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apricocious gluten free trail mix

Snack it to me: Apricocious Snack Mix

This post is part of Snack It To Me – recipes for my favorite snack mixes. The posts are: Fairy Berry Gluten-Free Trail MixSour Patched Gluten-Free Trail MixCherry Cordial Gluten-Free Snack MixMango Lassi Trail MixApricocious Gluten-Free Trail Mix, Raisinably Delicious Snack Mix, Happy Endings Trail Mix, My go-to prepared snacks.

apricocious gluten free trail mix

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Snack mix number 5.

A little bit of Apricot in my life,
A little bit of Almonds by my side.
A little bit of Chocolate’s all I need,
A little bit of mixing’s what I see.
A little bit of fruit dried in the sun,
A little bit of munching all night long.
A little bit of trail mix here I am,
A little bit of you makes me your fan!
Snack mix number five.

It has long been public knowledge that I have terrible taste in music. You are lucky there wasn’t a Backstreet Boys song that worked here, because then I might have tried to re-write the whole song and not just the chorus that I am sure is now stuck in your head. (It’s been in my head since I wrote “Snack mix number 5 is here.”)

Apricots are a persnickety fruit. I have bought them one too many times at the grocery store, excited because they are finally in season, only to get home and be disappointed because they are mealy or, even worse, bland. You know the moment when you take a bite and you have the heartbreaking realization that the fruit tastes like a shadow of itself? Yeah. I really hate that.

Which is why dried fruit is great. All the delicious apricot-y goodness is concentrated into a little pocket of joy. Add some almonds and a wee bit of white chocolate for good measure and you, my friend, will not be hangry when you get stuck on the CTA when they are rerouting your communte and messing with your dinner schedule. Instead, you will queue up an episode of Doctor Who and munch away, pleased with yourself for being a grownup and thinking a head. (You don’t need to tell anyone that you forgot that it was buried in the depths of your purse, your secret is safe with me).

Someday soon this flavor combo might be reincarnated as a cookie. Or a muffin. But for now, instant gratification is what it’s all about.

Apricocious Snack Mix (A gluten-free trail mix)

Recipe Type: Snack
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 5 mins
Total time: 5 mins
Serves: 4
No volume measurements are here because these are meant to be imprecise and easy. Either add each ingredient to the same bowl while it is on your kitchen scale, or just go ahead and wing it. With these ingredients you can’t go wrong.
Ingredients
  • 150 grams (3 handfulls) dried apricots
  • 150 grams (2 handfulls) almonds (I used blanched, but you can use roasted and salted here for a sweet & salty take on this mix)
  • 75 grams (really this is how much you want – i wanted one piece of chocolate for every 2-3 apricots) white chocolate callets or chips
Instructions
  1. Place a medium mixing bowl on a kitchen scale and tare (zero) it.
  2. Add each ingredient, weighing as you go. This recipe doesn’t need you to measure them out first.
  3. Mix to combine.
  4. Store in an air-tight container for up to one month.
3.2.1337

 

Snack it to me: Cherry Cordial Snack Mix

This post is part of Snack It To Me Week– a week full of recipes for my favorite snack mixes. The posts are: Fairy Berry Gluten-Free Trail MixSour Patched Gluten-Free Trail MixCherry Cordial Gluten-Free Snack Mix, Mango Lassi Trail Mix, Apricocious Trail Mix, Raisinably Delicious Snack Mix, Happy Endings Trail Mix, My go-to prepared snacks.

Chocolate should be a food group. And, in my professional opinion, it should be the base of the pyramid.

I mean, it is full of anti-oxidants and theobromine. It has been purported to do everything from boost your mood to decrease your appetite. Small studies have found that it is good for your heart, your skin and for diabetes prevention.

I even read that it can help make you smarter.

That is a whole heck of a lot of promises for any food to deliver on.

And to think something healthy was lurking in my love of desserts.

I am pairing it with dried cherries and coconut flakes today for a gluten-free trail mix that is a great sweet treat for the 3pm blues. Or the 10am blues. Or a last minute conference call. We can call this an all-occasion snack. But only if you don’t skip the chocolate.

cherrycordial

Snack it to me: Cherry Cordial Snack Mix

Recipe Type: Snack
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 5 mins
Total time: 5 mins
Serves: 4
This recipe was inspired by one of my day’s favorite treats: chocolate covered cherries. Those intensely sweet sugar-asked cherries died bright red and dipped in chocolate.
Ingredients
  • 100 grams high-quality chocolate calets (they look like slightly larger, flatter chocolate chips) or your favorite brand of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 100 grams dried cherries
  • 50 grams unsweetened dried coconut flakes
Instructions
  1. Weigh out ingredients and stir to combine in a medium mixing bowl.
  2. Store in an air tight container at room temperature for up to one month.
3.2.1337

 

Ratio Rally: Pâte à Choux pt. 2

gluten free ratio rally logoIf you missed part 1 of my recipes for this month’s ratio rally, you can find it here.

