Simple, scrumptious and gluten free
etter? These scrumptious sugar cookies are soft on the inside with a lovely crisp exterior and a rich, chocolate coating. Simple, elegant, and delicious, these classic cookies are super easy to make and even easier to eat!
If you love homemade pumpkin pie, then you’ve got to try these gluten-free pumpkin pie bars! With a flaky shortbread crust, and a rich, creamy pumpkin filling, these bars taste just like pumpkin pie but can be made in half the time!
I’ve been living in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second-biggest city, for some time now. Through the years, it’s been exciting to watch Brno’s food scene become increasingly diverse and international, with more and more choices for anyone following a gluten-free diet. This post is one of a series in which I will be looking at specific restaurants, cafés, and eateries in Brno that have a good array of gluten-free options. I will discuss how suitable the establishment is for celiacs, as well as give my overall opinion about the quality of the food.
For this series, my focus will be predominantly on desserts, sweets, and baked goods. For a more in-depth look at gluten-free eating in Brno, you can check out this blog post from Gluten Free Traveller.
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It’s no secret that Brno is a terrific city for walking. The historic city center is quite compact and perfect for pedestrians, and I frequently enjoy going for long leisurely walks around the city. After a few hours of walking, there’s nothing I like more than to stop in one of Brno’s many picaresque cafés to have a little rest and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. One of the best places to go for coffee in this city is a charming café called Kafec.
Kafec has two locations in Brno, one on Úvoz street, and the other in the center of the city on Orlí street. The popular Orlí location has a lovely outdoor garden with plenty of tables available, as well as a cozy interior with an upstairs and downstairs seating area.
Kafec always has an interesting selection of coffee, which they roast themselves and prepare as either a drip or espresso-style coffee. A popular place for brunch, they have a build-your-own brunch menu that has many gluten-free options such as eggs, bacon, sauteed mushrooms, sausages, and fresh salad.
But Kafec is perhaps best known for their large, pillowy, Belgian-style waffles. These gorgeous waffles can be prepared as a sweet or savory dish, as they come with a wide variety of toppings and adornments. These waffles are huge, so if you can’t manage to eat a whole one— don’t worry! Kafec also offers smaller waffle pieces with a choice of side dips such as whipped cream, chocolate, or strawberry sauce. And fortunately for celiacs, they have a gluten-free version of their famous waffle.
One afternoon, my husband and I came to Kafec eager to try their gluten-free waffles. We started the meal by ordering coffee; my husband asked for one of their home-brewed drip coffee, while I had a flat white (pictured). The drip coffee had a light, fruity flavor, while my flat white was rich and creamy.
We had arrived too late to order from their brunch menu (available until 1:00 PM), but we were delighted to see that their afternoon menu (odplední menu) had a very interesting variety of both sweet and savory gluten-free waffles. We decided to go for one of each to share.
We started with savory, and our choice was a spinach and cheese waffle topped with a beautiful fried egg. The waffle itself was lightly sweet and cakey, with a nice soft texture although it seemed slightly denser than a glutenous waffle. But the taste was almost identical and the waffle paired beautifully with the creamy egg, spinach, and ricotta.
After gobbling up the first waffle, we turned our attention to dessert. While their menu had many intriguing options such as the strawberry waffle, banana waffle, and chocolate waffle, we thought that the Strudelwaffle looked particularly enticing.
We chose wisely. The Strudelwaffle was a waffle covered in caramelized apples with cinnamon, walnuts, raisins, and topped with whipped cream. The overall taste was sweet, though not too sweet, and beautifully balanced with the flavors of the apple, nuts, and spices all playing off each other. The waffle base, after soaking in rum syrup and the apple mixture, was so soft, that we thought it was virtually impossible to tell that it was gluten-free. My husband and I agreed; this dessert was dynamite.
Overall, Kafec is a lovely cafe with very good coffee and truly outstanding gluten-free waffles (especially the sweet options). Although many restaurants and cafés in Brno have gluten-free cakes, cookies, and pastries, I have yet to find anywhere else in this city that has gluten-free waffles on the menu. And luckily, they’re absolutely delicious.
