Pumpkin Polenta Recipe with Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa

My inspiration this week- pumpkin polenta with salsa fresca.

It's been a hot dry week here in Studio City. Windy. Dusty. With mercury rising into the 90's thanks to the annual Santa Ana winds. Fire weather. The polar opposite of the fallish, foggy mornings I just experienced back east on my trip to New England. We stayed in Great Barrington for four burnished days of autumn's last gold, catching the Berkshires at the tail end of my favorite season. More on the trip itself (and why we went there), soon.

In the meantime, I'll share a comfort food recipe from the archive- a creamy pumpkin polenta I cooked up while living in West Hollywood. So climb into my time machine.

Notes From WeHo: Comfort food weather has WeHo citizens ditching their flip-flops and plucking pumpkin colored sweaters off hangers, while tucking umbrellas into faux leather satchels. If you can find the dang umbrella, that is. It's got to be around here somewhere, right? You used it last year.

Maybe.

Or was that the year before? The harvest moon is playing tricks with your memory again. The crows outside in the oak trees caw like the crows in tomorrow's dream. Days turn into weeks and lunch turns into next month's breakfast. Hours spill through worm holes of time like so many episodes of Lost.

And the Buddha imagines the universe. And gets it close to right. We're talking atoms, people. Particles of teeny tiny specks of even tinier teenier fragments of a single point of something so small the naked eye perceives it as invisible.

I ponder this as I walk in a stream of brittle bronze leaves.


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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Donuts

Tender and light, gluten-free pumpkin donuts, darling.

You might think I'm on a pumpkin bender, glancing through recent recipes here on Gluten-Free Goddess®. And you'd be right. I do this. Every October. I go on one long, crazy, pumpkin love affair. I am head-over-heels nuts about it. Because pumpkin is magic. In fact, if pumpkin was in a fairy tale, it would be the Fairy Godmother- not the humble buggy. It makes gluten-free baking transform, you see, as if touched by a star-tipped sparkling wand.

That's why I knew I had to tackle pumpkin donuts. Because donuts can be tough to replicate gluten-free. But I knew pumpkin would bring me luck, and sprinkle good fortune on my baking endeavors today. So, yes. I am pumpkin crazy. Crazy in love.

And you know what?

If pumpkin be the food of love, play on.

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies- Gluten-Free Recipe

Gluten-free pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with a secret ingredient.

Reprising this autumn-inspired cookie recipe from the 2010 archives, because so many of you are new to gluten-free baking - and may have missed it!

Fall usually stirs my culinary imagination to conjure seasonal soup recipes and Crock Pot comfort food. The key word here is usually. Historically. As in, what I've done before, come the Autumn Equinox. This time around the season's wheel, however, my restless spirit has been wandering far and wide and away from dreams of butternut chili and baked rice casseroles toward the tempting, sweeter things in life.

As in cookies.

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Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

A new gluten-free dairy-free pumpkin cupcake recipe for Fall.

I am on (a much needed) vacation this week- staying at a wonderful gentleman's farm on Cape Cod. I'll share tales and pics when I return to the west coast. But until then, I'm reprising a pumpkin cupcake recipe for you. To show you that I'm thinking of you, here on this slender spit of land jutting bravely into the Atlantic.

Before I get to my new cupcake recipe, I need to wander off a bit. Just briefly. Because it's who I am. A person who wanders. Ponders. Finds solace in books. I've been like this since girlhood. Curious. Serious. No good at catching balls. Or dressing dolls. I am beyond inept with hair. And eyeliner.

I get anxious and non-verbal if I have to wear anything that isn't a pair of jeans.

It might be because I'm a child of The Sixties, that starstruck Age of Aquarius, when kindred souls united for peace, beauty, and rock and roll. As Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right," and there was that "...sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave."

I've been remembering the beautiful wave lately. The idealism. The hope. The belief that there is more to life than collapsing in front of the television and microwaving hot dogs.

The belief that beauty- as Steve Jobs believed- is important, has value. That we are deeply interconnected. That life on Earth is precious- from the house sparrow to the living sea. That we are part of a vast and mysterious collective- not merely of our absurd egos (who natter inside our heads and squander our attention on drama, conflict, acquisition and the need to control)- but of a newly unfolding awareness of astonishing inner space and outer space. Infinity in every direction. The Universe is far more capacious than we ever dreamed. Perhaps even multi-dimensional. A Multiverse.

