Tiny Quinoa Nutbutter Cookies

 These are probably my favorite GF cookie of all time.  The original source was the Ancient Harvest Quinoa Flakes box.  In the last few years, those quinoa flakes have been harder to find and have gotten very expensive.  But, for these cookies, it's well worth the price. 

The last box I bought didn't seem to have the recipe on the box, so here is my variation on it. My modifications: mixed nut butters instead of peanut butter, different sweeteners, real butter, add xanthan gum, weights instead of measures, cookie size, and some changes to directions

Alas, no photo.  Just use your imagination.  They look like.... cookies. 

Ingredients

170 g total of maple syrup, honey, and/or agave (1/2 cup)

68 g organic cane sugar or raw sugar (1/3 cup) Optional: Substitute about 8-10 grams molasses

112 g organic butter (1 stick)

128 g total mix of cashew, almond, and sunflower butters (1/2 cup) 

1 tsp vanilla

140 g brown rice flour (1 cup)  Can substitute part sorghum or other grainy flour

83 g quinoa flakes (3/4 cup)

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt (more if butter is unsalted)

¼ to ½ tsp xanthan gum (optional)

55 g chopped nuts (1/2 cup) (Optional. See notes.)

 

Directions

 Oven: 350 (f)

Yield: About 90 tiny cookies

1.       Beat first 5 ingredients together until creamy.

2.       Combine remaining ingredients except nuts.

3.       Mix creamed and dry ingredients, then fold in nuts.

4.       Chill for about ½ hour or more to make dough easier to work with. 

5.       Line cookie sheets with parchment.

6.       Roll dough into 8 g balls, flatten slightly, and place on cookie sheet about 1” to 1.5” apart.

7.       Bake 350 for 7-10 minutes, until cookies are lightly brown on bottom.

8.       Let cookies sit on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then move them to racks to cool.

 

Notes & Tips:

·         Pecans are the best nut to use, especially if you use more maple syrup and less honey/agave.

·         Use 1/3 cup each nuts and mini dairy-free chocolate chips.

·         Use 1/4 cup chopped coconut shreds, ¼ cup chopped pecans, and 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips.

·         If you must measure instead of weigh, oil the measuring cup before you put nut butter or honey/agave/maple in it.

·         Weighing the cookie dough makes the cookies a more even size, which helps them bake more evenly.

·         Consider dipping the bottom of the cookie balls in almond meal before putting them on the cookie sheet. Then use a sugared fork to flatten them, as you would peanut butter cookies.

Salsa Round 1

Spouse 1.0 and I moved 500 miles away from our usual Mexican food spots, and 500 miles from the store that sold our favorite store-bought salsa.  Love the new digs, but not digging the lack of good Mexican food.  

True story: We asked the taco truck guy at the fair where to get good Mexican food locally, and he said, "There isn't any."  Then he backpedaled and said his food was pretty good.  (It was, but the salsa was still not quite what I need.)

My mom made awesome salsa, but she took her recipe to her grave over 40 years ago.  All I remembered was that she used Serrano chilis and a blender.

I asked Baby Sister how she made salsa.  She replied by sending a picture of ingredients. (She then described what she did with the ingredients.  No measuring, of course.  That's just now how Mom did things.  But, since Baby Sister doesn't do chilis at all, I figured I needed to keep looking. 

My Ingredients

So, I googled a bunch of restaurant salsa recipes.  Putting them together with my vague recollections of mom's salsa and my sister's photo, below is what I came up with.  It's a bit runny, but pretty good.  Spouse said it tasted too much of tomatoes.  I think that's because I'm using fresh, ripe tomatoes instead of the underripe, mass-produced tomatoes that high-volume salsa chefs have to use. But, it's the best we've had since moving here, so worthy of noting.  

8 medium tomatoes on the vine,  quartered

1 very large serrano chili, about 1 ounce before stemming and chopping

About 2.5 ounces yellow onion (next time, try white)

About 4 good sized cloves of garlic

Cilantro to taste

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp lime juice

3/4 tsp cumin

Pulse blend until everything is coarsely blended

Pour into stainless steel pan and cook briefly (maybe longer next time to thicken it more?)

Pour into clean glass jars with corrosion-resistant lids. Makes a little less than 2 pints. It's fresh food, so use it before it ferments.

Salsa!

Gluten-free Cranberry Bliss-ish Bars

Often, instead of developing my own recipe, I'll redevelop someone else's. There are already several GF versions of cranberry bliss bars out there, so it's not like the world needs another one. Or, maybe the world does. You can never have too much bliss, right?

I started with Cookin' Diva's glutenacious recipe on Food.com. I took her suggestion to reduce the sugar, and instead of regular white and brown, I used a combo of organic sugar and molasses. I used my new favorite GF blend, Premium Gold. I added a pinch more xanthan gum than was already in the flour, plus a pinch more baking powder than the recipe called for.  Then, to further lower the sugar count as well as the effort, I skipped the melted white chocolate on top and the grated orange rind.

