Herb and Veggie Cracker - Gluten free

With all the festivities of this time of year, I noticed that I was really missing an excellent cracker! This is my first try at a cracker, and initial impressions are excellent. They are even crunchy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup almond flour
2 TBSP tapioca starch
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 TBSP olive oil
1 egg
1 carrot grated
1 TBSP onion minced
1 TBSP tahini (ground sesame seeds)
1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp parsley flakes

Directions:

1) Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Will resemble a very sticky spread.

2) Spoon out onto baking stone or large baking tray

3) Cover with plastic wrap, then using a rolling pin spread the dough evenly.

4) Remove plastic wrap and score into cracker size pieces. I used a pizza cutter for this.

5) Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until hard to touch and crunchy. I tested mine by taking off a side piece and eating it. Careful not to burn yourself!

Let cool before you eat them. I haven't tried storing these yet, so I can't tell you what the shelf life would be like. Enjoy! 

Feel free to try these with different herbs and spices and let everyone know what you did! If you like a little kick, try adding a 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper or dried roasted pepper flakes. I can't eat tomato, but if I could I would definitely try adding some cherry tomatoes as well. You may need to add a little more flour if you do that to balance out the liquid content of the tomato. 

Running the recipe through a nutritional analysis, I'm pleased to let you know that these are:

• Low in sugar
• High in manganes
• High in niacin
• High in phosphorus
• High in riboflavin
• High in thiamin
• High in vitamin B6

In approximate 8 crackers, you will also find 

(% required daily intake):

• Vitamin A (4%)
• Vitamin C (8%)
• Calcium (4%)
• Iron (15%)

Pao de Quijo - Brazillian Cheese Bread

I have to write a post about this stuff. After hearing my pastor raving about this, I looked up a bunch of recipes, and found this one to be my favorite. I will say this is a bit more tricky than I anticipated. The dough is very sticky and the tapioca flour seems to find its way everywhere. But, the good part is, all of this cleans up very easily with warm water. I rolled my dough into balls, as suggested in another recipe. To do this, powder your hands with some tapioca flour, and keep moving. If you hold the dough it is very tacky, but once you start rolling it rolls up really well into a nice ball. I will also say that these are super delicious! I bet you can't each just one. They remind me of cream puffs (poffertjes) but cheesy instead of with a custard cream... mmm... might need to make those next.

Note: This is gluten free. Also, feel free to use almond or soy milk.

Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-po-de-queijo-brazilian-cheese-bread-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-176118

I've copied and pasted the recipe below, just in case this link doesn't work one day and I still want this recipe :)

How to Make Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)COOKING LESSONS FROM THE KITCHeN

Pão de queijo are super easy to make at home.

I had my first pão de queijo at a Brazilian restaurant in Atlanta over five years ago, and I still dream about it. It was crispy outside but amazingly soft and chewy inside, and its cheese flavor was so ephemeral and haunting that I had to eat several more just to fix it in my mind. Well, I'm in trouble now because I just discovered that these little cheese puffs? With their addictive cheesiness? They are super easy to make at home.

Pão de queijo are essentially a version of French gougères. Like gougères, the dough for pão de queijo starts on the stove top and eggs are beaten in one at a time. Also like gougères, the end result is a tray of crispy, hollow puffs. The biggest difference is that pão de queijo are made with sour cassava flour or tapioca flour instead of all-purpose flour.

Tapioca flour is decidedly strange stuff. When mixed with the hot milk in these pão, it turns gelatinous and sticky, closer to wallpaper paste than something you'd put in the oven. It requires a leap of faith and a bowl of water for dipping your fingers and spoons to prevent sticking.

Keep going with the recipe and you'll be rewarded with these puffs. They're chewier and more bread-like than their gougère cousins—not to mention being gluten-free! Pão also have a very mild cheesy flavor thanks to the use of Parmesan cheese, though you could substitute any other cheese you'd like for a more pronounced or different cheese flavor.

