You Had Me At Butter

I have been spending a ton of time in my kitchen lately trying to learn how to bake Gluten free. It is a whole to new animal. No way can I just swap out wheat flour for rice and have a recipe turn out. I've learned that when cooking GF you need to try to blend as many different flours together to add great taste and texture. And I had no idea how many kinds of flours there are. Rice, oat, tapioca, coconut, and quinoa just to name a few. The other big difference in cooking g-free is how crumbly your baked goods can be. Gluten acts like glue in food. It's a bonding agent so without it your cakes and brownies crumble on contact (not acceptable). A great gluten free food additive that can help bind your ingredients is xanthan gum. The last key when baking gluten free is that you have to bake everything longer and on a lower heat to make everything come out perfect. All my recipes have my edit notes about how I tweaked THIS or how I would have done THAT differently.

I have made really great zucchini bread, pumpkin bars, and my latest obsession, banana bars.

Ingredients

1 stick of butter, softened

3 large ripe bananas (mine were still yellow and firm but I just mashed them with a fork and it worked great)

1 cup brown rice flour

1 cup gluten free baking mix (I adore Pamela's products)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon vanilla

Cream butter with sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and bananas. In another bowl, mix together flours, cinnamon, xanthan gum, and baking powder. Combine and beat until dry ingredients are moist. Spray a 9x13 pan and spread dough evenly, Bake at 325 for 1 hour and twenty minuets. Do a tooth pick test and do not under bake.

Ok so the banana bars are good but oh. my. word. your taste buds will open up to sing the full Hallelujah chorus when they taste the Browned Butter Frosting.

1/3 cup butter

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

3 to 4 tablespoons of milk

In a small sauce pan heat the butter over medium just until light brown, stirring occasionally. (watch carefully because butter can burn quickly.) Remove from heat. Cool for five minuets. In your mixer beat butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and enough milk until smooth and spreadable. Wait until the bars have cooled before you frost.

Yes, those are my teeth marks. So delish it makes up for the fact I can't have homemade flour tortillas ever again. *tear* Sorta.