For the bars:

2 sticks very soft butter

188 grams organic sugar

12 grams molasses

3 large eggs

2 tsp orange extract

224 grams Premium Gold flour blend or GF flour blend of choice 

a pinch of xanthan gum (more if your GF blend does not already include it)

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground ginger

scant 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup dried cranberries, lightly chopped if not already sliced/chopped

3/4 cup dairy free or regular white chocolate chips

Frosting:

2 ounces vegan or regular cream cheese

18 grams butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp orange extract

200-230 grams organic powdered sugar

optional: 2 tsp - 1 tbsp non-dairy creamer or milk

Topping:

Extra dried cranberries, sliced or chopped

Make the bars:

1. Preheat the oven to 350, line a 10X15 jelly roll pan with parchment, then spray the parchment with coconut oil. 
2. Mix butter, sugar, and molasses in stand mixer or with hand mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time to incorporate,
4. Add extract.
5. Mix flour blend, xanthan gum, baking powder, ginger, and salt in a small bowl.
6. Add dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture to incorporate.
7. Fold in cranberries and white chocolate. 
8. Spread evenly in prepared pan and bake for 18-22 minutes, just until edges are lightly browned and toothpick comes out clean. Don't overbake.

Frosting and Topping:

1. Using a hand mixer, mix cream cheese and butter in medium bowl until fluffy. 
2. Add extracts and incorporate.
3. Gradually add sugar, mixing until smooth, light, and fluffy. Add creamer if needed to get a spreadable consistency.
4. Spread frosting over cooled bars, then sprinkle cranberries on top. 
5. Cut into bars or triangles. 

To freeze: Put one layer of bars in the container, then freeze a few minutes to harden the frosting. Put a layer of wax paper on top, then another layer of bars. Repeat until the container is full.  

To serve: Remove frozen bars to a plate, then let thaw for a few minutes. Do not thaw bars while they are stacked in the freezer container. 

 

Arroz con Frijoles Muffins

Think of these as a bean and cheese burrito turned into a muffin.  Never mind that I cheat a little by using Asian sauces as a topping. 

Arroz con Frijoles Muffins

Dry Ingredients

24 g. white rice flour

66 g. brown rice flour (or, omit white rice flour and use 90 g. brown rice flour)

30 g. almond meal

3/4 tsp garlic

1/4 tsp cumin

3/4 tsp dry basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/4 tsp chipotle powder

2 tsp dried minced onion

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

Wet ingredients

2 oz. tomato paste

4 oz. water

2 eggs

54 g. olive oil

12 g. agave syrup

1 Tbsp lime juice

Add-ins

1/4 cup frozen bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup frozen petite peas

1/4 cup frozen corn

70 g. cooked brown rice

130 g. refried black beans

Topping

goat cheese

sriracha sauce

green dragon sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a small bowl until well combined. 
3. Whisk together wet ingredients.
4. Gently mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients using a silicone spatula.
5. Gently stir in the add-ins.
6. Let batter sit to hydrate while you line 36 mini muffin cups. Spray muffin liners with coconut or other spray oil.
7. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 to 7/8 full. Top with a small amount of cheese and a few drops or a small drizzle of sriracha, green dragon, or both.
8. Bake about 10-12 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let sit in the pans about 2 minutes, then gently remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Southwest Lime Basil Pesto and Lemony Lemon Basil Pesto

I think you can't be a basil geek without being something of a pesto adventurer.  So, with the recent frosts threatening to destroy my miniature basil crop, it was time for some creative pesto creations. 

The first creation, lemony lemon basil pesto, was pretty simple: Using my favorite pesto recipe (the Williams Sonoma recipe in their muffin cookbook), use all the lemon basil. Supplement with enough Italian basil to make 1 cup. Add a splash of lemon juice. Other than that, follow the recipe.

Using up the lime basil called for something with a little more of a southwest inspiration. Alas, I didn't have any cilantro.  But then, Sis-in-lalala will be visiting soon, and she loathes cilantro. So, for now, we stick with flat leaf parsley. Plus some Mexican oregano, since I have enough to feed a small nation. But, next time, I will use cilantro and oregano. 

Next, the nut. Almonds immediately came to mind. While I was rummaging for almonds, I thought about using pepitas.  Next time maybe.  Or maybe next time, sunflower seeds. But, for now, almonds.

Oil: Either olive or sunflower. I used both.

Other seasonings: chipotle powder, ancho chile powder, smoked paprika, cumin.

Ready, set, Pesto:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raw almonds (or pepitas, or sunflower seeds, or combo)
4 cloves garlic
6 Tbsp unrefined sunflower oil or extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, loosely packed
1/4 cup fresh Mexican oregano, loosely packed
1 cup lime basil leaves (can use part Italian)
1/4 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ancho chile powder and/or smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
salt to taste
3-4 Tbsp grated pecorino romano cheese

Directions:

1. Pulse almonds and garlic together in a small food processor until finely minced, but not quite ground.
2. Add parsley, basil, and oil.  Pulse until well-incorporated, stirring periodically.  If it seems a bit dry, add more oil.
3. Pulse in the rest of the seasonings. Stir, taste, and adjust. 
4. Stir in the pecorino romano, adding more oil if needed.

Top with a little extra oil to keep the basil from turning brown.

GF Marie Callendar's Style Cornbread - Take 1

Melanie informed me that Gluten-Free Mike had been lamenting the loss of Marie Callender cornbread in his life.  I understand. It is indeed a lamentable loss.

And, unlike Spouse 1.0, Gluten-Free Mike can't like the dense, corny cornbread made in cast iron skillets.  No, to Gluten-Free Mike, "cornbread" has only one definition: Marie Callender.

So, what could I say, other than, "Challenge accepted!!"

My first thought was to try incorporating corn and honey into my garbanzo bread. I rejected that idea before even getting home to my mixing bowl.  Instead, I reached for my iPad and started googling. Surely someone had done a GF copycat recipe.  They had. I tried it, and it was good in the way that an over-sweetened box of Jiffy cornbread would be good.