Which begs the question.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Crumb Cake

A light, pumpkin coffee cake for your holiday brunch.

The Winter Solstice will be here soon. The holiday frenzy of gift buying and light stringing and cookie making is officially upon us. Everywhere I cast my gaze I am pummeled with messages. SHOP! BAKE! SPARKLE! And that's okay. Because I understand the hoopla. I know where this urge comes from. The itch to make a ruckus in the dark. To sing, brave and clear, cupping our tiny flames against Midwinter's long night.

The California sun hangs soft and low in the sky, as pale as ice cream. Hours feel clipped. Afternoons are shorter and shorter. Night creeps ever closer. Darkness will soon reign over light.

But only for a moment. One single, solitary, longest night of the year.

No wonder we gather to celebrate. The rebirth of light is no small thing. And a brand new year awaits. Front loaded with promise, and changes hoped for.

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New Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bars Recipe

Freshly frosted gluten-free pumpkin bars with a secret ingredient.

Tuning in to the particular (and fleeting) pleasures of each changing season as we ride the wheel of the year may be my favorite spiritual practice. A practice that requires one simple thing. Attention. Which turns out to be not so simple, inevitably. Because life is anything but simple, with its whitewater rush of mind numbing distractions that demand less and less of our soul and more and more of our mental focus on exterior minutia. Micro decisions. Cleaning out our email in-box. Catching up with Facebook feeds and Twitter streams and Google+. Texting about grocery lists. Scanning streaming video options for one decent romantic comedy (I have- on too many occasions to count- spent a full hour gaping, borderline comatose, at an LCD screen, scrolling title after title, only to arrive at the sane conclusion that you know what? I'd rather read a book). Thousands (millions?) of choices may glitter and ooze their high definition glow but I find I am not feeling the abundance. I am less and less enamored with more.

I know. It's showing. My age.

My childhood brain was wired for mud and bird calls, blackberry thickets and butterscotch pine. Hours spent reading in a grove of birch trees dug their neural groove. The wild luxuries of inner connection, rather than social networking. And TIME. That plastic, misunderstood, precious commodity that shape-shifts experience from an endless afternoon of liquid daylight into a heart clutching warp speed tumble of confusion. Decades become tiny sandwiches of memory you can barely taste anymore.

Weeks blink by with alarming velocity.

And here we are again.

In pumpkin season.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie Bread

Tender, delicious tea bread that tastes like pumpkin pie.

I'm feeling a tad, shall we say, under the weather, lately. Nothing serious. Just an autumnal cold that has knocked the stuffing out of me. I feel like a rag doll. An achy, cranky, ratty old rag doll with matted squirrelly hair and baggy sweatpants. It ain't pretty is all I'm sayin'. So forgive my delay in sharing the promised new pumpkin bars recipe. Soon, Babycakes. Soon.

In the meantime, here's an easy gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe from the archives- a moist, gluten-free pumpkin bread you can bake in a bread machine.

Or in your oven, if you prefer.

***

From 2009: This is a big week. Huge. Never mind The Canyon premiere. Forget the post screening parties at Cafe Was, and the Palihouse (where the valet parked the only Honda Fit of the night- I'm guessing). Forget hanging out in Hollywood with Yvonne Strahovski. We're talking major excitement. Glamour with a u. Dreams come true. That's right.

We're unpacking our relocation cube.

But wait. There is more to the story, truth be told. There is a subplot with a third act twist. There is, um. Titillation. Desire. Longing. By your intrepid Goddess. No, Babycakes. Not longing for fame. Or glitz. Or girly-girl anything. I'm not that kind of Goddess (Botox and bling isn't on my radar). Nope.

So what is this obscure object of desire?

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Pumpkin Quinoa Cookies

Pumpkin cookies with quinoa flakes. Like oatmeal- but better.

Dear Reader (yes, Babycakes, I'm talking to you)- you know how I feel about you, right? I'm crazy about you. I read your kind and thoughtful comments. I smile at your Twitters (or is the correct nomenclature tweets?). I'm thrilled you follow the blog on Facebook. I am humbled by your generous,  warm and giving e-mails (I save them). 

Your feedback and support keeps me going and inspires me.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Praline and Coconut-Pecan Crust

A slice of vegan pumpkin pie heaven. Chill overnight for best texture.