Pão de queijo are at their crispiest best when they're still warm from the oven. This said, the will soften over night and make excellent sandwich bread the next day.

How to Make Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Makes approximately 2 dozen puffs

What You Need

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (10 ounces) tapioca flour or sour cassava flour
2 eggs
1 - 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese

Equipment

2-quart saucepan
Long-handled spoon
Standing mixer with paddle attachment (or mixing bowl and elbow grease)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking pan with parchment and set aside.

1. Boil the Milk and Oil: Combine the milk, oil, and salt in the saucepan, and whisking occasionally, bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Remove from heat as soon as you see big bubbles coming through the milk.

2. Add the Tapioca Flour: Add all of the tapioca flour to the saucepan and stir until you see no more dry tapioca flour. The dough will be grainy and gelatinous at this point.

3. Cool the Dough: Transfer the dough to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. (Alternatively, you can do the next few steps by hand. Be prepared for a work-out.) Beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed until it smooths out and has cooled enough that you can hold your finger against the dough for several seconds.

4. Beat in the Eggs: Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl. With the mixer on medium, beat the eggs into the dough in two additions. Wait until the first addition has been fully incorporated into the dough before adding the second. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5. Beat in the Cheese: With the mixer on medium, beat in the cheese until fully incorporated. The resulting dough will be very sticky, stretchy, and soft with a consistency between cake batter and cookie dough.

6. Portion the Puffs: Using an ice cream scoop, a tablespoon measure, or a dinner spoon, scoop rounded portions of the dough into mounds on the parchment-lined baking sheet. Space the mounds an inch or two apart. Dip your scoop in water to prevent sticking.

7. Bake the Puffs: Transfer the sheet with the puffs to the oven and immediately turn down the heat to 350°F. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the puffs have puffed, the outsides are dry, and they are just starting to color. Cool briefly and eat. Leftover puffs can be kept in an airtight container for up to a week and re-crisped in a warm oven or toaster oven.

Note:

Finding Tapioca Flour: Sour cassava flour or sour tapioca flour can be tricky to find in the United States. Look for it at Latin American markets. Plain tapioca flour lacks the slight sour, fermented flavor, but makes a fine substitute. You can find plain tapioca flour from Bob's Red Mill at most natural foods stores.

Butternut Squash Soup

I've been perusing butternut squash soup recipes and couldn't settle on one that I liked, so I took a bit of this and a bit of that and came up with this recipe. It has a nice spiced flavor to it without being overwhelming.

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash, peel, remove seeds and chop into large pieces
3 apples, cubed
3 celery sticks + leafy greens, finely chopped
1 large onion, diced
2 tsp cinnamon
2 TBSP parsely
2 TBSP olive oil
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp black pepper
7-8 cups vegetable broth or water (depends how thick you like your soup)

Directions:

1) In a large slow cooker combine all ingredients
2) Stir it up
3) Cook on high for 3-4hrs or until vegetables are soft
4) Using immersion blender blend until smooth
5) Eat and enjoy!

Variation: 
For a spicy version with a bit of kick, add 2-3 chopped carrots, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 clove garlic

Note: I'm sure you can make this in a pot on the stove as well. Cooking time will decrease if you chop things up a bit more. Be sure to stir regularly.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Squares (Gluten-free)

It's that time of year when it starts to cool down and the rain is falling, and harvests are plenty. Time to break out the pumpkin recipes!

This recipe does not have any flour, so for those who are gluten free, this makes things so much easier. One word of caution: While oatmeal is gluten free of itself (correct me if I'm wrong), your bag of oatmeal might not be due to the contaminants where it gets packaged. Also, some people who are intolerant to gluten cannot eat oats either.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup applesauce
1 banana
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground flax
1/8 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients with a blender
• Pour into 9x12" pan
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. It is okay if it appears to be sightly underdone, the square if very moist.
• Cool before cutting and serving

Review:
This recipe works well, and isn't very fussy. It's not a real decadent dessert, although, paired with some vanilla ice cream and a cup of coffee it's pretty good. I also noticed that the flavors come out more if you let it sit in the fridge for a couple days before you eat it, but who can wait that long!

