Chocolate Chip Cashew Shortbread

 These are based on the Ratio cookbook, by Michael Ruhlman. 

Ingredients

4 ounces butter

4 ounces cashew butter

2 ounces sugar

6 ounces gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup (150 grams) chocolate chips 

Directions

1. Cream butter, cashew butter, sugar.

2. Mix dry ingredients with a whisk.

3. Add egg and vanilla to butter mixture.

4. Gradually blend in the flour mixture 

5. Stir in chocolate chips.

6. Chill dough.

7. Line baking sheets with parchment, then spray with coconut oil.

8. Make balls about 13 grams, and flatten a little when putting them on cookie sheet.

9. Bake 350 for about 15 minutes, until lightly browned.

About 48 cookies, 67 calories and about 2.5 grams added sugar each. 

Note: I only had about 2 ounces of GF blend flour, so the rest was about an ounce of potato starch and about 1.5 ounces each brown rice flour and jowar/sorghum flour, and an extra 1/2 tsp xanthan gum. 

Low Sugar Almond Cookies

 About a dozen years ago, WildeMan gave me the Ratio cookbook as part of the best birthday gift ever. 

So, with him being diabetic now, I need more low sugar cookie recipes. So, I looked up the basic shortbread and started having some fun. 

This was my first take. Next time, I think I'd double all ingredients except the egg to get a more shortbread-like texture. But for now, these aren't bad for cookies with less than 1.5 g sugar per 9 g cookie.

Ingredients 

4 ounces (113 g) butter 

2 ounces (60 g) sugar

6 ounces total flour:

• 60 g almond flour
• 110 g gf flour blend

1 Egg

1/2 tsp almond extrct

1/2 tsp double fold vanilla

1/4 tsp baking powder

Dash salt

Chopped slivered almonds - about 36g

Directions 

1. Cream butter and sugar. Add extracts and egg.
2. Add in flours, baking soda,  salt. 
3. Chill dough 30 minutes
4. Chop slivered almonds and put in a shallow bowl 
5. Roll out 9g balls of dough (see note below)
6. Dip tops of balls in almonds.
7. Place on cookie sheet about 1.5" apart, flatten with fingers.
8. Bake 350 for about 12 minutes, until lightly browned.
9. Cool on wire rack, then eat or freeze.

Note:

Yes, I weigh each ball to get a more consistent cookie size, and hence more consistent cookie browning. Not to mention more consistent calorie/sugar counts. It's not that hard, and with practice, it gets even easier.

1. Put almonds in shallow dish.
2. Place dish on scale, and zero out. 
3. Grab off a ball of dough, maybe about the size of your thumb, and roll into a ball. 
4. Place ball on top of almonds, and note weight. Add or remove small pinches of dough to get the right weight. Don't worry about rerolling the ball.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the dish is full. 
6. Making sure each ball has almonds squished into it, remove balls, place on cookie sheet, and flatten. 

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!

Strawberry upside down cake, take 1

If anything can be a pancake, and any pancake can be adapted into a muffin, then why not adapt the pecan maple muffins into an almond and honey coffee cake? And, why not use up those strawberries that are starting to go iffy?

I think this recipe still needs some wor, but here is is for now....

180 grams total almond flour and almond meal (about 1/3 meal, 2/3 flour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp xanthan gum, and maybe a pinch more
3/4 tsp baking soda
About 1 Tbsp tapioca starch (or arrowroot starch, or....)

84 grams honey
42 grams melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanillaf
2 large eggs

4 ounces water

About 1/2 lb strawberries, washed and chopped
About 1/4 cup organic sugar
About 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Spray 8" square pan liberally with coconut spray.
2. Sprinkle nuts on bottom of pan.
3. Sprinkle strawberries over nuts, then sprinkle sugar over all. Set aside and preheat oven or toaster oven to 325 (f).
4. Mix dry ingredients in small mixing bowl.
5. Mix wet ingredients in medium mixing bowl.
6. Mix dry into wet.
7. Spread batter over strawberries in the 8" pan.
8. Let sit about 5 minutes for batter to hydrate.
9. Bake until toothpick tests done, about 30 minutes.
10. Let sit about 10 minutes. Loosen edges, then invert on a plate to serve.

It's not as beautiful as you'd want a strawberry cake to be, but it is moist and tasty.

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. 

 

Chicken Vegetable Soup for One

I love soup. I just don't love all the work that goes into making a big pot of soup. And, I don't love the fact that some bowls of soup get more chicken other bowls get more pasta.  So, I make soup for one.

First, take a 2 quart pan and dump in about 6 to 8 ounces of random fresh or frozen vegetables. Today I used:

• 1 ounce frozen organic peas
• 2 ounces frozen bell peppers
• 2 ounces frozen okra
• 2.5 ounces frozen organic green beans

Next, add about 3 or 4 ounces organic canned tomatoes and 3 ounces cooked chicken.

Then, spices and herbs. Today I used:

• Penzey's  Cajun seasoning
• Basil
• Cilantro
• Rosemary
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Pepper

Add chicken broth, water, and maybe a squirt of tomato paste, then cook until it is as done as you like.