Recipe Reimagining – Pineapple Clafoutis

I have a pineapple sitting on my counter.  Languishing.  Probably wondering if it’ll just get tossed into the compost pile without a second thought.

It’s not that I don’t like pineapple.  I do.  Quite a bit.

But there’s that frustratingly sneaky sugar thing that I can’t have.

I was thinking though, on the coattails of my apple clafoutis, that perhaps I could make a pineapple clafoutis.  A pineapple clafoutis with half the almond milk subbed out for coconut milk.

Maybe I went too far.  Perhaps the coconut milk would be too much.

Maybe not.

So, I ponder.  Below is the recipe I’m thinking of heavily revising (nicked from the cached version of this page).  Creating some combination of it and my apple clafoutis.  Since the recipe is so simple (well, the apple one was), perhaps I’ll try it this week.  I’ll be sure to report back (with more alacrity than recently!) with my (hopefully tasty) results.  (additionally, here’s a bit of a write up from that same place above, nicked from the cache (as the site’s a pay/registration site)).  It looks a bit rough with my notes, but hopefully this’ll be a work in progress.
1/2 large pineapple (14 to 16 oz., peeled)
4 Tbs. unsalted butter (I seem to be tolerating butter all right these days, so I’ll probably use it)
1/4 cup light brown sugar (eliminate this)
3 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar (eliminate this, maybe add a very little bit of molasses)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (use the rice flour sub from the apple recipe)
2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream (sub with coconut milk)
Seeds from 1/2 split vanilla bean (or 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract)
1 Tbs. rum

Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch cake pan or pie pan. (a deep cast iron pan would work great for this, I think, but I don’t have one.  It’ll either be the brownie pan again, or my springform pan)

Cut the half pineapple lengthwise into four wedges. Cut the core from each wedge, cut each wedge lengthwise again to make wedges about 1 inch wide, and then cut each of these crosswise into 1/2-inch slices.

Put the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat (ideally large enough to hold the pineapple in one layer). When it sizzles, add the pineapple. Give the pan a shake and then let the pineapple release its juices without stirring. Let the liquid bubble and evaporate, giving the pineapple only the occasional shake and stir. When most of the liquid has evaporated (after about 5 min.), add the brown sugar and stir again. Let the sugar bubble for about 30 seconds and then remove the pan from the heat. With a slotted spoon, transfer the pineapple to the prepared cake pan; reserve the juices in the pan.
Brown sugar adds a mellow sweetness to the pineapple, giving the clafoutis a complex blend of flavors.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and granulated sugar until lightly frothy and the sugar is dissolved. Sprinkle or sift in the flour and whisk until smooth. Add the cream, vanilla, and rum; whisk again. Finally, add the juices from the pineapple and give the mixture one last stir.  A whisk works best to gently blend the floour and eggs.

Pour the batter over the pineapple. Bake until the clafoutis is evenly puffed and golden and a skewer comes out clean, about 50 min. Serve warm.
photo: Martha Holmberg
From Fine Cooking 37, pp. 52
February 1, 2000

Recipes – Wheat-free Passover

I want to tell you about the glorious, tasty, safe and non-pain-inducing food I made for Passover.

Really, I do.

However, I know (some of) my limitations.  If I plotz over documenting all the recipes right here, right now, I’ll never get past it.  And there is this devastatingly delicious dessert that I MUST tell you about…

So, in the interest of brevity and updatingness, I’m going to simply list off the wonderful things I made, as preparation for the eventual documentation and linkage.

Never fear (well, at least, not often anyway), I will provide recipes for these tasty items.  I need to, as I promised my cousin I’d send her a recipe for the kugelettes.

• Brisket
• Potato kugelettes
• Chocolate flourless cake
• Wheat-free matzo
• Wheat-free matzo ball soup

Recipe – Millet Flatbread

Recently, the Ginger Lemon Girl featured a millet flatbread recipe on her site.  As I’d recently bought some millet flour (got to love the Indian section of my favorite Asian grocery store… a two-pound bag for less than two bucks), it seemed intriguing. With some revision for what’s in my kitchen, and my tastes, I’d say it turned out pretty well.

I have thus far used it for the base a of pizza and a sandwichy thing (pretty much same ingredients, too… though the “pizza” featured Italian sausage and a smattering of sheep’s milk feta).

