Gluten Free Mixed Berry Crumble
PIN IT!This gluten free mixed berry crumble is the perfect dessert for any summer party, potluck, picnic or any summer day. You’ll never want another crumble recipe again!
As many of you know, I’ve recently finished editing an entirely gluten-free cookbook for a project with Adams Media.
Even though I loved every second of publishing my first cookbook (ON SALE HERE!), it was a lot of work. And I’m still not 100% happy with the final product. So when I was approached to create 60 new recipes for an all gluten-free book, I almost said no. But then I thought about it. My best friend is gluten intolerant, and so many of my family members are struggling with celiac and allergies, and it always breaks my heart that they can’t eat the foods everyone else enjoys at parties and potlucks.
So, after convincing my husband that we’ll definitely be taking that vacation later this year and that I won’t fall into a tunnel of perfectionism and despair with this one, I said yes. And exactly one month later, I had every single recipe turned in (it was a very busy month) and felt more accomplished than I had in a long time. Gluten-free cooking and baking is challenging. Because you’re losing the one property that keeps most of our cakes, breads and pastas binded, you have to play with different chemicals and flours to recreate gluten. Xanthum gum and psyllium husks became my best friend, and soon my cabinet was filled with 12 different kinds of flour, including an all purpose blend that set me back about the cost of a new iMac. (Not really, but almost).
I learned very quickly that some of the recipes I loved to make on a regular basis (like pizza crust, homemade pasta and soft pretzels), just wouldn’t turn out by simply subbing in gluten-free products. I had to reconstruct these recipes so they would turn out. And let me tell you, I’ve never had more recipe fails in my life than I did doing this book. But instead of getting frustrated by each fail, I felt more inspired. This book was very tough, but I truly feel like I learned so much about gluten-free cooking. I really challenged myself as a cook and the end result was that much more gratifying.
Choosing which recipes to include was definitely difficult. I wanted to make recipes that my friend and my family would love, as well as recipes picky kids and even vegans would enjoy too. I narrowed down my list and even had to cut recipes I made from it because I didn’t think they quite fit. Funny enough, this gluten free mixed berry crumble was one that got the ax. Not because it’s not incredible (trust me, it is), but simply because I had another fruity summer dessert and wanted to make sure I had plenty of variety.
But, that’s okay because then I can share it with you guys right now. This crumble is one of my new favorites for summer. The topping is buttery, crispy and crunchy, while the tart mix of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries offers the perfect tart, juicy and sweet contrast. Topped with some vanilla bean ice cream and this is downright criminal.
One bite and you’ll be hooked. I promise you.
Gluten Free Mixed Berry Crumble
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE!
Serves about 10.
Prep time: About 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
For the filling:
- 2 cups fresh blueberries
- 2 cups fresh blackberries
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons almond meal or coconut flour
For the crumble topping:
- 3/4 cup high quality gluten-free all purpose flour (I swear by Gluteny)
- 1/2 cup almond meal
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 stick COLD unsalted butter, cut into slabs
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped
- 1 jumbo egg, room temperature
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated cinnamon stick
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Liberally grease a casserole dish, pie plate or 8 x 8 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl, toss the berries with the sugar and almond meal, lemon zest, lemon juice. Cover with saran wrap and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the crumble topping. In another mixing bowl, whisk the gluten-free mix, almond meal, brown sugar, white sugar and baking powder together until fully combined. Using a pastry knife, cut into the butter slabs into the mix (much like you would with a pie crust) until mixture resembles a coarse sand.
- Lightly beat the egg with the vanilla bean and mix into the butter/crumble mixture.
- Pour the berries into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Liberally sprinkle the top with the crumble and add the grated cinnamon to the top. Bake for about 42 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.
Nutritional information per serving:
Calories: 350
Fat: 15 grams
Carbohydrates: 45.3 grams
Fiber: 2 grams
Protein: 4 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 8
Claire
Tags:crumble recipes, easy berry recipes, gluten free, gluten-free recipes, healthy recipes, summer berry recipes
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Squares
These amazing soft and chew oatmeal raisin squares taste just like your favorite cookie, just in a bigger, chewier square. Oh, and because they have oatmeal, you can totally eat them for breakfast!
