New Recipe: “Matzo” Balls (grain-free)

Ok, let me start by saying, I know these are not matzo balls. Matzo balls have to be made from matzo. Technically what I have made in this recipe are just round dumplings for soup. That being said, they do have texture and flavor that is very close to an actual matzo ball.

I have not put a recipe for chicken stock or soup here. I will add a few notes after the recipe that explain the basics of how I prepared my soup though.

“Matzo” Balls (grain-free)

1/3 cup almond meal
2/3 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup arrowroot starch
1 tsp. xanthan gum
6 eggs
4 tbs. fat/oil of choice (I used olive oil)
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 cup chicken stock

Fill a large pot with salted water, about 2/3 full. Bring to a simmer while you prepare the batter.

In a small bowl combine dry ingredients: almond meal, coconut flour, arrowroot starch and xanthan gum. In a separate bowl beat eggs. Add oil and salt & pepper and beat well. Add the chicken broth, mixing while you pour it in. Add a little bit of the dry ingredients and beat into eggs. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well-combined.

Once water is simmering, shape batter into golf ball sized dumplings using wet hands. Drop each dumpling in the water as you finish it. Once all the dumplings are shaped and in the water cover the pot. Simmer the dumplings for 25-30 minutes.

I served mine in a homemade chicken stock seasoned with a bit of salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme and white wine vinegar. I also sauteed onions, carrots and celery for the soup. I garnished the whole thing with parsley.

To serve I added a few “matzo” balls to each bowl and ladled soup over. Any leftovers I just put in the soup to eat the following day.

New Recipe: Cookie Dough Bites (grain-free)

Over the years I have travelled a long and strange dietary journey. On the way I have learned many food preparation and cooking techniques. At this point it seems to be that everything I eat is a hybrid of different dietary theories and cooking techniques.

Chocolate chip cookies are something I could prepare as a standard, gluten-free, traditional foods, raw foods, or paleo version. What I decided to make was more of an amalgamation of all of these into one yummy little bite. I was going for the taste of a standard cookie dough, obviously gluten-free, with grass-fed butter as a nod of the head to traditional foods, unbaked as taught by raw foods, and grain-free as per paleo. What I came up with is a delicious, lightly sweet, and highly addictive snack.

Cookie Dough Bites (grain-free)

8 oz. raw cashews, ground to a coarse meal in food processor
1/4 lb. grassfed, preferably raw, butter
2 tbs. almond butter
2 tbs. raw, unfiltered honey
10 pitted dates
1 tbs. vanilla
salt to taste (I like mine on the salty side)
1/4 cup almond milk
1/2 cup coconut flakes, lightly toasted
1/2 cup finely ground coconut flour
3.5 ounces very dark chocolate (I used 85%), chopped to chocolate chip size

In a food processor combine butter, almond butter, honey, dates, vanilla and salt. Process until well-combined and dates are broken down. This mixture is quite thick so add in the almond milk while the machine is running.

In a bowl combine cashew meal, coconut flakes, and coconut flour. Mix well. Add in wet mixture and combine with dry until evenly mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using wet hands roll mixture into donut hole sized balls and place on a plate. Allow to chill for 30 minutes before serving.

There is a possibility of baking these or dehydrating them. I didn’t try this. If you try let me knw how they hold up.

New Recipe: Gluten-Free Ham & Cheddar Quiche

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, over the weekend we had a brunch party and I cooked up quite the gluten-free spread.  The best part is with the exception of my family none of the guests were gluten-free.  Why is this the best part? Well, I love to test my gf recipes on people who get to eat wheat everyday.  If these people think it’s good it means I’m getting my recipes as close as possible to the real thing. Everyone had rave reviews of the quiche (and the sticky buns, which maybe I’ll share here soon)!

Ham & Cheddar Quiche (gluten-free)

Dough:
1/2 lb. pastured butter, chilled
soup bowl filled with ice water
2 1/2 cups gf flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill blend)
2 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar

Filling:
6 eggs
2 cups heavy cream
salt & pepper
pinch of thyme
4 ounces sliced ham
4 ounces cheddar, cut into small cubes
a little bit of butter

Prepare dough:
Take chilled butter and cut into small cubes. Put cubes into a bowl, make sure the cubes are separated and not still stuck together, and chill in the freezer while you get the other parts ready. Place your bowl of ice water next to a food processor and be sure to have a tablespoon ready.

Place flour, xanthan gum, salt and sugar into the food processor. Turn the food processor on and allow dry ingredients to become well combined. With the processor on take your freezer-chilled butter and start dropping in one cube at a time until you have no butter left.

Now, with the machine still running, add a tablespoon of ice water slowly. You may add up to 6 tablespoons of water. I used about 5 tablesppons at which time my dough came together nicely and started rolling around the machine in a ball. I find that gluten-free dough is a bit easier to roll out if it has a little more moisture than a traditional pie dough.

