These things turned out astonishing — I am calling the de-gluten-ization of the original recipe a definite success! It was a find in one of my holiday baking magazines from Delish. 

The only thing is, you know - it’s such a shame, sometimes, the sacrifices one goes through for a food blog. We had to eat a couple pans of these with forks before I got the recipe to where you could really pick it up like a bar cookie. 

It was just terrible, extra cookies in the fridge for a couple weeks. But we managed to survive eating those extra pans of cookies for you! And now flour and butter quantities have been regulated, and they are bar cookies extraordinaire!

Gluten Free Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CHEESECAKE LAYER

2 (8-oz.) blocks cream cheese, softened

1/2 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

A grind or two of sea salt

FOR THE SNICKERDOODLE LAYER

2 1/4 c. almond flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. kosher salt

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

1 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/4 c. granulated sugar mixed with 1 tsp. cinnamon, for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350º and grease a 9"-x-13" baking pan with cooking spray. Prepare cheesecake layer: In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt and beat until combined.
2. 2. Prepare snickerdoodle layer: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars with a hand mixer, then add eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined. Gradually add flour mixture and mix on low until just combined. 
3. 3. Press about half of the snickerdoodle dough into an even layer in the bottom of the pan and sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar. (Dough will be sticky.) Pour cheesecake batter on top and smooth with a rubber spatula. Add enough flour to your remaining snickerdoodle dough that it starts to break into small clumps. Using your hands to separate the clumps of dough, sprinkle across the cheesecake layer. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar. 
4. 4. Bake until edges are set and center of cheesecake mixture is only slightly jiggly, about 40 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing into them.

Servings: 20 bars

Corn and Pea Risotto

 A risotto for summertime! 

This one is not nearly as heavy as most risottos, only a bit of Parmesan for the dairy - instead of my usual loading it up with cream and cheese!

I am quite shamelessly cutting and pasting from a previous risotto recipe I’ve blogged: Shrimp, Asparagus, and Spinach Risotto.

Risotto is one of the best “gourmet” meals to turn out in your own kitchen - especially if you are Gluten Free! - because it tastes so fancy. But really, there are two tricks to risotto, and neither of them are hard:

1. You’ve got to have the right rice;

And 2. You’ve got to know how to STIR. And who can't take a spoon and STIR?

See? Not hard!

Trick #1. The rice. THIS is the kind of rice you need for risotto. It’s called Arborio. Doesn’t matter a bit the brand, this is just what my grocery store had. It releases the starch that gives risotto its creaminess. I’ve tried making risotto with other rices: no go. Don’t bother. 😊 Spend the money and buy the Arborio.

Follow the steps in the other post Shrimp, Asparagus, and Spinach Risotto for the creation of the risotto itself - there are pictures in there that, unfortunately, blogger is not letting me copy and paste easily. 

After you have gone through all the stirring and adding of broth and more stirring and more broth, ad infinitum, for about fifteen to twenty minutes, before your rice is done!, toss your frozen peas and your frozen corn in. They’ll heat up while the risotto finishes. 

Then, when your rice tastes done and you pull it off the heat, toss in about three ounces of fresh Parmesan - that’s about a third of a cup, by my measure here!

Serve hot, with extra Parmesan on top, and some fresh parsley if you’ve got it! 

CORN AND PEA RISOTTO

Ingredients:

2T olive oil

3T minced garlic, about two cloves probably

2C ARBORIO rice

Lots of chicken broth (I used at least eight cups, but have more on hand)

3/4C frozen corn

3/4C frozen peas

3/4C fresh Parrmesan

Extra Parmesan and fresh parsley for serving

Honestly, you’re going to want to follow the steps for risotto at Shrimp, Asparagus, and Spinach Risotto. Basically you’re browning your garlic in oil, adding the rice and stirring to coat with oil, and then adding broth a cup or two at a time until the rice is done. But if you have never made risotto before, you want to have the pictures in the other link!

About fifteen minutes after you start adding broth, add in the frozen peas and corn. Keep adding broth and stirring until the rice is done.

Once the rice tastes done, pull the risotto off the heat and add the Parmesan.

Serve hot, topped with Parmesan and fresh parsley!

Servings: 8

Calories per serving: Roughly 200 or so