Gluten-Free Recipes

Gluten-Free Recipes for Dessert

Peanut Butter Cups

This recipe earned an honorable mention in the 2021 Beyond Celiac Gluten-Free Holiday Recipe Contest!

Recipe by Tammy Aiken

Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Peanut Butter Cups by Tammy

Pizzelles

This recipe was the grand prize winner of the 2021 Beyond Celiac Gluten-Free Holiday Recipe Contest!

Recipe by Deb Graham

Gluten-Free Pizzelles by Deb

• 2 cups gluten-free baking mix (flour)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons gluten-free vanilla extract

• Anise pizzelles: 2 tablespoons anise extract and 2 tablespoons anise seeds
• Orange pizzelles: 2 tablespoons gluten-free orange extract (or Grand Marnier) and 2 tablespoons orange zest
• Coconut pizzelles: 2 tablespoons coconut extract and 2 tablespoons lemon or orange zest
• Chocolate orange pizzelles: add ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons orange zest

Directions:

1. Add the vanilla (or other flavored extract) to the melted butter and set aside.
2. Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a separate bowl until well-combined.
3. Add the melted butter and vanilla in a slow, steady stream while continuing to whisk until well-blended.
4. Add the baking mix and various spices or seeds, orange zest, etc., and using a rubber spatula stir everything together until just combined, but don’t over mix.
5. Important—let the batter sit for 10 minutes before baking. This will create a better texture.
6. Drop a rounded teaspoonful of batter into the center of a pizzelle iron.* Close lid and bake for 60–75 seconds, depending on your pizzelle iron. Check for doneness often.
7. Let cool on a wire rack.

Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes

Recipe courtesy of our sponsor Schär

These mouth-watering Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes will delight your friends and family. We top them with Cream Cheese Icing so they look and taste just like the classic cinnamon rolls of your dreams!

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Ingredients

• 10 slices Schär Gluten-Free Artisan Baker White Bread
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tsp cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cream
• 2 tsp divided vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
• 1 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Make the Cinnamon Roll Cupcakes:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Grease a 12-cup nonstick muffin/cupcake pan.
• Trim crusts from bread. Arrange bread slices on large cutting board.
• Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.
• Spread each bread slice with butter.
• Evenly sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture on top of buttered bread slices.
• Stack 2 bread slices together with cinnamon-sugar sides facing each other. Repeat to make a total of 5 sandwiches.
• Using a serrated knife, gently cut each bread stack into 8 to 10 strips, then cut each strip crosswise in half.
• Carefully line the muffin cups with the strips, in a circular pattern, dividing the slices evenly to fill all 12 cups.
• Place the eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and the half & half in a medium bowl. Whisk to blend.
• Use a small measuring cup to pour the egg mixture over the bread strips, dividing the mixture evenly among the muffin cups. Let rest 5 minutes.
• Bake for 25 minutes or until cupcakes spring back to the touch. Cool pan on wire rack for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Use a knife to loosen the edges of the cupcakes, and then carefully invert muffin pan to release cupcakes onto a platter.

Make the Cream Cheese Icing:

• Combine powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a small bowl. Stir until smooth.
• Spread 1 teaspoon icing evenly on top of each cupcake.
• Serve warm!

Apple Walnut Streusel Dessert Pizza

Recipe courtesy of our sponsor Schär

No-Bake Red, White and Blue Lemon Cheesecake Mousse

Recipe courtesy of Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

This is not a baked custard cheesecake. It is a gelatin-set cheesecake that I first made in England and continue to make. There is no baking (apart from the crust, which some prefer cooked but it is not necessary), no worrying if you’ve overcooked the custard, no cracking of cheesecake, no overnight cooling, etc. It is very popular with my students and clients and you can vary the flavors with different chocolates and liqueurs. It is stiff when you remove it from the fridge but softens to more of a mousse consistency when it’s been out of the fridge for half an hour. Gelatin stops it from melting in the heat. “Lite” cream cheese makes a softer-set cheesecake than 100% cream cheese, but I’ve used lite cream cheese for years.

I added my homemade, microwave-cooked lemon curd to cream cheese mix. Homemade lemon curd (made of butter, sugar, lemon, and eggs and can be used to top scones, cakes, bagels, etc) is delicious. Yes, you could substitute store-bought lemon curd, but the brands I’ve seen use lemon oil, pectin to thicken, palm oil, lemon concentrate, cornflour, citric acid, acetic acid, sodium citrate, color, egg powder, water and then call it authentic. Not in my book!

