Leftovers In My Cupboard Pumpkin Gluten Free Granola Bars

Dear Baking World,

Friday I ventured into another world, one where baker's deflate and so do breads. It's the world of gluten free. My younger sister recently decided to go gluten free because she's had stomach problems since forever and classic Brita, I've been researching recipes to make for her. (She feels a ton better by the way, so I'm expecting to post many more gluten free recipes on my blog.)

Friday's gluten free experiment involved pumpkin, surprise surprise/tis the season. Oats are gluten free except they are frequently cross contaminated with wheat products during production, so you  have to buy oats that say "gluten free oats" which is what I did.

My roommates and my sister and I went to Woodman's on Friday for the first time and needless to say none of us have seen anything so beautiful. There were three mini aisles of bread. Bread! I had so many fiber bread options I spent twenty years trying to decide which loaf to buy. I think I just ended up grabbing a loaf and praying I didn't just buy a bag of sawdust. Anyways, they also had an aisle full of gluten free products, which is where my sister and I got lost for hours. This is where I found my old fashioned gluten free Bob's Red Mill oats. We also got some cake mixes, an all purpose flour mix and some Cheetos. (Cheetos are gluten free, as are Tostitos blue corn chips.)

We spent about fifteen minutes trying to figure out the self checkout line, but I think both of us fulfilled a life long dream of bagging our own groceries. What is it with kids and bagging groceries? I swear it's a career that I've wanted to have since forever.

Brynn requested something pumpkin and so here is the bar I made called "Leftovers In My Cupboard Pumpkin Gluten Free Granola Bars" because I threw in my leftover coconut and anything else I could find in my cupboard. She loved them. I wrapped them individually so she can grab one from her fridge no matter where she goes. And they're a lot cheaper than buying gluten free granola bars, which go for $5 a box. These babies only cost at 15 cents a piece to make. Bargain Brita!

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Old Fashioned Oats

Pre-cooking

Om nom

Leftovers In My Cupboard Pumpkin Gluten Free Granola Bars

2 3/4 cups old fashioned gluten free oats (I crushed them up a bit with my hands)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

dash of salt

dash of cinnamon

dash of cloves

dash of ginger

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. maple syrup (optional)

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips/chunks

1/4 cup craisins

1/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 11 pan.

In a bowl, crush the oats with hands. It will shrink down to 2 1/2 cups which is perfect. Then whisk in the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, vanilla, applesauce, brown sugar, olive oil and maple syrup. Whisk for 1-2 minutes or until slightly creamy.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until just incorporated. Then carefully stir in the craisins, chocolate chips and craisins. Sprinkle a little brown sugar and chocolate chips over the top.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the sides pull a little away from the side of the pan. Don't bake them over 25 minutes.

My three favorite things: Pumpkin, Oatmeal and Badgers

Dear Baking World,

Finally! Recipes! And a really good one at that.

This weekend my roommates and I threw a taco feed before the Northwestern Badger football face-off. We've done this before, but it was hotdogs not tacos. And last time, I made the mistake of making cupcakes. I found cupcake pieces scattered all over the apartment. I found a cupcake with two giant bites out of it that had been returned to the plate. Cupcakes are not good for pre-football game parties. They're only good for civilized gatherings.

So cookies it was.

Because it's October and pumpkin season, I decided to give pumpkin cookies a shot. They were supposed to cakey but because I made them the day before and refrigerated the dough, it resulted in a different cookie than I predicted. Here's a baking powder lesson: baking powder has two components. One part reacts instantly and the other part does not react until later. If you make a cake batter and put it in the fridge overnight, it won't rise when you bake it. Same thing happened to these cookies. They didn't become cake-like; rather they were dense BUT DELICIOUS! So the point of the story is, although they weren't as cakey as they were supposed to be, the results were just as (if not more) delicious.

The second recipe I tried was lauded as THE GREATEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER (even though they have oats and coconut involved too.) When I was in first grade, I had my first experience with oatmeal cookies. On a class field trip we visited an Amish farm and the lovely Amish lady baked oatmeal cookies. I was not an intrepid first grader, so I am impressed that I even tried them. They were heaven. To this day, they were the best oatmeal cookies I've ever had. I've tried to find something comparable and these cookies are the closest I've gotten. They were extremely buttery, so they baked very spread out. They had two times more oats than flour (which was fine with me.) I definitely should have baked bigger cookies. According to my roommate (and I agree with her) they're weird but amazing. The fact that the plate was nearly empty by the time the party was over was an indication of their deliciousness.

Side note about the oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies: I used chocolate chunks against the advice of the comments. They said to use mini chocolate chips. I understand why. The chocolate chunks are just too much for this buttery cookie. Mini chocolate chips would've made a more evenly spread cookie.

So many cookies!

Pumpkin spice cookies (unfortunately I totally spaced on taking any pictures except for these...with the taco plate in the background.)

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon (of course I put in more)
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg (didn't have any so I didn't put it in. I put a dash of ginger in instead)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream butter, sugars. Add the pumpkin, egg and vanilla. Beat until creamy.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Drop onto cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls.

Cream cheese frosting

8 oz. cream cheese (1 package)

4 oz. butter (half a stick)

4 cups powdered sugar

Cream the cream cheese and butter together. Add the powdered sugar. Continue adding to taste. 

Frost cookies when they're cooled.

Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed

6 Tbsp. sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup flour

2 1/4 cups oats

1 1/2 cup coconut

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini!!!) (Also, this is about a bag)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream the butter and sugars at high speed for 4-6 minutes. Add eggs and beat until well blended. Beat in vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add flour and mix on low until just blended. Stir (I hand-mixed) in the oats, coconut and chocolate chips.

Make as large or as small as you want them. I made the cookies too small and they were very fragile. This recipe recommends 1/4 cup cookies, which sounds like it would produce more stable cookies.

Bake 15-18 minutes.