Recipe: Pork Belly Donuts (Crullers)

Continuing my previous post about Whipped Cream Cake, Fiance and I continued our culinary journey on Sunday morning with, are you ready for this?, pork. belly. donuts. Yes, you read that correctly, we made pork belly donuts. I must say that they are exactly as delicious as they sound. For those of you who don't believe me just try these and you will become a believer. Oh and of course the donuts were gluten free. See, you can have what you want. It just takes a bit of searching to find it.

 The pork belly was a little tough to find in my area but I finally found it at a local international market. For the crullers, I used the recipe from, where else?, Art of Gluten Free Baking. If you want to save yourself a little bit of time Fiance and I suggest cooking the pork belly the night before you want to make the donuts. We also suggest not cooking it until it's well done. You are going to fry* it again after all. 

I followed Jeanne's recipe to a tee. The batter is really sticky but it's simple to make. Do all your prep before you begin to put the batter together. It'll keep things running smoothly and you won't have to worry about digging for ingredients later. One thing that I don't think Jeanne mentions is how much oil you will need. She does say that you will need 3 inches of oil. I bought a large bottle of it and it wasn't quite enough. I would say go for the gallon size bottle. You'll eventually use all of it at some point anyway.  I also fried my donuts in a dutch oven. Lodge makes fabulous dutch ovens and they're easy to clean when you're done using them. 


After I finished mixing all the ingredients for the donuts I generously sprayed a few sheets of tin foil with cooking spray. Then, using a pastry bag, I piped the donuts onto the prepared foil. After the donuts were piped on I pressed a bite-sized piece of pork belly into the dough. I pushed it all the way down so that it wouldn't fall off while cooking. After that I followed the recipe for how to cook the donuts. I cooked mine for about 7 minutes but I should have let them go a little bit longer. They were a little bit doughy on the inside. No matter though, they were still delicious. 


To finish off the donuts we used the maple glaze and holy wow! The glaze tasted just like maple syrup. I can't wait to try the other glazes. 


Prep time: 15 - 20 minutes (not including cooking pork belly)
Cooking time: 6-10 minutes per batch
Yield: approximately 18, 3" donuts


Gluten Free French Cruller Ingredients:
6 TBL butter (3/4 stick; 85g) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 C (235 ml) water
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 C (175g) Gluten Free Mama Almond Blend
3 whole large or extra large eggs
2 large or extra large egg whites
Oil for frying (I use Rice Bran oil, but you can use canola or another high heat oil). I used canola

Maple Glaze**:

1/4 C (60ml) heavy whipping cream
1 TBL vanilla extract
2 tsp maple extract

2 C (240g) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar, sifted
Whisk together whipping cream and vanilla extract.  Add maple extract.  Whisk in confectioner’s sugar until smooth.


We used the back of a spoon to apply the glaze to the donuts.

Unless you plan to eat all the donuts yourself (that's a lot of donuts!) I would highly suggest inviting your friends,family, or neighbors over to join you. These donuts won't keep very long and it's best to eat them as soon as possible after you make them.  


One quick side note: I recently purchased the Gluten Free Mama Almond Blend to try it out. I wanted to find a flour that wouldn't cause the goodies to dry out too quickly. I have to say that this brand has not let me down. I still love Bob's Red Mill AP flour but if you're going to make cakes, cookies, or anything that you'd like to keep moist for longer than a day or so I recommend going with Gluten Free Mama's flour mixes. 

Bon Appetite!


*Disclaimer: These donuts, like all donuts, are not at all healthy.
** see recipe on www.artofglutenfreebaking.com for other glazes.

Recipe: Whipped Cream Cake

Let me just say that Fiance and I had a great culinary weekend. We ate almost nothing that was good for us and we enjoyed every single bite. Friday night we had breakfast for dinner, steak, eggs, and hash browns. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, any time of the day.
Saturday morning we went to my favorite breakfast place in Herndon, The Virginia Kitchen. If you haven't been there yet you must go...right now. Stop what you're doing and go. It's a cute little diner that has been there forever. Everything on their extensive menu is great. While they don't advertise that they have gluten free items I assure you they do. They have buckwheat pancakes and loads of other breakfast staples. Fiance loves the El Paso Omelet. Saturday night we had some whipped cream cake for dessert. See the recipe below. 


Saturday, while Fiance was napping, I decided I wanted to try another recipe from Art of Gluten Free Baking. So, I made Jeanne's Whipped Cream Cake. Let me just tell you that this cake is equal parts Angel food and Devil's food. Do not even add up the calories on this one because just tasting it is worth every single one of them. I used the recipe listed on the website linked above except that I added semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. Fiance loves chocolate so I though that this would be a nice touch...and it was. When I served it I also drizzled a little bit of chocolate syrup on top. Yum!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 35-40 minutes

Cooling time: 20 minutes

Servings: Approximately 15 small slices

Whipped Cream Cake Ingredients:
2 C Gluten Free Flour Mix. I used Gluten Free Mama Almond Blend
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C heavy cream, cold
3 large or extra large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C plus 2 TBL granulated sugar
1 1/2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips dusted with GF flour mix
Non-stick spray and more GF flour mix


Please see the original blog by Jeanne Sauvage for the instructions.

