Many years ago, my friend Marilyn told me about how she loved to make Morning Glory Muffins for her family on Christmas morning. I remembered seeing recipes for them in food magazines at the time and they sounded really delicious. But in reality, whenever I considered baking up a batch, I’d end up making my less ingredient-laden carrot muffins. Recently though, Marilyn told me she needed to make this family favorite gluten-free. And you know what happened next. I put on my baker’s hat and got to work.

I started researching recipes and found they all circled back to chef Pam McKinstry of the Morning Glory Café on Nantucket Island. McKinstry created this produce-rich muffin for her customers in 1978. She laced them with fragrant cinnamon, and packed them full of apple, carrot, coconut, pecans, and raisins. When her recipe appeared in Gourmet magazine in 1981, it proved to be so popular that the magazine decided to print it again ten years later.

The rest, shall we say, is history.

Naturally, bakers on the blogosphere have had their way with McKinstry’s recipe. They changed the size of the recipe. They changed the proportions. They added new ingredients and left out others. They tried to make the muffins “healthy”. They tried to make them sugar-free. They tried to make them oil-free. They added whole wheat. They added oats. They tried to make them vegan. Then they made them paleo. They left out the vanilla. And on and on.

Back to basics!

I decided to stay with the original recipe and found it in my copy of The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl. The trouble for me was, it made “about 30 muffins”, required three muffin pans, and contained large quantities of each ingredient (4 cups of flour, 4 cups grated carrot, 2 apples, 6 eggs, etc.). But even when you cut the recipe in half, as I did here, you’ll need two muffin pans to make it. I used two 12-muffin cup pans and only greased 16 of the cups in total. I have a wide oven, so I baked the two pans together side by side with a little space in between. I also tested filling combinations of 12 and 4 muffin cups per pan, and 8 and 8 muffin cups per pan. The number of muffins cups filled with batter didn’t matter when baked in my oven. That said, depending on your oven, you may want to bake the muffins in two batches.

My converted recipe is remarkably close to the original – but cut in half. And as I typically do when I convert something to gluten-free, I increased the cinnamon and vanilla, and added a bit of baking powder and xanthan gum. I was also able to reduce the sugar a little, but not so much as to affect the moisture,

Of the many tweaks that bakers made to the original recipe, one was the addition of crushed pineapple. I actually thought it might be nice and in keeping with McKinstry’s over all theme of adding lots of produce. I tested the muffins with it and without it. In the end, there really wasn’t a huge difference, but the crushed pineapple seemed to add a little something extra that I liked. It is in the ingredient list below as “optional”.

Make these tender gluten-free Morning Glory Muffins soon. They’re perfect for summer brunches on the patio, a picnic on the beach, or even a snack after a late afternoon hike. And even though they’re incredibly hard to resist, they freeze really well if you have any left over. Even better, if you don’t get around to making them now, you can save the recipe for the winter holidays!

Note to Marilyn:
So there you have you it! A somewhat belated recipe for gluten-free Morning Glory Muffins based on the original recipe. Hope you like it as much as we did!

Morning Glory Muffins

Adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook, Houghton Mifflin, 2004

Makes 16 muffins

2 cups Brown Rice Flour Mix
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3⁄4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peeled and coarsely grated carrots
1 medium Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and coarsely grated
1/ 2 cup raisins
1⁄2 cup chopped pecans
1⁄2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, drained (optional)
1 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Position rack in center of oven. Grease 16 muffin cups with cooking spray (use two 12-muffin cup pans or one 12-muffin pan and one 6-muffin cup pan.
2. Mix flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add carrots, apple, raisins, pecans, and coconut; stir to coat evenly. Mix in pineapple, if using.
3. Combine oil, eggs and vanilla in small bowl and whisk until well combined. Add liquids to flour mixture and stir until very well blended.
4. Fill 16 of the muffin cups in the muffin pans. Bake about 25 minutes until muffins are light golden brown and springy to the touch (check for doneness at 22 minutes). Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Cool another 8 to 10 minutes on a rack before serving.

