I very rarely get to go to the grocery store by myself, so when I do, I really take my time. I have to read every label, anyway, and I am pretty limited as to what I can and do buy, but I like to 'window shop.'
I confess, I like to look in other people's carts and see what they are buying. Not that I'm judging or anything, I'm just nosy. So if you ever run into me at the store, I will probably check out what's in your cart. Ground beef, chips, buns, Capri Suns and beer? You must be having a party. Cereal, pancake syrup, Bisquick and milk? I bet your husband's going out of town.
When I go to the store by myself, I turn into one of those people I can't stand when I go to the store with my children. You know them, they stop in the middle of the aisle and reach in the back for the freshest milk. They read the labels on things and then don't even buy them.
Part of this behavior for me is that I don't want to miss out on anything. What if there is a better/cheaper/easier product out there that could potentially change my life? Why should I be stagnant when change is so much more fun?
T gets exasperated with me because I go through phases when I am tired of cooking the same things every week. He has told me he would be happy eating the same five meals on rotation. Seriously? I can't live that way. Especially since I prepare the meals and eat at home 95% of the time, I would go nuts if I did that.
So I got burned out on my bread. It got to the point where I would bake it and then not want to eat it. I could make it from memory. I started doing minor experimentation, hoping it would resurrect my desire to eat it. But I don't know enough about the science aspect of gluten free baking, nor do I have the time to get into it right now. It didn't change much from the original, and I needed more. More wheat-ish-ness, less rice-ish-ness. More soft texture, less spongy or cake-y texture. More flavor, less flexibility.
I took the easy road and asked the Google. Search: Amazing Gluten Free Bread Recipe. And I got this:
http://www.thebakingbeauties.com/2009/02/another-wonderful-gluten-free-sandwich-bread.html
Sadly, there are no instructions to make this in the bread machine, but that will come another day. It was Saturday, I had a slow cooker meal going and we had nowhere to be, so I made it the old fashioned way. With my KitchenAid mixer and a turn in the microwave to rise, just like Granny used to do!
I don't really remember what whole wheat bread tastes like, or what it feels like in your mouth, but this comes pretty close. Even T said, "That's pretty close." If you know him, the fact that he said anything besides a grunt and a "tastes good" is like a five-star review.
Pretty Darn Amazing Multi-Grain GF Bread
Ingredients:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp instant yeast
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup ground flax
1/4 cup teff flour
1/2 cup potato starch
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup dry nonfat milk powder
2 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 egg whites
Directions:
1. Combine warm water and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top, let sit for a couple minutes and then stir. Let sit about 5 more minutes. This allows the yeast to proof & shortens rising time. Spray 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl or plastic bag, combine dry ingredients. Mix well and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, using a heavy-duty mixer with paddle attachment, combine remaining ingredients until well blended. Add water/yeast mixture & combine.
4. With mixer on lowest speed, slowly add dry ingredients until combined. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula. With mixer on medium speed, beat for 4 minutes. Dough should be stretchy and pretty stiff. If the paddle leaves tracks that stand up, it's ready. If the tracks collapse, you probably need to add a little bit more rice flour. I added about 3 more tablespoons and beat for another 30 seconds.
5. Spoon into prepared bread pan. Let rise, uncovered, in a warm, draft-free place for 30-40 minutes, or until dough has risen to the top of the pan. I like to put a coffee mug of water into the microwave and warm it up for about a minute or until it starts to steam. Leave the cup in there and place your pan inside to rise where it is nice and humid and warm.
6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom of single loaf, it should be around 200 degrees.
7. Remove from oven, then remove loaf from pan, let rest on its side to prevent it from sinking.
8. Let cool before slicing. Wrap in plastic wrap (I like press and seal.)
*The original recipe used an 8x4 pan, but the loaf was plenty large enough for the 9x5.
*She used 1/2 cup of flax, but one of her reviewers suggested using 1/4 flax meal and 1/4 teff flour instead, which I did because I've been looking for a bread recipe to incorporate some teff.
*I also added the gelatin, you can leave it out if you don't have it or if you are not a fan.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Happy Early Birthday to Me!