Make your own Mayo, whipped dressing, or spread in a few simple steps!

You might wonder why you would want to spend the time to make your own mayo/whipped dressing/spread when you can simply pick one up off the shelf at the grocery store. If you look at the ingredients list on the jar you'll find all these chemicals and preservatives. These are things that I don't want to put into my body, and maybe, now that you think about it, you don't really want to either. This is a recipe that is simple to make, and easy to alter to suit your favorite flavors and spices. And here's one more secret, this spread works really well as a marinade, instead of margarine/butter on a hearty sandwich, and even mixed into pasta or layered into lasagna.

Ingredients: This will make a basic mayo

1 egg
1/2 lemon (juice only)
1 tsp honey or sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup oil (different oils give different flavors, so choose your favorite, or mix it up)

Directions:

Using an immersion blender mix egg, lemon juice, honey, and sea salt.
Very very slowly add in a little bit of oil at a time, and mix until blended before adding more oil. The key is to be patient, and keep blending. If you add too much oil too fast, the oil will separate from the egg. Once you have a nice Mayo, then whip in add-ins of your choice.The flavor will settle after several hours in the fridge, so do not fret too much if you feel the flavor is too strong initially. 

Add ins: This will make your result go from plain old mayo to fantastically tasty! The options are pretty endless, but here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Option 1)

1 TBSP parsley
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp basil

Option 2)

1 TBSP green onion
1/2 clove garlic
1 tsp oregano

Option 3)

3-4 cherry tomatoes
1/2 TBSP parsley
1 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cumin

Store this in the refrigerator. So far, I've used it all up at the end of a week, so I don't know exactly how long it stays good. IF you find out, let me know... but I can't imagine that happening knowing how good it tastes... unless of course the jar happens to get hidden behind everything after grocery day.

Did you try this and came up with your own add-in combination that is super flavorful? Leave a comment and let me know!

Gluten Free Cranberry Apple Muffins

** updated January 2, 2014**

A hearty and tasty muffin, good for a snack, or as an on-the-go breakfast bite.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
**1/4 cup honey
**1 TBSP cider vinegar
1/2 cup oil
1 TBSP lemon juice (fresh squeezed, not from a bottle)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 TBSP ground flax seed (optional, but definitely adds a healthy punch!)
1 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup almond flour
**1 TBSP tapioca flour
**2 tsp baking soda
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup cranberries
**1 banana 

Instructions:

Blend wet ingredients together well, then slowly fold in dry ingredients. When a smooth batter is formed, add in the apple and cranberries and give it a quick mix. Pour batter evenly into muffin tray. Makes 12 muffins. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Be careful to not over bake! My limited experience with a rice and almond flour mix is that it can dry out or burn easily. Because of this I check the muffins after 15 minutes and then add a couple minutes at a time. Err on the side of sightly under baking, when a toothpick comes out not perfectly clean remove them from the oven.

This recipe might undergo some changes yet as I am still trialing them with a few variations. This is my favorite so far. Enjoy, and if you try it out and find something that works better, let me know!

Fruit decorations

A simple cake, and then the tricky bit... making it look great!
This was my first attempt at decorating a cake with fruit. It's tricky keeping everything spaced evenly. Next time I think I might draw some guidelines in the whipped cream before I add any fruit.

Here's the result of my efforts:

And a close up of the centre - a strawberry flower. Worked okay on the first try. Cut carefully!

Also, what you can't see is that I cut the cake horizontally and added a thin layer of strawberry slices, topped with a very thinly sliced kiwi. To keep everything stuck together I used whipped cream. I happen to not have a good storage container for round cakes, so I couldn't decorate the sides, otherwise, I would have coated the sides with almond bits.

Enjoy your summer fresh fruit!