Kicking off the year with the 10th edition of my #followfriday series featuring a few up-and-coming bloggers. If you follow me on Instagram, then you know I take the “Friday” part a bit loosely and sometimes share recipes on other days. But the sentiment is still the same! Over the past couple of months I tried Kirsten’s cranberry orange muffins, Chelsea’s pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes, Sarita’s salted butterscotch pretzel blondies and Sam’s apple cider pecan shortbreads with salted apple cider caramel.
Note: I adapted all of the recipes to be gluten free if they weren’t already.
I don’t make a lot of the same #followfriday recipes twice, so it says something when I repeat one! I made these cranberry orange muffins from Kirsten at This Celebrated Life a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, and then I almost immediately baked another batch. They’re healthy and flavorful, and they just might become a holiday staple! The recipe calls for cardamom, which isn’t a spice I use very often. But every time I bake with cardamom I ask myself why I don’t incorporate it into more recipes. It complements the orange flavor perfectly, and I imagine it would go well with other fruits, too. To make these gluten free I simply substituted the flour.
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If you’re looking for a quality gluten free pancake recipe, I highly recommend checking out Mile High Mitts. I’ve tried two of Chelsea’s pancake recipes and I love them both! These pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes don’t contain any refined sugar, which makes them another healthy breakfast option. But they don’t taste healthy, if you know what I mean! The pancakes themselves are soft and fluffy, and the chocolate chips add a little bit of texture. And of course you can never go wrong with pumpkin spice. I personally think that pumpkin is an acceptable winter flavor, so don’t be shy about baking these up for a random January brunch.
Did you guys catch any episodes of The Great American Baking Show? I love baking shows, but this one was especially fun because I “know” one of the contestants, Sarita from Ritzy Mom! She’s someone I’ve been following on Instagram for a while now. You’ll have to watch the show to see how she did! I tried Sarita’s salted butterscotch pretzel blondies, which are as salty and sweet as advertised. I also loved the contrast between the soft blondies and the crunchy pretzels. I made these gluten free by substituting the flour and using gluten free pretzels.
Sometimes, desserts don’t taste as good as they look. But other times, they taste even better! That’s the case with these apple cider pecan shortbreads with salted apple cider caramel from Buttermilk by Sam. There are a lot of steps involved with these little cuties, but trust me, they’re worth it. The flavor profile is too delicious for words. As soon as I toasted the pecans I knew I was in for a treat. BUT if you want to make these gluten free, you’ll need to make a couple of adjustments. The first time I made them gluten free I simply substituted the flour. But they turned into a giant blob in the oven. So here’s what you do: add 2 tbsp of cornstarch and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least two hours before rolling it out. I actually chilled the dough overnight. (If you do that, you’ll need to let the dough sit out for about 20 minutes before you can roll it.) Then chill the cutouts directly on the pan for at least 15 minutes before baking. This will prevent the cookies from spreading.
Have you tried any of these recipes? Or do you have any favorite recipes that I should try? Tell me about them in the comments or tag me @rosesandwhiskers on Instagram if you see one I’ll like! I might feature it in a future #followfriday post.
Happy baking! 