I’ve made variations of this cheesecake for years, from when I lived in London, including versions with Kahlúa coffee, chocolate peanut butter, white chocolate raspberry, dark chocolate orange, margarita, and white chocolate hazelnut praline. Play with flavor variations using these quantities as a guide.

Gluten-Free No-Bake Cheesecake Mousse

Ingredients:

• Crushed crumbs of gluten-free graham cracker, cookies, or shortbread crust. Schar gluten-free shortbread cookies, 7 oz bag, makes a generous crust
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1 packet of powdered gelatin. An orange box of Knox gelatin in the grocery store is 2 and 1/4 tsp (11g)
• 2 tbsp cold water
• 1 lb room temperature cream cheese
• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup, roughly 8 oz lemon curd
• 1 cup of liquid heavy or whipping cream
• ½ cup cream with 2 tbsp sugar (whip these together to make whipped cream for decorating)
• More lemon curd, if you like your cheesecake tangy
• Fresh blueberries and/or fresh strawberries

Directions:

1. Melt butter in the microwave in 15 second intervals and then add to cookie crumbs when liquid.
2. Press the butter and crumb mixture evenly into a 9” pie plate or springform pan and either bake for 10 minutes or just refrigerate. With current temps being 100°F, I microwave cookie crumbs and butter in a microwave-safe bowl for about a minute or two, then press into the pan and refrigerate.
3. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water, stir in and leave to stand for 2–3 minutes. The gelatin will set in a rubbery lump but will dissolve with microwaving.
4. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon curd. Beat for a few minutes, until light and fluffy.
5. Melt gelatin mix in the microwave for about 15 seconds. It will stay the same light brown color but should have melted, no granules left. It is important to melt it thoroughly otherwise it will set into little nuggets of gelatin.
6. Beat gelatin mix into the cream cheese mix.
7. Beat 1 cup of cream until stiff and gently beat into the cream cheese mix.
8. Pour mix into pan, over the crust, and refrigerate for several hours.
9. Once chilled, run a thin plastic spatula or knife around edge between cheesecake and pan, release springform and remove. Leave in pie plate or brownie pan.
10. Cut a tiny sliver of set cheesecake and taste it to see if it’s lemony enough. You can hide the absent sliver with whipped cream before serving. I often spread more lemon curd on top of the cheesecake to make it really tangy. Whipping cream and adding 50% lemon curd folded in is also delicious for a topping or on it’s own with fresh fruit.
11. Pipe whipped cream rosettes around top edge of cheesecake, and top with fresh blueberries and strawberries.

You can also make this in 8×8 brownie pan, then arrange blueberries and strawberries in flag pattern.

About Chef Oonagh Williams

I have written a monthly recipe column for Beyond Celiac since January 2011. I have a Culinary Arts degree as well as celiac disease and other food allergies, so I know food and live this way daily. Remember that most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers mess around with it, and only baking really needs changing. Real food is now being called clean eating.

Talks and appearances are currently canceled, but you can connect with me on Facebook at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh or on LinkedIn. I’ve just filmed recipes at home for New Hampshire’s ABC WMUR’s Cooks Corner and they are being aired. I am also being included in the nationwide library database of online presenters.

For new recipes and lots of advice, my e-cookbook Delicious Gluten-Free Cooking is only $20 and available to download on my website. It has tips, full-color photos, and recipes like grandma’s comfort soup, shrimp and crab bisque, English trifle, buffalo chicken, tiramisu, dinner party fare, and more. Follow the link to see the table of contents and thumbnail photos of the full-size photos in the e-book.

Snow Queen Snow Balls

Recipe courtesy of Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering, from her Delicious Gluten Free Cooking ebook.

With life hopefully opening up, I made one of our favorite desserts again, but as individual portions that you can pull out of freezer—”snow balls” instead of a Snow Queen. It’s always been very popular at parties. So very easy, quick to make and freeze, and naturally gluten-free. It’s basically whipped cream and crushed meringues frozen. However, for many of us desserts to feed a bundle of people is more than we want tempting us in the house, so smaller is better! Individual portions are becoming more popular as a way to control portion sizes, plus it looks prettier on a plate. Kids love a dessert made just for them. This is truly a dessert made in heaven with the slight crunch from the meringues, the mild almond liqueur flavor and the punch of flavor from the raspberries. Made in minutes, frozen within an hour or two so great for unexpected guests, and compatible with lots of different liqueurs and sauces. Don’t prepare it more than 1 week in advance as the meringues will lose their texture. Even if snow balls soften a little, they still taste wonderful and are like an Eton Mess, a recipe of whipped cream, meringues and strawberries.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (180 ml) whipping or heavy cream
• 1–2 tbsp (15–30 ml) amaretto, or any almond-flavored liqueur you like. For a stronger almond flavor add 1 tsp almond extract to the liqueur.
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) sugar
• 3 oz store-bought meringues, or make meringues with 3 egg whites.
• Raspberries or strawberries.