As in, not good enough.

I thought back to the first time I had Marie's bread. I splurted, "This isn't cornbread! It's cake!"

It took me many Sunday lunches of steamed vegetables to accept the idea that having a square of dessert with your steamed vegetables wasn't a bad thing.  And, many more Sunday lunches to come to love the stuff.

So, back to Gluten-Free Mike and the quest for cornbread.

If Marie's is more cake than bread, then I need to understand the ratio differences between quickbread and cake. Fortunately, Spouse 1.0 got me the Ratio book last year for Christmas.

I decided to try something half way between a quickbread and a cake. And, it worked!

Unlike a lot of my recipes, this one is all about specific ingredients and correct technique.  You'll dirty more things when you make this.  But, it is so very worth it.

I haven't heard yet whether the bread passes the Gluten-Free Mike test. But, since everyone else likes it, here it is: The bread and its back story.
Since this is half way between a bread and a cake, use a cake making method.  First, you cream the butter and sugar in your stand mixer until it is very, very creamy.  Scrape the bowl a time or two while it is mixing.

Cream butter and sugar

While the fat and sugar are creaming, prepare the dry ingredients.  Grind the cornmeal in a clean coffee grinder or a high power blender until the cornmeal is warm.  If using the coffee grinder, do it in two stages. Add all dry ingredients to a small mixing bowl and whisk well to combine.

Mix dry ingredients together

Once the fat and sugar is well creamed, add the eggs and mix until they are well incorporated. Don't over mix. You don't want the eggs to get tough. Scrape the bowl.

 



Add eggs

Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture in 2 or three stages, mixing only well enough to incorporate and scraping the bowl a couple of times.





Add dry ingredients

Add the clabbered milk and mix just until incorporated. Gently scrape the bowl once while mixing. The batter will be fluffy and beautiful. 



Add clabbered milk

 

Gently pour the fluffy, beautiful batter into a well-greased 8" pan.  Wet your fingers and gently smooth the batter so that it is evenly distributed. 



Bake and enjoy.  Of course, you'll want to mix up some honey butter to go with this. 

Pamela's Marie-Style Cornbread

Ingredients:

1-2 tsp organic apple cider vinegar
4 ounces goat milk
2 ounces butter, softened but not melted
2 ounces Spectrum organic shortening
4 ounces (1/2 cup) organic sugar
2 large eggs
3 ounces Arrowhead Mills Organic Gluten Free Cornmeal*
3 ounces Authentic Foods Classic Gluten Free Blend**
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp xanthan gum

Directions:

1. Thoroughly grease an 8" square baking pan and preheat oven to 350 (f).
2. Pour 1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar into cup.
3. Add goat milk to weigh 4 ounces. Set aside to clabber.
4. Weigh butter, shortening, and sugar into the mixing bowl and set it to creaming. Scrape bowl periodically.***
5. Grind cornmeal in a clean coffee grinder or a high powered blender.
6. Add dry ingredients to a small mixing bowl and whisk to incorporate.
7. Add eggs to butter-sugar mixture. Mix just enough to thoroughly incorporate. Scrape bowl once while mixing.
8. Add dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture in at least two stages.  Mix just enough to incorporate. Scrape 2-3 times while mixing.
9. Add clabbered milk, mixing just enough to incorporate.  Scrape bowl once while mixing.
10. Pour mixture into the prepared baking pan.  Wet fingers and smooth batter evenly in the pan.
11. Bake 350 for about 25-30 minutes, until toothpick tests done.

Notes

* I love Bob's Red Mill products, and I love the course grind of their cornmeal for other things.  For this bread, you really do need the finer grind of Arrowhead Mills.

** Authentic Foods grinds their brown rice flour more finely than other brands I've used.  This is important for the fluffiness factor. 

*** Be sure to turn your mixer off and unplug it while scraping the bowl. 

Thai Basil Pesto

What do you do when you want to make pesto, but only your Thai basil is doing well, while your other basils are barely hanging on for dear life?

Well, you could make normal pesto using Thai basil, but that would be just too weird.  Thai basil is its own thing.  It really isn't a substitute for other basils.

So, embrace the Thai-ness of it.  Make Thai basil pesto.  I know that sounds weird, but it's weird in a good way. Whereas normal pesto using Thai basil would be weird in a bad way.

So, what might that look like?  Going ingredient by ingredient....

Garlic: Keep.  Thai food and garlic are friends.

Pine nuts: Nope. No way. Sesame seeds would be good, but using only sesame seeds would be kind of... seedy.   Almonds would be tasty, but they're too hard. Cashews have a good texture. Sesame seeds and cashews. Definitely!

Olive oil: Absolutely not! Toasted sesame oil is lovely, but a bit strong.  Using part untoasted sesame oil would be lovely, but I don't have any. So, maybe walnut oil along with the toasted sesame.

Pecorino romano: Cheese? Yuck! Not for Thai pesto. Just leave it out. Or increase the nuts.

Salt:  Yes. And black pepper.

So, more or less using my favorite pesto recipe, I just madke the substitutions above.  Except, I've been making pesto so long, I don't use a recipe and have no idea how much of each ingredient I use. I just do everything to taste. Here are some rough guidelines:

Ingredients (quantities are very approximate):

1-2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2-3 Tbsp walnut oil
2 cloves crushed garlic, or 2 garlic ice cubes, plus a dash of dry roasted garlic
1 fist full of cashews
2-3 Tbsp sesame seeds
2 cups loosely packed Thai basil leaves
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Pulse everything except basil, salt, & pepper until minced. 
2. Pulse in basil leaves, being careful not to over process. 
3. Add salt & pepper to taste.
4. Store in refrigerator.