It provides a slightly more delicate “bread” than my go-to bread stuff.  Though admittedly, I haven’t tried my bread in a flat venue.  I probably should.

Here’s my revised version of Ginger Lemon Girl‘s Millet Flatbread (mostly lifted straight from her site, until my body and brain cooperate with me to write up my own version… body is rebelling against me today).

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups millet flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp almond meal
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup warm water (start with 1/2 cup.  I ended up needing about a cup of water, which was a smidge too much.  I suspect it has something to do with the kind of millet flour I have)

For yeast proofing:

• 2 tsp yeast (one packet)
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 cup warm water

In a small bowl mix yeast, honey, and 1/4 cup warm water together. Set aside. Mixture should become bubbly and creamy in appearance. In your bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. In a medium sized bowl mix together all wet ingredients. Add proofed yeast to wet ingredients. With a whisk and a strong arm, slowly pour in wet ingredients. Beat for 3-5 minutes until mixture is fully incorporated. Batter will be rather thin and pour-able, like thick pancake batter.  If it’s not, add more water very slowly, until you get the right consistency. Heat oven to 200 degrees and cut off immediately. Grease the bottom of a jelly roll pan, or use parchment paper (or silpat?) or whatever takes your fancy.  Pour batter into pan and evenly spread over whole pan. Let rise in warmed oven for 40-50 minutes until bread is puffed up and risen. Remove from oven.  Heat oven to 425 degrees. Once oven is preheated, place pan of risen batter back into oven. Bake 11-15 minutes until bread is crispy and lightly browned on top — see top picture! Let bread cool for 15-30 minutes before using for sandwiches or pizza (if making pizza, consider toasting the bread just a bit (perhaps brushed w/ olive oil?).

Recipe – Quick Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Normally, I make up some oatmeal, grits, or rice porridge for breakfasts for most of my week.  I’ll make up a big pot, and I’ll warm some up every morning.  During the winter, this is pretty much necessary.  Trying to eat cold cereal with cold rice/almond milk while it’s chilly outside stresses my tummy, which is something I try to avoid.  It may not make me actively sicky, but it doesn’t set a good precedent.

In the last month or so, however, it’s been warming up.  Either I’ve been too lazy to make up a pot full of mush, or it’s just not been appetizing.  I’ve been eating cereal lately.  Well, combined with the fact that I’ve run out of cereal, and it’s still not quite warm enough to be all right for me, I decided I needed to make up something different for breakfast this week.

I thought about muffins, cookies, bars, the lot.  Then I ran across someone’s recent post on oatmeal cookies.  Or oatmeal somethings, I don’t quite recall.

Eureka!

Sort of.

Most recipes will have tons of sugar.  Or something else I can’t have.  So I did a bit of googling and looked at a bunch of baked good recipes that included oatmeal and were mostly wheat-free.  Some were dairy free, some were sugar free (some day I’ll be consistent with hyphenating various -free things, but right now, I’m just not feeling it), some were vegan, some were egg-free… all in all, quite a mixed lot.  I took most of my inspiration from a site called Choosing Voluntary Simplicity, their recipe for Gluten-Free, Egg-Free, Sugar-Free Oatmeal Cookies.

Now, normally, I like to experiment in the kitchen.  I make my best creations when not working from any sort of recipe.  I realized that wheat-free baking actually allows me to experiment like I like to, assuming vague adherance to a few rules (try to get enough rise, use a mix of ingredients, and be creative).  I’d never been able to do that with regular (wheat) baking, because it always seemed so… finicky to me.  But wheat-free, I can mix as long as I want, I can play fast and loose with leaveners (baking powder, baking soda, etc.), and I can just see what works.

I think I may have struck gold again.  Or at least something shiny.

I collected all my various wheat-free baking ingredients that sounded promising.  I put them all on the counter.  And then I plotted.  And schemed.  And pondered.

Then I decided I’d just make it up as I went along.  Thus all measurements below are approximations, because really, I measured in handfuls, half-handfuls and fractions of a wee spoon.

I present to you, my oatmeal breakfast cookies.  ‘Cause I mean, come on, who doesn’t want cookies for breakfast?

Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp blackstrap molasses
• 4 T coconut oil (you could use butter (melted), or any other mild oil you have.  Almond oil, grapeseed oil, hazelnut oil… they’d all suit)
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp sea salt¹
• 1/2 C chopped, dried fruit (I used apples.  If you like raisins, that could be nice, as could dried cranberries, apricots, pears.  Anything with a relatively low-ish water content.  As in, don’t use fresh blueberries.  I didn’t chop my apples particularly well, so I zhipped them a bit longer than necessary.  Use your own judgement.)
• 1 T whole flax seeds
• 1 T ground flax seeds
• 1/2 C almond meal
• 1 – 1.5 T amaranth flour (I imaginemillet flour or quinoa flour could be good here…  It’s just to give it some body.  Use whatever flours you like, both here and the rice just below.)
• 1 – 1.5 T rice flour
• 1.5 – 2 C oats (I’m not sensitive enough to have to search out gluten-free oats.   I used …

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  I made this all in my Cuisinart.  If you don’t have one, use the appropriate subsitutions.  Puree your bananas until they’re seriously goopy.  If you’ve got the skills, add the remaining through the little hole at the top.  If not, just stop the food processor, add ingredient(s), cover, and zip.  After each addition, incorporate well.

Let the dough sit while you prepare your baking sheet.  I just used a cookie sheet schmeared with butter.  Grease with whatever suits your fancy, or don’t grease at all, and just use tin foil or silpat, or whatever you prefer.  I was trying the butter, hoping for a crisp bottom crust.  Currently, that still eludes me.  Sugar used to do it (I thought), so I haven’t figured out what to change yet.

Spoon out dollops on to your baking sheet with a small-ish teaspoon (as in, the kind you use to stir tea.  Use whatever smallish spoon you’ve got in your silverware drawer).  You’ll be plopping down about 2 tsp worth of dough on to the sheet.  Play with the amounts and the height, if you want.  These cookies don’t spread and don’t rise much (the amount of baking powder seems to just keep them stable and airy, so they’re not hockey pucks).  Smoosh them down if you want crispier, drier cookies.  Keep them as they are if you want moist cookies.  Have fun.

After you’ve dolloped as much as your sheet can handle, put them in the oven for 15 minutes.  If you flattened your cookies, they make take a little less time to cook. This recipe seems to be very forgiving. Just check on them.

At 15 minutes, they should be done. They won’t quite look done, but after they cool, they’ll be delightfully moist, yet still a little crunchy on the bottom.

Makes about three dozen cookies.  Which go really, really fast.

I am also pleased to announce they’re quite tasty with butter/margarine, if you’re so inclined (further pushing the ‘breakfast’ envelope).

¹ – I made three little cookies as a test batch, before I added the salt. I’m really not sure which version I like better. Sans salt, they seem a little sweeter, more cookie like. With salt, they seem a little more hearty, and suitable for breakfast. Take your pick.

ETA – The next morning, the cookies are a little less light, a little more substantial.  A few minutes in the toaster oven would do absolute wonders.  However, I have no toaster oven at work.  So, chew chew chew I must.

Recipe – Crispy Roasted Kale

In my recent produce basket from my co-op (which will be getting its own post, soon), we got two large bunches of kale.  Organic kale, to boot.  (We were out of town for the last normal/conventional distribution date, so I got the organic baskets, which is distributed on opposite weekends (from the conventional).)  I’ve never even had kale, so I did what I always do… did a bunch of google searching on recipes.  I often do this, and then create my own recipe from all the things I see other people doing.  I saw recipes for sauteed kale, stir-fried kale, kale with chicken, kale with bacon and onions… and then I saw it.  Roasted kale.  Crispy roasted kale.  Oh really.

Directions were very simple.  Wash, dry, chop, toss with olive oil, bake for 15-20 minutes, take out of oven, sprinkle with salt, nosh to your heart’s content.

In practice, it wasn’t quite so simple.  There were a few lessons I learned, so I’m actually going to give you a recipe and instructions, so you can avoid the pitfalls I found.   Also, there are many permutations of this recipe, which I’ll relate below.

Crispy Roasted Kale

• 1 bunch kale
• 1-2 Tb olive oil (or any other oil you prefer.  Adding a little sesame oil to the olive oil could be nice, as could something like hazelnut oil)
• 1-2 tsp lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or something acidic and mild-flavored (if you’re doing an Asian-themed dinner, you could use unseasoned rice wine vinegar.  Italian-themed, use red wine vinegar.  I would avoid things like balsamic because of the high sugar content (comparatively) and the strong flavor.)
• 1-2 Tb flavor-some bits of stuff like chopped garlic or crushed red pepper or herbs or whatever takes your fancy

Preheat your oven to 375 F.  Before you cut it up, wash your kale and pat it dry (if you have a salad spinner, you can dry after you chop).  Chop up kale horizontally in to one-inch bits.  If you’re feeling extra-perky and actually care, you can remove the tough, fibrous ribs of the kale before you chop it into bits – you’ll end up with only crispy kale fluff.  If you don’t mind a bit of bite to your munchies, don’t remove the center rib.  I didn’t, and it was still fine.

Mix your oil and vinegar/lemon juice/whatever in a very large bowl.  If adding flavor-y bits, add them here.  I think the garlic would make an entirely lovely addition.  Add your dry, chopped kale to to the bowl and toss well to coat.  I did this step on the baking pan, and really should have done it in the bowl.  Work in batches if you need to.

Spread the kale on a large baking sheet, as close to one layer as possible.  Because you will be stirring throughout the cooking process, it doesn’t have to be a super thin layer, but you definitely don’t want a mound of oily, mushy kale in the middle of the baking sheet.

DO NOT ADD SALT NOW.  If you do, it’ll pull the moisture from the kale leaves, and the stuff will probably steam-cook, rather than crisp up.

Put your kale-laden pan in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  Every five minutes or so, stir the kale around to ensure each bit gets equal top-cooking time.  If at the end of 15 minutes, you’ve still got some mush, keep cooking.  The kale will begin to brown around the edges, and that’s fine.  Brown isn’t burnt.  Usually.

When everything is happily crisp, remove from oven and immediately give a good dusting of salt.  By preference, use a good salt like a celtic sea salt or maladon (which I’ve never used, but is generally highly recommended).  Table salt will work in a pinch, though.  Remember, you can always add more salt, but it’s damned difficult to remove too much salt.

Commence the nibbling and enjoy.

*Word to the wise – even this method of cooking releases the slightly manky smells common to dark leafy greens.  Open a few windows.

Recipe – Bitty (Almond) Butter Brownies

Sometime last week, I stumbled across a recipe for “Gluten Free, Dairy Free Chocolate Chip Brownies” on Elana’s Pantry.  Featuring no wheat, no dairy, and a whole lot of almond butter, I had to admit they sounded interesting.

Especially in light of the fact my doctor told me I could have maltitol¹ in small quantities (as a result of my recent trip to Sweets Candies).  I figured, what better way to give it a shot, and satisfy my poor, neglected chocolate craving?

Friday afternoon, I decided to stop by Whole Foods and pick up a few things.  I recently got turned on to Bragg’s Liquid Amino Acids and so picked up a bottle of that.  Restocked my wheat-free tamari, picked up a new kind of calendula gel (hopefully minus the yucky chemicals that were in the stuff I used before), found a bar of sugar-free, dairy-free dark chocolate (using maltitol again), and a bottle of faux maple syrup and a bottle of maltitol.

While the original recipe calls for agave syrup, I know that has too much sugar for me at this point.  I figured I would substitute in as little maltitol as possible, tasting as I went.

So here’s my take on Elana’s Brownies

• 1 16 oz jar almond butter, smooth roasted and at room temperature  (Elana calls for salted, but I’ve never been able to find any)
• 2 eggs
  2/3 Cup maltitol (or use whatever sweetener you like/tolerate best)
• 1 Tb vanilla extract
• ½ Cup cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli)
• 1 tsp sea salt (if you have salted almond butter, use 1/2 tsp)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ Cup chocolate bits (chips, or chopped up bar, or whatever you fancy.  Use more or less as you like)

(Note – if you are graced with a stand mixer, this is a damned simple operation.  If you’re not, like me, there are a few different ways of doing things.  The original recipe called for just adding one thing after another.  I’m a bit quirky and like adding things in slightly different orders.  To be fair, I did it the original way first.  Didn’t really care for it.  So.  I give you my way. )

If it’s a fresh jar, open your almond butter and do a good job of mixing.  Most likely, there will be some oil separation (which is completely normal).  You want a cohesive butter for this.

In a bowl large enough for everything, beat the eggs until it’s all one nice creamy yellow.  Add about half of the almond butter.  Mix well.  Add the other half.  Mix well² (yes, this is a running theme).  Add the vanilla and mix.  Add half the sweetener, mix, then add the other half and mix mix mix.

Add your cocoa, baking soda and salt.  If you’re really twitchy, you can pre-mix these ingredients before hand to make sure everything is homogenous.  You know, if you care.  In a normal recipe, I would, but with gluten-free recipes, it doesn’t seem to matter if you beat the heck out of batters – there’s no gluten to get rock hard and turn your biscuits into bricks.

You know what’s next.  Mix a whole lot.  You want no lumps, no errant color striations, no puddles of mysterious liquid.  You want one cohesive batter.

At this point, if you’re not a-feared of salmonella, give the batter a little taste.  Remember that baked goods will taste slightly less sweet than their batter.  If you need more sweetener, go for it³.  If not, proceed to the chocolatization.

Fold in your chocolate chips.  If you’re feeling spunky and can handle it, you can find little teeny tiny peanut butter cups (I know Trader Joe’s has them) instead.  I used the chocolate bar I’d bought on Friday and chopped it into bits.

Now for the baking.  The original recipe calls for a well-greased 9″ x 13″ pan at 325 for 35-40 minutes.  I, however, thought I’d be clever.  I thought I’d use my mini-muffin tin and have individual brownie bites.  Cute, wee, and not nearly as tempting as a whole pan full of brownies.  It’s teflon, nothing’s ever stuck to it… until now.  I’ve got two dozen bitty brownies languishing, quite stuck, in the pan.  And a ziptop bag⁴ full of brownie batter, waiting to be baked.  At this point, I’m letting them cool, at which point they will hopefully contract some and be easier to remove.  I hope.

Anyhow, the baking.  325 for 10-15 minutes, if you’re using the mini-muffin tin.  10 if you like the fudgy kind of brownies, 15 if you like them more cakey.  The first batch I did at 15, and they’re a little dry.  I’m trying 13 11.5 mins for this second batch (also lubed up the pan with some grapeseed oil (the most innocuous oil in the house)).⁵

(Note – Right, so 11.5 minutes didn’t work out.  Too gooey on the bottom.  Fudgy doesn’t quite work for this, since there’s nothing holding it together.  So it just crumbles like… well, almond butter mixed with a bunch of other stuff.  Perhaps next time I will add 1/2 tsp of xanthan gum.  I’m putting the pan back in the still-warm oven for 6 minutes.  Hopefully they will improve.)

Due to their stuck-in-the-pan problem (quite different from stuck in the mud), I ripped off a few tops and figured I’d have a nibble.

I’m ambivilent.  On one hand – OMG YAY CHOCOLATE!  On the other hand – the texture is… strange.  You must remember that these are not the brownies you know.  They are a completely different creature that just happens to look like those coveted, ooey gooey, sinfully delicious dark chocolate truffle brownies you’ve had to give up.  In retrospect, I would probably add more cocoa (perhaps 3/4 cup), a little more chocolate chip-ness (2/3 cup?) and a teeny tiny smidgen more salt.  One problem I find with all these sugar substitutes is that they ALL lack the depth of flavor that you find in good sugar.  They all taste flat and one dimensional.   That’s part of what’s missing from this recipe.  More depth.

Anyhow, I expect these would do well in regular muffin tins, too.  Since they’re a little not-quite-brownie, you could perhaps frost them (I don’t know of any frostings yet that are safe for me) or a glaze or… something.

I did actually take pictures this time, but am feeling lazy (and dear monkeys, it’s gotten late), so will hopefully add them soon-ish.

All in all, I’d make these again, with some more tweaks as I go.

But really, when you haven’t had brownies in six months, these aren’t too bad.

¹ I’ve heard some not-good things about maltitol, but that seems like it’s really coming from the “I’m eating sugar free, using this stuff, and I’m still not losing weight, wah wah wah” side.  I’m not in this to watch my calories.  I’m in this to eat something that won’t cause my body to revolt against me.  Counting my calories is not a concern right now.  Additionally, be aware that maltitol (as with most sugar alcohols) is a mild laxative.  Be careful.

² and ³; I wish I could tell you what I wanted to footnote.  For the life of me, I can’t remember.  It’ll come back to me in the middle of the night, I’m sure.

⁴ You know this trick, right?  Use a ziptop bag as an impromptu piping bag.  Stuff all your stuff in, snip off a corner (just a small snip), and bloop away.  Good for mini muffins, filling anything, gooey cookie batter, pancake/waffle batter, anything.  Basically, if it’s a pain in the butt to portion/deal with using spoons and it’s wee-ish?  Consider a ziptop bag.

⁵ Word to the wise – muffin liners would make life -ever- so much easier.

ETA – I think next time I make them, I’ll use hazelnut butter. Cashew butter could probably make nice creamy brownies, too. Oh, the possibilities!

ETA2 – They get better as they age.  I’m nibbling on them today, and they’re -much- better than when I first pulled ‘em out of the oven.

ETA3 – When I make these next, I will halve the recipe, but keep the two eggs, for cohesion.

Recipe – Everything-Free Bread

I fully admit this is not one of my recipes.  But it is the most versatile, reliable and handy bread recipe I’ve found so far.

Gluten-Free Bread Recipe -Gluten-free Focaccia Rolls and Pizza

Text taken directly from their site, ‘cept for my notes.

The following recipe is one that is adaptable for pizza crust, sandwich bread, biscuits and hamburger buns.

• ¾ Cup Brown Rice Flour (Use the finest flour you can find. The first time I made this, I used Arrowhead Falls’ brown rice flour. Very grainy. Second time, used white rice flour from the Asian grocer, and it was loooovely.)
• ½ Cup Tapioca Flour
• ¼ Cup Potato Starch
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar ( I omitted this without problem)
• 2 Teaspoons G/F Baking Powder
• ½ Teaspoon Salt
• ½ Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
• 2 Large Eggs
• ½ Cup Milk (I subbed almond milk with out problems)
• ¼ Cup Canola Oil (Olive oil is perfect here)

Focaccia

A nice way to begin using this recipe is for focaccia, the delicious Italian bread topped with herbs, chopped onions, cheese, olives, or other delicacy.  (Div’s note – I made this as little mini-muffins, topped with herbs and red onion. Delish.)

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Prepare a large baking stone or pan using parchment, cooking spray, or a light brushing of cooking oil.
3. Combine dry ingredients in the bowl of a large electric mixer.
4. Mix together the eggs, milk and canola oil in a smaller bowl.
5. With the mixer paddle on a slow speed, add the wet ingredients to the dry, and gradually increase the mixing speed.
6. When all lumps are smoothed, turn off mixer, scrape the paddle and empty the contents onto the prepared baking surface. The dough should be of a stiff batter consistency, but not of a kneadable consistency like wheat bread, and you will want to use a rubber spatula to smooth the batter into a circle about one inch in thickness.
7. Sprinkle the top with herbs, garlic, cheese or anything that seems pleasant, and place in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Serve warm with pesto, marinara, dipping oil, or eat plain. Wrap leftovers tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Pizza

1. Preheat oven to 450 F.
2. When using the above recipe for pizza, use the same ingredients, but heat the milk to 95°F. Sprinkle the top with one Tablespoon rapid rise yeast and the sugar.
3. Let the yeast “proof” for five minutes. The consistency of this dough is stiffer, but still not like that of regular dough.
4. Use the same procedure for the focaccia, this time smoothing it to a one-half inch thickness, and omit using parchment. Prebake the crust for 10 minutes, or until the top begins to brown.
5. Remove it from the oven, add toppings and return to oven to heat through.

Hamburger Buns

(Div’s note – I made these and they were fabulous. They were ever so slightly dry and crumbly, but it’s everything-free bread, so who cares? I also think these would work better in a hamburger bun ring or something.  I made them free form, and they were okay, but a little extra crunchy at the edges. I made up the leftovers as garlic bread… yum!)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Use the same dry ingredients, adding one extra egg for a total of three to the wet ingredients, and use one tablespoon rapid-rise yeast.
3. As with the pizza crust recipe, heat the milk to 95°F.
4. Sprinkle one tablespoon of yeast and the sugar on top and proof for five minutes.
5. Combine all ingredients.
6. Drop by ¼ cup measurements onto a prepared surface, and smooth the individual buns into a nice round shape approximately one inch in thickness.
7. Bake 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Loaf Bread

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Use the same recipe for loaf bread as for pizza dough.
3. Place the dough into a prepared loaf pan and bake in a preheated 375°F oven for 35-45 minutes. During the last 15 minutes, cover the top with foil to prevent the crust from over-browning.
4. Remove from pan immediately, and cool slightly before slicing. Store any unconsumed bread in the refrigerator or freezer.

Drop Biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Use the unaltered focaccia recipe above.
3. Drop the batter by wooden spoon onto the prepared baking pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe – You put the zucchini in the coconut…

Last night, I made a repeat recipe.  A few months ago, my co-op provided me with a surplus of yellow squash.  Since my normal squashy contrivances were off limits (due to candida), I had to find something new.  I did all manner of searching on Google, but couldn’t find much of anything interesting.  Then I decided to substitute “zucchini” for my “yellow squash” in my search, and lo, I found some stuff.  I don’t recall if I was in a curry mood at the time, but it’s what I ended up making.  I probably cobbled together a few different recipes, based on what I had on hand.  The basis of the recipe, however, can be found here.  At its simplest, it’s a squash and legume curry.  I’ve used zucchini and yellow squash.  I’ve used lentils and adzuki beans.  Use whatever you have on hand – it’s a very forgiving recipe.

Squashed Curry with Lentils

• 1  onion, diced
• 2 T oil (I used coconut oil, but you could use anything not very strongly flavored)
• 1 T fresh ginger, minced (if you don’t like surprise bits of ginger (I do), you might want to grate it.  I’m sure a microplane would do wonders here.  In my first iteration of this recipe, I used dry ginger.  I prefer fresh, but when dry’s all you got, it’ll do.)
• 2-8 garlic cloves, minced (the original recipe called for two.  I used eight.)
• 1 t  cumin, ground
• 1 t  coriander, ground
• 1/2 t tumeric
• 1 t salt
• 2 C water
• 1 14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk (or whatever size you’ve got)
• 1.5 C dried lentils (or other small legume), rinsed and picked over
• 1 1/2 lb zucchini (or other summer-type squash) , about 3 large or 8 small, diced
• Cilantro for garnish, if you’re so inclined

Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. If you’re quick with the knife, chop the onion while the oil heats.  If not, chop away before you heat up the pan.  Cook 3/4 of the onions until edges begin to brown, stirring occasionally, 6-8 minutes.

Note – if you want a light, bright-looking curry, you won’t want to brown the onion bits much at all.  If you don’t care, and you like the rich taste of browned onions, keep going.  Just aesthetics, really.

While the onions are doing their thing, mince the ginger and garlic, and put together your spices to be added (in a little dish, all together to just dump in when you’re ready).  Add the ginger and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the spices (including salt) and cook, stirring, until spices brown and become fragrant, about 1 minute.

Stir in water, coconut milk, and lentils/legumes. This time, I added the lentils and beans first and kind of sautéed them for a few minutes, like you would with risotto.  Not sure if it made a difference, though.

Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

At this point, assess how long your little legumes will take to cook.  The original recipe said to add the zucchini now, and cook for another 15 minutes.  I don’t like my zucchini to be mush, however.  For my most recent recipe, with the added adzuki beans, I should have added the zucchini later in the cooking.  Figure out how long your legume-like things should cook.  Stir in zucchini 10 minutes before the legumes are slated to be done, and continue to simmer, covered. Stir in reserved raw onion and garnish with cilantro.

The liquid/sauce will tighten up as it gets absorbed into the legumes.

Serve with Basmati rice, if you like.  I served it with curry-dusted roast chicken.

It’s thick enough to be its own side, with or without rice.  Or, dilute with a bit of chicken/veggie/whatever stock, and zhip up with an immersion blender for a nice soup.  Garnish with curried yogurt (or plain) and cilantro

Recipe – Ginger Darklings

What better thing for my first post than my tasty adaptation of a triple ginger cookie recipe I saw recently.  You know, at least until I get a hang of this WordPress thing and figure out how to organize stuff.

I keep up with 101 Cookbooks fairly regularly.  Heidi’s recipes are often easily adaptable to something I can eat, and don’t often feature lots of things I can’t have in the first place.  But last week, she spotlighted her Triple Ginger Cookies and I knew I’d have to figure out how to make them.  The original recipe only called for 2/3 C of sugar and 1/4 C of molasses.  My acupuncturist has told me that molasses is good for me (or at least, not as bad), so I thought, hmmm, maybe I could nix most of the sugar entirely, and find a good flour blend to sub in.  And lo, I did.

Ginger Darklings (adapted from the Triple Ginger Cookie recipe at 101 Cookbooks)

• 2 C  gluten-free cookie flour blend (from Living Without, which is a fabulous resource.  It calls for superfine brown rice flour, but I used regular white rice flour from the Asian grocer, which is superfine anyway, and not scary expensive)
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t Vietnamese cinnamon, ground
• 4.5 t  dry ginger, ground (I actually used tea-cut ginger, as it’s what I had.  Tea-cut being 1 mm pieces)
• 1/2 t fine grain sea salt
• 1/4 t xanthan gum
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (I used salted, but I think you could use either.  Also, if you want to go non-dairy, like I should have, you could probably substitute coconut oil here, and melt it the same way.  Perhaps I’ll experiment later on with other oils (that are liquid at room temperature) and see what we come up with.)
• 1/4 C unsulphured molasses (I used blackstrap)
• 1 T sugar (or to taste)
• 1.5 T fresh ginger, peeled and grated (I used the fine grating side of my box grater.  I must acquire a microplane grater…)
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 C crystallized ginger, finely minced (I tried this in the Cuisinart, which was a joke.  Just make with a chopping board and a big cleaver.  For a long time.)
• 2 lemons, zest only (my lemons were sad, so I probably only got a little over 1 Tablespoon)

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.  Prepare a baking sheet however you like – Silpat, parchment paper, tin foil.  I used tin foil and it worked fine.  There’s enough fat in this recipe that they didn’t stick at all.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt.  Mix thoroughly – you don’t want a concentration of baking soda or xanthan gum in one spot.  Add the crystallized ginger and mix with your hands.  Break up any little clumps of ginger bits.  As well as making the ginger easier to work with, it also helps in the final stages of mixing so that you don’t have to work so hard to get everything mixed.   Add lemon zest to flour mixture as well, and mix with your hands.

Heat the butter in a skillet until it is just barely melted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in the molasses, sugar, and fresh ginger.  Stir stir stir ’til the butter and molasses homogenize.  Whisk in the egg (mixture should be warm, but not hot.  Be careful of this.  If it’s too hot, your egg will scramble.  And that’s not what you want).  Now pour this over the flour+crystallized ginger+lemon zest  mixture.  Stir until just combined.  The dough will be very dough-y, and not very liquidy.

(For a lemon-y-er taste, you could theoretically mix in the lemon zest into the warm butter and molasses mixture, to release (more) essential oils).

If you’re lucky enough to have a teaspoon scooper thing (like an ice cream scoop, but wee), it’ll be your best friend here.  If not, portion out bits with a small teaspoon (like for tea, not for measuring, unless you really care) or eyeball it with your fingers.  Roll into balls, and then press gently between you palms.  The cookies should be about an inch to an inch and a half in diameter and 1/4″ to 1/2″ tall in the center.  They won’t spread much in the oven, so you can leave only an inch between cookies, if you want.

Pop in the oven for 8-10 minutes.  You’ll know they’re done when they begin to crack and you can really smell them.  Cool however you see fit.

As this makes something like four dozen cookies, I cooked up about half.  Then I portioned out the rest like I would if I were to bake them, on the cookie sheet and everything (albeit a smaller one), and then put the whole thing in the freezer.  Freeze until solid.  Remove from freezer and put your uncooked cookies in a freezer-safe plastic bag, and then put back in the freezer (don’t let them thaw).  Now you can have a warm cookie or two any time – just take out a few and pop them in the toaster oven for 10-15 minutes at 350F (at least my toaster oven isn’t quite spot on as the oven for time and temperature).

According to my Diet Power software, one cookie contains far less than one gram of sugar.  So, for a gluten-free, candida-safe treat, these are perfect.  They’re not quite normal cookies, but when you can’t even begin to fantasize about having normal cookies, these are fantastic.

Next batch I bake up, I’ll even try to take pictures.  It didn’t even occur to me yesterday.