Tonight my dad and his lovely bride, Jody, drove in to have dinner with us for my birthday. Because going out is stressful, I offered to make dinner. Tommy grilled steaks, I made mashed potatoes and corn... and this pie.
http://glutenfreeeasily.com/chocolate-silk-pie-recipe-gluten-free-dairy-free/
YUM! It turned out better than I had hoped.
A little backstory, my dad LOVES chocolate pie. I don't think I had ever had it before I met him. His wonderful mother usually makes it for him for his birthday, and at most family gatherings. Her traditional chocolate pie was my inspiration for making this pie, which is gluten free and can be made dairy free and grain free. It also has no added sweetener in the actual pie filling except for the sugar in the chocolate chips, and because the crust is almond flour and honey, it's low carb. So it's healthy pie!
Gluten Free Chocolate Silk Pie
Crust
2 cups almond flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill, but if you are not cooking for someone with celiac disease, you could get away with Whole Foods' bulk almond flour, it's half the price!)
1/3 cup honey
Filling
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
1/2 cup butter (dairy or non-dairy)
pinch of salt
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
2/3 cup canned full-fat milk of your preference (dairy, coconut)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pie plate with cooking spray.
Mix almond flour and honey in a small bowl. Drizzle honey evenly over flour, then use a fork to completely incorporate. Using fingers, pat into a crust in greased pie plate. Set pie plate aside.
In a large microwave safe bowl, heat butter for 30 seconds, then stir in chocolate chips. Heat for 30 more seconds, then stir, then for about 20 more seconds. Chocolate and butter should be completely melted, watch it closely so it doesn't scorch. Bowl will be hot!
Add to bowl salt, cocoa powder, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract, whisking after each addition until you have a smooth mixture.
Pour filling into crust.
Bake 30 minutes or until filling has puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Garnish as desired. I topped this pie with honey sweetened whipped cream.
Honey Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream (or coconut milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons honey
Chill mixing bowl for at least twenty minutes prior to mixing. Add all ingredients to chilled bowl, then mix on high speed until thickened and, well, creamy, about 5 minutes. If you want to cover the entire top of the pie, you will need to double this amount, this is enough for a good heaping spoonful on each piece.
I changed a few things from the original recipe to suit my own needs. For example, next time I will mix the crust ingredients in a separate bowl and then press into a greased pie plate. I followed their instructions of mixing in the pie plate and the crust was completely stuck to the plate, but, duh, that's what honey does.
This brings me to the thought that this could be made crustless. The texture of the crust was nice, don't get me wrong, but if you are nut free, you wouldn't want the almond flour. The pie filling really firmed up nicely, and stood up to me having to dig the slices out of the plate, so I think an experiment is in order to see if I am right. It would also be a lot cheaper to make!
Also, I don't own a double boiler, nor am I talented enough to do the bowl over boiling water trick, so I cheated on the melting of the chocolate. But nobody complained about the process, they were too busy eating the pie!
http://glutenfreeeasily.com/chocolate-silk-pie-recipe-gluten-free-dairy-free/
YUM! It turned out better than I had hoped.
A little backstory, my dad LOVES chocolate pie. I don't think I had ever had it before I met him. His wonderful mother usually makes it for him for his birthday, and at most family gatherings. Her traditional chocolate pie was my inspiration for making this pie, which is gluten free and can be made dairy free and grain free. It also has no added sweetener in the actual pie filling except for the sugar in the chocolate chips, and because the crust is almond flour and honey, it's low carb. So it's healthy pie!
Gluten Free Chocolate Silk Pie
Crust
2 cups almond flour ( I used Bob's Red Mill, but if you are not cooking for someone with celiac disease, you could get away with Whole Foods' bulk almond flour, it's half the price!)
1/3 cup honey
Filling
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
1/2 cup butter (dairy or non-dairy)
pinch of salt
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
2/3 cup canned full-fat milk of your preference (dairy, coconut)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pie plate with cooking spray.
Mix almond flour and honey in a small bowl. Drizzle honey evenly over flour, then use a fork to completely incorporate. Using fingers, pat into a crust in greased pie plate. Set pie plate aside.
In a large microwave safe bowl, heat butter for 30 seconds, then stir in chocolate chips. Heat for 30 more seconds, then stir, then for about 20 more seconds. Chocolate and butter should be completely melted, watch it closely so it doesn't scorch. Bowl will be hot!
Add to bowl salt, cocoa powder, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract, whisking after each addition until you have a smooth mixture.
Pour filling into crust.
Bake 30 minutes or until filling has puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Garnish as desired. I topped this pie with honey sweetened whipped cream.
Honey Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream (or coconut milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons honey
Chill mixing bowl for at least twenty minutes prior to mixing. Add all ingredients to chilled bowl, then mix on high speed until thickened and, well, creamy, about 5 minutes. If you want to cover the entire top of the pie, you will need to double this amount, this is enough for a good heaping spoonful on each piece.
I changed a few things from the original recipe to suit my own needs. For example, next time I will mix the crust ingredients in a separate bowl and then press into a greased pie plate. I followed their instructions of mixing in the pie plate and the crust was completely stuck to the plate, but, duh, that's what honey does.
This brings me to the thought that this could be made crustless. The texture of the crust was nice, don't get me wrong, but if you are nut free, you wouldn't want the almond flour. The pie filling really firmed up nicely, and stood up to me having to dig the slices out of the plate, so I think an experiment is in order to see if I am right. It would also be a lot cheaper to make!
Also, I don't own a double boiler, nor am I talented enough to do the bowl over boiling water trick, so I cheated on the melting of the chocolate. But nobody complained about the process, they were too busy eating the pie!
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Gluten Free Granola Goodness
When you have a child or family member diagnosed with celiac disease, or any food intolerance or allergy for that matter, it changes everything you thought you knew about food.
It makes some foods necessary, and others become like invaders, or "germs" as my friend Julie refers to crumbs. And in a way, crumbs are like a germ, at least for Kate's little body.
No more brushing that extra amount of flour that spilled onto the counter into your bowl. No more picking food up off the table and eating it without a care. No more pot-lucks at your house, or at any house for that matter. You have to be conscious of every surface your food touches, every hand that comes into contact with your food, even the source of the food becomes a topic of conversation, and something you worry about at night.
I bet you don't think about what the guy on the tortilla manufacturing line had for lunch, huh?
But I am really lucky, because Kate is little and impressionable, and I get the opportunity to start her on this journey from such a young age. It is part of table etiquette, we don't touch the table and then touch our food, we don't eat food that has fallen off of our plate, we don't eat food from other people's plates. It's part of shopping, we read all of the ingredient labels and check to make sure that the company uses good manufacturing practices to prevent cross contamination. If we don't know what's in it, we don't eat it.
All of these rules and boundaries that we are setting for her now are to help train her to be a successful gluten free consumer and a healthy, happy person.
I have been looking for a quick, after school, nutritious, portable gluten free snack that Kate and Brooke will eat, and that Tommy and I would like to eat, too. Granola bars are very kid friendly and Tommy and I love them, too. But store-bought granola bars are about $5-6 for a box of 5 bars, no thank you!
I stumbled upon glutenfreeeasily.com, a great source of a bunch of different gluten free websites. This recipe caught my eye:
http://blog.attunefoods.com/2011/09/chewy-whole-grain-chocolate-chip-granola-bars/
The first batch I made subbed 1 cup of Kellogg's GF Rice Krispies and 1 cup Bob's Red Mill GF Old-fashioned Oats for the wheat cereal, and I used pecans instead of coconut. The taste was great but the bars didn't set up and I wound up with delicious chocolate chip granola cereal. A pleasant failure, if you will.
The second batch I made, I increased the amount of honey and let the pan cool all day to ensure that it was as firm as it was going to get. I also used Nature's Path Rice cereal, which is harder to find, but no BHT (preservative) and it had a better texture for the bar. In addition, I used the GF Quick Oats that I had left, which made the bar a little easier to chew. They turned out perfectly, if a little sweeter than I would have liked because of the extra honey.