Happy October! Good Goddess, I've been busy. Making a delicious mess in my tiny kitchen. Developing new gluten-free dairy-free dessert recipes for the Winter Food Issue of Allergic Living magazine. So I thought I'd dust the cocoa powder off my hands and take a quick break to share two inspirational things today. The first relates to Fall- my updated Favorite Gluten-Free Autumn Recipes index. Peruse at your leisure, ideally with a big mug of spiced hot cider close by.

The second offering had to be something pumpkin. I mean, it's October. And around here October baking means a certain voluptuous curcurbit is queen. So I did what any gluten-free goddess would do. I dug into the GFG recipe archives. And found a luxurious, creamy vegan pumpkin pie with sweet praline topping and a coconut-pecan crust. Just to keep you occupied until I return with a new gluten-free vegan muffin recipe you're going to love.

Let the pumpkin recipe frenzy begin!

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin pancakes with apricot jam and pepitas.

I haven't made gluten-free pancakes in a long time. I am- typically- not a big breakfast person. A solo slice of warm gluten-free toast glistening with melting peanut butter and a hot coconut milk chai usually does it for me. So what possessed me to change my routine? Why did I suddenly have a deep growling desire for pancakes?

In a word: pumpkin. My favorite cucurbit.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins

These pumpkin muffins feature coconut flour and almond flour.

We found our favorite canned organic pumpkin back on the store shelves this week. So be prepared for pumpkin recipes. I, for one, Darling, can't get enough. Pumpkin is my favorite fall ingredient. Maybe because it cozies up to gluten-free flours so well. It adds moisture and depth to g-free baked goods. It flirts with cinnamon and ginger like the sexiest, inscrutable movie star. You know what I'm talking about. It's not overt. Or blatant. It's not over the top. It is subtle. Secure. Pumpkin doesn't demand to be admired.

Because it doesn't have to prove itself.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Scones with Maple Nutmeg Icing

Gluten-free pumpkin scones with maple nutmeg icing.

Take a deep breath. Stop. Sit. I understand. I get it. And I know what you're craving. Because I'm craving it, too. After all the pre-Thanksgiving hubbub, after scouring the Internet for gluten-free recipes, after all the planning, the lists, the shopping at six different markets because one store never has everything you need (that would be too simple), the label reading, the patience (dug from somewhere deep and zen and maybe even vaguely transpersonal) to explain (again) why scraping the pumpkin filling off a wheat pie crust does not a gluten-free dessert make, what you crave (besides alone time with a freshly cracked book and your favorite mug filled to the brim with your beverage of choice) is something indulgent.

But not overly indulgent.

Sweet.

But not too sweet.

Something warm and tender, and laced with all of the holiday spices you've been shaking and dashing and pinching with abandon.

Something using up that leftover half cup of pumpkin sitting in the fridge.

Something for breakfast, perhaps. Or a mid-morning treat that is light and tasty but also comforting, in a warm-from-the-oven homey best friend hug kind of way. 

Are you with me?  Are ya feelin' me? 

Then let's get sconed.

Gluten-free scones worthy of tea time.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Scones with Maple Nutmeg Icing Recipe

I searched for the Starbuck's pumpkin scone recipe to use as a basic template for this gluten-free dairy-free egg-free scone. A scone to love. A scone to make my celiac readers happy and my lovely vegan readers and autie angels smile. I have no idea if the recipes I found on-line were the true Starbuck's recipe, but I took a shot. And by the time I was through converting it and taste testing the dough, I knew. Babycakes, this one's a keeper.

Ingredients:

1 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup organic millet flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch or potato starch (not potato flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons organic light brown sugar
7 tablespoons cold shortening (Spectrum Organic Shortening)
1/2 cup mashed cooked pumpkin or canned pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 2 tablespoons warm water till frothy (non-vegans use 1 large organic egg, if you prefer)
3 tablespoons real maple syrup
3 tablespoons rice milk whisked with 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice or mild rice vinegar

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Lightly grease a 9-inch Pyrex pie dish. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and dry ingredients. Add in the shortening by pieces and cut in the shortening (with a fork or a pastry cutter) and mix until the mixture looks sandy.

Add in the pumpkin, egg replacer (or egg), maple syrup and rice milk. Beat the batter briefly until the dough forms a smooth mass. You do not need to beat the dough very long- just until it is mixed.

Scrape the dough into the prepared pie plate. Using lightly oiled hands pat and shape the dough into a smooth flat round. Press the dough all the way to the edges of the pie plate.

Use a thin sharp knife to slice the dough into six wedges.