Serving suggestions:

• Toss some with poached chicken and cooked rice noodles.
• Plop some on cooked vegies to give them a little excitement.

Mixed Fruit Muffins

I love Elana Amsterdam's recipes.  This one started off as the Apricot Muffin recipe from her book Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry.  And, you might ask, if I love the recipe so much, why did I change it until it's hardly recognizable?  In short:

• I don't love measuring, so I convert to weight wherever possible.
• I love apricots, but not all the time.  Sometimes it's fun to just mix things up a bit.
• Sometimes my dried fruit gets to be a bit too dry and needs pre-moistening.
• I don't love dragging the food processor out to make a small batch of muffins, so I've found a different way that's easier for me.
• I like mini muffins.
• I like nuts on top.

Ingredients:

• 80 to 90 grams total dried prunes, dates, & apples (whatever proportion suits your fancy)
• Small amount of hot water
• 28 grams coconut flour (30 grams if Trader Joe)
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 112 grams melted coconut oil
• 4 large eggs
• 7 drops liquid vanilla stevia, optional
• About 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Chop fruit in small pieces, place in small glass container, and cover with just barely enough hot water to cover. Let sit for about 20 minutes.
2. Drain excess water from fruit.
3. Line mini muffin tins with 24 liners.  Spray liners with coconut oil spray.
4. Place fruit in medium stainless mixing bowl. Add coconut oil. Using a stick blender, pulse until fruit is very finely chopped, almost pureed.
5. Pulse in eggs and stevia.
6. Pulse in coconut flour and salt. Let set 3 to 5 minutes so coconut flour can thicken.
7. Stir in baking soda.
8. Fill muffin liners about 3/4 full.  If you have extra batter, line a custard cup and pour the batter in the custard cup.
9. Top with nuts.
10. Bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out almost clean.
11. Cool thoroughly. Refrigerate leftovers.

Pizza Pain Perdu (GF)

It happens way more often than we want to admit. We go to some GF restaurant, pay an extra $4 for our pizza to be on a gluten free crust, and when served, we realize that we have just been served cardboard with a smattering of cheese and meat.

Not wanting to be wasteful, we bring that miserable excuse for pizza home, and try to feed it to our dog.  He snubs it.  We try to compost it, but even the worms won't touch it.

Never fear, you can stop using that leftover pizza for a doorstop and turn it into an easy, yummy breakfast. It's easy.  (Not fast, but definitely easy.)

Pizza Pain Perdu

Ingredients

For each serving, you will need:

2 small slices of leftover GF pizza
1 egg
Scant 1/2 cup goat milk or unsweetened milk alternative
dash of salt or smoked salt
dash of pepper
pinch or two of Italian herb blend (Penzey's Frozen Pizza seasoning is perfect)

Directions

 

1. Lightly oil or spray a 3-cup rectangular Pyrex dish.
2. Place pizza slices in dish, alternating directions.
3. Mix remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Pour over the pizza and let set for about 15 to 30 minutes.
4. Bake at 350 for about 25 to 30 minutes, until all is baked through.

Alternating pizzza slices in a Pyrex dish

Savory custard mixture: Egg, goat milk, seasonings

Pizza soaking in the custard mixture

 

The finished product

Close-up of the finished product: No more cardboard

Maple Pecan Muffins

I'm learning that it doesn't take much to turn a pancake into a muffin.  And, for me, muffins are infinitely less tedious.  Who has time to stand there babysitting pancakes 3 at a time?

This recipe started out as the pancake recipe from the back of a bag of FunFresh Foods almond flour. 
The first thing I did was convert from measuring by cup to going by weight. (I really can't stand dealing with messy measuring cups!)
Here's a summary of the transformation from pancake to muffin:

Pancake	Muffins
180 g almond flour	90 g pecan meal 60 g almond flour 30 g cashew meal
82 g agave nectar	82 g maple syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda	3/4 tsp baking soda
n/a	1/4 tsp xanthan gum (optional)
n/a	28 g melted coconut oil
n/a	4 to 8 grams Teff grain, chia seed, rice flour, whatever
n/a	chopped pecans for topping

Here's what stayed the same:

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
116 g. water (4 ounces)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 (f).
2. Line 24 mini muffin cups with liners, then spray with coconut oil or other non-stick spray.
3. Use wire whisk or fingers to mix pecan meal, almond flour, cashew meal, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt  in a small bowl until well-combined.
4. whisk maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla in a medium bowl together until well-combined.
5. Whisk in the eggs, then the water.
6. Whisk in dry ingredients. I do this in stages to ensure more even incorporation.
7. If the mixture looks too runny, stir in the Teff, chia, or whatever.  Teff has a nice nutty flavor, and adds a little bit of poppyseed-like crunch.  If you don't like that texture, then just add a little of whatever you like.  It will still be a bit runnier than normal muffin batter, but that's OK.
8. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 to 7/8 full.  If you have a little batter left, just bake it in a lined custard cup (or two).
9. Bake for 12-14 minutes.  Tops will spring back when lightly touched, and a toothpick will come out with a crumb or two.
10. Remove from muffin tins and cool thoroughly on wire rack.  The texture is best at room temperature.