Instructions

1. Whisk cream, sugar and liqueur until stiff.
2. Break meringues with your fingers into small pieces, but not crushed fine, and fold the pieces into the cream mixture. Taste and add more sugar if you prefer. Note: any frozen dessert tends to need more sugar than a room-temperature dessert.
3. I used a number 12 scoop, roughly 1/3 cup, and made 6 balls from the mixture. Put them on a plate lined with plastic wrap or in paper cupcake liners and keep in the freezer for at least an hour or two. Note: they won’t freeze solid, and the snow balls will melt rapidly in the heat.
4. Remove from freezer and peel the plastic wrap off the snow balls, or serve in cupcake liners.
5. Decorate with raspberries, raspberry sauce, chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries or other fresh fruit.

Alternatives

• Try hazelnut liqueur to marry with the raspberries.
• Try a coffee or chocolate liqueur and serve this with my chocolate mousse recipe before whipping the mousse.
• Try orange juice concentrate, grated orange rind and orange liqueur.
• Liquor stores sell ¼ cup “nips” of liqueurs for a few dollars, so mix and match different liqueurs to see what you like best or to offer options for guests.
• If you are dairy free, try whipping the solid coconut milk cream from the top of a can of chilled full-fat coconut milk (not the “lite” Asian-style coconut milk).

About Chef Oonagh Williams

I have written a monthly recipe column for Beyond Celiac since January 2011. I have a Culinary Arts degree as well as celiac disease and other food allergies, so I know food and live this way daily. Remember that most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers mess around with it, and only baking really needs changing. Real food is now being called clean eating.

Obviously talks and appearances are currently canceled, but you can connect with me on Facebook at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh or on LinkedIn. I’ve just filmed recipes at home for New Hampshire’s ABC WMUR’s Cooks Corner and they are being aired. I am also being included in the nationwide library database of online presenters.

For new recipes and lots of advice, my e-cookbook Delicious Gluten-Free Cooking is only $20 and available to download at www.glutenfreecookingwithoonagh.com. It has tips, full-color photos, and recipes like grandma’s comfort soup, shrimp and crab bisque, English trifle, buffalo chicken, tiramisu, dinner party fare, and more. Follow the link to see the table of contents and thumbnail photos of the full-size photos in the e-book.

Glazed Donut Holes

Recipe courtesy of our sponsor Schär

You asked, we delivered. Glazed, soft, easy-to-make donut holes for every donut-lover in the family.

Schär Gluten-Free Glazed Donut Holes
Serves 12

Layered Almond, Custard, Chocolate and Toffee Cake

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

We took a drive to IKEA to get some more storage containers. Their restaurant and food market have few gluten-free items except for two almond cakes imported from Sweden and made with almond flour. Of course, I bought them as an indulgence and then made my own with whole ingredients.

The base of this cake is my master almond cake recipe, then custard, toffee pieces and a chocolate glaze.

Gluten-Free Almond Cake Base
Naturally gluten-free, easily dairy-free, and paleo. All the buzz words but still delicious.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 stick (3oz) very soft butter (to make dairy-free, substitute coconut oil or Earth Balance butter)
• 3/4 cup ordinary sugar
• 3 large eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 1 and 3/4 cup of almond meal/flour slightly rounded
• 1 tsp gluten-free baking powder
• no xantham gum needed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F/ 170°C.
2. Place all ingredients in a 4 cup (1 liter) mixing bowl and beat until well blended and fluffy, around 2 minutes. The mix will go lighter in color as you beat it.
3. Grease and flour two round 9 inch cake pans.
4. Spread in cake mix.
5. Bake in the oven for about 15–20 minutes until well-risen, golden-brown, and set but still soft in the middle. The texture should be similar to rolls of almond paste when cut, but cooked throughout.
6. Remove from oven, immediately run a thin spatula around the inside of the pans, wait 5 minutes, and then turn out to cool. If you leave cake longer, then sugar in cake will stick to the sides of the pan.

