Gluten Free Parve Brownies: an easy and delicious recipe!

Last night, I decided to try baking gluten free brownies from scratch for the first time. I've been rather (excessively) timid about baking without a mix since cutting wheat and gluten out of my diet two years ago. It always seemed to require so many ingredients and lots of (potentially wasteful and expensive) trial and error. Passover recipes, however, tend to require relatively few ingredients and so I adapted a Kosher for Pesach recipe from a wonderful book, Crafting Jewish: Fun Holiday Craft and Party Ideas for the Whole Family, by Rivky Koenig. This is, by the way, a great book with ample recipes, lovely crafts and art projects as well as ideas for entertaining. If it is not available at your local bookstore or to borrow from your library, it can be purchased directly from ArtScroll.com or from Amazon.com.

I should mention, I love brownies. A famous family recipe for this delicious classic treat was one of the first things I ever learned to bake as a child. I even won a first place prize after entering that recipe into our county fair in upstate New York. Occasionally, I've bought gluten-free brownie mixes to bake, but they just weren't the same. I have now fallen in love with brownies all over again, and for those who are gluten intolerant or just brownie lovers like me, this recipe turned out too fabulously not to share!

 Gluten Free Parve (non-dairy) Brownies

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup potato starch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup parve semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional) You could alternatively use nuts if you happen to like those in your brownies, or, if you are making them dairy, you could use a different type or flavor of chocolate chip. I used to love making mint chocolate chip brownies and may try this in the future.

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a 9x13inch baking pan with cooking spray, coating the sides and bottom. I actually used a slightly smaller rectangular glass baking dish.
2. Crack eggs individually into a small bowl, checking for blood spots if you keep a kosher kitchen. After ensuring they are good, place the eggs into a large mixing bowl. The recipe I adapted this from calls for an electric mixer, but I had success without one. Beat the eggs with a whisk until they are light and foamy. Add sugar and oil; mix until well combined.
3. Add the cocoa, potato starch, baking powder and vanilla. Mix (slowly at first since the cocoa and potato starch will splatter!) until combined, but do not over-mix.
4. Fold in your chocolate chips (or nuts, mint chips, etc.).
5. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Place in hot oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of your brownies comes out clean.
6. Remove from the oven and place on wire rack to cool. The brownies cut well while still warm, and a small trick my mother taught me as a girl was to use a pizza wheel to cut even and straight lines. 

Anyone have some non-dairy ice cream?? These are incredible and the closest to my family recipe I've ever come. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go sneak a good workout in at my gym before Shabbat comes!

Shabbos Shmooze: Beginning Each Week With Its End In Mind

beginning with the end in mind...

I think it's pretty normal on Monday morning for most weekday workers and/or students to already have our eye on Friday afternoon and the freedoms of the weekend. For many Jews, there is an added element to that feeling. Preparing one's home and oneself for the Sabbath commences at the beginning of the week so that by the time sundown arrives on Friday, the holiness of Shabbat can be truly honored and enjoyed. For me, observing the laws of Shabbat is still relatively new and a work in progress. Beginning my preparations early in the week--as early as Sunday morning--helps me not only to lessen any feelings of stress on Friday, but also allows my excitement for Shabbat to remain at the forefront of my mind rather than somewhere in the background.

Rabbi Kalonymos Kalman Halevi Epstein once said:
"On Shabbat, holiness rests upon every person... However, some people sense only the smallest amount [of holiness] while others experience much more... It all depends upon the preparation of the person--how ready [s]he is for Shabbat while it is still Friday, and more so, how ready [s]he was from the first day of the week for Shabbat, bringing upon himself [or herself] the holiness of Shabbat during all of the six days of the week."
--  Ma'ar Vashemesh, Ki Tisa, taken from Oasis In Time: The Gift of Shabbat in a 24/7 World, a student textbook from the Jewish Learning Institute

