Crockpot Chocolate Mud Cake (gluten free)

Someone posted this recipe in the crockpot lovers group over on Ravelry, and let me tell you, it is the best! It will cure a chocolate craving real quick. The recipe wasn't originally gluten free, but thanks to the flour blend hubby makes up for me, not a problem!

Ingredients:
1 cup gluten free flour blend
2 TB baking powder
6 TB butter
2 oz. semisweet chocolate or chocolate chips
1 cup sugar, divided
3 TB cocoa powder plus 1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 TB vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1 egg yolk
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water

Directions:
1. Coat inside of a 2 1/2 quart to 5 quart crockpot with cooking spray. (The cake's appearance and cooking time with vary with the size of your crockpot)
2. Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a medium size bowl and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water and mix well.
4. Whisk in 2/3 cup of sugar, 3 TB of cocoa, vanilla, salt, milk, and egg yolk.
5. Add flour mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed.
6. Pour batter into the crockpot and spread evenly.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining sugar (1/3 cup white and 1/3 cup brown), cocoa (1/3 cup), and hot water until the sugar is dissolved.
8. Pour mixture over the batter in the crockpot.
9. Cover and cook on high for 1 1/4 - 2 1/4 hours, depending on the size of the crockpot.
10. Even when done, the cake will be very moist and floating on a layer of molten chocolate, but you will know when it is ready when nearly all of the cake is set and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the crockpot.
11. As you check the cake's progress, try not to let the condensed steam from the lid drip on the cake. When it is done, turn off the power and remove the lid.
12. Let cool for 25 minutes, then serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Gluten Free Bread

Hubby and I have been playing around with different bread recipes over the past couple of years but haven't come across any that we truly love except those that come from mixes. As fabulous as we think the gf flour blend we've come up with is, it just doesn't sub straight across well in bread recipes. Finally one day I suggested that we measure out how much "flour" is in our favorite bread mix and use our flour blend and their "recipe". It turned out pretty decent. Definitely cheaper than paying $6+ for a loaf of gf bread. After the bread cools completely, I recommend slicing it and placing the slices in a sandwich bag (1-2 slices) and then placing the sandwich bags in a gallon bag and then freezing them. That way you only have to defrost what you need and none is wasted.

Jenn's Gluten Free Bread

2 3/4 cups gluten free flour blend
1 packet of yeast or 2 1/4 tsp granulated yeast
1 TB xantham gum
1 tsp salt
1 TB sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 TB vinegar
1 2/3 cups warm water

Mix water, yeast, and sugar together and let yeast proof. Add eggs, oil, and vinegar and mix. Add flour blend, xantham gum, and salt. Mix on high for 4 minutes.

For Bread: Place dough in a large greased loaf pan, cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes.

For Rolls: Transfer dough to a cake pan using an ice cream scoop. Each scoop is a roll. Cover and let rise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Gluten Free Flour Blend (updated recipe)

Since the last time I posted the gluten free flour blend we use, my hubby has played around with it some more and come up with a blend we absolutely love. It's not too far off from the old recipe though. This is also for a double batch. We store it in gallon ice cream containers at the back of the fridge and just pull it out when we need it. We've had great success using it in non-gluten free cookie recipes. For the brown rice flour, we use a grain mill that has never been used with wheat and we grind it ourselves. We use Lundberg Farms Organic Brown Rice that comes in 20 lb. bags at Costco.

Gluten Free Flour Blend

11 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
6 cups corn starch
2 cups potato starch
3 cups tapioca flour
1 cup potato flour
1 1/2 cups sweet rice flour
4 TB xantham gum

Blend all ingredients really well and store in airtight containers in the fridge.