Custard Filling

• 1 packet of 4 portion Jello instant vanilla pudding
• 1 and 3/4 cup whole milk or your favorite substitute (to make dairy-free, try coconut milk)

Follow instructions on the Jello packet. Let chill for a few hours, or until it is set.

Glaze

• ½ cup cream (or a dairy-free sub)
• ½ cup chocolate

Melt chocolate in cream until totally smooth. Refrigerate for several hours.

Assembly

1. Put one 9 inch cake on a serving plate and spread with half of the chilled custard.
2. Place the second cake on top and spread with remaining half of the custard.
3. If serving soon, sprinkle with toffee. After one day, the toffee starts dissolving. The original recipe had toffee pieces covered in chocolate so they would stay hard. I used Heath bar milk chocolate toffee bits, which are labeled gluten free. Make your own toffee if you need it to be dairy-free.
4. Remove chocolate glaze from fridge, stir and slowly persuade it to cover the top of the custard and toffee and drip down the sides. Don’t dump it in one blob or custard and toffee will heavily roll over sides.
5. Finish by sprinkling with more toffee. I used Trader Joe’s English toffee bits, which are labeled gluten-free. They are little logs of toffee covered in chocolate and nut sprinkles that stay hard.

About Chef Oonagh Williams

I have written a monthly recipe column for Beyond Celiac since January 2011. I have a Culinary Arts degree as well as celiac disease and other food allergies, so I know food and live this way daily. Remember that most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers mess around with it, and only baking really needs changing. Real food is now being called clean eating.

Obviously talks and appearances are currently canceled, but you can connect with me on Facebook at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh or on LinkedIn. I’ve just filmed recipes at home for New Hampshire’s ABC WMUR’s Cooks Corner and they are being aired. I am also being included in the nationwide library database of online presenters.

For new recipes and lots of advice, my e-cookbook Delicious Gluten-Free Cooking is only $20 and available to download at www.glutenfreecookingwithoonagh.com. It has tips, full-color photos, and recipes like grandma’s comfort soup, shrimp and crab bisque, English trifle, buffalo chicken, tiramisu, dinner party fare, and more. Follow the link to see the table of contents and thumbnail photos of the full-size photos in the e-book.

Irish Cream Tiramisu Cupcakes

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

I normally make my Tiramisu in an 8×8 pan, with coffee and Kahlua syrup and even more Kahlua in the mascarpone layer. Then, a murder mystery book mentioned tiramisu cupcakes and I thought, why not? I then decided to make them with Irish Cream liqueur for St. Patrick’s Day, tinted green, but not containing mint or pistachio. Why does everyone think green means mint or pistachio? Mine were green for an everything-green party, and they were devoured. People didn’t care that they were gluten-free.

Note: If you Google is Bailey’s gluten-free, they tell you to ask your doctor if you can drink Bailey’s.  If you google is Carolan’s gluten free, they say they are gluten-free. Your decision.

Irish Cream is not very strong so only a mild but delicious flavor. The same quantity of Kahlua or Rum packs a punch.

If you use a different gluten-free flour, then you need to weigh the flour, since cup measurements vary per gluten-free flour blend. King Arthur gluten-free flour is strong so would be less cup measure, regular Pamela’s is a soft blend and might need more.

Watch me make these cupcakes on New Hampshire’s ABC WMUR Cooks Corner:

Gluten-Free Irish Cream Tiramisu Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 x recipe for ladyfingers:

• 2 large eggs, separated
• ¼ c, ¾ oz, 25 g powdered/icing/confectioners sugar
• ¼ c, 2oz, 60g,  granulated sugar – superfine if you have it, or grind granulated a bit finer in food processor.  But it works with ordinary granulated sugar.
• Scant ½ c, 1+1/2 oz, 45 g, my gf flour or cornstarch(cornflour in UK) (I use ½ c less 1 Tbsp)
• On air I said ¼ c of KAF gf flour and substitute probably same ¼ c for KAF wheat flour as kaf is a stronger flour.
• ½ tsp (3ml) gf vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• ½ tsp (3 ml) gf baking powder
• No xanthan gum needed

Syrup:

• ¾ c (180 ml, 6 fl oz)  very strong coffee or 1 tbsp (15 ml) instant coffee to ¾ c hot water
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) sugar or to taste
• ¼ c  (60ml) Irish cream liqueur
• Mix together until sugar dissolves.

