Belated Pintember: Gluten-free Pumpkin Corn Bread

I've been a little delinquent on my Pintember posts lately but this morning I just made my gluten free version of the the pumpkin cornbread I made last week. I had saved the other half of the can for some other recipe, not sure what. I had to make it gluten free and spice improved. The first one was "missing something" as I had heard from both one son and my hubby.

I have decided that I really do not love gluten free breads. I would rather skip it and have a cracker instead. There are plenty of good gluten free crackers around. But when I had tasted the regular version of this recipe, I knew I had a good thing to convert. It was already gritty, thanks to the cornmeal.  What difference would it make if I put gritty gluten free flour in it. NONE!

Here is the new improved and gluten free pumpkin cornbread recipe...

1/2 cup sorgum flour

1/2 cup white rice flour

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 Tbs baking powder

1 Tbs cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger (I'm not a fan of ginger, but it's great with pumpkin!)

few scrapes of fresh nutmeg (I do not like nutmeg but my MIL introduced me to the fresh stuff and it makes quite a diff!)

1 cup corn meal

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2- 15oz can of solid pack pumpkin (approx 3/4 cup)

1/4 cup light olive oil

1/4 cup applesauce, sweetened (it needed a little more sweetener and moistener)

Preheat oven to 400. Mix together all of the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until well combined. Mix all of the wet (remaining) ingredients into a small mixing bowl until well combined. Pour wet into dry and mix until just combined. Prep 8 x 8 baking pan with oil spray. Pour and spread batter into pan. it will be thick. Bake for 22-28 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy with butter or without. I ate mine without!

Brought some over for my gluten free taste tester who lives across the street. She said it was a keeper recipe. 

Yay!

I almost forgot...Here is the inspiration pin...

Source: sweetpeaskitchen.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Pintember: Gluten-free Blueberry Lemon Squares

This was a very messy dessert! But, boy was it sweet and flavorful!

The pin I got this from, actually had 15 recipes using boxed cake. And it warned that this was a particularly messy dessert.

Source: loveveggiesandyoga.com via Samantha on Pinterest

This is the exact recipe that I started with. I guess I forgot that I changed the recipe quite a bit! I guess this recipe really inspired me to change the dessert around for several reasons. 1) I was going to  party and I wanted to have a non chocolate, gluten free dessert available. 2) I only had plain blueberries on hand. and 3) I love lemon with blueberries!

This is the final recipe that I actually made. However I still need to tweak it so that it won't be quite so messy...

Gluten-free Blueberry Lemon Squares

Makes 16 bars

1 box gluten-free vanilla, white, or yellow cake mix (I used Wegman's vanilla)

1 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cups blueberries (I used frozen blueberries use what you have, fresh or frozen, or an assortment of berries)

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup slivered almonds

3/4 can (14-ounces) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 9-by-9 inch pan by lining it with aluminum foil and then spraying it with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, oats, butter, egg, vanilla and mix either with a mixer, with a spoon, or with your hands, kneading it together. The batter will be thick, tacky, and may be difficult to combine, but keep stirring or use your fingers and knead it together, adding a splash of water or milk if absolutely necessary in order to combine. Press the dough it into the prepared pan. It will be tacky, sticky, and a bit tricky to work with, but keep pressing, spreading, and finessing it.

Sprinkle the berries, then sprinkle the white chocolate chips, evenly over the top of the dough. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the top, using a spatula to gently spread and even it if necessary. Bake for 25 to 29 minutes, or until edges of bars begin to barely brown and pull away slightly from the sides of the pan, taking care not to overbake. Note that the middle will not seem very well set and although it will be bubbling, the middle will be jiggly and juicy upon removing from oven and that is okay, you want to keep these gooey. They will continue to set up more after they have cooled but don’t be alarmed if you cannot get perfect squares as these are made to be soft and gooey. Allow bars to cool well before slicing and serving. Optionally,  top with whipped topping or ice cream before serving. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze for up to three months.

*If you do not like white chocolate, you can omit entirely or use milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Use slivered almonds in place of the coconut flakes if you don’t like coconut.

If I could get the toppings to be more solid...this recipe would probably not be so gooey. They were very tasty but I would much prefer to be able to eat them with my hands like a brownie...versus having to use a fork...or even a spoon, depending on how bad it is. Maybe if I put the oats in the topping part?

I would love it if someone gave me suggestions to fix this gooey mess!