Chocolate Brownie Pie with Orange Zest

Mary Fran from Franny Cakes is hosting this month's rally for brownies, so check back there for a full listing of all the brownie posts - I've also tried to include a complete list at the bottom of this post.

I'll admit, I really struggled with this month's rally. My initial goal was to create a chewy but not too fudgy dairy free brownie with macadamia nuts, coconut flakes, and orange zest. I tried and tried and ended up throwing out batch after batch. Perhaps my expectations were set too high with all the delicious boxed gluten free brownie mixes out there like King Arthur. So eventually I threw in the towel and went about recreating a family favorite recipe; Chocolate Brownie Pie. I would describe it as somewhere in between a brownie and a chocolate cake, but not at all like a cakey brownie - does that make sense? Anyway, I had much more success with chocolate brownie pie and the dairy free version actually tasted even better!

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Gluten Free Sandwich Bread

Last year I had the wonderful opportunity to take a class on gluten free baking taught by Gluten Free Girl & The Chef at The Pantry at Delancy. The two most valuable take aways I had from that class were first, don't be afraid to experiment and second, gluten free doughs will look completely different from gluten-full dough. From here I was off, experimenting with bread with much more confidence and determination. I tried to take some cue's from the best gluten free bread I had even eaten, the honey oat bread from Jenny Mae's, incorporating oat flour and lots of eggs.

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Whole Grain Blueberry Scones

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Meyer Lemon Curd Scones

I embarked on my gluten free scone adventures last year and ended up with Scookies, which are wonderful for certain purposes like using them as a sandwich for yummy preserves or jam.  My real goal though was to get to a point where I could replicate my all time favorite scone, the Peets Coffee & Tea Lemon Curd Scone. Armed with a brand new scone pan (thanks mom!) and more baking experience, I finally hit it out of the park with this recipe. My hubby ranked it up there with Picadillo, which I'm pretty sure he would eat every day if I made it. The crumb of this scone was perfect and the meyer lemon flavor was so fantastic I felt it was unnesseary to top with more lemon curd.

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Gluten Free Moravian Molasses Cookies

Armed with another gluten free year of experience under my belt, I made my family's Moravian Molasses Cookies again for the holidays. A small amount of quick internet research tells me that these cookies originated in what is now the Czech Republic after the spice trade began to take off in the area. These cookies were meant to highlight those new flavorful spices that were coming through the region. This re-vamped version eliminates the gums I used in my first attempt and changes amount of flour to 140 grams of gluten free all purpose flour mix per cup in the original recipe.

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