DIY 3 Ingredient Mint Chocolate Covered Pretzels [Gluten-Free]

Are you tempted by store bought chocolate covered pretzels? Or wheat-laden white chocolate mint Pretzel Thins? Satisfy your sweet tooth with these easy copy-cat gluten-free pretzels. You may already have all the ingredients on hand. These salty and sweet treats are easy to make for Christmas. Or just because.

Ingredients

Roughly a handful of each:

Semi-sweet chocolate chips

Gluten-free pretzels (we used Glutino brand from Meijer, but any brand will do)

Peppermint candies

If you like recipes that don't require measuring things, check out this 2 ingredient breakfast recipe.

Supplies

Nonstick pan

Spatula

Wax or parchment paper

Hammer (or rolling pin)

Directions

Melt a handful of chocolate chips in a nonstick skillet. To avoid burning the chocolate, stir regularly and heat until most of the chips have melted, but there are a few lumps left.

Remove from heat and keep stirring while the last lumps melt.

Unwrap the peppermint candies, put in a bag, and relieve your holiday stress. Smash the mints with a hammer. (You can smash the mints while they’re still individually wrapped, but  it’s harder to unwrap smashed mints.)

Lay out some wax paper or parchment paper.

Stir the pretzels into the chocolate to coat, then lay the coated pretzels on the paper.

Sprinkle with crushed mints.

Try to wait till the chocolate is hardened to eat the pretzels.

Who am I kidding, eat several while they are melty and warm!

After cooling and hardening, store in a cookie tin by lifting the paper, pretzels and all, and placing in a tin. Or you can store in a plastic bag.

Tips

Don’t make a big batch. You’ll be tempted to eat them all.

After a few days, the pretzels can get soft.

Want more chocolate recipes? Check out this flourless chocolate cake recipe, which can also be minty.

Merry Christmas!

5 Gluten Free Quarantine Baking Recipes I Love

During my state's "stay at home" time (which is now being phased out) I have been baking more.

 

Rather than a giving detailed recipes, this is a round-up of foods I've made and links to the original recipe.
Note: I eat gf to keep my belly happy. All 5 recipes are gluten free. Some of these recipes are also paleo, dairy free, nut free or refined sugar free. That's just an added bonus.

Double Chocolate Tea Bread {Gluten-free}

A while back, we made a double batch of this tea bread and gave it away as gifts. People loved it so much they were asking for the recipe.

This rich, moist tea bread is better than cake.

And it smells heavenly while it’s baking!

It’s gluten free, with a dairy free option.

Testing the Best Chewy Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Is it really the best?

Spoiler alert: Yes! This recipe is a winner.

I heard about the Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from a gluten-free friend. She said her whole family loved them and thought they tasted like real cookies. I was eager to test the recipe my friend found from Michelle of MyGluten-freeKitchen.com

Michelle tested lots of different recipes before she settled on this one.

Gluten Free Baking Powder Biscuits

This recipe was written on lined paper and stored in our Betty Crocker Cookbook. It turns out the original was from my mom’s middle school home economics class. (We will not mention how long ago that was.) We played with the proportions of gluten-free flours before settling on the best ratio. This recipe is a basic staple. It makes a quick, versatile dough perfect for strawberry shortcake or garlic cheese biscuits. We also like to wrap the dough around hot dogs for pigs-in-blankets. The biscuits are soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. They're also egg free.

Rhubarb Crunch {Gluten Free}

Strawberries and rhubarb are in season right now, and we are enjoying rhubarb crunch. A "crunch" is very similar to a "crisp." A crunch dessert has a streusel-like layer on the bottom in addition to the streusel-like layer that would be on the top only if the dessert were a crisp. One layer means it's a crisp, sometimes called a "crumble," and two layers means it's a crunch. (And while we're on the subject on desserts that start with "C," "cobblers" are fruity desserts that have a biscuit topping, as opposed to crisps that have oats in them.) But no matter what you call it, it's a wonderful blend of flavors and textures.

Gluten free knock-off brands

Gluten free versions of popular wheat-containing foods.

Today, my mom brought home a cereal box and stuck it in front of me.

Crepes for tortillas

Recently, I'd had enough with round store-bought place-mats marketed as gluten free tortillas. So maybe they are not that bad, but I have braces right now and I can't chew cardboard. My mom suggested I try using some homemade gluten-free crepes for tortillas. If you Google "tortilla crepes" you'll find that tortillas are often used as dessert crepes, but I reversed that substitution, using crepes as tortillas.

The first time I tried it, the crepes were soft and bendable, but oddly sweet. Omitting the vanilla in the crepes fixed the flavor. These crepes are more oily that typical tortillas due to the coconut oil they are cooked in, but I'm not complaining. They are bendable, but I'm not gonna lie, they do sometimes crack because they are so soft, not because they are brittle.

The Outback Steakhouse: Restaurant Review

First of all, The Outback Steakhouse did not pay me to review their restaurant. Several days ago I went there of my own free will and curiosity.