My weekdays can get pretty hectic between finishing up my undergraduate degree, teaching preschool, and working on my writing. As a result, sometimes my weekday Shabbat preparations will be quite simple--like picking up a few extra items when I stop at the grocery store that will be used especially for Shabbat. Perhaps I throw in an extra load of laundry one afternoon so my tablecloth and dress clothes are clean and ready for Shabbat. Maybe I just take a break from writing for a moment to read another blog post about Shabbat or this week's parsha (Torah portion). Many of these activities seem minuscule in the midst of my busy weekdays. Sometimes I think-- I can just put this off until Thursday night or Friday afternoon. I can just save this pleasure reading for the weekend when I have more time. However, in just the past few weeks since I've added this level of mindfulness to my day to day activity, I've found myself enjoying a taste of the calm and peacefulness I feel on Shabbat right in the middle of the work week! I've also been able to enjoy Shabbat more as I don't feel nearly as rushed at the end of the week.
OK, so...regardless of whether Shabbat comes in at 3:40PM (as it does for 2 weeks each winter in Spokane, WA), or as late as 8:40PM--I always feel rushed in the last minutes before sundown. Sometimes that is a little overwhelming, but more and more, I find it exciting and recognize that restfulness will come as soon as I light the Shabbos candles. And whatever I didn't get done can and will wait until Saturday night.
Keeping the laws of Shabbat is one of the most rewarding and challenging life changes I've ever pursued. I am very excited to have recently signed up through a wonderful Jewish organization for a chavrusa, or learning partner to help me learn more about the halachos (laws) of Shabbos. Like keeping a kosher kitchen and learning to read Hebrew, keeping Shabbat is not necessarily a linear process and mistakes do happen. It has been, however, a very positive process. I am careful not to take on more than I can handle at any one time; I am forgiving when I do need to take a step back. I am also mindful of how powerful a mitzvah keeping Shabbat truly is...

U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman said the following in a course forward he wrote for the Oasis in Time class given through the Jewish Learning Institute*:

"'On Shabbat,' Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Rebbe of the Chabad movement, said 'we cease to struggle with the world, not because the task of perfecting it is on hold, but because on Shabbat, the world is perfect; we relate to what is perfect and unchanging in it.'... If [every Jew] would just stop and observe one Sabbath, and then another, in perfect unity with G-d and one another, then the world would be redeemed."

And so I leave you on this Thursday night with a wish that you all have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. For those who are observing Shabbat --in whatever way and wherever you do so--may you find it restful and meaningful. Good Shabbos, and as always, it's been great shmoozing with you.

*I had the opportunity to take this course through my local Chabad center about a year ago. This and all of the other JLI courses I've attended have been phenomenal! Check out a course near you if you are interested.

Shabbos Shmooze: Shlissel Challah

Before the first Shabbos after Pesach, there is a special segulah (auspicious action) for parnasah (good fortune/livelihood) to bake fresh challot. This unique tradition is common to Ashkenazi families and is called Shlissel Challah, with shlissel being the Yiddish word for "key." Because many Jews associate Pesach with prosperity, families have taken on the minhag for generations to bake challah this week in the shape of a key or, alternatively, with a key baked inside.
Since I am gluten-intolerant, I often had to pass up the delicious challah at Shabbos meals. That is until a dear friend of mine perfected a recipe for gluten-free oat challah! She is a talented cook and baker, and her tried and true recipe contains proportionately enough oat flour to qualify for a proper blessing over bread. Up until last night, I'd greatly enjoyed eating the benefits of her labor, but in honor of this being the week to bake shlissel challah, I baked my very own for the first time! I've not yet tried it and won't until I eat my Shabbos meal this evening, but it looks amazing, smells amazing, and I am happy share the photogenic results!

Before adding eggs, they are checked for blood spots, as any impurity would make the egg unkosher.

All the ingredients are gathered together. The yeast is busy getting to work in very warm water along with sugar and agave syrup.

I'll bet you haven't seen one of these old fashioned mixers in years! I just found one at a local shop in town & LOVE it!

Once my arm was ready to fall off from the hand-mixer, I moved on to a good ol' fashioned spoon. The gluten free dough is very sticky!

Don't forget the key--this is shlissel challah!

Mini loaf-tins seemed to be best for this dough. It is too sticky a dough to braid or form.

It looks (and smells) amazing! I can't wait to make motzi on it by my Shabbos meal!

Perhaps, with my friend's permission, I shall share the recipe at a later date. Shabbat Shalom, a Gut Shabbos & may you all have a wonderful weekend. And for those who partook in the baking of shlissel challah this year, may the results be propitious in both flavor and finance!