Gluten Free Gingerbread Pumpkin Trifle

 This Gluten Free Gingerbread Pumpkin Trifle has a moist and tasty gingerbread cake that starts with a gluten free cake mix.  You could even just make the cake and frost it with a cream cheese frosting and it would be nice, but the pumpkin filling and toffee that nestles between each piece of cake should not be missed! It's presentation is a real crowd pleaser too!

If you are going to attend or give a Christmas party, I hope you try this out!

Gluten Free Gingerbread Pumpkin Triffle

GLUTEN FREE GINGERBREAD PUMPKIN TRIFLE
Recipe by: Goodies Gone Gluten Free
click here for Printable Recipe

Cake:
2 boxes of Betty Crocker Gluten free Yellow Cake Mix
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon plus 1/3 tsp. for pudding
1/4 tsp. each ground cloves and ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. baking soda
12 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup molasses
1 Tbsp. vinegar
6 large eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1 (5.1 ounce) package cook and serve vanilla pudding mix (make sure it is gluten free)
1 (30 ounce) can pumpkin pie filling
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
16 oz. (1 pint) whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
2-3 Heath Toffee bars, broken in bits


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.  Whisk together the cake mix, spices, and baking soda.  In a separate bowl beat the butter with half the cake mix/spices.  Beat in the molasses, vinegar, and one of the eggs.  Add the remaining eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the buttermilk alternately with the remaining dry mix, one third of each at a time.  Beat until smooth, scraping the bowl after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake the gingerbread for 45-50 minutes, until it's brown and firm on top and a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs.  It will be very high and full.  Remove the cake from the oven, and cool it on a rack.

Meanwhile, while cake is cooking, prepare the pudding and set to cool.  Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar and cinnamon into the pudding. Whip the whipping cream on high speed with electric mixer or stand mixer.  When a soft peak starts to form, pour in the 1/3 cup sugar until a hard peak forms.

Crumble a layer of gingerbread cake on bottom of triffle dish or punch bowl, pour 1/3 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then top with a layer of whipped cream, and then a tablespoon or so of toffee.  Repeat layers until bowl is full, ending with whipped cream and sprinkle top with toffee bits.

Gluten Free Chicken & Apple Sausage Penne

Gluten Free Chicken & Apple Sausage Penne

One of my daughter's favorite pastas I make is my Chicken & Apple Sausage Penne.  The sausage is sliced and caramelized in light olive oil, with onions and garlic, then topped with tangy goat cheese. When I made the gluten free version of this pasta, she loved it too!

 For me, the two main things I thought I would have to give up when I found out I was gluten intolerant was bread and pasta; two of the things I really love to eat (beside dessert, of course).  I quickly found out, though, that there are a lot of really good gluten free pastas out there.  A lot of them can be found in regular grocery stores, too.

 The first gluten free pasta I tried when making a gluten free version of this Chicken & Apple Sausage Penne was Trader Joe's Brown Rice Penne.  This is a very good pasta, but if you cook it too long it gets pretty soggy, so you have to really watch it and test it as you go.  I soon found there was a whole slew of gluten free pastas out there.  Even Barilla has a gluten free pasta (their pasta is made with a combination of corn and rice) that is also good.  Honestly, I have tried more brands of gluten free pasta than I can recall (I see one I haven't tried, and I have to try it out.  You are welcome gluten free pasta companies).  Almost all of them were good.  I did find that I preferred either an all brown rice pasta or a combo of corn and rice. as opposed to a corn only pasta. I found a brand at Walmart that I have been using , that I do like, called Pasta Joy by Tinkyada.  It is a brown rice pasta.

 This time I made my Gluten Free Chicken & Apple Sausage Penne with yet another brand of gluten free pasta that had a combo of rice, corn and quinoa.  I found it at Fresh & Easy, and the brand was Garofalo.  It was probably the best gluten free penne I have used up until now.  I use Aidells Chicken & Apple sausage, as it has no msg or nitrates, which I also have an allergy to.  Aidells also makes a Chicken & Mango sausage which I have used in this recipe in the past, and it is very good also.  This is a quick and easy stove top recipe that is served up nice with a side salad (a little gluten free bread on the side doesn't hurt either!).

This Gluten Free Chicken & Apple Sausage Penne is a simple dinner that would be great on a hot summer night!  I hope you try it out.  Let me know in the comments section below if you do try it, and how you liked it!

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GLUTEN FREE CHICKEN & APPLE SAUSAGE PENNE
Recipe from: Goodies Gone Gluten Free
Yield: 6-7 servings
click here for Printable Recipe

16 oz. gluten free penne pasta
12 oz. package Aidells Chicken & Apple Sausage (or any chicken & apple sausage brand)
Small onion, diced (I like to use a Vidallia, or sweet onion)
1/2 cup light olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese, plus a Tbsp. for topping

Boil salted water for pasta, and cook pasta according to package directions.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil in a large pan and saute onions with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, until they start to soften.  Slice sausage into rounds and add to onions and cook until the sausage is browned and caramelized.  Add garlic and cook for a minute, just until fragrant (you don't want to burn your garlic by cooking too long).

Drain pasta and add to pan of sausage and onions.  Stir to coat.  Add olive oil, salt, pepper and goat cheese and stir until fully coated.  You can drizzle more olive oil if it looks too dry.  Top with extra goat cheese and serve!