German Chocolate Quinoa Cookies

I really call these "Oops Cookies".  I accidentally got the nut butter mixture too hot, and the chocolate chips mostly melted. 

Oops! 

Sometimes a thing that initially seems bad can turn out to be surprisingly good.  So maybe I should call them "Redemption Cookies".

But, rule one of putting your cookie recipes on your blog is, "Make the name make sense to others."  So, with flavors of coconut, pecan, and chocolate, maybe it's best to call them German Chocolate Cookies.

Ingredients:

138 grams total of maple syrup, honey, and agave syrup (1/2 cup)
68 grams organic cane sugar (1/2 cup)
1 4-ounce stick of Earth Balance margarine or organic butter
128 grams total of almond butter and cashew butter (1/2 cup)
1 tsp vanilla
140 grams brown rice flour (1 cup)
83 grams quinoa flakes  (3/4 cup)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
Scant 1/4 cup chopped pecans
Scant 1/4 cup shredded coconut, chopped
1/3 cup dairy-free miniature chocolate chips (e.g., Enjoy Life)

Directions:

1. Add first 4 ingredients into a medium steel mixing bowl, then place over a pan of simmering water to soften.
2. Mix brown rice flour, quinoa flakes, baking soda, salt, pecans, coconut, and chocolate chips in a small mixing bowl.
3. When nut butter mixture is very warm, add vanilla and stir until everything is smooth.
4. Remove nut butter mixture from heat and stir in the flour mixture.  Combine well.  The chocolate chips will mostly melt. 
5. Place in refrigerator until firm enough to handle (about 30-40 minutes).
6. Roll into small balls (about 12 grams each) and place on lightly greased cookie sheet about 2" apart. 
7. Bake at 350 until lightly browned but still soft in the middle (about 8 minutes)
8. Let rest on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, the place on wire racks to cool.

Makes about 60 cookies.

Savory Garbanzo Bread

Once upon a time, I had most of the ingredients for Chickpea and Chives Waffles, but no waffle iron.  No problem: Waffles and pancakes are sort of the same thing.  So, I decided to make pancakes.

Got part way into the process, and wondered: What would it take to make chickpea and chives bread?

Waffles get some oil from the waffle iron and some from whatever you put on the waffle. So, bread needs more oil.  And, bread probably needs more binder than waffles. So, maybe an extra egg.

I didn't have chives, but that's OK.  I had other things to provide flavor.

And, I really prefer to call them garbanzos.   So, that's how chickpea and chives waffles turned into...

Savory Garbanzo Bread

Ingredients

90 grams garbanzo flour
8 ounces warm water (about 120 degrees f.)
1.5 tsp Italian herb blend
1.5 tsp dehydrated minced onion
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper (Really, I have no idea.  Just grind a bunch in.)
12 grams honey or agave syrup
45 grams oil
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
3 eggs
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
60 g. gluten-free flour blend (Trader Joe's blend is fine.)
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
Optional: Smoked paprika and/or pecorino romano cheese

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together water and garbanzo flour.  Let sit for about 20 minutes.
2. Grease a 9" square baking pan.  Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350.
3. Add herbs and spices, honey, and oil.
4. Add eggs and whisk until well-combined.
5. Whisk in xanthan gum.
6. Whisk in flour blend.
7. Add baking powder and soda, then whisk thoroughly.
8. Top with paprika and/or pecorino romano if desired.
9. Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Play with the seasoning.  The photos below are of the bread sans topping and seasoned with dill, onion, parsley, and garlic.

GF Ginger-Cashew Brownies

These brownies are largely based on Roben Ryberg's rice flour brownies, so they're bound to be delicious and easy.  If you don't have one of her cookbooks, you're missing out.

These brownies are fudgey, spicy, and just gooey enough.

Gluten-free Ginger-Cashew Brownies

 Ingredients
4 ounces organic butter, melted & cooled.
54 g sorghum flour
70 g brown rice flour
200 g organic cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs, beaten
3-4 Tbsp candied ginger
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (Enjoy Life brand), divided. (Or more.)
1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped cashews
Cinnamon-sugar mixture

Directions

1. Grease a 9" square pan with coconut oil and heat the toaster (or real) oven to 350.
2. Gently melt butter in a double boiler or a small pan.  Do not microwave.
3. Mix flours, sugar, salt, xanthan, and ginger in a medium mixing bow with a wire whisk.
4. Sprinkle the candied ginger with a little of the flour mixture, then mince finely. You should have about 2 Tbsp when done.  Set aside.
5. Mix the butter and egg into the flour mixture, then stir in the ginger and half the chocolate chips.  The mixture will thick.
6. Dump the brownie mixture into the pan. Dampen your fingers and use them to pat the brownie mixture into the pan. Re-dampen fingers as needed, but don't drown the brownies.
7. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips and the cashews evenly over the top, then press down a little so they stay put.  Sprinkle with as much cinnamon-sugar as you like, but don't go crazy.
8. Bake about 30-35 minutes, til a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack and cut into 12-16 squares. 

 Sorry, no picture.  They look like brownies with slightly toasted cashew pieces on top.

Yes, Anything Can Be a Pancake -- Even Lentils

A while back I purchased a GF magazine that had a recipe for chicken pancakes (oh, yeah!).  They also had one for garbanzo pancakes that used whole beans instead of flour.  That seemed like a good idea for any legume.

So, I decided to do it with lentils.  But, I didn't bother reading the recipe before cooking the lentils.  The recipe used soaked, but not cooked beans. And didn't use eggs or other binders.  Hmm...