Delicious, nutritious, and naturally gluten-free, this easy-to-make chocolate peanut butter chia seed pudding is healthy and sustaining enough to have for breakfast, but tastes like a dessert!
Celebrate the spooky season by baking these wickedly good Halloween cookies! A scrumptious sugar cookie base decorated with royal icing, these melt-in-your-mouth cookies are soft on the inside with a lovely crisp exterior and a sweet vanilla flavor. Delicious to eat, adorable to behold, and …
With a flaky shortbread crust, sweet apple filling, and crunchy streusel topping, these gluten-free apple pie bars make the perfect autumn snack or dessert. They taste just like apple pie— but are so much easier to make!
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Apple pie is one of my all-time favorite desserts. I especially enjoy tucking into a piece of apple pie in the autumn, when apples are in season and plentiful. I love the mix of sweet and tart that you get when you bite into the warm apple filling, that lovely touch of cinnamon and brown sugar that pairs beautifully with that apples, and of course, the buttery, flaky pie crust.
However, I’ll be the first to admit that making a good apple pie from scratch, especially with a gluten-free crust, takes a fair amount of time and effort. You need a large number of apples, all of which need to be peeled and cut, and of course the dough for the pie crust needs to be made in advance, chilled, then rolled out and shaped to the pan (and don’t even get me started on the lattice topping).
So instead of baking an apple pie, I decided to make something just as delicious but much simpler: gluten-free apple pie bars. Inspired by a recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, these bars have all the things I love about a good apple pie, but they take less than half the time and energy to make.
My gluten-free apple pie bars are too just good to be missed; they have a delicious filling of fresh chopped apples tossed with spices, a light and buttery shortbread crust, and finally, a sweet and crunchy brown sugar streusel topping. They have a little bit of everything; sweetness, tartness, freshness, crunch, and a just touch of spice.
If you’re a fan of apple desserts, or you just enjoy baking with apples, then you absolutely must try this simple and scrumptious dessert. Let’s get started!
I used a mix of Granny Smith apples and sweeter Gala apples for the filling, but feel free to use whatever apples you prefer. Here’s the full list of ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F / 180⁰ C/ 160⁰ C Fan. Grease and line an 8 x 8-inch pan with parchment paper and set aside. Whatever you do, don’t skip this step! Without the parchment paper, removing the apple pie bars from the pan will be a long and painful process.
First, let’s make the shortbread crust. In a mixing bowl, beat the soft butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat for another 30 seconds. Add the flour and milk and beat until combined. The mixture should be quite crumbly.
Press the dough into the bottom of the lined pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes until it’s a nice golden brown.
While the shortbread crust is baking, you can make the apple filling. First, core and peel the apples and chop them into small pieces (as you can see, I chopped mine quite roughly). In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped apples with the flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon juice. Mix until the apples are evenly coated. Set aside.
Next, proceed with the streusel topping. In a separate bowl, whisk together the gluten-free oats, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Cut the cold butter into small pieces directly into the dry ingredients. Mix everything until combined (I used my hands for this). The mixture should have a wet sand consistency. Set aside.
Remove the shortbread crust from the oven, and evenly layer the apple filling on top of the warm crust. Press down gently on the apples to fill in any gaps. Then sprinkle the streusel over the apple layer.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is a lovely golden brown.
Remove from the oven, allow it to cool for 20 minutes in the pan. Then place the pan in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours.
Once chilled, remove it from the pan by gently lifting the sides of the parchment paper. Using a sharp knife, cut it into square or rectangular bars (12 large bars or 16 smaller bars).
Enjoy these luscious apple pie bars at room temperature, cold, or warm. They are delicious on their own, but feel free to drizzle a little caramel on top, or even add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Enjoy!
Serving Size 1 bar
Servings 12
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
This nutritional information is based on the brands and ingredients I used for this recipe. They may not be 100% accurate for you. Please check your nutrition labels for more precise information.
Perfectly spiced with a nice crunchy outside and soft pull-apart interior, they taste like gingersnaps but are larger and chewier. The molasses gives the cookies a warm, rich flavor and delightful sweetness.
Tender, soft, and perfectly sweet, these delicious pumpkin muffins are brimming with autumn spices and topped with a crunchy pecan streusel topping. If you love the taste of pumpkin, these beautiful muffins are an absolute must-bake!
