It’s been another day for baking something sweet and delicious. Today, as the wind whipped through the trees and the sound of crinkly leaves hit my ears I began to long for cinnamon rolls.  It’s hard to get good GF cinnamon rolls.  Either the roll is too tough or too dry or the whole darn thing just falls apart.  Today my son and I decided to take that challenge and make them ourselves.

We used a muffin pan for our delectable treats and filled it with muffin papers.

Then we mixed:

One can Sweetened Condensed Milk (Low Fat Version)

Two eggs

Two cups Pamela’s Baking Mix

1/4 cup thoroughly pounded up walnuts ( my kids hate nuts in baked goods, so I will often mash them into a powder in order to add them without the kids noticing.)

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

We mixed that together until it was thoroughly blended.  Then we filled the muffin cups halfway.

In a separate pan we mixed our filling:

1/2 stick butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup walnuts (once again smashed to smithereens.)

We mixed that up and let it boil for a minute before taking off the heat.  Using a teeny tiny funnel I had lying around we poke holes into the center of the uncooked muffins and poured about 2 tsps of the filling into the center of each muffin.  The filling oozed out on the top of each muffin, forming an inner circle of goo.

We popped these in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

While we waited for the muffins to cook we prepared the glaze:

1/2 stick of butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

We mixed the vanilla and butter until melted, then stirred the sugar in until smooth.  We removed the mixture from the heat.

Once we removed the muffins from the oven we discovered the filling had left a central whole in each muffin.  We filled these in with the remaining filling.  Once finished we drizzled the glaze atop each one and sat down to enjoy them with a glass of cold milk.

They are delicious!

Fall is approaching and the urge to fill the house with the enticing smell of freshly baked goodies grows within me daily.  For years now I have struggled to find GF replacements for the breads, baked goods, and fall treats I used to make.  Happily, I have finally hit upon an ingredient that gives me moist and crumbly GF baked goods.  Sweetened Condensed Milk.
I have used it in a variety of different recipes and the result is always the same.  Crumbly, moist breads that don’t fall apart.

GF Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk 1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini

1 egg

2 1/2 cups Pamela’s Pancake Mix

1 tsp Molasses

2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Clove

Mix your sweetened condensed milk, egg, molasses, and zucchini until the zucchini is evenly spread throughout the batter.  Add in your Pamela’s Mix 1 cup at a time, stir well between adding.  Add your spices and mix for another minute or so.

For muffins:

Place in muffin tin and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on top. (about 10-14 minutes depending on your oven.

For Bread:

Place in 8×8 casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown.  (Between 15 – 20 minutes)

Stick with a toothpick, it should return to you clean. If not, bake another minute or two and try again.

Let cool five minutes, then slice.  When slicing, run the knife through once, wipe it, then slice again.  This will prevent the knife from gunking up and removing large sections of the top of your bread when you cut again.

Final Step:  Devour

What I miss the most about traditional baked goods is the mouth feel.  The satisfying crunchy outside and soft middle of french bread, the consistent springiness of cake, the crisp resistance of pizza dough.  For three years I have looked for something that feels like normal baked goods.  Something that isn’t mealy or dry enough to sap your body of all remaining water stores and stick to the roof of your mouth forever.

For three and a half years I have tried recipe after recipe.  I finally hit upon it.  Today I made raspberry scones.  They were chewy and consistent.  The outside was crisp and the inside soft.  They didn’t flake apart or crumble to bits. They were just right.

The secret?  Sweetened condensed milk.  I’m not a food scientist so I can’t explain why there would be such a drastic difference in mouth feel using sweetened condensed milk as a replacement for milk, sugar, and butter in a recipe.  I have no idea why it worked so well. I really don’t care why it worked so well.  All I know is I that I finally made a GF baked good that felt normal.

The Recipe:

2 – 21/2 cups Pamela’s Pancake and Baking Mix  (Pamela’s has served me in good staid.  It is the mix for me!)

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 14 oz can fat free sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

Set your oven to 375 Degrees.

Mix the egg, sweetened condensed milk, raspberries and vanilla together in a stand mixer until the raspberries have broken apart and the batter is a light pink.  Add 2 cups of Pamela’s baking mix.  Mix thoroughly.  If the batter seems a little too pancake like and not enough like a dough, add the additional 1/2, 1/4 at a time until the batter is more dough like.

Spray a round pie pan with non-stick spray.  Pour the dough into the pie pan.  Stick in the oven for 35 minutes or until the top is dark golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the pan.  Allow to cool for ten minutes, cut into generous slices and devour.