Creative Living: Gluten-free flour tips coming up

Information on substituting gluten-free flours in cooking and baking and sewing with elastic in the bobbin will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. and on Thursday at noon. (All times are Mountain.)

Cookbook author, chef and teacher, John Vollertsen (known as Chef Johnny Vee) is going to demonstrate how to substitute gluten-free flours in cooking and baking to give those following a gluten-free diet new ideas for delicious recipes. He’s the owner of Las Cosas Cooking School in Santa Fe.

Patty Dunn will demonstrate how to use elastic in the bobbin of the sewing machine to get a puckered effect. After the seam is stitched, all you need is steam to create the look. Her company is All Dunn Designs in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Information on preparing healthy after-school snacks, making happiness a choice, and online decorating will be the featured topics on “Creative Living” on Tuesday at noon and on Saturday at 2 p.m. (All times are Mountain.)

Mary Lee Chin is a registered dietitian and nutrition expert for the California Raisin Marketing Board, and she knows how important it is to have healthy snacks on hand for kids to eat when they get home from school — and these same snacks are good for all of us. Chin lives in Denver, Colorado.

Kirk Wilkinson is a motivational speaker who has written a book called "The Happiness Factor." He is going to talk about how we can all be happy — no matter what — because happiness is a choice and a skill that we can all learn. Wilkinson is from Mesa, Arizona.

Lacy Jones is the Visual Coordinator for Havertys Furniture Co. in Lubbock, and she’s going to show how to arrange any room in the house in just 5 easy steps with an easy-to-use online room planner.

Gluten-Free Bittersweet Decadence Cookies

• 1/4 cup rice flour

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 1 cup pecans

• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

• 2 sheets parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together, set aside. Place 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips and butter in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir the chocolate butter mixture until is melted and smooth, set aside. In a heatproof bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, and vanilla thoroughly and set the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water using it like a double broiler. Continue to whisk everything until the mixture is lukewarm. Combine the egg mixture and the chocolate mixture (should be lukewarm as well) stirring until they are well combined. Add the flour mixture, 6 ounces chocolate chips, and pecans. Your batter will look like thick cake batter. Scoop dough (it will look very wet and sloppy) into rounded tablespoons on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper 2 inches apart from each other. Bake for 14 minutes until the surface of the cookies look dry and set. With the cookies still on the parchment paper, slide them onto racks to cool. Gently peel the parchment paper back after cookies have cooled for at least 30 minutes.

“Creative Living” is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the United States, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink, Albuquerque.