all things food
What do Britney Spears, Back to the Future, and banana bread have in common? They’re all undeniable National Treasures. And not to be dramatic, but this gluten-free banana bread might be the be-all, end-all of banana bread: tender, moist, perfectly swe…
What do Britney Spears, Back to the Future, and banana bread have in common? They’re all undeniable National Treasures. And not to be dramatic, but this gluten-free banana bread might be the be-all, end-all of banana bread: tender, moist, perfectly sweet, and undetectably gluten-free (seriously!).
It requires simple ingredients and methods, and all the magic happens in just 1 bowl. What are you waiting for?!
The Ultimate Gluten-Free Banana Bread (Bakery Worthy!) from Minimalist Baker →
You can’t go wrong when peanut butter and jelly are involved. And in a cookie? Irresistible! These vegan and gluten-free thumbprint cookies are tender with crisp edges, packed with peanut butter flavor, and have a fruity jam center (a.k.a. cookie perfe…
You can’t go wrong when peanut butter and jelly are involved. And in a cookie? Irresistible! These vegan and gluten-free thumbprint cookies are tender with crisp edges, packed with peanut butter flavor, and have a fruity jam center (a.k.a. cookie perfection!).
Plus, they’re easy to make with just 8 ingredients, 1 bowl, and 30 minutes required! Naturally sweetened, grain-free, and oil-free too! We know: It’s magic.
Lunchboxes, rejoice! The perfect homemade crackers do exist, and they happen to be vegan and gluten-free! These almond flour crackers are nutty, salty, crisp, and super snackable. Enjoy them on their own or pair with your favorite dips!
Just 7 ingredie…
Lunchboxes, rejoice! The perfect homemade crackers do exist, and they happen to be vegan and gluten-free! These almond flour crackers are nutty, salty, crisp, and super snackable. Enjoy them on their own or pair with your favorite dips!
Just 7 ingredients, 1 bowl, and 25 minutes required for these simple, grain-free crackers. Let’s get baking!
How to make almond flour crackers
These gluten-free almond flour crackers start with the perfect combination of dry ingredients.
Gluten-free gingersnaps packed with holiday flavor and just like the real deal with that quintessential crunch? Here they are! Bonus? These cookies are EASY to make, vegan, naturally sweetened, and perfect for holiday parties or gifting to friends and …
Gluten-free gingersnaps packed with holiday flavor and just like the real deal with that quintessential crunch? Here they are! Bonus? These cookies are EASY to make, vegan, naturally sweetened, and perfect for holiday parties or gifting to friends and neighbors.
Don’t worry — no hassle here! The dough comes together in just a few simple steps. Let’s get festive and make some cookies, friends!
1-Bowl Gluten-Free Gingersnaps (Vegan) from Minimalist Baker →
This chocolate chip cookie recipe is so good you’ll fall in love at first bite. The chocolate chip cookies are chewy with crispy edges.
The post Chocolate Chip Cookies appeared first on Budget Bytes.
This chocolate chip cookie recipe is so good you’ll fall in love at first bite. The cookies have a hint of salt, so they don’t come off too sweet. They’re chewy with slightly crispy edges. They have deeply developed flavors with nutty notes of brown butter. They truly are exceptional. The best part? You don’t need fancy ingredients, just a few tricks.
Here are my Top 5 Tips to slay the chocolate chip cookie game:
Never remove cookies from a sheet pan right out of the oven. They are still very soft and are likely to break. Instead, leave them on the sheet pan for five or so minutes and then use a spatula to place them on a cooling rack.
Cookies should be cold to the touch before storing. Placing a warm cookie in an air-tight container will make it mushy, and you worked too hard for that. Once cooled, place them in an air-tight container lined with a paper towel. Separate layers with wax paper to prevent them from sticking together. Top the final layer of cookies with plastic wrap to reduce exposure to air. They will last at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. Refrigerating baked cookies will dry them out. Instead, for longer storage, freeze them for up to 3 months.
Absolutely! Portion the dough with a small cookie scoop or in 2 tablespoon-sized cookie dough balls. Freeze them on a sheet pan with a bit of separation so they don’t stick together. Once they are frozen solid, add the dough balls to a freezer-safe bag and remove as much air as possible. If using a container, top each layer of dough balls with plastic wrap to prevent exposure to air.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
In a light-colored, heavy-bottomed pan, melt the 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) of butter over medium heat. When it starts to foam, the milk solids will separate from the water in little specks. Continue to cook the solids until they have turned golden brown. The air will smell of hazelnuts.
Once the butter has been browned, immediately remove it from the heat and place it in a bowl to cool for a few minutes. Once it is no longer steaming hot, set the bowl in the fridge or freezer until the brown butter cools to a softened butter consistency.
Once the butter has cooled and solidified into a mousse-like consistency, add the 1/2 cup of brown sugar and the 1/4 cup of granulated white sugar to the bowl.