A few days ago, I was having a chat with a new friend. When I was telling her what I did for a living (food & travel writer, recipe developer & occasional home/craft writer) she responded with “Gosh, you sound like the perfect domestic goddess!” I laughed so hard I almost spit my coffee all over my keyboard. Me? A Domestic Goddess? Clearly, she hasn’t seen me coated in flour and powdered sugar, with 45 dishes piled in the sink and an array of plates, fresh herbs, chocolate chips and more all over my dining room table. Clearly she hasn’t seen the dust bunnies (who have recently reproduced and invited their family to live with them) who dwell under my tables and consoles. Or how about that 1 year old pile of mail I still need to toss? Or the piles of clothes in my room?
After I laughed for about 10 minutes, I started to think a little about domesticity. What actually qualifies someone as domestic? What makes someone a domestic goddess? Sure, I hate dusting, would rather give myself a partial labatomy than do dishes and would rather set myself on fire than put away my laundry, but there are house keeping things that I absolutely love. Like making my bed. This is a new revelation, but now I can’t go downstairs for coffee until our bed is made. I also love doing laundry. I may keep the clean laundry in hampers for weeks, but there’s never more than a few socks in our dirty laundry pile. Oh and vacuuming, don’t even get me started. I LOVE it. And loading the dishwasher is a source of great joy for me (not kidding).
If you were to visit my house now, you’d see all of this first hand. You’d hear my dishwashing humming along, you’d see my perfectly made bed. You’d probably hear the washing and dryer bumping around as they toss, tumble and dry. You’d also see two large hampers full of clothes, a few pots and pans “soaking” in the sink, a few lonely dust bunnies sunning themselves on the stairs. You’d also probably see lots of dog hair on the couch and piles of (clean) props scattered on my table.
I wonder, if you saw that, would you classify me as a domestic person? Or just a regular girl with things she loves and hates to do? It’s such a strange word and a strange way to classify someone, don’t you think? And I still beg the question, what actually makes you domestic or not? So friends, please leave your comments below on what you think. I’m channeling my inner Carrie Bradshaw today!
Oh and if you say “omg those squares look heavenly!” that’s okay too. That’s probably how I’d answer anyway 🙂
Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Squares
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE!
Serves about 14. Inspired by Martha Stewart.
Prep time: >10 minutes
Cook time: 26 – 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 2/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- Dash of salt
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, applesauce and sugars together until creamy. Mix in the egg and beat until combined.
- In another bowl, whisk the flours, cinnamon and oats together. Add the flour/oat mixture to the butter/applesauce mixture and mix to combine. Carefully fold in the raisins and pecans.
- Pour the mixture into your prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for about 26 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown (and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean).
- Let cool slightly and then cut into squares.
Nutritional information per square:
Calories: 255
Fat: 8 grams
Carbohydrates: 41 grams
Fiber: 2.2 grams
Protein: 5.6 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 7
Claire
Tags:breakfast recipes, healthy recipes, oatmeal raisin recipes, oatmeal recipes, raisin recipes, soft recipes
One Pot Clambake
This easy one pot clambake is the perfect dinner to whip up and enjoy this summer. No trips to the cape required!
It’s officially summer guys. I mean, the calendar might not say so, but the 95 degree heat and sticky humidity sure does. I love summer, but I don’t necessarily love it HERE. You see, where I live was built over swampland, so the summers tend to get a wee bit humid. And by wee bit, I mean I walk outside, my hair triples in size (but not the size you want), my face starts to sweat and I melt into a puddle of despair.
You see, my body wasn’t meant for humidity. Which is funny being I spent 3 summers in southeast Georgia and have lived in the DC area for almost 4 years now. You’d think I’d get used to 80%+ humidity. But no. Every summer it’s the same. I walk outside, sweat my face off, retreat into the air conditioning and threaten to shave my head. Every single year. It’s actually a surprise I still have hair on my head, folks.
The best part about this summer, though, is the pool. There’s a pool 4 minutes from our little condo and I’m already daydreaming of spending my afternoons there working on my suntan. We haven’t had access to a pool in 2 years and I’ve completely forgotten how amazing it is to have one. I’ve told E about 15,000 times, when we buy a house (here or in SC), we’re going to have a pool. I don’t care if I have to spend hours cleaning it myself. I don’t care if I’m the only person using it. I’ll use it in the middle of winter. I just need one.
