My first gluten-free Christmas… and I survived. Barely.
My family was very supportive, but it was still hard not being able to enjoy all the Christmas goodies. I made sure to bake a few items that I could share and enjoy myself. I ended up making three different treats to share.
For Christmas brunch, I made peppermint mocha donuts. I learned a few things from this recipe and will remember for future recipes. I stuck to the recipe as given. I used a store bought gluten-free all-purpose flour, which I am pretty sure had xanthan gum, but still added the xanthan gum because I didn’t read what the mix was. I also was confused about the white vinegar and had to google. I was going to leave it out but after googling and reading, I left it in. You couldn’t taste it and the donuts were moist and fluffy (most gluten-free baked goods tend to be dense, crumbly and dry).I also made gluten-free peppermint brownie cakes from
I also made gluten-free peppermint brownie cakes from Betty Crocker. I picked up Hodgson Mill brownie mix instead of Betty Crockers and added peppermint extract to the batter. Those were the only changes I made to the recipe. If you make this recipe, be sure to push the peppermint patties way into the batter. A few of mine weren’t pushed down far enough and leaked over the top of the brownie cakes. I thought the batter was a little too thick and made the cake dense, crumbly and dry. If I made this again I’d try adding some xanthan gum or vinegar. Or maybe a homemade brownie mix.
I also made gluten-free peppermint fudge balls. I didn’t take any photos because they were just round balls of chocolate, nothing pretty or special. I ran out of time to roll them in sprinkles. The only thing I did differently from the recipe was add peppermint extract with the vanilla extract. Everyone seemed to love these.