Gluten-Free Cream Puff Swans #Recipe by @LibbyKlein

 

 Libby Klein I used to make cream puffs all the time back in the days before gluten was viciously cut out of my life due to my auto-immune disease. They’re a dessert that WOWs people because they look so fancy and complicated. I’d see frozen ones at functions and parties all the time and sigh with self-pity that I couldn’t have them anymore. Why it never occurred to me to just try to make them gluten-free I’ll never know. I finally gave into temptation after watching a cooking show where the pastry chef made a tart with vanilla pastry cream, mmm - Pastry cream, and I’m so glad I did. These are wonderful for a Mother's Day Brunch, or a fancy Shower or Tea Party. And they're easier than they look.

Disclaimer - Read all your labels to make sure your ingredients are gluten-free. Gluten can be sneaky.

Gluten-Free Cream Puffs

Yield: 12 large cream puffs

 Choux Paste (sounds like Shoe paste) – a most intimidating sounding recipe - is actually very easy. I recommend using a big wooden spoon for this. And if you are making the swans, you'll need a piping bag with a number 8 or 10 circle tip.

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter

1 cup water

Hefty pinch salt

1 cup gluten-free flour blend that has xanthan gum already added

*if your gluten-free flour blend does NOT have Xanthan gum already added (like Bob’s Red Mill does not) add ½ teaspoon xanthan gum to the recipe

4 eggs

Vanilla Pastry Cream:

 INGREDIENTS:

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

Heavy pinch salt

1 ½ cups whole milk – Not skim milk. 

    If you’re making pastry with skim milk you don’t deserve cream puffs.

6 egg yolks

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract - or scrape one vanilla bean

Later:

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

 

DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. In a heavy saucepan, add 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. 

When the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour all at once, mixing quickly (the mixture will form a ball). Let it stand for a couple of minutes to cool a few degrees.

Add the eggs to the flour mixture, one at a time, mixing well with a wooden spoon after each addition. 

Transfer a large scoop of dough into your fitted pastry bag. Pipe 8 question marks onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. On a separate cookie sheet, drop the rest of the dough by large heaping tablespoons forming 6-8 mounds. I usually pipe a couple extra swan necks just in case things get hinky in the assembly.

Dip your fingertips into cold water and smooth the mounds of dough into pretty balls. They will puff us as they bake but they won’t smooth out like dinner rolls.

Bake the necks at 375° F. for 10-12 minutes, or until nicely golden. Bake the domes for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Poke a hole in the side of each one with a knife and put them back in the oven for 2 minutes. Take them out and let them cool.

Make the pastry cream filling.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the sugar, milk, cornstarch, and salt to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks.

Bring the mixture in the saucepan to a boil while stirring continuously. Continue to simmer until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk hot milk into the egg-yolk mixture a little at a time to bring up the temperature of the yolks. Add everything back into the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat while whisking continuously until the custard is so thick it coats a spoon, like soft pudding. 

Now cook it until it boils for one minute. It will be very thick even while hot.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract or the vanilla beans. Transfer the custard to a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap down to the surface of the custard. Chill until the custard is completely cold. The plastic wrap won't even cling to the custard it's so thick.

In a separate bowl, beat the 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form.

With a rubber spatula, fold a little of the whipped cream into the custard to loosen it up. 

Then fold all the custard into the whipped cream. Chill again until thick and stiff.

Now there are 2 ways to fill your cooled cream puffs. You can either slice them in half like hamburger buns and dollop pastry cream in the middle, or you can transfer the pastry cream into a piping bag – and using the hole you poked into them at the end of baking, squeeze pastry cream into the shell until it won’t take anymore. (Yikes.) You’ll know it’s full because the shell will swell and the pastry cream with start to push back out. In my opinion, this is the best way to fill gluten-free cream puffs because the doughy center will absorb the cream. But today, we are making swans.

If you're making the swans, cut the top off each cream puff round. Cut that top in half longways. That makes the wings. Fill the bottom with pastry cream like it's the swan boat to the tunnel of love. Set your swan neck into the pastry cream and butterfly out your wings.