Muffins can be stored in a tightly sealed plastic container in refrigerator or covered with plastic wrap and then with foil and stored in freezer for up to three weeks. Best when eaten within four days of baking. Rewarm briefly in microwave.

©2017 by Annalise Roberts

There’s a certain comfort to be had from biting into a warm, homemade blondie. The melt-on-your-tongue chocolate combines with each brown-sugar-laced bite to bring a smile to your face. And then the sweet walnuts show up and give you a reassuring hug. So familiar. So delicious. You go back for more.

I hadn’t eaten a blondie for a long time. And then I took a small taste of one being offered as a sample at a huge gluten-free event. It was pretty dry. And it was pretty bare: not a lot of chocolate to melt on my tongue or nuts to slowly work their way across my taste buds. Perhaps the baker wasn’t really a chocolate or nut lover? I wasn’t sure. But I knew that now there would surely be a bit of blondie-recipe-testing in my future. It was pretty obvious from the sample I’d just tried that a lot could go wrong.

But where to start? I hadn’t made blondies in more years than I could remember. So I turned to some dependable, modern day, homestyle baking pros: Ina Garten has a recipe for Chocolate Chunk Blondies in her Barefoot Contessa Foolproof cookbook; Dori Greenspan has a recipe for Chewy Chunky Blondies in her cookbook Baking From My Home to Yours; Martha Stewart has a lot of blondie recipes, but interestingly, they’re all pretty much variations of the same basic one; and the King Arthur Flour Company has a recipe for Crazy Blonde Brownies on their website.

I gave them all good consideration and found that while they were fairly similar, a few differences stood out. Martha’s recipe was close to Ina Gartens, but with less chocolate, nuts and vanilla. Dori’s recipe had a lot more sugar and more competing flavors (she cut down on the chocolate and vanilla and added butterscotch chips). She baked them at 325ºF for a longer time than the others, who baked them at 350ºF. King Arthur, as is their normal way with a recipe, called for a higher flour to fat ratio; it had significantly less butter – one stick versus two – for only slight less flour than the others. And, their recipe had even more sugar than Dori’s in relation to the amount of flour, along with the suggestion to add a combination of competing flavors (chocolate, butterscotch, toffee and/or cinnamon chip add-ins).

I was looking for pure, uncomplicated flavor. I went with the Barefoot Contessa. Ina Garten is famous for taking basic, classic recipes, adding a bit of over-the-top flourish (there will usually be more butter or cream or something in an Ina recipe) and making them accessible for home cooks. Her blondie recipe features 2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 cups of sugar (both light brown and granulated), 2 sticks of butter, 1 1/4 pounds (1 1/2 cups) of semisweet chocolate chunks (which would be about 2 1/2 cups of chocolate morsels) and 1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts. She adds 2 teaspoons vanilla. She is big on flavor.

Garten strongly suggests that you underbake her blondies a little so they aren’t dry. But she also has a large recipe that calls for a not-normal sized pan (8 1/2 x 12 x 2-inch), one that I couldn’t easily find. Most people have 9 x13-inch pans don’t they? According to my wheat eating, Ina Garten-loving friend who didn’t have the correct pan, she bakes the recipe in two 8 x 8 pans (or cuts it in half and only makes one pan). Made sense to me. I cut the recipe in half, as I usually do when testing a recipe anyway, and used an 8 x 8-inch pan. It worked so well, I never bothered testing it in my 9 x 13. (And no, I wasn’t going to buy an 8 1/2 x 12-inch pan just for this one recipe.)

Test Kitchen Notes:

The original recipe called for 1 1/4 pounds of semisweet chocolate chunks and 1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts. I cut those amounts in half for my scaled down recipe. We liked it, but there was some debate among my many taste testers about whether there were too many chocolate chunks and chopped nuts. I found the recipe worked better for me with slightly less. You can also make it with semisweet chocolate morsels (even if Ina Garten thinks it’s better with chunks) because truth be told, in a blind tasting, no one could tell the difference (and those who could said it didn’t matter enough to make a difference). I kept the baking soda the same because I didn’t want the blondies to rise too high so they would stay chewy, but I upped the vanilla and added a bit of xanthan gum.