I knew from looking it up online that The Outback has a gluten-free menu. If you want you can take a look at it here. At the restaurant, I requested and received the gluten-free menu without any hiccups. The menu has most of the items that are on the regular menu, with details about what is and is not gluten-free. Next to the salads, it advises, "ask for no croutons." The Outback does not offer gluten-free bread or buns, so if you want a burger, ask for no bun. The main dish I ordered was also on the regular menu, and by default came with Aussie fries. The gluten-free menu alerted me that Aussie fries are not gluten free. I am not sure if the fries themselves have gluten, or if the fries are fried in the same oil as battered-and-fried foods. Either way, I opted for a different side. When I ordered, the waitress asked, "Are you the gluten-free one?" I said yes, and she made some note on her paper. I suspect that cook took some precautions with my food. See if you can guess what I ordered from the picture:

Carrot Cake {Gluten Free}

September is always busy, but every year I seem to forget that fact, and am surprised how quickly it passes. The 15th was my grandpa’s 80^th birthday, but it’s the first day of October as I am finally posting about it! We celebrated with extended family and gluten-free cakes.

I was surprised the carrot cake was more of a hit than the chocolate cake.

We found the recipe on Elana’s Pantry, a paleo blog. (For some of you who don’t know what the paleo diet is, it excludes all grains, so it is even more restrictive than eating gluten-free. Many of Elana’s recipes are almond-flour or coconut-flour based, rather than using rice flour.)

We followed the carrot cake recipe to the letter. Not. I’m always giving my mom a hard time for modifying recipes before she even tries them.

Crunchy-edged Crepes {Gluten Free}

My mom made these for my birthday. Today is my birthday. It does not seem real. It takes me about ten months to get used to my age and then two months later I have to start all over again.

But about the crepes. 

They are crunchy around the edges but soft and spongy on the inside.

Ingredients:

2 cups milk**

2 eggs

 ½ teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons melted butter

1 ½ cups Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix

Blueberry Muffins {Gluten Free}

In case you hadn’t noticed, I have a thing for muffins. They are less messy because they are conveniently wrapped in their own personal muffin cup. I can grab one to go faster than, say, banana bread, because I don’t have to slice it, or get a napkin. Plus, I just feel that they are healthier.  This particular recipe is sugar-free, dairy-free, and packs some protein from almond flour, coconut flour, and eggs. (See the more detailed breakdown below) Here’s the blueberry muffin recipe:

Combine Dry Ingredients:

1 cup Pamela’s Artesian Flour Blend

1 cup almond four

½ cup coconut flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking soda

Mix wet ingredients:

6 eggs

½ cup honey

¾ teaspoons vanilla

1 ripe banana 

Banana Bread Brownies or Bars {Gluten Free}

These are delightfully moist due to the bananas and sour cream. We actually found this recipe on Facebook (looks like that content is not available anymore) but we had to modify it to make it gluten free, like almost everything, and we reduced the sugar. (While you’re at it, like my page, Left and Write.)

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

½ cup butter, softened

 2 eggs

1 ¾ cups or 4 very ripe bananas, mashed

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Black Raspberry Crisp {Gluten Free}

Donuts are to bagels what cupcakes are to muffins, or what store bought is to homemade- sugary and overrated versus wholesome and even healthy.

I propose another lovely switch for gluten free people: crisp in exchange for pie. Pies are already too time-consuming for me my mom to make, and it only gets worse when you add gluten-free dough! It sticks to everything but itself! It won’t hold its shape. Crisps are quick and obedient by comparison.

Filling:

5 cups black raspberries

½ cup sugar

¼ cup potato starch

½ teaspoon cinnamon

dash of cloves

Combine and dump in a greased 8 by 8 pan. We use coconut oil for grease.

Topping:

½ cup each of oats*, 

Red, White, and Berry Gluten Free Muffins

These patriotic muffins have red raspberries, “white” bananas, and “blue” black raspberries. The batter has an almost biscuit-like consistency, light and fluffy, unlike any other dense gluten free muffin you’ve ever tasted! They are also sugar free, sweetened with bananas and honey.

Yield 2 dozen

Ingredients; Dry:

1 cup Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix, (which is add-an-egg-and-oil-easy. It has flours, starches, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum)

1 ¾ cup Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend (flours, starches and guar gum)

1 cup almond flour

¼ cup coconut flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Flourless Chocolate Cake {Gluten Free}

I love this recipe! Sometimes I have looked up a delicious dessert only to find it called for a type or brand of gluten free flour I had never heard of, did not have, or could not find in my area. Who wants to pay shipping and handling? I find it hard to justify buying and trying every gluten-free package out there. It is expensive, especially because gluten-free foods are not created equal! I never know if it is going to be dry, crumbly, and/or flavored funny!

This dish has none of those problems. It is a dense, moist chocolate cake, almost like a brownie. It is perfect for friends or relatives who are not gluten-free. There are no pricey, gluten-free flours and gums (xanthan gum or guar gum) in this dish. You or your friends do not have to buy a big bag of some ingredient that you will only use once to make a gluten free dish! This is also great for novices like my mom and I were when we found this recipe. 

You can make a basic chocolate cake, or a mint chocolate cake, or a cream cheese marble. Plus, you can make it dairy free if you use dairy free chocolate chips. I've used baking chocolate chips that are not "certified" df but don't have any dairy in the ingredients. 

Finally, you can make brownie bites in mini or standard size muffin cups! (Line the cups with paper and bake for less time.) Spooning batter into muffin tins takes more time so we usually just make the cake.

Batter:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or df chips).

*Variation: dark chocolate and mint chips (2 in 1 package from Nestle)

1/2 cup butter, or if you want to make it dairy free, coconut oil.

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs                

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa

Directions: