Thee Delightful Gluten-Free/Paleo Bread

• 1 ½ cups blanched almond flour
• ¾ cup arrowroot powder
• ¼ cup golden flaxmeal
• ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoon agave nectar
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium bowl, combine almond flour, arrowroot, flax meal, salt and baking soda
2. In a larger bowl, blend eggs 3-5 minutes until frothy
3. Stir agave and vinegar into eggs
4. Mix dry ingredients into wet
5. Pour Scoop batter into a well greased 7.5 x 3.5 magic line loaf pan
6. Bake at 350º for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean
7. Cool and serve

Wonderful World of Almonds

My family and I have decided to change up our eating habits for a while. We're going to take on a paleo-inspired lifestyle! I love that we're all doing this together, because now I can whip up weird concoctions and they won't give me the "...but why?" look for being so unnecessarily healthy and homemade. So our diet consists of fruits, veggies, meats, seafood, nuts, and seeds. No dairy, no grains. This is going to be fun!! I'm basing a lot of our approach off of the book, "It Starts With Food", which is all about the Whole30 diet, which is pretty much just a paleo diet. Mom just watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead", a documentary about a guy who juiced for 60 days and lost heaps of weight and became much healthier... so we bought a juicer and that will be in the diet as well! Goody gumdrops I love new starts :)

So I've been raging through all of these amazing food blogs, pulling and prying ideas and thoughts on the whole thing. I'm starting with almonds.

Almonds are incredible! So many uses from one batch of raw almonds!
I am more grateful than ever that I got a food processor for Christmas. My life has changed.

Almond Butter

1) Simply throw almonds (raw, smoked, salted, roasted, whatever) in the food processor and blend until smooth.

2) That's it, really.


Almond Milk

1) Blanch about 2 cups of raw almonds overnight. That means you toss them into a big bowl of water (enough to cover them) and set in on the counter until morning. 

2) The next day, you can peel the skins off of the almonds really easily. It's actually very satisfying to simply pinch the almond and squeeze out the inner almond into a fresh bowl. Wee!

3) Save your skins. Set them out on a paper towel to dry.

4) In a food processor or blender, toss in a cup of skinless almonds with 2 cups water (purified, preferably) with a teaspoon of vanilla extract (if you please). Blend until smooth.

5) Strain it over your pitcher using a mesh strainer or cheese cloth. Save your tiny-crushed almonds in a separate bowl!

6) There you have it! Delicious almond milk, all natural. Don't be surprised: it will be grainy still. It's not that store-bought stuff!


**EDIT!!... this recipe tastes so much better... throw in a cup of your blanched almonds (skin on) with 2 cups filtered water. Add a Tbsp of creamed coconut, a tsp. of vanilla, maybe even a bit of agave, a tsp of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Mix in the blender. Pour over a cheesecloth to strain. So creamy and sweet and delicious!
Almond Paste

1) In case you're not a huge baker, almond paste is wonderful to use when making certain treats like almond-butter cookies and such. 

2) Pour the leftover almond pieces from making your almond milk, back into the food processor to blend it all even tinier for more of a paste. 

3) Seal that into a mason jar for future uses.

Almond Skin Meal

1) Once the skins have dried, toss them in the processor to blend into a fine grain.

2) The skins are wonderfully nutritious (fiber, prebiotics, antioxidants). Stir them into oatmeal, baking recipes or in your yogurt. Yum!

Enjoy!! 

Brown Butter, Bacon, & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oh boy, this is a new favorite! You can't go wrong with bacon. The salty sweet combination of chocolate and hickory-smoked bacon is absolutely divine. This recipe is so easy, too!

Ingredients
 set oven to 350
 
1 3/4 c. Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
12 Tb. Unsalted Butter
1/2 c. Sugar
3/4 c. packed Dark Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract (I use Organic Madagascar Bourbon)
1 Large Egg
1 Large Egg Yolk
4 oz. Dark Chocolate, diced or slivered into 1/4" pieces (or whatever you'd like)
1 c. Bacon (fried until crispy, diced into 1/4" pieces)
keep the bacon grease!

Make it!

1) After setting your oven to 350, whisk together your flour and baking soda.

2) Fry up at least 8 pieces of bacon... local hickory smoked is the bomb, if you can find that! Let those get real nice and crispy before transferring them to a paper towel-covered plate to cool. It's great to make extra so that you must eat a few of those delicious strips of pig. Don't throw out the bacon grease. Chop the bacon into small 1/4" pieces.

3) Now, using a skillet over medium flame, toss in 10 tbsp. of unsalted butter, stirring continuously and watching it like a hawk. You don't want your brown butter to become burnt butter. Once it's all melted and golden, transfer that to a heat-safe bowl. Now add in about 1 extra tbsp of butter, and pour in the extra bacon grease that you created. Oh boy!

4) In your mixing bowl, pour your brown butter in, along with your sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Mix! This concoction on its own is to die for. Try dipping a piece of bacon in. Mmmmmm...

5) Add egg and egg yolk. Mix until its all very smooth. Let it sit for about 30 seconds, and mix again just to be sure that sugar is really well mixed/dissolved.

6) Chop your chocolate off the block, or from a chocolate bar or use a bag of chocolate morsels. Whatever strikes your fancy. I personally loved chopping slivers off of a quality block of dark chocolate.

7) With a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate and bacon pieces until its all very combined.

8) Transfer dough balls to a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet, and bake for about 13 minutes. Keep watch! They should be slightly golden on the edges, but gooey on the inside when they're ready to come out of the oven.

Enjoy!!

Gluten Free Maple-Walnut Scone and Christmas Quiche

Good morning friends!! It's Christmas!!

As a part of my Christmas gift to the fam, I made some scones and quiche... gluten-free, of course! Gotta give dad's tummy a break every once in a while. Once again, I've never made a gluten free scone or quiche crust, but they turned out pretty good!!

Scone Ingredients

2 cups gluten free all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup unsalted cold butter
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
1 cold egg
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 an apple, chopped (I used Gala)
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Scone-Makings

Set the oven to 350.

Combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, cinnamon).

Add the pieces of butter to the dry ingredients, cutting them in until all is well combined. Place this bowl in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, combine about a tablespoon of butter with your walnuts and small chopped up pieces of apple.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, yogurt, and egg. Take the dry ingredients out of the freezer, and gradually add the wet ingredients in, stirring continually until your dough is smooth. Throw in the walnut-apple mix, and continue to mix... at this point, I just used my hands.

Dump the dough onto a parchment-covered baking sheet, and break up the dough into your scone shapes. Most people make them into triangles, bu I chose hearts. To each his own!

Bake for about 50 minutes, until they're golden brown.

Meanwhile,  make the maple glaze for the scones by whisking together the vanilla, confectioners sugar, and maple syrup. Once the scones have cooled a bit, you can drizzle this glaze on top.

And then you can eat them! Yum!




Quiche Ingredients

for the crust
1 1/2 cups gluten free all-purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
1/2 stick cold butter
1 Tb. white sugar
ice cold water
2 Tb. cold milk

for the filling 
7 eggs
1 cup milk (I used 1%)
3/4 cups feta cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
a bunch of fresh spinach
half yellow onion, chopped
handful of sliced mushrooms
bacon!

Quiche-Making

You know the drill for the crust... combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the cold butter using a whisk or food processor, until you get lots of little pea-sized balls. Then slowly add in your cold milk and then your icy-cold water, just a bit at a time, until your dough smooths out. Spray your pie pan, and then squish out your pie crust to fit. Or you could actually roll it out and put it in the pan nicely. I'm just not that fancy. I set the oven at about 350 and baked the crust for about 7 minutes, and took it out to cool in the fridge.

Now set the oven at 375.

Fry up the bacon in butter. Set it aside.

Saute the onions, mushrooms, and then the spinach in lots of butter.

Whisk up the eggs and milk. Add in salt and pepper and a few sprigs of chopped, fresh basil. Add in the cheeses.

Drop the veggies and bacon into the bottom of the pie crust. Then, pour the egg and cheese mixture overtop.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden.

Allow it to cool for about 15 minutes after taking it out of the oven.

Merry Christmas... and may you all have very happy bellies full of yummy foods :)

Gingerbread Biscotti

Ohhh, who doesn't love a good ol' dipping cookie for that festive cocoa or coffee? Me me! That's what biscotti's are for. I've never made them before, but these turned out wonderfully.

Ingredients

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses or sorghum
3 eggs
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 heaping cup pecans, toasted and chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
9-10 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate, melted

Create 

Whisk or blend the butter and brown sugar until they are properly creamed together.

Beat in the molasses/sorghum, then the eggs (one at a time!).

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.

Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ones, and then fold in the ginger and pecans.

Divide the dough in half and place them on parchment paper covered baking sheet. Place that in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Set the oven at 350!

Then, take out the sheet, and form the dough into log-ish (3 x 10) shapes. Bake for about 25 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Take it out of the oven, and cut the logs up into biscotti-shaped slices. Place the slices on one side at a time, into the oven for about 5-7 minutes each side. This will crisp them up. Take them out and let them cool.

Melt that chocolate in the microwave, and dip the cooled biscotti in it! Let them dry in the open air for about an hour, and then you can store them away for the family or give them away as delicious gifts for the neighbors.

Enjoy!!

Whole Wheat Cranberry Brown Sugar Bread

I still don't feel confident in my bread-making skills whatsoever, but I'm going to continue trying until I get it right. I found this delightful recipe from pinterest (where else?!), and thought I'd give it a go! The loaves came out a bit flat, but delicious nonetheless. The bread-making process itself is so joyful!


What you need:
2 pkg yeast
2 tsp sea salt
½ cup warm water (110-120 degrees)
4 cups lukewarm water
6 tbl brown sugar (divided)
6-8 cups whole wheat flour (divided)
½ cup dried cranberries

Make & Create:

 In a large bowl, place the yeast, salt, and warm water-- blend together and let sit for 5-7 minutes.

Add in lukewarm water and 2 Tb of brown sugar.

Then add about 5-6 cups of your flour, pouring and stirring in one cup at a time, until the dough becomes like a gooey-lava texture.

Cover with a cloth for about 2-3 hours, allowing it to rise.

Next, throw the dough out onto a floured surface. Work the extra flour into the dough and knead well. (It gets a bit messy...)

Divide the dough into 2-3 pieces.
Flatten out the dough-balls, sprinkle brown sugar and cranberries evenly overtop, then fold in the sides of the dough and pinch the end-seams. Make a few slits in the tops of the dough.

Transfer them to your parchment-papered baking sheet, place aluminum foil over top, and allow them to sit for about 30 minutes before transferring them into the oven.

They'll remain in the oven for about 50 minutes. Take the foil off of the top for the last 10 minutes so that they can brown up a bit.

Enjoy!

Candy Cane Dark Chocolate Cake

The Christmas season is better with chocolate and peppermint, just ask any coffeeshop, with their sweetly conjured up seasonal specialties. It's also better with cake. We had a little dinner party the other night, so I set out to make a little something that everyone, including my gluten-intolerant father, could enjoy! This is one of the first times that I have successfully  actually created my own recipe of a baked good. Usually I start from a recipe and maybe add my own spices or special touches, but this time I just looked at about four different recipes, and then created my own. So fun!! And it actually tasted amazing! I feel like a proud parent.


Ingredients:
for the cake
1 3/4 c. Gluten-Free Baking Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1/2 c. Melted Butter, cooled
1/2 c. White Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 c. Milk (1% and up)
1/2 c. Melted Dark Chocolate
York Peppermint Patties

for the glaze
1 c. Confectioners Sugar
1/4 tsp Peppermint Extract
3 Tb Milk
Candy Canes, smashed into bits

The Process:

Set the oven to pre-heat at 350.

In one bowl, combine the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk to the butter-sugar bowl. After all is mixed thoroughly, gradually add in the dry ingredients. Fold in the melted chocolate. Chop up about 5-6 York into small pieces, and fold those into the batter as well.

Oil or butter-up your baking dish-- I used a bundt cake mold, because it's more festive and seems to bake more evenly, but do as you please! Place in the oven for about 55 minutes or so.

While that's baking, mix up your Peppermint Glaze. Combine the pepermint extract and milk, then slowly sift in the confectioners sugar, stirring vigorously, so as to avoid any clumps in the creamy glaze.

After your cake has been removed for the oven and had time to cool a bit, take it out of its mold, and drizzle the peppermint glaze overtop. Delicately and boldly throw lots of candy cane pieces into the glaze. Voila!

Enjoy!!