Top your cream puffs with a dusting of powdered sugar if desired. Then pose them in front of a Swan Princess background like this.

 

B&B owner and gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister, along with her saucy Aunt Ginny, is on the case at the annual Cold Spring Village antique show in Libby Klein’s seventh deliciously witty, paleo-themed Poppy McAllister Mystery.
 

When vintage items go up for auction, gluten-free baker and B&B owner Poppy McAllister discovers some people will pay the ultimate price...
 
It’s peak summer season at the Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast in Cape May, with tourists fluttering in and out and wreaking enough havoc to rival a Jersey Shore hurricane. Also back in town is Courtney Whipple and his family of antique dealers for the annual Cold Spring Village antique show. Courtney’s son Auggie has a unique piece he believes will fetch them a fortune if he can get it authenticated in time—a piece rival dealer Grover Prickle insists was stolen from his store.
 
Poppy and her Aunt Ginny attend the auction, hoping to bid on an armoire for the B&B, and discover a veritable armory for sale—everything from ancient blades and nineteenth-century guns to such potential killing devices as knitting needles and a blacksmith hammer. Strangely, they don’t see either Auggie or Grover—or the mysterious item they both claim to own. Then during the auction, a body falls out of the very armoire Poppy was hoping to acquire, stabbed through the heart. Now, surrounded by competitive dealers and makeshift weapons, she must find out who turned the auction house into a slaughterhouse…
 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her

classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/

Blue Velvet Cupcakes and a Cupcake Menorah for Hanukkah Week from Cleo Coyle

Like red velvet cake, blue velvet carries a wonderful hint of cocoa. This is a beautiful cupcake for birthday parties and baby or wedding showers. Because blue is also the color for Hanukkah, I used this recipe to make a cupcake menorah for the first night of Hanukkah this past Saturday evening--and, no, unlike the oil, they did not last eight days! My husband and our friends ate them all on the very first night.

As for the recipe, I'm passing on an easy one to make. It even uses a cake mix as a starter, but there are some tricky aspects, which is why I’m sharing some tips, too.

Whether you are celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Yule, I send you the warmest wishes for these cold, dark months...

May your own holidays be bright!

~ Cleo Coyle 

Cleo Coyle's 

Blue Velvet Cupcakes 

with 
Basic Buttercream Frosting 

 To download this recipe in a PDF document that you can print, save, or share, click here.

Makes about 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

1 box of white or vanilla cake mix (with pudding in the mix)

4 teaspoons natural, unsweetened cocoa powder 

1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)

3 eggs (lightly beaten with a fork)

1 cup whole milk + ¼ cup whole milk (add separately)

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1-2 teaspoons Royal Blue food coloring gel or paste (also called Icing Color)


For the basic buttercream frosting

10 tablespoons butter, softened

3 cups confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered or icing sugar)

3 tablespoons whole milk (+ maybe a little extra)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Royal Blue food coloring gel paste (also called Icing Color)

*Important Note on the food coloring: Because of the brown cocoa powder in this recipe, your cupcakes will end up turquoise in color (or even greenish) instead of blue if you use the wrong kind of food coloring or the wrong amount. To get the beautiful shade of blue in my photos, be sure you do two things: (1) Do not use water-based food coloring such as McCormick’s brand. Use a gel paste coloring. I used Wilton Royal Blue Icing Color gel paste. Michael’s stores carry it in their baking supplies section, but you can also buy it online; click here to see. (2) My other piece of advice is to use enough of the food coloring. Don’t skimp. Start with 1 full teaspoon, at least. You made need up to another full teaspoon to see your batter turn the shade of blue you like best. (Some bakers add a very small amount of violet gel paste to help achieve a deep, royal blue. Give that a try, if you like, but I did achieve a pretty blue color using only blue gel paste.)

Directions - For the...

Cupcakes

Step 1: First preheat your oven to 325° F. Place the vinegar in a measuring cup and fill to the 1 cup line with whole milk. Set aside for five minutes.