Topping:

• 1lb (500g) mascarpone cheese – don’t substitute regular cream cheese, it just doesn’t taste the same.
• 2 c (480ml) heavy cream
• ¼ c (60ml) powdered sugar
• ¼ c (60ml) Irish Cream liqueur

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*F
2. In totally grease free bowl whisk egg whites until they are stiff. Add half of the granulated sugar and whisk until stiff again. Fold in remaining half of granulated sugar.
3. In separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt until thick and creamy and lighter colored. About 4 minutes. The color will not be the normal vibrant yellow to start due to browning color caused by vanilla extract. If you have vanilla sugar you could use that instead. Also the color will not be as creamy white once whisked due to browning color caused by vanilla extract.
4. Gently fold egg yolk mix into egg white mix, taking care not to deflate. Use a large stainless steel spoon and fold in figure of eight motion. Do not over mix since you will be adding flour mix.
5. Mix together flour and baking powder and sift (preferably but not always possible with some gf flour mixes) onto egg mix and gently fold in, scrape down sides gently with spatula and reach to bottom of bowl with spatula so everything is mixed in, but still keeping fluffiness. This is not a time to beat vigorously.
6. Line a 12 cup muffin/cupcake pan with paper liners. Evenly divide batter among paper cases, reaches about 2/3 full.
7. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes. They won’t rise a lot, don’t really dome and will be a light golden color. It doesn’t matter if you overcook them slightly since you will be pouring coffee syrup onto them which moistens..
8. Remove from oven. Pour about 1+1/2 tablespoons of Irish Cream syrup onto each cupcake. There is very little space between top of cupcake and edge of paper liner, so dribble syrup.
9. Once cupcakes are cold. Whip cream, powdered sugar and Irish cream until nearly stiff. Then add Mascarpone cream and whip together until stiff enough to pipe. Pipe on top of cupcakes and dust with cocoa. Green food coloring optional.
10. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Corn Puff Toffee Treat

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Royal Temptations Catering

I personally call this recipe “Christmas Crack” due to it being so addictive! The original recipe used Kix puff corn. I had searched for Kix but my local market didn’t carry it. I searched online but too many people had said they reacted to Kix; it was also not labeled gluten-free. Ingredients are simply puffed corn, oil and salt-baked to a very light, crispy, quite boring cereal.  In previous years, I had bought a huge red bag of caramel corn drizzled with white and dark chocolate from Costco but this is seasonal and not easily found throughout the year. 

So this is my easily prepared, homemade version. Spoil your Valentine or family during February! It will last a few weeks if stored in Ziploc bags.

In my experience, it gets eaten within a week. It’s so addicting!

Preparation

• 1 bag of puffed corn of your choosing. Kix puffed corn is popular but it isn’t certified gluten-free. 
• 1 cup (8 oz) butter
• 1 and 1/4 cups light brown sugar – I didn’t pack the sugar so it was (we thought) less sweet than a commercial bag of caramel corn and we preferred it.
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup – corn syrup is not the same as high fructose corn syrup. In the UK, I would use Lyle’s Golden Syrup which is what we always used for toffee, steamed puddings etc. It’s tasty and not made from corn, but cane sugar. It is available in some regular grocery stores.
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ to 1 cup of chopped pecans -optional
• Chocolate chips – optional

How to Cook

1. Combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a large saucepan. (I used an 8-quart stock pan as it makes a lot and needs space to stir in the corn.)  Heat till melted. 
2. Add in baking soda, I whisked it in so no lumps of baking soda, mixture foam up.
3. I added puffed corn with pecans to a large stockpot containing butter mix. Stir really well, there’s a lot, the sauce is sticky and uncooperative. 
4. I lined the jelly roll pan with foil, others recommended using a turkey roaster.  Place in a 250° oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.  A turkey roasting pan would be far easier to stir as it’s deep compared to a jelly roll pan, but persevere. It stays soft until almost the end of cooking and really crisps up when cold. Let cool, then break apart and enjoy!!  My husband remarked on how crispy it was.  
5. I sprinkled white chocolate chips and some heath bar chocolate chips on top. You can also melt and drizzle white and semi-sweet chocolate over the top.

This recipe almost filled 2 large Ziploc bags. It makes a lot!

You can find Chef Oonagh Williams at Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh on Facebook, LinkedIn or her website. Chef Oonagh has a culinary arts degree, celiac disease and other food allergies. Remember most real food is naturally gluten-free until manufacturers ‘mess’ around with it and only baking really needs changing.