A Marillenknödle is a southern German and Austrian treat made with apricots (Marille) and wrapped in either choux pastry or a potato dough. I wanted to be adventurous, so I added some crystalized ginger chips to the inside and made a cardamom sugar breadcrumb to dust the outside. The sweetness of these depends on the sweetness of your apricots. But they taste like summer should.

I made the regular choux for some chai cream puffs, and they turned out fantastically. My apricot dumplings on the other hand, were a bit more frustrating. I used the same basic choux dough, but all I had was a sticky mess. I did some googling, and although wikipedia and tons of other sites said that choux is used in making Marillenknödle, almost all of the recipes that I could find were ones that used cheese and were not actual choux. Braving it and thinking that maybe wikipedia was right (and all the sites that said that choux was used to make these), I kept looking. Then, I found a blog in French & German where the poster had the same problem: the dough stuck more to her hands than the apricots. Solution: dip your hands in cold water before making each dumpling. It worked like a charm – as long as I didn’t have too much dough.marillenknodel

I made a second batch after figuring out that researching a French pastry term with a German delicacy was going to fail me, I started looking in German, found the correct name for the dough Brandteig. Some German YouTube videos and 20 recipes later, I had it figured out.

Gluten Free Marillenknodel
#ratingval# from #reviews# reviews
Print
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Mary Fran Wiley
Prep time: 45 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 55 mins
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 8 oz (by weight) whole milk
  • 4 oz (1 stick) butter
  • 1.2 oz sorghum flour
  • 1.2 oz brown rice flour
  • 8 oz tapioca flour
  • 8 oz sweet rice flour
  • 4 eggs
  • 4 oz ricotta, strained to remove extra whey
  • 1/4 teaspoon xantham gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 sugar cubes
  • chopped crystalized ginger
  • 8 apricots
  • 1 1/2 cups gluten free bread crumbs
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 4 T butter
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
Instructions
  1. Melt the 4 T of butter in a skillet and add the bread crumbs. Toast until golden and fragrant (about 5 mintues). Mix with 1/4 cup sugar and the cardamom. Set aside.
  2. Slice each apricot along the slit (halfway around) and remove the pit.
  3. Fill the holes with a sugar cube & a few bits of crystalized ginger.
  4. Whisk flours, cardamom & xantham gum together.
  5. Boil milk, butter & salt.
  6. Reduce heat to medium and add the flour all at once.
  7. Stir until ingredients start to pull away from the sides of the pot. Remove from heat & put in the bowl of a stand mixer.
  8. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating each one before adding the next one.
  9. Add in the ricotta & mix well.
  10. Chill the dough for at least an hour.
  11. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  12. Get a bowl of cold water out.
  13. Dip your hands in cold water and wrap the choux around your apricots. Dipping your hands between each dumpling. This prevents sticking.
  14. Drop the dumplings in boiling water and cook for 5-10 minutes.
  15. Drain the dumplings on a slotted spoon.
  16. Roll them in sugar & toasted bread crumbs once the majority of the water has dripped off.
  17. Serve warm.
Google Recipe View Microformatting by Easy Recipe
1.2.4

 

Purple Rice Pudding

Ok, I am 5. I am quite ok with this. I just think purple food is more awesome. Purple cauliflower, purple potatoes and purple carrots are all way more awesome than their normal colored counter parts.

And then, there is purple sticky rice. More purple food? Send it my way. I found this in my mom’s cabinets when I was home. It comes from Williams-Sonoma. It says on the label that it was processed in a plant that handles wheat and tree nuts, but it is just rice. I swear there are no dies.

There is no better way to eat said rice than in a rice pudding that turns a color that you would assume is unnatural. Along the lines of blue ketchup unnatural (do you remember that stuff?). I am going to love the next week. Rice pudding for breakfast & desert. Every day. Want to come over and share?

Purple Rice Pudding

  • 1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2% – skim is for wimps. If you need dairy free, use a second can of coconut milk and then add in some of your favorite non-dairy milk to get the right volume)
  • 1 can coconut milk (the real stuff)
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom (or cinnamon & nutmeg)
  • 1/2 cup sliced toasted almonds
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup evaporated cane juice (you could use regular sugar, I just happen to have this around from testing recipes in Babycake’s new book).
  • 1/2-3/4 cups raisins
  • 2 cups cooked rice (I used purple sticky rice, but really you could use what ever rice you have – it just won’t be purple)

Heat up the milk to a simmer in a large pot over medium heat. Add the rice and return to a simmer. While that is heating, whisk salt, evaporated cane juice & cardamom together with the coconut milk. Add to your pot as soon as the pot simmers with the rice. Cook until the mixture simmers again and starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add raisins. Put in another bowl and cool until pudding is room temperature or cover and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.

I think that it makes an excellent desert. And it is purple, which makes it even better.