Adventures in Gluten Free Cooking: GF Angel Food Cake Bites

We were invited to a New Year's Eve fondue party at a friend's house and everyone brought different things to dip (such a great idea!). Since my hubby's tummy feels better when he stays away from gluten, I set out to make some gluten free angel food cake. And since gluten free items can be a bit crumbly when cut, I thought it would be worth a try to make some angel food bites in my mini muffin pan.

Side note: I may have mentioned before that I LOVE The Pioneer Woman, cuz I do! 

She does the most wonderful recipe posts with beautiful pictures...and I now have a new found appreciation for her posts. It is hard to bake something AND remember to document your steps via pictures. And I am in serious need of a photography lesson. So, my apologies in advance for my first attempt at a food post :) 

When I get it in my head to make something gluten free, I normally just modify a regular recipe. Regular being a recipe using wheat flour. This is what I did with the GF angel food cake bites. I did some searching on Allrecipes.com and came up with the following list of ingredients:

Eggs (you will just need the whites), Confectioners sugar, white rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, corn starch, salt, vanilla, and cream of tarter. 

First, separate the egg yokes from the egg whites. You are going to need 10 egg whites. I like to use 3 bowls for this process: 1) To put the egg yokes in, 2) to keep the egg whites in, and 3) to separate the eggs one at a time. You see I am no pro when it comes to separating eggs...and if you have a bowl full of beautiful egg whites and on egg #9 you break the yoke and get it all over BUMMER! So I do them one at a time

Let the egg white warm to room temperature as you collect your other ingredients and pre heat your oven to 350 degrees. Sift together the following dry ingredients: 3/4 c. confectioners sugar, 1/4 c. white rice flour, 1/4 c. tapioca flour, 1/4 c. potato starch, 1/4 c. corn starch. 

Another side note: Sometimes "Gluten Free" products are expensive. I have had good luck finding these flours and starches in the ethnic sections of grocery stores. This tapioca flour (I know the bag says starch, but for tapioca flour and starch are all the same thing - this is not the case with potato flour and potato starch!) is only $0.99 for a 1lb bag at the grocery store by my house. I find it in the isle with the Asian cooking items. 

Next, beat the egg whites along with 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp salt, and 1 1/2 tsp cream of tarter. I use my Kitchen Aid mixer - but any electric mixer will work. Mix on medium speed until the egg whites make soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining 1/4 c. confectioners sugar more and increase speed of mixer to high. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Then stir in sifted dry ingredients.

The batter will be fluffy! Since I was making the cake bites, I used a ziplock bag as a make shift piping bag by snipping off the corner of the bag and filled my greased muffin cups up with the cake batter. 

They do not get much bigger when you cook them, so go ahead and fill 'er up. I baked these mini muffins for 15 min in a pre heated oven. You can also put this batter into a regular cake pan but you will have to bake it much longer and on the bottom rack of your oven. I filled my mini muffin pan 2 times and still had more cake batter, so I put the rest of it in a bread pan and baked it for about 40 min. If you have an angel food cake pan it would most likely take closer to 50 min or even 1 hour. 

When I took the mini muffin pan out I removed the cake bites and let them cool on a wire rack. 

Try not to eat them all! They are so light and fluffy. 

And when they are covered in chocolate, YUM!

This beautiful plate was MADE by a dear friend of mine from high school. She is so talented in so many art mediums!

What types of things do you like to fondue? 

Gluten Free Angel Food Cake Bites

10 egg whites

3/4 c and 1/4 c confectioners sugar

1/4 c. white rice flour

1/4 c. corn starch

1/4 c. tapioca flour

1/4 c. potato starch

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cream of tarter

Separate the egg yokes from the egg whites. Let the egg white warm to room temperature as you collect your other ingredients and pre heat your oven to 350 degrees.Sift together the following dry ingredients: 3/4 c. confectioners sugar, white rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, corn starch. Beat room temperature the egg whites along with vanilla, salt, and cream of tarter. Mix on medium speed until the egg whites make soft peaks. Gradually add remaining 1/4 c. confectioners sugar and increase speed of mixer to high. Continue beating until stiff peaks form. Then stir in sifted dry ingredients. Use a ziplock bag as a make shift piping bag or just spoon batter into greased muffin pan. Bake for 16 to 20 min in 350 degree oven.