Step 2: Into a large mixing bowl, combine the box of cake mix, cocoa powder, vegetable or canola oil, and eggs. Add the sour milk from Step 1 and an additional ¼ cup whole milk. Beat with an electric mixer for about a minute until a smooth batter forms. (Be sure to scrape down the bowl as you mix.)

Step 3: Measure out 1 teaspoon of the royal blue gel paste and add it to the batter. Mix well and observe the color. You may need to add up to 1 more teaspoon of gel paste to achieve the depth of blue you want.

Step 4: Line cupcake tins with paper liners. Take out the ¼ cup container in your measuring set. Use it to measure out the batter for each cupcake. This will keep the size consistent.

Bake in your preheated 325° F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes (exact time depends on your oven). Cupcakes are done when the top is set and a toothpick inserted into the center of a test cupcake comes out free of wet batter. Transfer pans to a cooling rack and allow the cupcakes to cool in their pans at least five minutes before removing.

Directions for the...

Buttercream
Icing 

Notes for success: Canned icing doesn’t come close to comparing to the wonderful taste of homemade buttercream. It’s easy to make. Just be sure to: (1) Start with softened butter. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to cream it. (2) When adding milk start with the lowest amount possible and add it in very slowly until you achieve a smooth, spreadable icing. If you throw in a large amount of milk, you will end up with watery frosting—at that point, even if you whip more butter into it, the frosting may remain grainy. (Ask me how I know.)

Step 1: Into a mixing bowl, cut the softened butter into pieces. Measure in the vanilla. Using an electric mixer, cream these ingredients until light and fluffy. Stop the mixer.

Step 2: Add in the confectioners’ sugar and 3 tablespoons of milk. (No more!) Beat until the sugar is completely incorporated. If the frosting is still too thick, add in a very small splash of milk and beat again. Add in more milk this way, a little at a time, until you get a smooth consistency that’s easy to spread on your cupcake tops. (Try a test frosting of one cupcake to be sure.)

Step 3: Finally, add a small amount of gel paste coloring to the frosting and beat it again. Add more gel paste to achieve the exact shade of blue that you’d like. My method of adding the gel paste is pretty basic—I dip the tines of a fork into the bottle to scoop out the gel and roughly mix it into the frosting before beating again. Frost your cupcakes and eat with blue velvet joy!

May your
holidays be bright!

~ Cleo Coyle, author of 

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Friend me on facebook here
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Learn about my books here

My new
Coffeehouse Mystery
has just released...

Now a Top-10
New York Times
bestseller...

And an Amazon and
Barnes & Noble

Mass Market Paperback
Bestseller, nationwide!

A Mystery Guild
Featured Alternate
Selection

Publisher's Weekly: “Sprightly…and engaging.”

Kirkus Reviews:
“Jingle bells, beautiful displays, scrumptious treats:
Holiday season in New York City has it all,
including murder…Coyle’s coffeehouse series
captures the New York experience,
from high-society parties to gritty back-street deals.
The fine mystery is followed by some holiday
recipes that will even pack the pounds on readers
who are only browsing them.”

RT Book Reviews

"A fun mixture of family, romance, cooking and...
a perfect Christmas mystery. A treat..."

Holiday Buzz
Contests!

The clock is ticking down
on some fun contests (links below).



* CONTEST #1 at Fresh Fiction

* CONTEST #2 at Latte Da!

* New Contest at Dru's Book Musings: 
Read a special excerpt from the opening of Holiday Buzz, leave a comment, and you will be entered to win a stainless steel NYPD travel mug, a personally inscribed copy of my new book, and my recipe card for Candy Cane Frosting. Contest ends Sat. Dec.15th - Click here to enter Dru's contest.


* New Contest at Lori's Reading Corner: 
Read a brand new exclusive excerpt from the book, a scene between Clare Cosi and her ex-husband Matt that I call: "Manhattan munchies, a tempting patty melt, and a clue to murder..." - Be sure to use Lori's entry form at the end of the post, and you will be entered to win a personally inscribed copy of Holiday Buzz and my recipe card for Candy Cane Frosting. Contest ends Sun. Dec. 23rd. Click here to enter Lori's contest.


Good luck
and have fun,
everyone!