Lindsay's GF Granola Bars
1 cup Nature's Path Crisped Rice Cereal
1 cup Bob's Red Mill GF Quick Oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp flax meal
1/8 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon (I just sprinkled a little into the bowl, I didn't measure it)
1/2 cup honey + 1 tbsp
Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8x8 inch pan with foil and then heavily spray foil with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for honey. Mix well, then pour 1/2 cup of honey over the top. Mix well until all ingredients are moist. If needed, add remaining honey.
Scrape mixture into your prepared pan, with wet hands, press firmly and evenly into the pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY in the pan. When cool, remove by lifting out the foil lining, and cut into bars. Depending on size, you will make 10-12 bars.
The combination of the pecan, cinnamon and cranberries is very fall-ish to me, perfect for a mid-morning or afternoon snack. The pecans take on a roasted flavor that I absolutely love. I think next time I will use the chocolate chips and regular raisins again and see if Kate likes them, I think she was a little weirded out by the golden raisins.
Oh well, more for me!
It makes some foods necessary, and others become like invaders, or "germs" as my friend Julie refers to crumbs. And in a way, crumbs are like a germ, at least for Kate's little body.
No more brushing that extra amount of flour that spilled onto the counter into your bowl. No more picking food up off the table and eating it without a care. No more pot-lucks at your house, or at any house for that matter. You have to be conscious of every surface your food touches, every hand that comes into contact with your food, even the source of the food becomes a topic of conversation, and something you worry about at night.
I bet you don't think about what the guy on the tortilla manufacturing line had for lunch, huh?
But I am really lucky, because Kate is little and impressionable, and I get the opportunity to start her on this journey from such a young age. It is part of table etiquette, we don't touch the table and then touch our food, we don't eat food that has fallen off of our plate, we don't eat food from other people's plates. It's part of shopping, we read all of the ingredient labels and check to make sure that the company uses good manufacturing practices to prevent cross contamination. If we don't know what's in it, we don't eat it.
All of these rules and boundaries that we are setting for her now are to help train her to be a successful gluten free consumer and a healthy, happy person.
I have been looking for a quick, after school, nutritious, portable gluten free snack that Kate and Brooke will eat, and that Tommy and I would like to eat, too. Granola bars are very kid friendly and Tommy and I love them, too. But store-bought granola bars are about $5-6 for a box of 5 bars, no thank you!
I stumbled upon glutenfreeeasily.com, a great source of a bunch of different gluten free websites. This recipe caught my eye:
http://blog.attunefoods.com/2011/09/chewy-whole-grain-chocolate-chip-granola-bars/
The first batch I made subbed 1 cup of Kellogg's GF Rice Krispies and 1 cup Bob's Red Mill GF Old-fashioned Oats for the wheat cereal, and I used pecans instead of coconut. The taste was great but the bars didn't set up and I wound up with delicious chocolate chip granola cereal. A pleasant failure, if you will.
The second batch I made, I increased the amount of honey and let the pan cool all day to ensure that it was as firm as it was going to get. I also used Nature's Path Rice cereal, which is harder to find, but no BHT (preservative) and it had a better texture for the bar. In addition, I used the GF Quick Oats that I had left, which made the bar a little easier to chew. They turned out perfectly, if a little sweeter than I would have liked because of the extra honey.
Lindsay's GF Granola Bars
1 cup Nature's Path Crisped Rice Cereal
1 cup Bob's Red Mill GF Quick Oats
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp flax meal
1/8 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon (I just sprinkled a little into the bowl, I didn't measure it)
1/2 cup honey + 1 tbsp
Preheat oven to 350. Line an 8x8 inch pan with foil and then heavily spray foil with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for honey. Mix well, then pour 1/2 cup of honey over the top. Mix well until all ingredients are moist. If needed, add remaining honey.
Scrape mixture into your prepared pan, with wet hands, press firmly and evenly into the pan.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
Remove from oven and let cool COMPLETELY in the pan. When cool, remove by lifting out the foil lining, and cut into bars. Depending on size, you will make 10-12 bars.
The combination of the pecan, cinnamon and cranberries is very fall-ish to me, perfect for a mid-morning or afternoon snack. The pecans take on a roasted flavor that I absolutely love. I think next time I will use the chocolate chips and regular raisins again and see if Kate likes them, I think she was a little weirded out by the golden raisins.
Oh well, more for me!
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