You can bake the scones together in the pie dish, or separate them and bake them on a baking sheet.

To bake them on a baking sheet: Use a thin and flexible spatula to remove the wedges from the pie dish one at a time and place them on the parchment lined baking sheet.

Using a knife or thin spatula, reshape and define the scones, if you need to.

Now brush the tops gently with:

Plain rice milk

If you like a crunchy top, sprinkle the scones with raw sugar crystals.

Place the pie dish - or the baking sheet- in the oven. Bake until the scones are firm and slightly golden- roughly 20 minutes.

Cool the scones on a wire rack and make the maple nutmeg icing.

Maple Nutmeg Icing

Use only a little liquid at a time as you beat the frosting. If it gets too thin, add more confectioner's (powdered) sugar.

Ingredients:

1 cup confectioner's or powdered sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rice milk
Pinch of nutmeg, to taste (start tiny, you can add more)

Instructions:

Beat until smooth and add more rice milk a tablespoon at a time until the icing is creamy- but not too thin. Taste test and add more nutmeg if it needs it.

Beat the icing for three to four minutes (this improves the texture).

Spoon the icing into a pastry bag fitted with a simple tip (or use a plastic sandwich bag with a tiny hole cut in one bottom corner). Chill the icing while the scones are cooling a bit.

Squiggle the icing on top of the scones, or spread on the frosting with an icing knife, if you like a lot of sweetness adorning your scone.

Serve immediately. I'm serious. Don't wait. Eat up, Darling. These scones are best enjoyed fresh from the oven.

Makes six scones.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you. 

Karina's Notes:

Like gluten-free soda breads these scones are best enjoyed the day you bake them. However, if you need to bake them ahead of time, I did a little experiment for you. If you must wrap and freeze these scones for the future, place the iced scones in the freezer before you wrap them up (briefly chilling them helps set the icing so it won't stick to the wrapping). To best preserve this kind of drizzled frosting in the freezing process, I think plastic wrap works better than foil.

When serving, remove the scones from the freezer and unwrap immediately (so the icing won't stick to the wrapping as it thaws and softens).

For best results- hands down- heat a thawed scone in the microwave for 15 to 20 seconds- this restores the warmth and tenderness of a just baked scone.

More gluten-free pumpkin scones from food bloggers:

The Sensitive Pantry's Maple Glazed Pumpkin Scones

Candy's Gluten-free Vegan Pumpkin Raisin Scones

Daring to Thrive's Gluten-free Dairy-free Vegan Pumpkin Scones

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Waffles

Gluten-free pumpkin waffles with maple syrup.

I haven't been baking much in our dorm-sized sublet. The Barbie scaled toy that pretends it's an oven (my lasagna pan- never mind my cookie sheets- won't fit) is totally, weirdly cattywampus. Pie plates slide to the rear and flip backwards like pancakes. And trying to fetch potatoes that have rolled off the back of the rack is often a futile act proving hazardous to your fingertips. I'm a slow learner. I burned myself twice. But I'm still smiling. For two reasons.

1. We found an apartment we love. I can walk to the beach. And the Santa Monica Farmers Market. And the Third Street theaters and shops and bookstore and cafes. Walk! As in, no car necessary. There isn't room to set up a painting studio (space is but a luxury so close to the beach) but. There is a brand new kitchen. With a shiny spankin' new stove. Virgin territory. Untouched by heinous proteins. This will be my first gluten-free kitchen, ever. We move in November first.

2. Then there is Tuesday. The premiere of The Canyon at Grauman's Chinese Theater. The first time we will see Steve's script on the silver screen. Larger than life. Edited to the director's vision. Am I excited? Of course. Am I nervous? Affirmative. Will it be the movie we dreamed of? Maybe it will and maybe it won't. The one thing I know for sure about movies is that film making is a magical, unpredictable process.

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Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Coconut Milk

Here's a recipe for a quick and easy pantry soup
that just so happens to be gluten-free.

Cleaning out the pantry always makes hungry. Come to think of it, so does packing. And lugging laundry. But the truth is, this time of year- anything can make me hungry. I could blame it on shorter daylight. Or the jarring touch of the cold tile floor when I tumble out of bed barefoot and sleepy and weave through boxes of books and movies to locate my tea mug, gone missing since three PM yesterday when I set it down- goddess knows where- to help my husband wrap one of my forty-inch square abstracts.

All of it makes me hungry.

