Desserts

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie Dough & Brownie Five Layer Cake

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Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie Dough & Brownie Five Layer Cake | Small Town Living in Nevada

My parents watched my children, home and animals while we were in Maui for a week. Since my mom’s birthday is next week and since my parents wouldn’t be in town the kids and I wanted to celebrate my mother’s birthday before they headed back home.

My mom wanted me to make sushi for dinner as did my daughter and husband. They said I make sushi better than any restaurant. So who can say no to that? Also, my mom had stumbled  across a recipe for a Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownie Layer Cake recipe awhile back in her Facebook news feed and wanted to know if I could convert it to Gluten Free so I could make it for her birthday.

Well of course I can… but it never displays as great as the professional photos that are displayed on most Blogs. However, it came out really tasty!

It has three layers of brownie layered between two layers of peanut butter cookie dough (eggless of course) for a total of five layers then smothered in a dark chocolate ganache — yeah, total sugar overload! After a few bites I had to down a glass of cold milk!

This cake was relatively simple to make and put together.

Once you have the brownies baked and cooling you want to make the eggless cookie dough.

To glue the brownie layer to the cookie dough layer that is where the chocolate ganache comes into play.

And then you just frost the top of the cake with the remainder of the ganache and then add some peanut butter frosting swirls and mini chocolate chips for decoration! That simple.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Egg Candy

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With Easter just days away I started making my annual homemade candy. Normally it is Rocky Road Eggs and Chocolate Bunnies. However, today I decided I wanted to try my hand at making homemade Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs!!

I used a vintage metal egg mold that was my grandmother’s. This mold brings back so many memories of her making Rocky Road Chocolate eggs that I can vividly see her in her kitchen working away.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Egg | Small Town Living in Nevada

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Gluten Free Vanilla Pound Cake

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My family was invited out to dinner tonight and I thought making a pound cake would be nice and light as our contribution. I also am bringing sliced strawberries as well as organic tart cherries sprinkled with some sugar so everyone can choose a topping for their cake!

Gluten Free Vanilla Pound Cake

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 5 Eggs
  • 2 Tablespoons gluten-free vanilla
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup butter, melted
  • 3 cups Gluten Free Flour
  • 1 tablespoon gluten-free baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon xanthan gum

Pound Cake BatterHeat oven to 350°F. Grease 12-cup Bundt®, 10-inch angel food cake (tube) pan or 2 bread loaf pans then set aside.

Beat sugar and eggs, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Add milk and vanilla; beat until well mixed, then add melted butter and beat until mixed thoroughly.

Stir together gluten-free flour, baking powder and xanthan gum in a medium bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients, beating at low speed until well mixed.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan.

Adapted from Land O Lakes

Gluten Free Zepploe (Italian Doughnuts)

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I wanted to do something fun today when the kids got home from school. And how fun would it be making Zeppole (zə pō′lā) which are a deep-fried pastry somewhat like doughnut holes. And taste just as divine.

Gluten Free Zepploe (Italian Doughnuts) | Small Town Living in Nevada

The Zepploe came out nicely crisp and light and fluffier than expected. So win, win!

Gluten Free Zepploe (Italian Doughnuts) 

INGREDIENTS
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 stick (½ cup) butter
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1¾ cup gluten free flour
  • ½ tablespoon xanthan gum
  • 4 eggs
  • oil, for frying
  • powdered sugar or a cinnamon-sugar, to dust the zeppole
DIRECTIONS:
  1. IMG_0527In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter, sugar and salt. Cook until the butter is completely melted.
  2. Place the melted butter mix into the bowl of a standing mixer with flour and xanthan gum. Mix with a paddle attachment, until you don’t see any more steaming rising up from the bowl.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, until they are fully incorporated.
  4. Heat up your oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  5. Using a small ice-cream scooper or 2 small spoons, carefully drop about a tablespoon of the dough into the hot oil, frying in batches. Turn the zeppole once or twice, cooking until golden and puffed up, about 3-5 minutes.
  6. Take them out of the oil using a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
  7. Toss with cinnamon-sugar or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Arrange on a platter and serve immediately.