I baked the cake in a bundt pan with a large cookie sheet under it. If you also choose to do this you'll want to increase the baking time. I needed to add approximately 10 more minutes. It's ok to pull the cake out of the oven when it's almost cooked through. Cakes and cookies will continue to cook even after you pull them out of the oven. Pulling the goodies out just before they're done will ensure that your treats stay nice and moist. 

Bon Appetite!

Recipe: Pizza Pot Pie

Servings: 4
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25 mins

As most of you know last night was the first night of the 2012 NFL draft. To celebrate the official start to the football season I made Pizza Pot Pies for my Fiancé and I.

What is this delicious concoction you ask? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like...a pot pie made out of pizza ingredients. Fiancé and I got the idea from watching one of our favorite FoodNetwork shows; Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives (Triple D).

But, Shannon don't you need pizza dough to make a pizza pot pie? And doesn't pizza dough have gluten in it? you ask. The answers are yes and yes. However there are ways around it. Making your own GF pizza dough is one way to get around the gluten. You can purchase mixes for it from the grocery store or you can make your own. I used the recipe for NY style pizza dough from Artofglutenfreebaking.com (bookmark this blog because you'll be going back to it again and again) to make my own crust.

To make the Pizza Pot Pies you will need:
1 small jar of pizza sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Swiss cheese
1lb of ground meat
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 pizza dough divided into four rounds

Here is how I made the GF Pizza Pot Pies:

1) Place a cookie sheet on the top rack of the oven and preheat to 450.

2) spray 4 croquettes (or other small baking dish) with non-stick spray and line the dishes with mozzarella and Swiss cheeses. Sliced cheeses work best.

3) Brown your choice of meat in a medium or large skillet with chopped onion.

4) When meat is nearly done add garlic and green peppers.

5) When the mixture is done fill croquettes about 3/4 full with mixture.

6) Add pizza sauce to croquette and then top that with any remaining meat mixture.

7) cover each croquette with a mini pizza dough round. Make sure to press gently around the edges to seal all the goodness in.

8) Place croquettes on cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. The pizza crust should look like the bottom of a regular pizza. It's ok if it looks a little dry.

To serve:
Turn the croquettes upside down in a bowl and, with a butter knife or spatula, gently loosen the edges of the pizza crust and pull the stuffing down onto the crust and enjoy.

You can eat this in the croquette if you want to but it might be too hot to eat that way. My croquettes are cast iron and they hold heat pretty well.

As with any pizza you can use your choice of toppings (or filling in this case). I would just keep the cheese lining and pizza crust top. The rest is up to you. Get creative and then let me know what you've come up with. I'm always looking for good ideas.

Bon Appetite!

What is gluten?

Years ago I met two people who had wheat/gluten allergies. One person had more severe allergies than the other. I understood that they couldn't have bread or wheat but I didn't think further than that because I didn't have to. When I met my fiance I knew that I needed to learn more. I wanted to be able to enjoy meals with my fiance and I wanted him to enjoy them too. So, I picked up a book called Living Gluten Free for Dummies by Danna Korn. This book gives a pretty good overview of what exactly Celiac Disease is. 

Celiacs (people with gluten allergies) have trouble processing gluten. Gluten is type of protein found in certain grains and all kinds of wheat. This includes barley and rye. When a Celiac consumes gluten "it creates an immune-mediated toxic reaction that causes damage to the small intestine and does not allow food to be properly absorbed." As you can see, this is a big problem. When our bodies fail to absorb food properly it leads to malnutrition which causes all kinds of other problems. My fiance recently read an article (I'm not sure where) that said that when gluten intolerant people continue to consume gluten it can cause colon cancer. 


I know that all of this sounds scary, and it is, but the purpose of this post is not to scare you, it's meant to inform you. If you are new to the gluten free lifestyle I highly recommend reading through The Celiac Disease Foundation website and picking up any number of books that give you the highlights of the do's and don't's. It's a lot to take in but fortunately it's not that hard.


Now that I've touched on the basics of what it means to be gluten free, I would like you to know that being gluten free isn't as hard as you might think. Sure, it requires changes and yes, you will want to have an occasional zebra cake or Twizzler but you can get past that. If I can do it, you can do it. All it takes is a little bit of time and effort.  You can still have your favorite goodies, you'll just have to do a bit of searching (cooking or baking) to find them in gluten free versions.  Be sure to use caution and really check the labels of the products you are buying. I'll explain more about this later.


Fortunately for us there are tons of websites and blogs out there dedicated to helping those who are gluten intolerant. I will post my favorite books, blogs, sites, recipes, and products as I stumble upon them. One of my favorite sites is Amazon.  It has a lot of gluten free items and if you join the Prime program, which I highly recommend, you can get the items shipped very quickly to your house for free. I frequently order gluten free flour mixes, GF Bisquick, GF oats, and anything else that I tend to use a lot of. Another feature that Amazon offers is a sort-of subscription program for these products. You can save more money on certain products by having them automatically shipped to your house on a regular basis. Win-win for everyone since finding these products can sometimes be a hassle in the local grocery stores.


My goal for this blog is to give you information that will make being gluten free easier. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me. Also, I am by no means an expert so if I post something that is incorrect please let me know (nicely of course).


Your GF Pal,
Shannon