It took a handful of attempts to get the baking time right because neither I, nor my taste testers, liked them under-baked the way Ina suggests (but she had to contend with a large pan and didn’t want to dry out the edges.

Ahhh! Blondies are a bit of soothing, homespun comfort in a pan. And even better, they’re very easy to make and they won’t take up too much of your time. Make a batch this week and see for yourself.

Barefoot Contessa’s Blondies made Gluten-Free

Adapted from the Chocolate Chunk Blondie recipe in Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Foolproof Cookbook, 2012

Makes 9 bars

1/2 cup unsalted butter (or non-dairy substitute like Earth Balance)
1/2 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup Brown Rice Flour Mix*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chunks or 1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

*Find my Brown Rice Flour Mix in the recipe section of this blog.

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Position rack in center of oven. Line bottom and sides of 8 x 8-inch square baking pan with foil and grease with cooking spray.
2. Beat butter and both sugars at medium high speed in large bowl of electric mixer until light and creamy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt; mix at medium speed until well blended. Mix in chocolate chunks (or morsels, if using) and nuts.
3. Spread the batter into prepared pan and smooth the top with a soup spoon or a table knife. Bake in center of oven for about 30 minutes. Test for doneness with a pointy knife (check after 28 minutes); it should come out clean (not including melted chocolate). Be careful not to overbake it or blondies will be dry. The top will be light golden brown.
4. Cool blondies in pan on a rack for 15 minutes and then lift them out of the pan using the foil. Cool before cutting (if you cut them when still very warm, the melted chocolate morsels ends up coating the sides of the cut blondie). Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Best when eaten within three days of baking. Can be kept in refrigerator for up to five days or in freezer for four weeks. Wrap in plastic wrap and then foil.

©2017 by Annalise Roberts

Sometime this past fall, a reader who uses my cookbooks asked for a bit of help converting her husband’s favorite drop cookie. The original wheat version came from the venerable cookbook, Maida Heatter’s Cookies, published in 2011. It didn’t use much flour, but she wanted to make sure she could reproduce it perfectly. I was intrigued by the recipe. It used a lot of chocolate and nuts and a couple eggs, but only very small amounts of a handful of other – obviously critical – ingredients. Being a baker, and a chocolate lover, and overly curious, I made the recipe. When the cookies disappeared within a day and half, I made it again and served it along side another dessert at a dinner party. The entire plate of cookies disappeared as people kept grabbing more. It was a keeper.

Test Kitchen Notes: The original recipe use 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate and 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. I tried it that way, but I also tried with all semisweet and liked it better. There is so little flour, that you don’t need xanthan gum. I tried toasting the pecans (according to the original recipe) and I tried it without toasting the pecans. Truth be told, the difference is marginal and you have my permission to skip the pecan-toasting step. Really, no one will ever know.

So, if you’re looking for a relatively easy, new cookie to add to your holiday table, try these mini chocolate whoppers. You won’t be sorry!

Mini Chocolate Whoppers (gluten-free)

Adapted from the recipe in Maida Heatter’s Cookies, 2011

Makes 30 cookies

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces unsalted butter
1/4 cup Brown Rice Flour Mix*
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons powdered (not granular) instant coffee or espresso
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels
4 ounces (generous 1 cup) coarsely walnuts,
4 ounces (generous 1 cup) toasted pecans, coarsely chopped (see Cook’s Note below)

*Find my Brown Rice Flour Mix in the recipe section of this blog.

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Position rack in center of oven. Line cookie sheet with parchments paper.

2. Melt chocolate and butter in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Beat eggs, sugar, coffee, and vanilla extract in large bowl of electric mixer for two minutes until smooth and light. Add the melted chocolate mixture and mix at low speed just to blend well, but not longer. Scrape sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Add flour mixture and mix at low speed until just blended. Mix in the chocolate morsels and the nuts.

5. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough unto prepared cookie sheets 2-inches apart. Bake in center of oven for about 11-13 minutes (check after 11 minutes to see if they are done). The cookies will have puffed up a bit and you will be able to smell the chocolate. They will appear dry on the outside, but should be moist on the inside. Do not over-bake or they will dry out (it’s better to under-bake then over-bake if you’re not sure).

6. Remove cookies from oven and slide parchment sheet with baked cookies onto counter top. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely. Store in an airtight container. After four days, store in refrigerator (fat chance, there probably won’t be any left). Can be kept in refrigerator for 2 weeks or frozen for up to one month.

Cooks Note: Bake pecans about 5 minutes in preheated 350ºF oven.

©2016 by Annalise Roberts

Pear Frangipane Tart is a classic French dessert that you’ll see in pastry shops all over France. Professional and home bakers there use either fresh or canned pears in syrup, and in reality, both ways are highly touted. But this recipe features fresh. Why? Because I fell in love with a big basket of Bartlett pears at a local market and brought it home with little thought as to what I was going to do with all that beautiful fruit when it reached its peak at the same moment. Never one to give up the opportunity for a little fall baking, I decided to try something I’d never actually made before: a frangipane tart made with pears (there is a Cherry Frangipane Tart here on this site and in Gluten-Free Baking Classics- The Heirloom Collection).

I already had my pie crust and frangipane recipes, so I searched my cookbooks for insight and advice about what to do with the pears. Well, I sure got an eyeful. Some bakers said it was absolutely necessary to use Bosc pears. Some said it could only be Anjou — or only Bartlett. Some bakers poached the pears and maintained that this was the only way to do it. But several of my cookbooks, in particular, the more “country French” ones, just placed the uncooked pears onto the frangipane and then into the oven it went. To make matters even more confounding, the bakers who advocated poaching gave conflicting advice: keep the pears whole; cut them in half first; cut them into slices; cool the pears in the poaching liquid; immediately remove the pears from the liquid. It all made my head ache.

So I played around with a pile of pears, and I’m here to tell you that Bartlett pears work just fine. But just to be sure, I poached a Bosc and Anjou to see the difference. And you know what? I don’t get the big deal on why people swear by one type of pear or another. It really seems to depend on the quality of the individual pears you pick/buy. You can make any of them work.

I made one tart with poached pears and one with uncooked pears. We preferred the poached. Why? The taste, appearance and texture of the pears in the tart were more consistent. In fact, the pears tasted better in the tart after they had been poached.

I wanted to arrange the pears in my tart so that they would be thickly sliced but retain their natural shape. The best way to do that would be to poach them either whole or cut in half. I tried both ways, and for the purposes of making this tart, cutting them in half took less time and gave me excellent results (and I didn’t have to worry about whether to core the pears first or about the outsides overcooking while the insides remained firm).

Take note: If you want to create a tart with concentric circles of slices of pear, then you might consider poaching the pears already cut up in slices. It will take even less time then using halves. However, when I tried it, I found it harder to maintain a consistent texture; some of my slices cooked faster than others.

I tried leaving some pears to cool in the cooking liquid, but removed others to a plate to cool as soon as they were tender. There wasn’t much difference for the whole or cut-in half pears. But the slices seemed to get slightly softer, which wouldn’t be good if you were using them in the tart.

(No, I didn’t add lemon to the poaching liquid – as some recipes recommend, and none of my pears became discolored. But I was pretty fast about getting them into the syrup as soon as they were peeled.)

It turns out that this fragrant, golden hued tart is the perfect dessert to serve for an autumn dinner or brunch. The rich, almondy cream filling and tender, sweet pears are a delicious combination that will make every around your table come back for more.

