four, and quickly but gently turn pan around spreading batter until a large crepe forms and the batter stops flowing around pan.

4. Flip crepe over when crepe has lost its sheen on top and edges are slightly browned. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes until the bottom has turned a slight golden brown and the crepe comes loose from the pan.

5. Remove crepe from heat and set aside until ready to fill. Continue cooking the crepes until all batter has been used greasing pan slightly between crepes.

Recipe makes approximately 7 7-8" crepes.

Fillings can vary from anything sweet or savory. All you need is your imagination and the filling and topping options are endless.  

My traditional filling is 2 Tbsp of 2% cottage cheese for each crepe, then rolled up and topped with strawberries and maple syrup.

I have also tried a savory filling of pulled pork and shredded extra old cheddar cheese, topped with salsa and sour cream.

These crepes also freeze very well. Just layer the crepes between layers of wax or parchment paper and freeze flat in a zip top bag. To defrost, defrost on counter and heat gently for a few minutes on both sides in a crepe pan or electric skillet until pliable. They are then ready to be filled.

Marky's Crepes & Waffles

This week I visited Marky's Crepes & Waffles and had a wonderful dinner. Marky's Crepes and Waffles is located at the intersection of Richmond and Dufferin streets in London, Ontario. They offer a variety of options for both waffles and crepes, but sadly only the crepes are offered as gluten free options. It is also disappointing that the gluten free crepes cost an additional $1.40.

Before ordering I inquired into the cooking method and was happily surprised when the owner, Milica Markovic, answered all my concerns. She mentioned she was nutritionist and understood the concerns I had about cross contamination. While they do not use a separate surface to cook the crepes she did take the time to clean the surface before cooking my gluten free crepe. She also cleaned the stainless steel spatula and explained that she uses a separate wooden tool used to flip the gluten free crepes. I asked her if all her crepe options were gluten free and she said yes. I then inquired about the toppings and she retracted her earlier statement and said that not all her toppings were gluten free. She explained which toppings were not safe, and that she would omit those toppings if I ordered that crepe. Make sure you inquire about toppings before you order to ensure your crepe is fully gluten free.

I ordered the lemon crepe and found it was delicious. I was a little surprised when she only topped my crepe with icing sugar and lemon juice when the description also included a lemon filling, even though she did not mention the lemon filling when listing the not safe toppings. None the less the crepe was delicious and very satisfying. I will be back to try other gluten free crepes.

The "Classic" Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie

Growing up the chocolate chip cookies that were baked at home were hard and crunchy. My mom always over baked them and they always ended up hard. I never realized that cookies could be anything different. That is until I was in high school. The cafeteria during first period always had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Cookies that were more than undercooked, gooey in the center and sweet. These are the cookies I now crave and missed when I first went gluten free. There are many store bought cookies that taste perfectly fine, but they are hard, crunchy and or crispy. Not the soft baked, chewy, gooey ones that I was looking for. Then I found the perfect recipe.

This recipe debuted on the Food Netwook show Good Eats, episode Sub Standards. They looked so good I immediately went online and printed the recipe. I have been in love with these cookies since then. I did make one adjustment to the recipe in that I do not cook them as long as the recipe says. I usually only cook for 10 - 11 minutes. This makes the perfect gooey center cookie.

The Chewy Gluten Free
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2007

8 ounces unsalted butter, approximately 1 cup

11 ounces brown rice flour, approximately 2 cups

1 1/4 ounces cornstarch, approximately 1/4 cup

1/2-ounce tapioca flour, approximately 2 tablespoons

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 ounces sugar, approximately 1/4 cup

10 ounces light brown sugar, approximately 1 1/4 cups

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, approximately 1 1/2 cups (I substitute a dark chocolate bar chopped into small pieces for the chocolate chips. Just measure the chopped pieces to make a cup and half.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Once melted, pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.

In a medium bowl, sift together the rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca flour, xantham gum, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Add both of the sugars to the bowl with the butter and using the paddle attachment, cream together on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the whole egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Chill the dough in the refrigerator until firm, approximately 1 hour. Shape the dough into 2-ounce balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes, rotating the pans after 7 minutes for even baking. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on the pans for 2 minutes. Move the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Store cooked cookies in an airtight container.

As a huge time saver I will often make a double batch, and once I have shaped them into balls I freeze them on a cookie sheet and then transfer to a Ziploc bag and keep in the freezer until the cookie craving hits. I then bake just as many cookies as I need straight from the freezer for 11 minutes, turning once. This way I always have fresh baked cookies in the house.

A Versatile Cookie Recipe

Don't they look good...

With the holidays coming I am playing around in the kitchen, trying new recipes and changing up ones I know work. A few years ago I found a really good gluten free basic cookie recipe on Celiac.com when I was looking to create gluten free holiday cookies. Since then I have adapted them in different variations. It is classified as a sugar cookie, but when baked crisp almost has the taste of a shortbread. The thicker the cookies the softer they will be. If you wish a nice crisp cookie, roll the dough out to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick and cut your cookies out and bake for twice as long.

Soft Sugar Cookies (Gluten-Free)

By Scott Adams

Published 12/26/2007, Found on Celiac.com

Ingredients:
2/3 cup shortening [I use butter for all my baking instead of shortening]
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
4 teaspoons milk
2 cups gluten free flour [I use Bette Hagman's original gluten free flour mix]
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

Directions:
Cream first 3 ingredients, then add egg and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Stir together dry ingredients and blend into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half and chill for one hour [or longer until the dough is stiff].

Roll (slightly thick) out on lightly gluten free flour surface (You may need a little gluten free flour on the rolling pin if it sticks). Bake on greased cookie sheet 6-8 minutes at 375F (I used parchment paper and just pulled off the parchment paper and let them cool on the parchment paper on a cooling rack). Be careful as the cookies are fragile when warm.

As it is a simple cookie recipe it can be changed up in different ways depending on what you wish them to taste like. I originally made them plain, and decorated a few with a citrus sugar on top. To make citrus sugar zest a lemon, orange, tangerine or lime into a small bowl with 1/2 cup of white sugar. Stir together and let sit for an hour or so for the flavors to develop and the sugar to dry slightly. Store unused sugar in an air tight container.

I have made them plain, rolled out and cut with star cookie cutters. Then decorated with a thick, coloured icing to look like snowflakes.

To give a maple flavor to the cookies I changed the vanilla extract to maple extract and decorated the top with turbinado/raw sugar mixed with maple sugar.

This time I took a different twist. I added the zest of 2 large naval oranges to the dry mix. As well I substituted 4 tsp of freshly squeezed orange juice for the 4 tsp of milk and changed the vanilla extract to a couple drops of lemon extract. Rolled the cookie dough into 2 2" thick logs and chilled them in the fridge for 2 hours. I sliced the log into 1/8 - 1/4 thick slices and placed them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes for a soft chewy cookie and 18-20 minutes for a crisp cookie. Once the cookies cooled I melted a good quality dark (70% cocoa) chocolate bar and dipped the cookies into the chocolate to cover the tops. 1/2 of the cookie dough made approximately 24 cookies, with another log to keep in the freezer for later use. A friend commented that these cookies were addictive.