OK. So, I'll make up my own lentil pancakes.

And I did.   You're welcome.

Lentil Pancakes

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked lentils
Your favorite lentil seasonings
2 T oil
1 T pepper vinegar, or your favorite vinegar
5 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup tapioca starch, or your favorite starch
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions

1. Cook lentils in water to cover plus a little more with your favorite seasonings.
   I used about 1/3 cup dehydrated mixed vegetables, a little dry onion, some garlic, salt, and pepper.  Cook them until they're mushy, adding water as needed.
2. Using a strainer, drain as much liquid as you reasonably can from about 3 cups of the cooked lentils.  Put the lentils in a mixing bowl and let them cool. Reserve the remaining lentils for soup or another batch of pancakes.
3. Add oil, vinegar, eggs, starch, and xanthan gum.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.
4. Stir in the baking soda.
5. Cook as you would any other pancake, but make them pretty small so they don't break. 
6. Serve with cashew cream ranch dressing.

Cashew Cream Ranch Dressing

Ingredients
Cashew cream  (A little more than 1/2 cup)
Organic mayo  (A little less than 1/2 cup)
Apple cider vinegar
Lemon juice
Dehydrated minced onion
Garlic powder
Freeze-dried parsley
Dill
Salt & pepper

Instructions

1. Add cashew cream and mayo to a bowl using about a 60/40 ratio. 
2. Add a splash of vinegar, a squirt of lemon, and other seasonings to taste.
3. Stir it up, then taste. 
4. If it needs more zing, add more lemon or vinegar.  If it needs more kapow, add more pepper or salt.  If it needs more Mmmmm, add more garlic, onion, parsley, and/or dill.  If it has too much zing or kapow, or if the Mmmm is more like Ohhhh, add more cashew cream and mayo.

I won't bother giving instructions for cashew cream.  There are zillions of cashew cream recipes out there already. 

GF Blue Corn Sage Muffins

I'm not a vegetarian.  Never have been, though I was sort of a de-facto vegetarian in college.  And, Spouse 1.0 has a horror of the word "vegetarian".  It brings back memories of when he was a teenager and his parents abruptly went vegetarian and force fed him eggplant in 101 guises.

So, we won't tell him that this recipe came from a vegetarian e-zine.  He still has a hard time understanding that a vegetarian recipe that doesn't contain eggplant can be a yummy supplement to a carnivorous diet.  It's probably a PTSD thing.

Sort of like me & my mom's attempt to force feed me hillbilly delicacies. And, due to your delicate sensibilities, I won't tell you what those were.

But, back to the corn muffins.

They looked really good, especially with the adorable corn husk treatment.  I have corn husks.  Leftover from when I decided I was going to make tamales. (I never have, obviously.)

Problem is, the recipe was glutenacious and used cow products. But really, that's not a problem.  It was fairly easy to convert to GF and to sub in some lovely goat products we had on hand.

So, with special thanks to Vegetarian Times, we have this GF adaptation:

GF Blue Corn Sage Muffins

 Ingredients

• Several dried corn husks, soaked in warm water until pliable, lightly dried with paper towels.  I also oiled my hands with avocado oil and lightly rubbed them.
• 6 ounces organic butter
• 50 grams organic cane sugar
• 8.9 ounces of home-grown egg from kind friends, lightly beaten. (About 5 almost medium-large eggs.)
• 4 ounces goat milk
• 3.5 oz. goat gouda, grated
• 3.5 oz. raw goat ricotta - or generic goat cheese crumbles
• 120 grams GF all-purpose flour (e.g., Trader Joe's)
• 124 grams blue cornmeal (I like Los Chileros)
• 2 ½ tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
• About 1 TBSP fresh sage, finely minced

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease 12-muffin tin with avocado oil.  Tear corn husks lengthwise into strips about an inch wide at widest point. Lay two strips overlapping in an ‘X’ in each muffin cup, with long ends jutting out above pan. In addition, line a custard cup with 1 muffin liner, and spray with olive oil. 
2. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, and sage.
3. Cream butter and sugar with mixer. Add eggs, milk and cheeses, mixing well after each addition.
4. Spoon dry mixture into batter about one-third at a time, mixing just until combined after each addition.
5. Scoop most of the batter into prepared muffin tin.  This is tricky with corn husks sticking up all over the place. They don't really want to form muffin cups. But, it's worth the effort.  Trim off the tops of the husks that stick up too much.  Wet fingers and smooth the tops of the muffins, adjusting the amount of goo in each muffin cup until they're more or less equivalent.  Place extra batter in prepared custard cup.
6. Bake for 20 to 24 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean and muffin springs back when lightly touched.

Almost as pretty as the ones from Vegetarian Times

Pesto and Goat Cheese Muffins

I don't usually buy mixes.   But, when a local discount store had Hodgson Mill GF pancake mix with flaxseed for an astoundingly good price... well... there are some bargains one just can't resist.

So, I took the mix on a recent trip and made Spouse 1.0 some pancakes in the hotel's kitchenette. They were good. He liked them.

Fast forward a month, and it's a busy weekday morning. I'm out of paleo bread and don't have much time. I open the cupboard, and there's the mix. Yeah.  I'll make him pancakes. But, pancakes require more babysitting than muffins. Well, why not use pancake mix to make muffins?  After all, that's what Bisquick was: Pancake mix that could be used for anything.