The humidity and heat aside, I’m actually looking forward to this summer. We’re finally buying an outdoor grill, we have a beautiful patio and my husband just found out he’s no longer allergic to seafood. That means this incredibly delicious one pot clambakes in our favorite Le Creuset 5 1/2 quart stock pot will be happening on a weekly basis. There’s really nothing like eating fresh seafood from a pot overlooking some trees, drinking a cold beer. Am I right or am I right?
One Pot Clambake
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE!
Serves about 3 – 4. Inspired by Martha Stewart.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 – 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 pound small red potatoes, quartered
- 1/2 large onion, sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup dry white wine (I used a dry Pinot Gris)
- 1/3 cup water or vegetable broth
- 4 small mini ears of corn (I used the steamfresh microwavable bags)
- 2 1/2 dozen fresh littleneck clams
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/3 pound shrimp, peeled and cooked (about 12 – 14 small pieces, 6 – 8 large)
- 1/3 pound fresh lobster claw meat
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 -2 tablespoons crushed red pepper*
*Optional for a little heat.
Directions:
- In a large Le Creuset Dutch oven (Mine was 5 1/2 quart), heat the 1 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until just starting to soften, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to high and add in wine and water. Bring the mixture to a rapid boil and add in the potatoes. Sprinkle in the salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Cover and let boil for about 5 minutes, or until potatoes start to soften. Add in the clams and lemon juice. Cover and cook another 10 minutes, or until the clams open. Discard any unopened clams.
- Meanwhile microwave your corn until done.
- Add in the shrimp, lobster meat, parsley, corn and dill to the clam pot and reduce heat to medium low. *** Cook another 5 – 6 minutes, or until the shrimp and lobster meat turns opaque. Remove from heat.
- Now, there’s two ways to eat this. You can either eat the fish, corn and potatoes directly from the broth (which is what we did) or you can remove the fish, potatoes, corn and onion from the bowl and set on a large serving platter. If you do this, pour the broth into a large bowl and whisk in remaining butter, salt, pepper, more crushed red pepper, parsley and additional dill. Dip the fish into the broth and eat!
***If you pan on eating directly from the dutch oven, melt the two remaining tablespoons of butter and add to the broth when you add in the shrimp.
Nutritional information per serving (at least one ear of corn, a few shrimp, 1/2 pound clams, less than 1/4 pound potatoes, a spoonful of lobster meat and about 1/4 cup broth)
Calories: 379.25
Fat: 10 grams
Carbohydrates: 31.25 grams
Fiber: 5.3 grams
Protein: 20.25 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 6
NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
Claire
Tags:clam recipes, clamebake, easy clambake recipes, healthy recipes, low fat summer recipes, one-pot meals, quick and easy, summer recipes
My Weekend in San Francisco & Napa
…As told through the lens of my camera.
I plan on doing a much deeper, much more thorough outline of my weekend in San Francisco, but for now, I just want to share a whole bunch of photos of my amazing weekend there at the beginning of May. Even though I have family in San Anselmo and my brother has lived outside of the city for close to 5 years now, it was my first time visiting the foggy city. I knew it was going to be beautiful, but I didn’t realize just HOW jaw-droppingly gorgeous the bay area actually is.
I found myself speechless as we drove over the iconic Golden Gate bridge and walked down Pier 39 as the seals played in the sparkling blue water.
I was in complete awe as we drove through the redwoods on our way to North beach and up and down the bright green rolling hills of San Anselmo. I haven’t been so incredibly inspired by a city and its landscape in a very long time. I can easily see why so many people want to live there.
That may have been my first time in Frisco, but I can promise you, it wasn’t my last.
The whole weekend was a blast. I mean, you’re with my family, how can it not be? We spent most of our time eating, cruising around the valley and the bay, drinking wine and laughing. Honestly, I need to visit them far more often. It’s such a nice change of pace to my normal hectic, crazy schedule.