Adapted from: Giada De Laurentiis

Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting

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Starting at the end of January til the 2nd week of Feb, my family celebrates three birthdays one after another! Both my son’s and then followed by my birthday. My daughter’s b-day is in November and my husband’s birthday is in December. So from November through February I call it birthday season!! Thank goodness birthday season is coming to an end and life as we know it will be back to normal… cause you know what — all those birthdays revolve around Christmas — so it is just one thing after another. Time for a long rejuvenating nap, please!

I have never made stabilized whipped cream frosting before and decided to finally give it a try. Especially since my husband over the course of 17 years has always been a fan of whipped cream frosting and well me a total buttercream frosting kinda gal. However, if I am making the cake it is gonna be buttercream so I have never made a whipped cream frosting until today. And I have to say it was fairly simple to make!

Stabilized Whipped Cream Ingredients

The technique I’m using uses unflavored gelatin. Which is a very simple stabilizer for the cream and, unlike some other methods, doesn’t change the taste or color of your whipped cream at all.

The whipped cream really firms up nicely and you can actually pipe it and it won’t sag or weep. I was able to use my trusty Wilton decorating piping tips and the frosting stood up beautifully!

Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting

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Gluten Free Chewy Cake Bars

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I have no idea why it is called chewy cake, it is more like a cookie bar than anything else. Nevertheless, my husband has  been hinting for me to make these bars for awhile now and I finally gave in, LOL.

These bars are really for the sweet-tooth-a-holic…. it has one pound of brown sugar in them and are so good you can’t just eat one and you’ll probably be eating the crumbs up as well.

Gluten Free Chewy Cake | Small Town Living in Nevada

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Gluten Free Persimmon Cookies

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My grandmother always made wonderful Persimmon Cookies. She even had a Persimmon Bush in her backyard. All the wonderful memories that I have of the two of us baking and cooking together is so wrapped around my heart. I think my grandmother truly was the one who taught me how to cook. She was patient and caring… and ALWAYS put love into whatever meal she was making.

So while I made Persimmon Cookies, all I could think of was my grandmother.

Mangiare bene… (Good eating)

Gluten Free Persimmon Cookies | Small Town Living in Nevada

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Gluten Free Chocolate Crispy Brownies

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These Gluten Free Chocolate Crispy Brownies are a welcome addition to any cookie platter, as they’re a great change of pace from your regular cookie fare or brownie fare for that matter. My kids love rice krispies treats and brownies as well so why not put the two together for a divine dessert!

Gluten Free Chocolate Crispy Brownies | Small Town Living in Nevada

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Gluten Free Double Pie Crust

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Gluten Free Pie Crust | Small Town Living in Nevada

I am not the best baker in my opinion. And I really have never been one to like to make pie crusts. If anything I don’t like crust because if it isn’t flaky thin — I will turn my nose up to it. I actually loved using Pilsbury’s pre-made pie crust cause it is the exact thin and flaky that I have always loved. But now being gluten free changed my way of baking altogether.

I have been on the search for that perfect crust and I think I have found it.

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Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll Cake – Italian Style

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Gluten Free Pumpkin Roll Cake | Small Town Living in Nevada My aunt invited my husband and I over to her home for dinner one night eons ago — and for dessert she made a pumpkin roll cake. My husband loved it sooooooooooo much I was demanded to get the recipe. I had made the roll cake for his birthday one year and for every Thanksgiving since our first encounter with this yummy cake. My aunt is 100% Italian (me only being 50%)…. had made the roll cake Italian style. Instead of using cream cheese for the filling it has mascarpone Italian cheese instead. Anyhow, this pumpkin roll cake was 7 months in the making. I grew the pumpkins used in my recipe — cooked them up, pureed them then made the roll cake for Thanksgiving.

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