Remove dough from the food processor and split into two pieces. Shape each piece into a small disk, wrap with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove one piece of dough at a time. Open plastic wrap and place a second sheet of plastic wrap over the top. Press the dough out into a larger flatter disk, wrap well and place back in the refrigerator to chill 30 more minutes. Repeat with second piece of dough.

Get two pie pans ready. Lay a piece of parchment paper out on your work surface. Unwrap a chilled disk and place it on parchment paper, place another sheet of parchment paper on top. Use a rolling pin and roll out dough, rotating it and even flipping it to try to keep it even as you roll.

Once you have rolled it out remove the top sheet of paper and turn the dough onto a pie dish. Carefully remove the other sheet of paper and press into dish. Crimp edges as desired. Repeat with second piece of dough and chill both pie crusts in freezer for 30 minutes.

Filling & Assembly

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove chilled crusts and prick the bottom of the pie crusts with a fork. Place a piece of foil in each crust and fill with dried beans or rice. Place crust in the oven for 20 minutes to prebake.

Heat up a little butter in a small frying pan. Cut ham into ribbons and toss into pan. Saute until warm and browning. Remove from heat and set aside.

Now, in a bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, salt, papper, and thyme. Whisk until well-combined.

Remove crusts from oven and carefully remove the foil and beans/rice. Divide the ham and cheese between the two crusts, evenly distributing. Pour the egg batter into both, filling about 3/4 up the crust.

Return to oven and bake for about an hour. Jiggle the pan to see if they are done. If the center moves around return to the oven until the center is firm.

Allow to cool, slice and enjoy! These keep great in the fridge, just reheat in the oven.

Gluten-Free Almond Blueberry Muffins

This week my daughter’s class had what is known as a “lock-in”. The kids stay at school, eat kooky food, have a fire, watch movies, and, theoretically, sleep at the school. The school had the gluten-free bases covered for the most part except for breakfast so I offered to make muffins. My daughter put in the request for blueberry muffins. I forgot to photograph them as we were so busy eating them, so instead I drew a picture of them.

Gluten-Free Almond Blueberry Muffins illustrated by Erika Rier

Gluten-Free Almond Blueberry Muffins

1 cup gluten-free pancake mix of choice
1 cup corn flour
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. xanthan gum
a pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
zest of 1 lemon
12 oz. frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

In a large bowl beat eggs and sugar together until thick and well combined. Next beat in olive oil, then milk and lemon zest. Slowly add the dry ingredients until well combined and then mix in blueberries.

Place paper muffin liners in your muffin pan and fill cups up to the top. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool and devour.

Tomorrow I have a big CONTEST announcement so be sure to check back in then!

Almond Cupcakes with Orange Creme Filling & Chocolate Halva Frosting (gluten-free)

In my home I have a bit of a reputation for being to whip up something extravagant with an empty refrigerator and without heading out to the grocery store. These cupcakes are perhaps the best illustration of this strange skill. We had just finished a pretty yummy dinner when my husband mentioned he has a sweet tooth so I headed over to the kitchen area to see what I could possibly whip up. My first thought was that I would make an Almond Sour Cream Loaf Cake, because I thought I could perhaps pull this together. Then I thought it might be fun to make cupcakes with some sort of filling. Wait, if I was going to make cupcake I would need frosting, right?

In the end I came up with these Almond cupcakes, I was actually out of brown rice flour so I ground whole, uncooked brown rice in a blender. The Orange Sour Cream filling was runny so I added some strange ingredients to make it thick enough to fill the cupcakes with. The frosting is actually an idea which I have had for ages and this seemed like the perfect place to try it out.

Almond Cupcakes with Orange Creme Filling & Chocolate Halva Frosting (gluten-free)

cupcake

1 cup almond meal
1 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch Celtic Sea Salt or Real salt
1/2 cup cold pressed coconut oil
1 cup rapadura or sucanat
2 pastured eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. almond extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prep cupcake pans with paper liners. I find when using coconut oil in baked goods that it is a good idea to make sure that your ingredients are close to room temperature, otherwise the coconut oil is very likely to curdle when added with other ingredients.

In a small bowl combine almond meal, rice flour, gum, baking soda & powder, as well as salt. Mix well.

In a separate, larger bowl combine coconut oil and rapadura and combine until creamy. add eggs and mix well. Add sour cream and almond extract and mix until well combined. Slowly add dry ingredients until well combined. This makes a fairly thick batter.

Spoon batter into cupcake pan. I filled mine up quite high since this is a thick, heavy batter. Place in the oven and bake between 25-30 minutes.

When done baking remove cakes from pan and cool on a rack while you prepare filling & frosting.

filling

1/2 cup sour cream
zest of 1 orange
3 tbs. raw, local honey
3 tsp. psyllium powder
2 tbs. rapadura or sucanat

In a small bowl whisk sour cream, zest & honey until well combined. Next whisk in psyllium powder. In a small blender add 2 tbs. rapadura and blend to a powder. Add the powdered sweetener to the sour cream and combine. Allow mixture to thicken in the refrigerator while you prepare the frosting.

frosting

3 tbs. pastured butter
1/4 cup raw tahini
3 tbs. raw, local honey
1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
3 tbs. raw cacao
a few drops wheat-free tamari
4 tbs. almond milk

In a food processor add butter, tahini, honey, melted chocolate, tamari and cacao powder. Turn on processor and slowly add almond milk until the frosting is thick in creamy.

assembly

Once the cupcakes are cooled off and the filling and frosting are prepared you can start filling the cupcakes. Take each cupcake and cut out a little circle of cake, on an angle about half way into the cake. Spoon a small amount of the filling in the cake and then replace the circle of cake. For a visual on how to do this part please check out this page.

Once your cupcakes are filled frost each with the chocolate halva frosting and enjoy! These stay good in the refrigerator for a few days and hold together a little better when chilled for a bit.

Sweet Potato Pancakes (vegan, grain-free)

I decided on an odd dinner lastnight: Sweet Potato Pancakes and green juice. I made the pancakes and my daughter made the juice.

Typically I make my sweet potato pancakes with eggs and rice flour but I have found those don’t sit well with me so I decided to try a vegan/grain-free version. I also shredded a lot of sweet potatoes but since it was just my daughter and I eating I didn’t feel like frying all of the pancakes at once. Instead, I fried 3 pans of pancakes and the rest of the pancake mix I press into some baking pans, baked them and then sliced them into pieces. This morning I took some of those slices and fried them for my husband & daughter’s breakfast.

Sweet Potato Pancakes (vegan, grain-free)

2 orange sweet potatoes
2 white sweet potatoes
2 small apples
2/3 cup chia, ground
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbs. water
coconut oil for frying

Shred sweet potatoes & apples. Mix in the chia, almond meal and salt. Once well combined add in the water. Let the sweet potato mixture rest while you heat a frying pan over medium heat with about a tbs. of coconut oil.

Once pan is heated shape the mixture into small patties and place them in the pan. After they have been cooking a few minutes use the back of a spatula to flatten the pancakes and press them together more. Once the edges start to brown flip the pancakes. Add more oil as necessary to the pan while frying.

If you desire to partially cook some of the mixture in the oven to fry later first, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grease a pan with coconut oil and press mixture firmly into pan until about an inch thick. Place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool, slice and refrigerate. Fry slices later for a quick breakfast or lunch addition.

Banana Nut Corn Bread (gluten-free)

My house seems to be filling up with bananas, perfect for baking over-ripe bananas. I also noticed someone searching for corn bread stumbled upon my blog the other day, I have no cornbread recipe. This is more of a dessert or breakfast bread. You could make the cornbread without the banana nut topping for a sweet, dense cornbread.

Banana Nut Cornbread

Banana Nut Cornbread

Topping
2 tbs. coconut oil
5 very ripe bananas, sliced in rounds
1/4 cup rapadura or sucanat
1/4 cup raw, pastured heavy cream
pinch salt
2 tbs. gluten-free liquor of choice
1 cup of raw brazil nuts

In a saucepan heat coconut oil over medium high heat. Add bananas and cook in oil for a few minutes. Now pour in the cream and sweetener and mix well. Bring to a simmer and add salt & liquor. Simmer, reducing heat as necessary to prevent a rapid boil, for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mixture will thicken and bananas with break down some. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a food processor add brazil nuts and pulse until broken into pieces but with some larger chunks remaining. Mix brazil nuts into banana mixture. Allow to cool further while you prepare the batter.

cornbread

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup almond meal
1 cup brown rice flour
1 tsp. real or celtic salt
4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. baking soda
1cup rapadura
1 cup coconut oil
4 eggs
2 cups of milk of choice
1 tbs. vanilla
juice 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil two loaf pans.

Place corn meal, almond meal, rice flour, salt, xanthan gum and baking soda in a bowl and mix well.

In a separate bowl combine rapadura and coconut oil, mix well. Beat in eggs, then milk, vanilla and finally lemon juice. Add dry ingredients gradually, mixing each addition into the wet ingredients well.

Split batter between 2 bread pans. Using a wooden spoon create a indentation down the middle of each loaf. Scoop the banana nut mixture onto each loaf, mostly in the indentation. Bake each loaf for 45 minutes.