Hmmm. What to put in them?  I open the fridge, and there's some pesto that needs to be used up.  And,  there's some of that lovely roasted red pepper goat cheese that's getting really close to its use by date.

Yeah. Pesto and Goat Cheese Muffins.

Ingredients

160 grams GF pancake mix with flaxseed. (Or any other GF cake mix)
2 medium eggs (about 1.9 ounces each)
8 ounces goat milk
1-2 tsp sugar (to taste)
1 ounce avocado oil or olive oil
A big spoonful of extra thick pesto (maybe ~2 Tbsp?)
Leftover goat cheese crumbles (maybe about 1.5 ounces?)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 (f)
2. Prepare 9 muffin cups by lining with baking papers then spraying with olive oil.
3. Mix all ingredients together.   
4. Fill the prepared muffin cups to about 2/3 full. 
5. If desired, sprinkle the tops of a few of the muffins with a little extra pesto.
6. Bake until they smell good and a toothpick tests done. Probably about 12-20 minutes.

They weren't really this golden.  I'm not sure what my camera was thinking.

Tips

• Due to variations in egg weight or moisture content of the pesto or cheese, you may have to adjust the batter. Add a drizzle of goat milk if it looks too thick or a bit more mix if it seems too thin.
• Use a 6 cup muffin tin and 3 custard cups.  If you have too much batter, grab another custard cup.  The muffins made in the custard cups aren't as pretty as those made in the muffin tins, but they get the job done.
• I don't bake by time.  No matter how long a recipe says to bake, it's never ever that for me.  It's always a bit less or quite a bit more. So, mostly, I bake by smell and by toothpick.  When baked goods smell good, they're probably done or close to it. 
• To make extra thick pesto: Take about 1.5 to 2 cups of basil leaves and coarsely chop.  Put them in a mini-food processor and add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese, 1/4 to 1/2 cup pine nuts, a few cloves of garlic, and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Maybe a little sea salt if desired. Lightly pulse until all ingredients are finely chopped but not emulsified.  Add more oil as need, but keep the mixture thick, like streusel.

Adventures in Leftover Relish, Part 1

I won't speak of the half turkey Spouse 1.0 and I were left with after our Thanksgiving guests had departed.  That's another story.

Instead, let's talk about cranberry relish.

There are probably at least 100 ideas for using leftover cranberry sauce out there. Many of them say something like, "Pour relish over goat cheese for a lovely appetizer."

Sorry, cranberry sauce over goat cheese is one of the myriad leftovers I'm trying to use up.

Or, "Use it in muffins". Did that. Last year. Didn't like it.

And, all the recipes talk about ways to use up normal cranberry relish.  Well, one of the tubs of leftover relish is kinda normal: Raw cran-apple-orange relish. 

But.

None of the 100 ways to use up leftover cranberry sauce talk about what to do with a tub of leftover cranberry salsa.  Yummy, yummy stuff. But, even Spouse 1.0's love of cranberry salsa can't get it used up before it rots.

So, I was on my own for what to do with my two tubs of leftover relish.

I decided to make jam bars with the tub of cran-apple-orange relish. 

Funny thing about jam bar recipes: When I had absolutely no interest in making jam bars, it seemed like every GF cookbook, magazine, and blog had a GF jam bar recipe.  But, when I went to look through my dozens of cookbooks & mags, and hundreds of printouts from blogs, no jam bar recipe. Except for dear old Roben Ryberg's cookie cookbook.  But, her recipe didn't use oats.  I wanted a jam bar recipe that used oats.

So, I pulled out my trusty, albeit glutenacious, Better Homes cookbook. And, there it was: A nice, oaty bar cookie recipe that was exactly what I was looking for.  Started converting that bad boy to GF. Yeah.

And. I couldn't find the GF oats.  I'd kind of re-arranged and tidied and generally hidden things for Thanksgiving. My GF oats were somewhere underneath and behind who-knows-what. Luckily, the quinoa flakes were handy. So, Quinoa Flake Cran-Apple-Orange Doncha-Just-Relish-Them Jam Bars it is.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cup leftover cran-apple-orange relish
About 1-2 tsp potato starch
100 grams GF blend flour of choice (about 3/4 cup)
28 grams cashew meal or blanched almond meal (about 1/4 cup)
110 grams quinoa flakes (1 cup)
160 grams organic cane sugar (2/3 cup)
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp baking soda
4 oz butter, softened (1/2 cup)
Optional: 1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly spritz a 9" square pan with coconut oil spray.
2. Heat relish in a small saucepan until it starts to boil a little. Remove from heat, let partially cool, and sprinkle on the potato starch. Stir and let cool while you do everything else.
3. Make crust by mixing dry ingredients, then working in the butter with your fingertips. 
4. Reserve 1/2 cup lightly packed of the crust mixture.
5. Press remaining crust mixture into the pan.
6. Spread the relish mixture over the crust mixture.
7. Add nuts to the reserved crust mixture, then sprinkle over everything.
8. Bake about 1/2 hour until the top is golden. Cool, cut into bars, and enjoy.

Heavily adapted from the Fruit-filled Oatmeal Bars recipe in Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, 10th edition.
 

They went fast.

Applesauce Blue Cornbread (Gluten Free, of course)

The cornbread obsession continues.  Today it's Applesauce Blue Cornbread. Sorry, no pictures.  But then, we're talking blue cornmeal.  Not exactly the most photogenic member of the cornmeal family.