Use a hand mixer (or elbow grease) to cream the butter and the sugars on low speed until incorporated.
Add the teaspoon of vanilla extract and one egg to the bowl. Mix on low speed until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the second egg. Mix on low speed until combined, and scrape down the bowl again.
In a separate bowl, combine the 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
Pour half of the flour mixture into the creamed butter mixture and mix on low speed until it barely comes together. Next, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the remaining flour. Continue to mix on low speed until the dough barely comes together. Do not over-mix, as this will give you a tough cookie.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add 1 cup of chocolate chips. Mix until the chocolate chips are interspersed evenly throughout the dough.
Roll 2-tablespoon portions of dough into balls and place them 2 inches apart on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Chill the dough in your refrigerator, uncovered, for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.
When ready to bake, place a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat it to 350°F. Press the chilled cookie dough balls down with two fingers.
Bake the cookies for 4 minutes. Rotate the sheet pan, front to back. Bake for an additional 4 minutes, until the edges are a light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for at least 5 minutes before taking them off and cooling them on a rack.
The post Chocolate Chip Cookies appeared first on Budget Bytes.
Picture this: It’s Thanksgiving morning, the pies are prepped, the holiday guests are still sleeping, and you have just enough time to whip up a batch of fresh muffins and enjoy a warm cup of [insert your favorite morning beverage] before the cooking m…
Picture this: It’s Thanksgiving morning, the pies are prepped, the holiday guests are still sleeping, and you have just enough time to whip up a batch of fresh muffins and enjoy a warm cup of [insert your favorite morning beverage] before the cooking marathon begins. Sounds dreamy, yeah?
These vegan, gluten-free cranberry orange muffins are IT, friends! They’re tender, zesty, and perfectly sweet with just the right balance of tart cranberries.
Gluten-Free Cranberry Orange Muffins (Vegan) from Minimalist Baker →
Lightly scented with warming pumpkin spice and moist throughout, this old-fashioned pumpkin bread comes together in minutes with just a handful of ingredients.
The post Pumpkin Bread appeared first on Budget Bytes.
Lightly scented with warming pumpkin spice and moist throughout, this old-fashioned pumpkin bread comes together in minutes with just a handful of ingredients. Bonus: the recipe makes enough for two loaves, so you can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and a snack. (If you have self-control around baked goods, I’m in desperate need of a tutorial.)
For a crumb that’s as tender as a love song, don’t overmix. Mixing develops gluten, the protein strands that help give your bread structure. The more you mix, the more gluten you develop, and the tougher your bread becomes.
How you combine your ingredients is also important. Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls, and then add the dry on top of the wet. Finally, fold the dry ingredients into the wet just until a batter forms. Don’t worry about lumps. Just don’t overmix.
This recipe is jam-packed with flavor, but it is bare bones. Add deeper flavors by substituting the water in the recipe for orange juice or apple juice. If you want to add a little texture, try mixing in a 1/2 cup of the following:
Making a quick bread with a dense batter can be a little nerve-wracking. It can rise beautifully and look like it’s ready to serve. Then as soon as you slice into it, you find it’s underbaked. To prevent that kind of crippling letdown (I take pumpkin bread very seriously, ok?), follow these tips:
To test if your loaf is done, remove it quickly from the oven and place it lightly on a heat-proof surface. Touch the top of the loaf. If the surface has a springiness to it, insert a butter knife through one of the cracks in the crust. When the knife hits the bottom of the pan, remove it and look at the blade. Is there wet batter stuck to it? Put your bread back in the oven. If it comes out clean with just a whisper of moisture, it’s ready to go.
No worries! Use what you have, but be mindful that the type of pan you use will affect the baking time. You’ll need to rely on visual cues and the trusty butter knife trick. Whichever pan you use, make sure you don’t overfill it. Your bread needs room to rise. ( I feel like there’s a life lesson in there somewhere.)
If you have leftovers, wrap them tightly in foil, plastic, or beeswax and store them in an air-tight container at room temperature. They’ll keep up to 2 days. To store your pumpkin bread for up to 2 weeks, freeze it. First, let it cool completely, wrap it in plastic, then in foil, and place it inside an air-tight freezer-safe container.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
In a large bowl, mix pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and water.
Add the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients.
Mix the dry ingredients lightly into the wet, just until a batter forms.
Split the batter between the two greased loaf pans and smooth the top.
Bake for about an hour, or until a knife inserted into the crack in the loaf’s top crust hits the bottom of the pan and comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool before taking it out of the loaf pan. Slice it up and enjoy!
The post Pumpkin Bread appeared first on Budget Bytes.
This easy soda bread recipe is budget-friendly and endlessly adaptable. It’s also a stone-cold stunner. It got props from Gordon Ramsay!
The post Easy Soda Bread appeared first on Budget Bytes.