But here's my top ten.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing

Tender and moist pumpkin cake with maple icing. 
For nut-free, skip the chopped nut topping.

Today I'm digging into the recipe archives to share an old favorite. My pumpkin cake recipe. We're so busy sorting, bagging clothes and boxing up books for donation, getting ready for the big move to Los Angeles (next Thursday!) that yours truly has not had time to bake.

But if I did? I'd whip up this moist and tender beauty of a cake.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Chai Bread with Cranberries

A vegan pumpkin chai bread recipe.

Thank you, Dear Readers for all your pre-Thanksgiving comment love. I'm paying attention. I am. In fact, I've had so many requests for a gluten-free pumpkin bread recipe that I'm sharing another baking success this week. Yup. Two goodies in one week. I usually balance my baking (sweet) and cooking (savory) posts a tad more fifty-fifty- especially when I am trying to lose those last five (stubborn!) pounds and all- but I couldn't ignore your requests for a Thanksgiving pumpkin bread, now could I?

See how I sacrifice for you, my Darlings? Developing, baking and taste testing Cinnamon Apple Muffins, Vegan Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Pecan Cookies, Pumpkin Raisin Cake, Pumpkin Waffles... Oy, the sacrifice. The pressure!

The 2008 Winter Holiday Frenzy has begun. Maybe for the sake of my sanity (now don't laugh about my alleged sanity, please) I'll put off trying to lose these last five pounds till 2009.

It'll be here before you know it.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pecan Cookies Recipe

 Pumpkin cookies- gluten-free.

I'm glad I baked cookies. Your intrepid gluten-free goddess, you see, is a tad under the weather. Well. In all honesty, maybe more than a tad. I blame the shopping cart I gripped and steered in Espanola searching for a butch new spatula-spoon that might actually survive gluten-free batter instead of snapping in half. I've got a nasty bug.

My defenses may have been a little vulnerable from all the pre-election anxiety coursing through my hyper-vigilant little body. Stress equals not-so-good, so they tell me. But now I can exhale. The epic campaign is over. America chose hope and changed the paradigm of its racial roots forever. So, Sweetcakes. Smile.

Have a cookie to celebrate.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Easy, delicious gluten-free pumpkin pie.

This will be one of our little secrets, okay? Just make this impossible pumpkin pie recipe and serve it with a smile. No apologies. No caveats. No waffling or waggling. You don't have to label it vegan. Or gluten-free. Or lactose-free. Which it is. Because no one will ever know. It tastes that good. And you'll score serious points with your vegan guests. You'll be a hero to gluten-free pie lovers. A goddess to egg-free pumpkin-cravers. A rock star to dairy-free angels.

My secret? It's in the details.

First- no tofu (yes, Babycakes, my pumpkin pie is soy-free so you won't have to put up with your cousin's tofu jokes on Thanksgiving).

Second- it's also rice-free. No gritty rice flour (which, come to think of it, I am hardly using any more). No cornstarch (for those of you avoiding corn). In a sweet little nutshell, it's very food allergy friendly.

Even your Aunt Sadie who is allergic to Wyoming might be able to eat this. Unless she's allergic to pumpkin. 

Then you're screwed.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bundt Cake

A warm and spicy pumpkin cake recipe for autumn.

Fall is my favorite season- for more reasons than I can count. Clear cool mornings that reinvigorate my affection for walking- not to mention- turning on the oven to bake. The freshened sense of new beginnings- yes, I know, I'm weird this way. Rather than the greening of spring, it's the winged migration of fall that kindles my creative spirit.

Fall feels like a fresh start, the smell of sharpened pencils, crisp white sheets of paper and a new box of crayons. Time to stack unread books by the bed, recycle old clothes, worn out paradigms and old ideas.

Time to get the broom and make a clean sweep of things.

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Gluten-Free Pumpkin Corn Muffins

Gluten-free corn muffins with a pumpkin twist.

Today's muffin recipe is seasonal favorite- a tender and golden pumpkin corn muffin. It's one of the most popular recipes on Gluten-Free Goddess.

The coyotes were up bright and early this morning, yelping in the cool blue air as my old English tea kettle sputtered and complained. Tea for breakfast is not an efficient way to wake up. It's more of a coaxing than the throttle of a double espresso fueled Americano, but right here, right now, it will have to do. At least this week.

The closest cafe is an hour's drive away. 

When people ask what it is I miss most living out here in the rural desert, my answer is always the same. But the list is growing...

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