gluten-free dessert – in thriver words

Five Minute Gluten-Free Dessert Tricks

Everyone needs some five minute gluten-free dessert tricks. When the kids start asking for a treat on a rainy school night, I bet you think of your mom’s five minute desserts. I’m pretty sure all moms have them.

I grew up on a farm about seven miles from town and 10 from the closest grocery store. If I wanted dessert some evening, no one was baking and no one was driving me to the store. Instead, my mom’s go-to treat was what she called “angels-on-horseback”.
farm
If I search that name online, I find s’mores, but my mom’s version was a saltine cracker topped with a slice of American cheese (from a cheese brick, not a sliced single), and half of a large marshmallow placed torn side down. She’d place these on a baking sheet under the broiler until the top of the marshmallow was toasty brown and they were ready to serve. The mix of salty from the cracker and sweet from the marshmallow balanced by the slight tang of the cheese was a perfect bite for a kid who wanted dessert.

My mom had a couple of other tricks up her sleeve. She sometimes made icing with milk, butter, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla and then put it between two graham crackers. That was her favorite, so you might find some already made and wrapped in plastic wrap on the counter if you looked around for a minute.

I suppose these days it’s more likely that the pantry has prepackaged cookies, snack cakes, or oatmeal cream pies, but in the gluten-free home, that may not be the case. There are too many expensive, mediocre gluten-free products on the grocery store shelves. Homemade is better, but can mean that dessert is reserved for special occasions rather served every day. If that’s the case at your home, you need some five minute gluten-free dessert tricks handy when the family gets a craving.

Here are a few and they’re all gluten-free:

Stuffed dates. I often keep dates in the pantry. I like to use them to sweeten muffins, but I also like to eat them. If you have some dates, raw pecan halves and smoked gouda cheese, you’ve got dessert. Just slice a pitted date lengthwise and then insert a pecan half and a thin slice of smoked gouda. Voilà, dessert.
dates
Chocolate dipped grapes. This is a great one person dessert and it will encourage your children to eat fruit. Place 2.5 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter in the microwave. Heat for 30 seconds and stir. Place back in the microwave for 15 – 30 seconds depending on the power of your microwave. Stir until smooth. Dip grapes, fresh pineapple, cherries, strawberries, bananas, or dates in the mix and eat. Cold grapes are my favorite.

Chocolate oatmeal. Fix a packet or cup of instant, single-serving gluten-free oatmeal. Once it is cooked, stir in a handful of chocolate chips and a spoonful of marshmallow cream.

No bake cookies. For a more elaborate dessert that the whole family can share, you can stir up some no bake cookies by combining 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips, 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, and 2 tbsp water in a medium microwaveable bowl. Cover with a paper towel and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Remove from microwave and stir until smooth. Add 2 packets of maple brown sugar gluten-free oatmeal and stir until evenly distributed. Drop in spoonfuls on wax paper and let sit at room temperature until hardened – about 20 minutes or eat them with a spoon right away.

These gluten-free dessert tricks are all fast and easy! They’re also a tiny bit healthier than the typical dessert. Each one of them contains something healthy – fruit, whole grain, or nuts and a minimum of sugar. Some of them are based on single servings providing automatic portion control.

Best of all, these simple solutions satisfy that desire for a sweet treat after a meal. Who knew gluten-free dessert could taste this good with this little effort?

Travel Tip #13 – Don’t Forget to Order Dessert!

Vacation is the perfect time for a little indulgence, so don’t forget to order dessert even if you’re gluten-free! It’s easy to assume that the dessert menu will pose too few options or require too many questions to make it worth your while. That’s an assumption that would prevent you from devouring this delicious Pistachio Nougat that combines a semifreddo, pistachio praline & caramel sauce. The praline added crunch to the light semifreddo making it a satisfying bite and the whipped cream on top took the whole experience over the top.

I’ve been traveling for the past few days with friends who love to eat some gluten. Without any extra effort, we found numerous sharable desserts that worked for all of us just by asking to hear the dessert choices. Ah, you skeptics are probably thinking, yeah that may be true in a big city, but not where I vacation.

You may be right, but before you dismiss the idea that it pays to ask the question, I should tell you that we ordered the Pistachio Nougat in a town with a population of less than 4000. Of course, I’ll admit that won’t happen in every restaurant or in every small town, but you get the point.

The next night, in a larger town about 10 miles away, we sampled a Blondie served atop a cranberry compote with a side of salted pecan ice cream and sprinkled with candied pecans. Sunday brunch included gluten-free biscotti and donut holes.

When you eat in locally owned restaurants, you’ll often find tasty gluten-free dessert options right on the menu – creme brûlée, gelato, rice pudding, tapioca pudding, ice cream, panna cotta or macarons. Of course, you’ll always want to verify that their particular recipe doesn’t include some unusual problem ingredient.

While having dessert is not essential to any balanced meal plan, it can add enjoyment to the times you’re away from your regular routine. After Sunday brunch, we refused to even consider dessert because we’d indulged enough for one trip, but I have to say, it was great while it lasted!

Next time you find yourself away from home, don’t forget to order dessert!

Dessert First! Day Three.

Day Two’s lesson seems to be that it’s hard to break old habits. Most of us eat dinner first and dessert last and that is what I did on Day Two. The morning started well enough. One of my morning routines is to write a list of at least five things for which I am grateful. I felt good and my list was easily flowing forth and becoming lengthy.

Ben showed up to begin reconstruction on the bathroom, but first he wanted to complete a walk-through of the entire project in order to make a list of the paint we’ll need to purchase. He arrived feeling annoyed with himself for his late start and he soon became annoyed with me. He expressed his annoyance by saying I think like a girl and was making the list like a girl and I needed to stop that and approach the list making like he would. I kept the mood light and we finished the list without further conflict. What I realize now is how much that accommodation depleted the positive energy bank I had built up while savoring my gratitudes.

Once we completed the task, I sat down to regroup. What I failed to do at that moment was grab dessert on the way to the couch. Rather than reminding myself of my intention to take the time to notice, choose, and each small positive thing, I walked right by a perfectly ripe banana that would have delighted my tastebuds and grabbed a cold hot dog as a snack. I didn’t even pop it in the microwave, put it on a plate, or top it with mustard. I gulped in while Ben complained about my chewing. This was no big deal on it’s own, but it was another small chink in my plan to choose things that feed my positive feelings or add a sense of sweetness to the necessary tasks of the day.

Soon afterward, I received a couple of texts and then a phone call from a friend who is job hunting. He is feeling so financially stressed that even a job offer cannot quell his mounting fear. The fear was bleeding out as anger toward everyone he was dealing with. The anger was so palpable and so overtly undeserved, I found myself saying, “I don’t think she can help it that her first language is not English.” His anger and frustration then turned toward me.

From this point forward, I remained off track. I was chewing on the meat of the workday with no thought of anything but systematic production. I didn’t even savor the anticipation of dinner and a movie with a friend. Ultimately, the gorgeous feeling of fall when we left the theatre was enough to briefly remind me that I may have to summon more resolve for Day Three.

Can I do it? As always, the question lingers until tomorrow…