When removed from the oven, run a butter knife around the edge of each loaf to loosen. Then cool the loaves for about 30 minutes before removing. Refrigerate if you are not consuming right away.

Easy Pizza Dough, gluten-free, yeast-free & dairy-free

I love to make pizza but it’s one of my recipes that I never write down. I just throw a bunch of ingredients in a bowl, mix it up and throw it in the oven. I like this dough not because it is super authentic in taste or texture but because it is easy and pretty quick. It is tasty just not going to reproduce your desire for a Brooklyn thin crust pizza.

Easy Pizza Dough

3 cups brown rice flour
2 cups almond meal
1/2 tbs. baking soda
2 tsp. real salt or celtic salt
4 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. dried thyme
1/3 cup ground flax
1/2 cup unfiltered olive oil
1 1/2 cup almond milk
3 pastured eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt, xanthan gum, thyme and ground flax in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine olive oil, milk and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix well until it forms a ball of dough.

Prepare two pizza pans or baking sheets by covering them with parchment paper. With wet hands split the dough into two balls. Making sure to keep your hands wet and clean press the dough out into desired shape and thickness.

Once shaped put dough, without toppings, into the oven for 10-15 minutes until partially cooked.

Remove from oveb and add desired toppings and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Gluten-free Boozy Banana Muffins

I’ve been doing a lot of eating from the pantry lately. Looking in the cupboards and trying to figure out what we can make with minimal or no store purchases to make something for the family to eat. A few evenings ago I realized we had zero breakfast items in the house so decided to bake something. I decided on banana muffins because all I would have to buy were bananas, I even found some perfectly over ripe bananas at the corner market. I channeled my grandmother a bit with this recipe. She used olive oil in everything, even chocolate cupcakes. Seeing as olive oil was the only oil I had in the house I decided to use it in these muffins. These have been a major hit with the husband and the daughter, I’ve been enjoying them as well.

Boozy Banana Muffin

Boozy Banana Muffins

1 cup unfiltered olive oil
1 cup rapadura or sucanat
4 pastured eggs
2 cups mashed banana
1 cup almond milk
1 tbs. vanilla extract
1/3 cup gluten-free hard liquor of choice (I used whiskey which is under debate but Jack Daniels states on their site that it is gluten-free)
2 cups brown rice flour
1 cup almond meal flour
1 tbs. xanthan gum
1 tbs. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup certified gluten-free oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place paper cupcake liners in muffin tins. I used two trays of small muffins, each with 16 muffins, for a total of 32 small muffins.

In a large bowl combine oil and rapadura. When well combined beat eggs into the mixture. Next mix in bananas and then add almond milk, vanilla extract and alcohol.

In a separate bowl combine flour, almond meal, gum, cinnamon and baking soda. Combine well, being sure to break up any clumps of almond meal.

Slowly add in the dry mixture to the wet mixture. I add a third of the dry materials, mix well and add the rest in two more additions. Once well combined mix in coconut, flax and oats. You coud add other things like chocolate chips, nuts and/or dried fruit.

Next add batter to the muffin cups. I fill my muffins quite high, like to the lip because I like really big muffins. This works as long as you have a thick batter.

Bake for 30-37 minutes until firm to the touch. You could test with a toothpick too.

I’ve left these in a covered bowl in my kitchen and they are staying moist and fluffy, yay.

Gluten-free Peach Clafouti

Most mornings I have a smoothie for breakfast or juice. Sometimes I get a crazy idea of something I want for breakfast in the 30 minutes before I walk my daughter to school. The other day a clafouti was what I decided I needed for breakfast. I did manage to get it done in less than 30 minutes. I don’t suggest trying this in your home, I do think it’s better cooked the typical 35 minutes at 350 degrees rather than the crazy things I did to get it to cook faster. My husband and daughter both went crazy for it though!

GF Peach Clafouti

Peach Clafouti

3 large peaches, sliced in thin wedges
a few tablespoons of pastured, raw butter cut in slices
2 tbs. rapadura or sucanat
3 pastured eggs
1/3 cup rapadura or sucanat
1 tbs. vanilla
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (I actually used a 1/2 cup of cream mixed with a 1/2 cup almond milk)
1/4 cup brown rice flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of a cast iron pan. Spread the peaches evenly on the bottom of the pan. Distribute sliced butter over the fruit and sprinkle with the 2 tbs. rapadura. Place fruit in the oven while you prepare the batter.

Place eggs, rapadura, vanilla, 1/2 & 1/2 and rice flour in a blender and blend until smooth. Remove pan from oven, pour batter over the fruit and put back in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes. You can brown under a broiler if you like a crispier top.

I serve mine for breakfast with a full fat greek yogurt, the tart yogurt is the perfect foil to the sweetness of the clafouti. This tastes like a bread pudding with fruit.