When I couldn’t afford a $4 loaf of bread on my $10-a-day food budget, I turned to soda bread. I would make a loaf every morning, slice it, and top it with scrambled eggs, mashed avocado, or butter. I’d serve it as a partner in crime with simple salads and soups. I even used it on an episode of MasterChef (I competed on Season 3), and Gordon Ramsay loved it. This recipe is very easy to put together and incredibly budget-friendly. Get ready to put this one in heavy rotation!
Soda bread is a quick bread with a hard outer crust and a dense, tight crumb. Quick breads are leavened with baking powder or soda instead of yeast. So, if you’ve had a muffin, cornbread, biscuits, or banana bread, you’ve had quick bread. Soda bread is leavened with baking soda, which gives it its namesake.
You need just 4 ingredients to make soda bread: flour, baking soda, a little salt, and buttermilk. The baking soda reacts with the acidity of the buttermilk, creating tiny bubbles in the dough, giving soda bread its signature texture. You don’t even need to knead it. It’s so easy that I could make it with a two-year-old at my knees screaming for Yo Gabba Gabba. (If you are currently sharing space with a two-year-old, my thoughts and prayers are with you. #neveragain)
You knead bread to develop gluten strands, rubberband-like proteins that help bread rise. They create a net that traps all of the gas developed by bread made with yeast. Because soda bread is not yeasted bread, kneading it just makes it dense and hard. To develop its trademark soft crumb, you touch the dough as little as possible while shaping it.
Many cultures worldwide make some form of soda bread, and it is thought to have been created by Native Americans. However, the most commonly known recipe is for Irish soda bread. It became a popular recipe in Ireland during the famine when bread had to be made from cheap ingredients: soft wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and sour milk.
Traditionally, Irish soda bread is just four ingredients. But Irish Americans add currants or caraway seeds to the dough. You can also add a few teaspoons of citrus zest or your favorite fresh herbs. For a fun twist, try it with Everything Bagel seasoning. It’s truly a blank canvas, so don’t be scared to experiment with your favorite flavors.
Soda bread is perfect for sopping up that last bit of sauce or stew. For a perfect pairing, check out these recipes.
Set a rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 450°F. Mix the the 2 cups of flour, the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and the 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a large bowl until they are fully incorporated.
Form a well in the center of the flour mixture and fill the well with the buttermilk.
Use a fork to incorporate the flour into the buttermilk little by little until a thick batter forms. Use your hands to incorporate the final bits of flour and gently shape the batter into a dough. Do not overwork the dough.
Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and gently shape it into a round 6 inches in diameter and about 1 1/2 inches thick.
Place the loaf in a Dutch oven or cast iron skillet. Use a sharp knife to cut a large x into the top of the dough.
Bake for 10 minutes at 450°F. Then lower the oven temperature to 400°F and continue baking until the bread is golden brown and crusty on the outside, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool.
Enjoy the warm, cozy soda bread with a thick smear of butter and your favorite bowl of soup!
The post Easy Soda Bread appeared first on Budget Bytes.
We call them cowgirl cookies. But Google says they’re cowboy cookies. Who says a cowgirl can’t have cookies, too!? We shared these cowperson cookies with many non-gluten-free friends, and they all kept going back for more…that’s when you kn…
We call them cowgirl cookies. But Google says they’re cowboy cookies. Who says a cowgirl can’t have cookies, too!? We shared these cowperson cookies with many non-gluten-free friends, and they all kept going back for more…that’s when you know they’re good!
Chewy, nutty, and perfectly sweet, these cookies are LOADED with goodies (oats, coconut, chocolate, and walnuts or pecans).
1-Bowl Cowgirl Cookies (Vegan + Gluten-Free) from Minimalist Baker →
This vegan brownies recipe is quick and easy to make with a handful of everyday ingredients. Simple, fudgy and so delicious! I’ve been making and bringing these vegan brownies to gatherings for nearly a decade now. And my friends — vegans and non-vegans alike — always adore them! I’ve honestly found myself returning to these […]
This vegan brownies recipe is quick and easy to make with a handful of everyday ingredients. Simple, fudgy and so delicious!
I’ve been making and bringing these vegan brownies to gatherings for nearly a decade now. And my friends — vegans and non-vegans alike — always adore them!
I’ve honestly found myself returning to these brownies so often because it’s one of those back-pocket recipes that only takes about 30 minutes to whip up and calls for basic pantry ingredients that I almost always have on hand. Plus it also sneaks half of a fresh avocado into the batter, whose healthy fats stand in for part of the oil needed and whose flavor is (at least in my opinion) completely undetectable in these brownies. People are always surprised to learn that they’re eating avocado brownies and give them rave reviews!
The most important thing you need to know about these brownies is that they’re rich and very chocolate-y and fudgy. And they are downright heavenly when served warm out of the pan with a cool scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you’re into the salty-sweet thing, I also highly recommend a pinch of flaky sea salt on top. Yum.
Let’s make some homemade brownies together! ♡