Gluten-Free Pear Frangipane Tart

Makes one 9-inch tart

4 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, sliced down the middle
3 medium-size firm, ripe pears, peeled and cut in half
1 9-inch Traditional Pie Crust dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup unsalted butter (or butter substitute)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 cup finely ground almonds
1 tablespoon Brown Rice Flour Mix
1 tablespoon Amaretto (or dark rum)
1 teaspoon almond extract

To poach pears:
1. Combine water, sugar and vanilla bean in a large saucepan; cook over high heat until sugar dissolves. Gently add the pears halves, cut side down, and simmer over medium heat until pears are tender when pierced with a knife (about 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the type of pears you use and how firm they are). Use a slotted spoon to gently lift the pears out of the liquid and place them on a plate to cool. (Can be made two days ahead; store in a tightly sealed container in refrigerator).
2. Boil poaching liquid until it is thick and syrupy (large, clear bubbles will form and break all over the top of the syrup). Set it aside in a container (it will be used to brush over on top of the pears before baking).

To prepare Pie Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Position rack in center of oven. Grease 9-inch tart pan with cooking spray and generously dust with rice flour. Place pie pastry into tart pan and make sure sides are at least 1 1/2 inches high. Bake crust in oven for about 25 minutes until golden and cooked through. Cool on rack while preparing filling (do not put filling into hot crust or the butter will melt and separate; crust can be warm, but not hot).

To prepare Filling:
1. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl of electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add egg, almonds, flour, Amaretto, almond extract and beat until smooth and creamy.

To prepare Tart:
1. Spread frangipane evenly over bottom of cooled, baked pie crust.
2. Dry the cooled, poached pear halves with a paper towel and gently remove the cores. Use a small, sharp knife to cut each pear half into 6 horizontal (or vertical) slices. Use a metal spatula to lift each pear half and place it, cut side down, onto the frangipane. Liberally brush some of the poaching syrup across the tops of the pear slices (save remainder for another use).
3. Bake tart in center of oven for about 50 minutes until frangipane is puffed and light brown in color across the entire surface, including the middle. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Serve tart warm or at room temperature.

Cooks Notes:
Tart can be made one day ahead. Store tightly covered in refrigerator. Best when eaten within three days of baking.

TRADITIONAL PIE CRUST

From Gluten-Free Baking Classics
This recipe also appears on Foodphilosopher.com

Makes one 8- or 9-inch pie crust or tart crust.

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Brown Rice Flour Mix*
2 tablespoons sweet rice flour
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces (or butter substitute)
1 large egg
2 teaspoons orange juice or lemon juice

1. Spray 9-inch pie pan or tart pan (with removable bottom) with cooking spray. Generously dust with rice flour.
2. Mix flours, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt in large bowl of electric mixer. Add butter and mix until crumbly and resembling coarse meal.
3. Add egg and orange juice. Mix on low speed until dough holds together; it should not be sticky. Form dough into a ball, using your hands, and place on a sheet of wax paper. Top with a second sheet of wax paper and flatten dough to 1 -inch thickness. Dough can be frozen at this point for up to 1 month; wrap in plastic wrap and then use foil as an outer wrap.
4. Roll out dough between the 2 sheets of wax paper. If dough seems tacky, refrigerate for 15 minutes before proceeding. Remove top sheet of wax paper and invert dough into pie/tart pan. Remove remaining sheet of wax paper, and crimp edges for single-crust pie. Dough can also be frozen at this point for up to 1 month; line pie shell with wax paper, wrap in plastic wrap, and use foil as an outer wrap.

*Find my Brown Rice Flour Mix in the recipe section of this blog.

Take note: When you prebake or parbake this crust, do so at a lower temperature than is commonly used for pie crusts made with wheat (see directions below). This is to make sure the dough cooks before it browns. If you notice the crust rising in the middle while it is baking, open the oven quickly and prick it once with the point of a sharp knife or press the crust down lightly. Partially bake this pie crust whenever you are making a fruit pie or quiche.

To partially bake (parbake) a bottom pie crust:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake pastry for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven. Fill and bake as per recipe.

To prebake a bottom pie crust:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Gently prick pastry in 3 places with a fork. Bake pastry for about 25 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. Prebaked pie shells can be stored in airtight plastic containers or plastic wrap in refrigerator for 3 days. For longer storage, wrap in plastic wrap and then in foil, and store in freezer for up to 2 weeks.

©2016 by Annalise Roberts