Probably one of my favorite parts of the weekend was the time we spent in Napa. Friends, it was heaven. I mean, as a wine snob and affectionado, it was like returning to the holy grail for me. We visited two wineries, Cakebread Cellars and Silver Oak, and I can not say enough amazing things about our time at Cakebread. Dave, the brand manager, greeted us and showed us around the incredibly beautiful winery. We also picked the most perfect day to go because they were having a food festival celebrating the rubaiyat grape. The food was incredible, the wine was even better and the weather was absolutely dreamy. Plus, Dave is so knowledgable and funny, and will tell you anything you need to know about this award winning winery.
If you make it out to Napa, go to Cakebread. It was the winery we couldn’t stop talking about the entire time we were in Napa.
Silver Oak was beautiful as well. It’s a winery you have to go to when in Napa, if only to try the rich, fully bodied and incredibly smooth wines. Honestly, the tasting room was stuffy and the sales associate helping us was kind of rude. But that could have been because we came right from Cakebread Cellars, and no place was going to live up to those standards. Even still, we had a great tasting there and the scenery was just breathtaking.
Besides Napa, one of my favorite afternoons was spent drinking Pliny the Elder, eating oysters at Drake’s Oyster Bay Company and relaxing by North beach with my hilarious family. I am so drawn to the water and being there reminded me of why I love the ocean so much. I keep telling E we need to move somewhere near a beach, and I think all of my nagging is finally paying off. He’s beginning to cave!
And of course, no trip to Frisco is complete without a visit to the Golden Gate bridge. It’s so very touristy, but the Golden Gate bridge is truly a stunning landmark. It’s pretty interesting to see how they built it back in the 1930’s. It always amazes me that these landmarks built over 100 years ago without any of the technology we have now stand now.
Another highlight was visiting the many farmers markets around the city. They make our cute little farmers market here in Falls Church look so insignificant!
I’m already working on my trip back this fall. I seriously can’t wait to spend more time in this beautiful area and with my fabulous family!
Fresh Lemon & Caper Red Vinegar Salad Dressing
For additional recipe ideas, you can visit the Pompeian website. This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pompeian. All opinions are 100% mine.
I’m a salad junkie. Whenever I can, I’m eating some sort of leafy green goodness. And, even though I’m almost always perpetually on a diet, that’s not why I enjoy them. I just love eating fresh, crisp and juicy vegetables. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been obsessed with veggies. I was never one of those kids whose parents had to “force” them to eat their broccoli or their salads. In fact, I was almost always finishing my brothers because they wouldn’t touch them.
I know, I was a weird kid. But I like to think my obsession with veggies at such an early age has helped maintaining a healthy lifestyle as an adult a little easier. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy the occasional hamburger, plate of fries or big slice of chocolate cake. But when it comes down to it and there’s an option for a a salad, that’s almost always my first choice.
That’s why I was pretty excited when Pompeian Red Wine Vinegar asked me to create a fresh, unique salad dressing with their line of red vinegars for their “#DressingItUp” campaign.
I do love creamy dressings, but my all time favorite is simple: A squirt of high quality olive oil and a drizzle of vinegar. Balsamic used to be my go-to, but now I can’t get enough of Pompeian’s red vinegar. I’m not just saying that either, I could literally drink it.
For my fresh new dressing, I used stuff I found right in my pantry and fridge. A can of capers (don’t ask me why I had them), a juicy, fresh lemon, Pompeian extra virgin olive oil and red vinegar, honey and a dash of dried basil. This dressing couldn’t be simpler, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s boring. This vinaigrette packs a mean punch of delicious flavors, and instantly boosts any of your salads.
Trust me, you’ll love it.
Fresh Lemon & Caper Red Vinegar Salad Dressing
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE!
Serves about 4. Recipe adapted from My Recipes.
Prep time: >5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup Pompeian red vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons Pompeian extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon real clove honey
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
- Dash of pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne chili pepper
- Sprinkle of dried basil
Directions:
- In a medium size bowl, whisk the red vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and honey together until fully combined. Then carefully whisk in the capers, garlic salt, pepper, chili pepper and dried basil. Stir to combine.
- Pour over your favorite salads or save for later in a tight jar!
Nutritional information per serving (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
Calories: 39.75
Fat: 2.25 grams
Carbohydrates: 4.5 grams
Protein: 0 grams
Fiber: 0 grams
Weight Watchers Points: 1
For additional recipe ideas, you can visit the Pompeian website. This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pompeian. All opinions are 100% mine.