Banana bread step aside! This gluten-free zucchini bread is incredibly moist with a cozy cinnamon and brown sugar flavor, and a soft, nutty texture. Enjoy a slice for breakfast or as a scrumptious snack on a cool, crisp autumn day.
If you like my zucchini bread recipe, you’ll definitely want to try my delicious blueberry muffins. They are amazing.
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Autumn has just begun, and it’s always been my favorite season. Perhaps my fondness for autumn comes from my childhood; I grew up in New England and would spend much of the season romping through the apple orchards and pumpkin patches with my family and friends. I love almost everything about autumn; the cool, crisp weather, the snuggly sweaters, the stunning colors on the trees, and most importantly, the glorious autumn fruits and vegetables.
As a child, I remember proudly telling everyone that squash was my favorite vegetable. While I still love squash, over time I’ve developed an increasingly ardent love for zucchini. Sure, it may taste boring on its own, but I just love how zucchini mops up the flavor of anything you cook it with, such as meat, fish, sauce, or other vegetables. And it’s so versatile! Normally featured in savory dishes, zucchini also works remarkably well as the main ingredient of sweet (but not too sweet) zucchini bread.
So what exactly is zucchini bread? Well, I like to think of it as the underrated cousin of the more popular banana bread. Unlike bananas, the zucchini does not add flavor to the bread, but it adds a lot of moisture and gives it a lovely, soft texture.
Recently, I bought some lovely, large zucchinis from the farmer’s market and eagerly attempted my own gluten-free zucchini bread recipe. And I’m so glad that I did because my version is terrific. Every slice is so tender, moist, and delicious that you’ll want to gobble it up in one go and then lick the crumbs off the plate. The warm, rich taste comes from the spices as well as the brown sugar, which also gives it a lovely sweetness. The toasted pecans add an earthy flavor, and also provide a nice bit of crunch.
Besides the incredible taste, my favorite thing about this recipe is that it’s insanely easy to make. Seriously, the most time-consuming part of the process was shredding the zucchini, and that took almost no time at all. So no more excuses. Go bake this fantastic gluten-free zucchini bread today!
One medium to large zucchini is essential for this recipe, as is a grater for shredding it. The pecans add a lovely flavor and texture to the bread but feel free to omit them if you don’t like or can’t eat nuts. They can also be replaced with walnuts if you prefer. Here’s the full list of ingredients:
Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F / 180⁰ C / 160 ⁰ C fan. Grease a large loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Whatever you do, don’t skip this step! Lining the bottom makes it so much easier to remove your beautiful baked loaf in one piece.
Using a grater, shred the zucchini (with the skin on) and gently press the shredded pieces between two paper towels to remove excess moisture. There’s no need to overdo it, as you definitely don’t want dry zucchini in your batter.
If desired, toast the pecans and give them a rough chop. This will soften the nuts and also enhance their delicious flavor. I toasted mine at 160 ⁰ C fan for 7 minutes.
In a mixing bowl, combine the sifted flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown and white sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until almost combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter, as it will make the texture of the bread chewy (and nobody wants that). Now stir in the chopped pecans and shredded zucchini.
And that’s it! (I told you it was easy). Now pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes. You will know the bread is done when a toothpick through the center comes out mostly clean. The top of the loaf will be cracked and be slightly domed.
Remove from the oven, let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Slice and serve.
This delicious bread can be served at room temperature, or slightly warm, and can be enjoyed plain or with cream cheese, honey, or a dollop of nut butter (personally, I think it tastes amazing with almond butter). It makes a satisfying breakfast or can be enjoyed as a tasty snack with a nice warm cup of coffee or tea.
Serving Size 1 slice
Servings 12
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
This nutritional information is based on the brands and ingredients I used for this recipe. They may not be 100% accurate for you. Please check your nutrition labels for more precise information.
Moist coconut cupcakes filled with smooth pineapple curd and frosted with delicious coconut rum buttercream— take a bite and you’ll be swept away to a lovely tropical island beach! If you’re a fan of cupcakes, then be sure to check out my gluten-free lemon cupcakes …