The starting point for today's recipe came from one of Carol Fenster's books.  But, by the time you turn yellow meal to blue, sugar to maple syrup, canola oil to grapeseed, milk to applesauce, and measures to weights -- and said weights might not round trip to Fenster's original measurements.... (Let's not get into the whole your-mileage-may-vary nature of measuring!)  Then, you throw in stuff like cranberries, pecans, walnuts, and vanilla....  I guess at some point I get to call it my own thing, don't I?

So, here it is:  Applesauce Blue Cornbread with Cranberries and Nuts.  My own thing, sort of. Changes from Fenster's ingredients in blue.

Dry stuff:

·         1 ¼ cups blue cornmeal (120 g)

·         1 cup GF Flour Blend of choice (~124 g)

·         2 teaspoons baking powder

·         1.5 teaspoons xanthan gum

·         1 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

·         ⅓ cup maple syrup

·         2 large eggs, lightly beaten

·         5.5 oz applesauce

·         3.5 oz milk of choice

·         ⅓ cup grapeseed oil

·         ¼ tsp vanilla

Add-ins:

·         1/3 cup nuts (pecans and walnuts)

·         1/3 cup chopped dried cranberries

·         Extra nuts for topping (opt.)

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 350˚F. Generously spray an 8- or 9-inch square pan. Set aside.

2.     In small bowl, whisk dry ingredients together until well blended.

3.     In medium bowl, whisk wet ingredients until blended.

4.     Mix dry stuff into wet stuff and whisk until blended. Stir in the nuts and cranberries.

5.     Pour into prepared pan and top with nuts, if desired.

6.     Bake until top is firm and edges are lightly browned, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack before cutting. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Serves 12 - 16.

Applecado Bread (Gluten free, of course)

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Roben Ryberg's books, especially You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free.  And, a sane person might wonder, "Well, if you love Ryberg's recipes so much, why do you keep changing them???"

Good question.  All I can say is, there's something in me that must explore. Experiment. Try new (aka, "weird") things.  I just must.

Ask my sister. She's the one who was traumatized by a chocolate mint birthday cake when she was a child.  She recalls it being very minty.  It might explain why neither of us is much of a fan of mint these days.  It was not a successful experiment.

But, some experiments are.  Take, for instance, applecado bread.  This one is based heavily on a Ryberg recipe, so you know I'm starting with something good. And, I'm including avocado.  Also something good. And goat milk, ginger, cloves, bourbon vanilla, and more cinnamon.  All very good things.  As my sister-in-law says, "When you put good things together, you get a good thing."

Applecado bread: It's a good thing.

Wet ingredients:

• 6 ounces organic, unsweetened applesauce
• 100 grams organic sugar
• 2.6 ounces avocado (a little less than one small one)
• 1 ounce goat milk
• 2 organic eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Dry ingredients:

• 150 grams brown rice flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon plus an extra shake or two
• 1/8 tsp ginger, slightly rounded
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Topping:

• 1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Spray an 8" baking pan with coconut oil spray, then sprinkle a little almond meal on the bottom.  Or, line the pan with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 350 (f)
2. Mix the wet ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until everything is nice and fluffy and uniformly green. I used my stick blender.
3. Whisk dry ingredients together thoroughly in a small mixing bowl.
4. Gently fold the dry into the wet until everything is nicely incorporated.  The batter will be fluffy and beautiful -- in a green sort of way.
5. Pour batter into the baking pan, smooth out a little, and top with pecans.  Gently press the pecans in so they'll stay put.  
6. Bake at 350 (f) for about 30 minutes, until the house smells lovely and a toothpick test tells you the bread done.

Orange and Black Cornbread

Today's cornbread obsession is brought to you by the colors orange and black.

I've been wanting to do a sweet potato cornbread. And, heaven knows there are plenty of recipes for sweet potato cornbread out there. Problem is, most of them are... sweet. And, sweet won't work with black beans. Because the other thing I've been wanting to do is a cornbread that celebrates the impending month of October.

Beautiful, glorious October. Month of changing leaves, mercurial weather, the return of pie pumpkins, and just about everyone's birthday. Oh, yeah... and that other holiday.

So... this calls for an unapologetically orange cornbread, speckled with black beans, topped with creepy black sesame seeds.  And, just like October in Southern Cal, a touch of heat.

It's too bad Spouse would rather die than eat sweet potato.  But, sometimes a girl's just gotta bake what a girl's gotta bake. Today, I had to bake sweet potato and black bean cornbread. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C. rinsed and drained black beans
2 ounces oil
280 grams organic yellow cornmeal (2 C.)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper
Dash or two of smoked paprika
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
9 ounces goat milk
7 ounces sweet potato puree
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. agave syrup
Black sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Put oil in 8" square baking pan. Turn toaster oven or real oven to 425 degrees. Place pan in oven while oven preheats. Pay a little attention to the oven as you're mixing up the cornbread. Oil left unattended at high heat: Bad things could happen. 
2. Mix cornmeal, salt, baking powder & soda, chipotle, paprika, and xanthan together.
3. Mix goat, potato, eggs, and agave together.
4. Mix dry and wet stuff together.
5. Take the pan out of the oven, swirl the oil around a bit, then pour it into the batter. Mix well.
6. GENTLY fold in the black beans.  If you're too vigorous, the black beans will smoosh and discolor the cornbread. Which could also be nice and disgustingly Halloweenish. But really, it's not what we're going for here. So, do be gentle.
7. Sprinkle black sesame seeds on top, then bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until the cornbread tests done.

Serve with organic butter. Just don't serve it to Spouse 1.0.