Gluten free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free Super Tasty Apple Crisp

It seems like people with food "issues" tend to find each other all over the place, and sometimes you find the right people to be friends with. I'm lucky enough to have friends like this.

Combined our children are gluten free, dairy free, nut free, and egg free due to Celiac disease and food allergies. It is so nice to have friends who are dealing with the same types of things you are because you know there is one safe place for them to have slumber parties, one set of parents who get how important it is to keep your kid away from those foods. Anyhow I'm thankful to have friends like this.

Believe it or not we actually go out to eat and have each other over for dinner. And yes figuring out what everyone can eat is actually quite a process but its also fun. I tasted a full of gluten, nuts, and dairy apple crisp the other day and decided that this would be an easy one to change into an "Allergy Free" tasty treat!

My friends son is allergic to wheat, dairy, nuts, oats, and eggs and her daughter is allergic to Dairy and eggs so I get to play around with lots of fun allergy recipes when they come over for dinner. Anyhow I made a great gluten free, dairy free, egg free, nut free apple crisp that was really good :)

Here is the recipe:


3 Cups Apples, sliced (I just got the presliced apples take the skins off if you have the time)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter substitute (I used Earth Balance® Natural Buttery Sticks)
1/4 cup rice flour or corn starch
2 TBS apple pie spice
1 package of crushed Enjoy life no oats oatmeal cookies


Combine apples, brown sugar, butter, flour and apple pie spice in a large bowl.
Pour into a 9X13 baking dish. bake covered for 15 minutes at 350.
Uncover and top with no oats oatmeal and bake for 5-10 minutes.

I served it with real vanilla ice cream (for those of us who can eat dairy) and NadaMoo vanilla ice cream for the others and it was really good. My friend made it for a family potluck and tried it with a vanilla rice ice cream from Good Karma Foods and said that was really tasty too.

Okay so it's been nearly a year and I have been meaning to update this page. Since my last post have I successfully completed a few cake decorating classes, all of which were gluten free. Along with learning some much needed skills I found a great gluten free baking product by Wilton. Its called Cake Release (Grease and flour pans in one step) The flour used is corn flour so it is gluten free!

My final course 1 cake was a chocolate cake with roses.

I also made a picnic cake for my daughters 3rd birthday.

Today I'm in the process of combining a few recipes I have used over the years to create a really awesome birthday cake, though not traditional in any way for myself.

I have taken our family favorite, Tin Roof Icecream, and a favorite desert of mine, Better than Sex Cake and combined the two with a little flare from an old craft kitchen recipe. Here is what I have come up with:

Jensen's Better than Sex on a Hot Tin Roof Icecream Cake:

1 package Pamela's brownie mix
1/2 can low fat sweetened condensed milk
6 Oz caramel ice cream topping
3 heath bars chopped
6 oz hot fudge ice cream topping
1 container of frozen whipped topping

Filling
Tin roof Sundae ice cream (recipe follows)

Directions:

1. Bake cake according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan; cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Make slits across the top of the cake, making sure not to go through to the bottom.

2. In a saucepan over low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk and caramel topping, stirring until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the warm topping mixture over the top of the warm cake, letting it sink into the slits; then sprinkle the crushed chocolate toffee bars liberally across the entire cake while still warm.

3. Let cake cool completely

4. Remove cake from pan and line with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Add Softened Tin roof sundae ice cream to the pan.

5. Gently place brownies on top of ice cream pressing gently to secure, Freeze 6 hours or until firm.

6. Invert desert onto serving plate and remove foil, when ready to server spread whipped topping onto top and sides of dessert.

Serve sliced with hot fudge drizzled over the top of the whipped cream.


For the Tin Roof ice cream I chose to make my own but if you can just buy it, just make sure to let it soften before you add it to your cake.

I followed Cafe Johnsonia's ice cream recipe using Cuisinart's Simple Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

I will post pictures and reviews after tomorrows birthday celebrations.

Disneyland Success

We are back home from our whirlwind trip to Arizona and Disneyland. I am happy to say that Disney does gluten free and does it well!

I had read on countless message boards that Disneyland offers gluten free items. I contacted Disney dining to make reservations at a few restaurants and let them know that my daughter needs to be gluten free. They noted that on our reservation, gave me the name and number of the Chef at that restaurant so that we could have everything in place for the day we got there! It was amazing.

Thought we didn't use it I stopped by Town Hall to pick up their gluten free list. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my daughter could have a hot dog with gluten free bun if she liked!

Anyhow this made my life so much easier! Yeah Disney!


*A side note in case you are planning a trip there. We picked up a great little photo book/ autograph book while we were there. It has a place for each Character to sign and on that same page a place for a photograph. Its a great $10 souvenir because my daughter now has a book with pictures of her and Cinderella, Donald Duck, Goofy etc! She just loves it!